Category Archives: UK news

Indonesian fruit picker landed in debt bondage challenges Home Office

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Exclusive: Test case likely against UK’s seasonal worker scheme as charity alleges breach of right to be protected from labour exploitation

When Ismael found himself sleeping rough at York station in the late October cold he struggled to understand how an opportunity to pick berries 7,000 miles from his home had so quickly ended there.

He had left Indonesia less than four months earlier, in July 2022. He was 18 and ready for six months of hard work on a British farm to save for a science degree. “I thought the UK was the best place to work because I could save up a little money and help my parents,” he said.

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Spot the punk rockers: hope for waxwing boost in annual UK bird count

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People encouraged to record sightings of mohican-sporting birds in RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend

The scale of this waxwing winter will be revealed this weekend when people are encouraged to spend an hour recording the birds they see in their gardens, balconies, parks and school grounds.

The spectacular migratory, mohican-sporting birds have been spotted across Britain during the colder weather and will be recorded alongside more familiar sparrows, blackbirds and robins in the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch.

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‘It was so worrying’: EU motorist tells of £11,000 run-in with London Ulez rules

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Driver was unaware he had to register French hire car with TfL’s collection agent even though it was emissions compliant

Christian Ducarre received three fines totalling nearly £11,000 after driving his French hire car to London to attend his son’s wedding. The car, which was fully compliant with ultra-low emission zone emissions rules, was mistakenly classed as a heavy goods vehicle and deemed to be in breach of the separate low emissions zone (Lez) and well as Ulez. Lez covers lorries, vans, buses and coaches, and fines are between £500 and £2,000 a day depending on the vehicle’s weight.

“I had checked that the car’s emissions standard was Euro 06 and so was not liable for the Ulez charge,” he said.

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Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens ‘wrongly fined for driving in London Ulez’

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Exclusive: EU states accuse TfL of huge data breach over clean air zone penalties, with many given to compliant vehicles

Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens were wrongly fined for driving in London’s Ulez clean air zone, according to European governments, in what has been described as “possibly one of the largest data breaches in EU history”.

The Guardian can reveal Transport for London (TfL) has been accused by five EU countries of illegally obtaining the names and addresses of their citizens in order to issue the fines, with more than 320,000 penalties, some totalling thousands of euros, sent out since 2021.

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Chagos islanders stunned as David Cameron rules out return

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Statement from British foreign secretary comes just months after his predecessor confirmed resettlement was part of talks with Mauritius

Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has provoked fury by abruptly ruling out the resettlement of former inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, months after his predecessor revealed that the UK was discussing their potential return.

The former prime minister suggested that a return to the islands was now “not possible” for Chagossians who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Michelle Mone and the PPE Medpro investigation – podcast

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After the peer admitted to lying about her involvement in lucrative government PPE deals during the Covid crisis, the fate of her high-profile lingerie company raises further questions. David Conn reports

When Michelle Mone sat down for an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg last month it was against the backdrop of serious allegations that she had been facing since 2020. Mone and her husband, the Isle of Man-based businessman Doug Barrowman, are the subjects of a long-running National Crime Agency investigation into allegations of bribery and fraud in their securing of £200m in government contracts for a company, PPE Medpro.

She admitted to Kuenssberg that she had lied for years when denying her involvement in the lucrative PPE deals, emphasising in the interview that she was a ‘very successful individual businesswoman’.

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‘Old smokers’: astronomers discover giant ancient stars in Milky Way

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Stars sat fading quietly for years before suddenly puffing out vast clouds of smoke

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious group of giant elderly stars at the heart of the Milky Way that are emitting solar system-sized clouds of dust and gas.

The stars, which have been named “old smokers”, sat quietly for many years, fading almost to invisibility, before suddenly puffing out vast clouds of smoke. The discovery was made during the monitoring of almost a billion stars in infrared light during a 10-year survey of the night sky.

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Private rents in Great Britain hit record high, data shows

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Rightmove says average advertised price outside London is up 9.2% on a year ago despite fall in some regions

Average private rents in Great Britain have climbed to new record highs, though in some regions there has been a small fall in the amount new tenants are being asked to pay, data shows.

The typical advertised private rent outside London for new properties coming on to the market rose to a record £1,280 a calendar month in the final quarter of 2023, according to the property website Rightmove. That is £2 higher than the £1,278 figure recorded in the third quarter – a sign that rental growth is slowing.

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World-first blood test for brain cancer may increase survival rates, say experts

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Inexpensive test can help diagnose even ‘inaccessible’ tumours earlier, speeding up treatment and improving outcomes

Surgeons and scientists have developed a world-first blood test for brain cancer that experts say could revolutionise diagnosis, speed up treatment and boost survival rates.

For years, brain tumours have remained notoriously difficult to diagnose. They affect hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year, and kill more children and adults under the age of 40 in the UK than any other cancer.

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EU plan for medicine stockpile could worsen UK’s record shortages

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Bloc plans to bulk-buy key drugs for all 27 countries, potentially leaving Britain ‘behind in the queue’

The EU is to stockpile key medicines that will worsen the record drug shortages in the UK, with experts warning that the country could be left “behind in the queue”.

The EU is seeking to safeguard its supplies by switching to a system in which its 27 members work together to secure reliable supplies of 200 commonly used medications, such as antibiotics, painkillers and vaccines.

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Tourists heading to Europe could face 14-hour queues at Dover from October

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New EU entry-exit system could lead to gridlocked roads if scheme goes ahead as planned, MPs hear

Tourists heading to Europe could face waits of up to 14 hours at border controls under a scheme to be launched in October, MPs have been told.

The Port of Dover and the surrounding area could face significant disruption when the EU entry/exit system is introduced unless measures are taken to prevent delays, parliament’s European scrutiny committee has heard.

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Nicola Sturgeon regarded Boris Johnson as ‘a clown’ because of his handling of Covid, inquiry learns – UK politics live

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Former Scotland first minister used expletives in private messages about former UK PM’s handling of pandemic

At the Covid inquiry hearing in Edinburgh Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff, was asked about her wanting a row with the UK government. (See 11.35am.)

Asked if she was looking for a spat, Lloyd replied:

I was looking for a spat with a purpose.

It had been shown in the past that they would sometimes change their mind if they felt that pressure and I wanted them to change their mind.

Sturgeon said his address was “fucking excruciating” and that the UK communications were “awful”. Sturgeon also told Lloyd: “His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere.”

Lloyd said she was “offended” on behalf of special advisers everywhere. Sturgeon replied: “He is a fucking clown.”

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Virgin Media is most complained about UK broadband provider

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Ofcom figures show Virgin attracted about 32 complaints per 100,000 customers compared with 18 for Now Broadband

Virgin Media is the UK’s most complained about broadband provider according to the latest figures, compounding woes for the firm, which is already under investigation by the communications regulator.

Figures released by Ofcom on Thursday showed that the number of complaints made about Virgin’s internet services between July and September were nearly double that of the next-most complained about provider, with Virgin attracting about 32 complaints per 100,000 customers compared with 18 for Now Broadband.

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Emirates-backed stake in Vodafone is security risk, says UK

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UAE firm’s increased investment prompts Cabinet Office order for security panel at telecoms company

The stake in Vodafone held by a United Arab Emirates-backed telecoms group poses a national security risk to the UK, the government said.

The Cabinet Office issued a notice late on Wednesday warning that the 14.6% stake held in Vodafone by Emirates Telecoms, which is also known as e&, amounted to a security concern given Vodafone’s strategic role in the country’s telecommunications services.

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Woman cleared of spiking colleagues’ coffee with Viagra

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Karen Beale, a former factory cleaner, was found not guilty by a jury at Canterbury crown court

A woman has been cleared of poisoning colleagues with instant coffee spiked with ground-up Viagra tablets.

Karen Beale, 62, described as someone who wanted to “help people, not harm”, was found not guilty by a jury of seven men and five women at Canterbury crown court.

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YouGov called on to confirm who commissioned poll on Sunak defeat

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British Polling Council asks pollsters if there are documents showing who commissioned controversial surveys

The British Polling Council (BPC) is looking into controversial YouGov polling used by Conservative plotters to call for Rishi Sunak to be ousted.

The two polls, which YouGov said were commissioned by a mysterious group called the Conservative Britain Alliance with Tory peer David Frost acting as the intermediary, caused shock waves in Westminster when they were published in the Daily Telegraph last week.

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‘Justice not served,’ says Nottingham victim’s mother as Valdo Calocane sentenced

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Calocane detained in high-security hospital after pleading guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility

The mother of a Nottingham stabbing victim said “true justice has not been served” after the killer was sentenced to indefinite detention in a high-security hospital.

Emma Webber, the mother of 19-year-old Barnaby Webber who was killed alongside fellow student Grace O’Malley-Kumar in the violent attacks that left three people dead last year, also said the assistant chief constable of Nottinghamshire police had “blood on his hands” over the force’s failure to arrest the killer in the months before the killings.

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Proportion of married people in England and Wales falls below 50% for first time

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ONS figures, which include civil partnerships, spark calls for changes in laws for cohabiting couples

The proportion of people aged 16 or older in England and Wales who are married or in a civil partnership has fallen below 50% for the first time.

The figure dropped to 49.4% in 2022, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

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Rwanda flights: Britain reminded of obligation to obey ECHR orders

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Ignoring urgent orders to halt flights would break international law, says head of European human rights court

The UK would break international law if it ignored emergency orders from the European court of human rights to stop asylum seekers being flown to Rwanda, the head of the court has said.

Síofra O’Leary, the ECHR president, told a press conference there was a “clear obligation” for member states to take account of rule 39 orders, interim injunctions issued by the Strasbourg-based court.

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British Museum and V&A to lend Ghana looted gold and silver

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Objects to go on show at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi as part of Asante king’s silver jubilee celebrations

Gold and silver treasure looted from west Africa by the British army in colonial wars are to be lent to Ghana in a three-year deal, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum have announced.

The precious regalia, which had belonged to the Asante royal court, is regarded as part of the “national soul” of Ghana. Under the deal, 17 objects from the V&A and 15 from the British Museum, will go on show later this year at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, the capital of Asante region. Many of the items have not been seen in Ghana for 150 years.

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