Latin-inscribed artwork tells story of Walter Tirel, whose son killed British monarch
The Italian descendants of King William II’s killer want to donate a work of art partly depicting William’s death to a British museum.
The three-slab triptych is owned by the Tirelli family, whose aristocratic origins can be traced back to France, for over 400 years. They have said they believe it was made by a Norman artist in 1100.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Dame Sara Khan warns that framing demonstrations as Islamist extremism is ‘far-fetched and untrue’
A UK government adviser on social cohesion has described attempts to portray protesters on pro-Palestinian marches as extremist as “outrageous” and dangerous.
Dame Sara Khan, who is carrying out a review of the resilience of the UK’s democracy for Michael Gove, said such claims risked further dividing the country.
Continue reading...Documents show officials stressing need to ‘keep the Saudis on side’ after revelations about notorious al-Yamamah deal
Britain’s Ministry of Defence moved questionable payments through its own bank account amid one of the biggest corruption scandals in history, despite concerns the money could be pocketed by the Saudi royal family.
Previously confidential documents show how the MoD agreed to make the payments to a Saudi bank account after the transactions came under scrutiny following an investigation by the UK anti-corruption agency, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Continue reading...New owner Frasers Group decides it is unwilling to fund turnaround
The luxury clothing retailer Matchesfashion is to enter administration after its new owner, Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, said it was not willing to fund a turnaround.
Matches was acquired by Frasers just three months ago for £52m in cash from private equity firm Apax Partners but the business has “consistently missed its business plan targets” and made losses, Frasers said.
Continue reading...Former PM says she remains committed to supporting Sunak as she decides to ‘pass the baton on’ after 27 years
Treasury minister Gareth Davies has denied the number of Conservative MPs stepping down signifies a lack of confidence in the party’s electoral prospects.
He told Sky News he was “personally sad” to see Theresa May step down after “a pretty good innings” of “27 years of service not just to her constituents but I think as one of our longest serving home secretaries and then obviously prime minister as well.”
This is what happens when you approach a new election, and completely reasonable for people to decide that it’s time to go, particularly when they’ve been in the House of Commons for a long time.
Each one has made their own decision for personal reasons and I respect every single person’s decision to do so.
Brexit has reignited the UK’s trade standing in global markets ‘worth hundreds of billions of pounds’ says Kemi Badenoch. Britons are better off.
Continue reading...Former PM says she wants to focus on causes close to her heart after 27 years in parliament
The former prime minister Theresa May will step down as an MP at the next general election after 27 years in parliament.
In a statement to the Maidenhead Advertiser, the Maidenhead MP said she wanted to focus on causes close to her heart, including her work on the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.
Continue reading...Research looked at three London boroughs to value overall health benefits of active travel over 20 years at up to £4,800 per head
Policies to help people walk and cycle such as low-traffic neighbourhoods can create public health benefits as much as 100 times greater than the cost of the schemes, a long-term study of active travel measures has concluded.
The research, based on six years of surveys among thousands of people living in three outer London boroughs that introduced LTNs or similar schemes, found they tended to prompt people to switch some trips from cars to active travel, although the effects were varied.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Significant discovery, made by James Webb telescope, provokes disagreement over conditions on planet’s surface
Astronomers have observed a distant planet that could be entirely covered in a deep water ocean, in findings that advance the search for habitable conditions beyond Earth.
The observations, by Nasa’s James Webb space telescope (JWST), revealed water vapour and chemical signatures of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, which is twice Earth’s radius and about 70 light years away. This chemical mix is consistent with a water world where the ocean would span the entire surface, and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge, although they do not envisage a balmy, inviting seascape.
Continue reading...‘Motherhood penalty’ appears to be worsening, with pay gap for median hourly pay growing by 93p an hour since 2020
The “motherhood penalty” is wreaking havoc on women and the economy, according to campaigners, as fresh analysis reveals that the pay gap between mothers and fathers in the UK has grown by nearly £1 an hour since 2020.
A study of the hourly earnings of mothers and fathers, released on International Women’s Day, found that on average mothers earned 24% less an hour than fathers in 2023 – a “motherhood pay penalty” of £4.44 an hour.
Continue reading...Popular national figure given new role after being dismissed by Volodymyr Zelenskiy a month ago
Ukraine’s former commander in chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, is to become the country’s next ambassador to the UK, a month after he was fired by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, from his job leading the military.
The decision makes good on Zelenskiy’s promise to keep the popular former general “as part of the team” but it also removes him from Ukraine, where he is seen as the only realistic challenger to the president if there were to be an election.
Continue reading...No 10 refuses to say how Michelle Donelan was advised over accusation against academic who then sued her for libel
The science secretary, Michelle Donelan, received government advice before she tweeted a letter in which she accused an academic of supporting Hamas, Downing Street has said.
No 10 refused to say what advice officials had given her and whether she actually followed it, but insisted she had “acted in line with established precedent”.
Continue reading...Economists say making the policy an election pledge could cost £40bn, which is badly needed for health, education and elsewhere
Rishi Sunak has been warned against fighting an election on an unfunded plan to abolish employee national insurance amid projections the move could blow a £40bn hole in the public finances.
As the pre-election battle on the economy between the Conservatives and Labour intensified, the prime minister was on Thursday under mounting pressure to explain how the measure could be afforded while public services were crumbling.
Continue reading...Government agency issues disqualification proceedings after inquiry into failed finance firm Greensill Capital
The Insolvency Service has begun legal action to have Lex Greensill disqualified from running companies for up to 15 years after the outcome of an investigation into the directors of his failed finance firm.
The government agency said it had issued disqualification proceedings on behalf of the business secretary against the former Australian sugar farmer, who founded the Greensill group of companies.
Continue reading...PM says ‘people trust me on these things’ and refuses to be drawn on whether government would forgo entire £46bn raised from measure
Keir Starmer has accused Jeremy Hunt of repeating the budget mistakes made by Liz Truss during her disastrous premiership.
In comments on the budget during a visit to a building site this morning, Starmer focused on Hunt’s proposal to abolish employees’ national insurance over time, saying that this was a bigger unfunded tax promise than those in Truss’s mini-budget. (See 9.28am.)
How humiliating was that for the government yesterday?
We’ve argued for years that they should get rid of the non-dom tax status, they’ve resisted that. And now, completely out of ideas, the only decent policy they’ve got is the one that they’ve lifted from us.
Nothing that Jeremy Hunt did yesterday, nor anything the OBR said, changes anything very significantly. Which is a shame. Because that means we are still:
-heading for a parliament in which people will on average be worse off at the end than at the start,
Continue reading...Woman on trial with her partner, Mark Gordon, for manslaughter of infant Victoria says she gave her ‘the best any mother would’
Constance Marten, whose daughter Victoria died after she and the baby’s father went off the grid in freezing winter weather to evade authorities, has denied ever harming her child, telling a jury she had shown her nothing but love during her short life.
Marten was giving evidence at the Old Bailey on Thursday, as she and her partner, Mark Gordon, stand trial for the manslaughter of the child in 2023. Gordon declined to give evidence earlier in the week.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Officials fear government is ill-prepared for lobbying from wealth advisory industry after taxation overhaul
The Treasury disbanded a unit tasked with offshore and non-dom tax policy weeks before announcing significant changes in the budget to the way foreign residents are taxed, sources have said.
The unit, which comprised technical experts on offshore tax issues, included specialists on non-dom policy. These officials would, according. to the sources, have been expected to help manage the implementation of a replacement for non-dom status as outlined by the chancellor this week.
Continue reading...Chancellor refuses to disclose number of houses owned but says he will pay higher tax rate on proceeds from sales
Jeremy Hunt has promised to voluntarily pay more capital gains tax on his properties so that he does not benefit from a tax cut he introduced.
The chancellor refused to disclose how many houses he owned but said he would pay a higher tax rate on any proceeds from selling his property.
Continue reading...Revelations about payments by Ministry of Defence are culmination of decades of British deal-making with Saudis
The revelation that the Ministry of Defence paid millions of pounds to a firm that would later be accused of being a conduit for secret payments to high-ranking Saudi officials is the culmination of a scandal that has been half a century in the making.
The £8m paid from an MoD bank account between 2014 and 2017 was in connection with a large defence deal, Sangcom, first struck in the 1970s.
Continue reading...Project Arrow contract signed amid scramble to keep on track £1.6bn defence deal and ran until at least 2017
The UK Ministry of Defence paid millions of pounds to a company later alleged to have been a conduit for secret payments to high-ranking Saudi Arabian officials including a member of the royal family.
The MoD payments, worth £8m, were made under a contract codenamed Project Arrow that ran until at least 2017, according to documents that surfaced in a criminal trial.
Continue reading...Kohli, who did not enter a plea during the hearing at the sheriff court, was released on bail
The comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli has appeared in court accused of sex offences.
The 55-year-old, who has appeared on TV shows including Celebrity MasterChef, Loose Ends and Question Time, was released on bail after a private appearance at Glasgow sheriff court.
Continue reading...