Category Archives: UK news

Manufacturers say UK becoming more competitive as global hub, survey finds

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Findings show British bosses growing in confidence over sector’s prospects despite ‘headwinds of sustained economic challenges’

Britain’s largest manufacturers believe the UK is increasing its competitiveness as a global hub for manufacturing, despite high energy costs, worker shortages and political instability holding back progress.

In a crunch period for the economy before the general election, the manufacturing trade body Make UK and the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said industry bosses were growing more confident about the sector’s prospects, but “headwinds of sustained economic challenges” still remained.

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Conservatives face ‘obliteration’ as UK in worse state than 2010, Tory MP says

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Danny Kruger said his party would leave the country ‘sadder, less united and less conservative’ than they had found it

The Conservatives face “obliteration” at the next election after leaving the country in a worse state than they inherited it in 2010, a senior Tory MP has said, in a stark assessment of the party’s 13 years in government.

Danny Kruger, a leading backbencher and founder of the increasingly influential New Conservatives group, said the Conservatives risked being ejected from power this year having left the country “sadder, less united and less conservative” than they found it.

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Surgeon who carried out Europe’s first liver transplant dies aged 93

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Prof Sir Roy Calne performed gamechanging operation in 1968, and was responsible for other surgical ‘world firsts’

Prof Sir Roy Calne, the pioneering surgeon who led a team which performed the first liver transplant in Europe, has died at the age of 93.

On 2 May 1968 Calne performed the gamechanging operation at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, a year after the US’s first successful liver transplant.

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Channel 4 plans deepest job cuts in over 15 years after TV ad slump

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Exclusive: As many as 200 roles could go as firm seeks to accelerate digital streaming strategy and limit cuts to content budget

Channel 4 is drawing up plans to cut potentially as many as 200 jobs in its biggest round of layoffs in more than 15 years, as it seeks to make savings to weather the worst TV advertising downturn since 2008.

The broadcaster, which has undergone a rapid expansion in recent years with staff numbers swelling to a record level of more than 1,200, aims to dramatically reduce a wage bill that now stands at more than £108m a year.

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Post Office suspected of more injustices over Horizon pilot scheme

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Exclusive: software believed to have resulted in prosecutions even before full system rollout in 1999

The Post Office is suspected of wrongly prosecuting dozens more operators who took part in a pilot scheme of the faulty Horizon system, the Guardian has been told.

Amid growing anger over the treatment of postmasters whose lives have been ruined in the scandal, Whitehall sources have confirmed that a precursor scheme was rolled out in 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England.

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Rishi Sunak considers plan to exonerate Post Office Horizon scandal victims

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PM reveals government is also considering plans to strip Post Office of its powers to prosecute

Post office operators whose lives have been ruined by the Horizon scandal could be exonerated under plans being considered by the government, Rishi Sunak has said.

The prime minister also confirmed that Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, could strip the Post Office of its powers to prosecute after more than 700 branch managers were wrongly handed criminal convictions.

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Actor drives 150 miles to star in Evita after lead and understudy fall ill

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Jessica Daley rushed to the rescue after Curve theatre in Leicester put out a call for someone who knew the role

An actor travelled more than 150 miles to ensure the show went on after both the lead and understudy became ill and could not perform in a musical.

Jessica Daley travelled from her home in Middlesbrough to the Curve theatre in Leicester to sing the starring role of Eva Perón in a 7.30pm performance of Evita on Saturday.

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UK weather: Storm Henk flooding misery to continue beyond weekend

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1,800 properties estimated to have flooded in England, as forecasters warn of colder weather on the way

The misery and chaos caused by flooding in England is set to continue until at least Monday, according to authorities.

In its latest update, the Environment Agency estimated that more than 1,800 properties had flooded after the heavy, intense downpours brought by Storm Henk.

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UK accused of hypocrisy in not backing claim of genocide in Gaza before ICJ

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Experts say submission to international court of justice on Myanmar six weeks ago makes stance ‘wholly disingenuous’

The UK is facing accusations of double standards after formally submitting detailed legal arguments to the international court of justice in The Hague six weeks ago to support claims that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya ethnic group through its mass mistreatment of children and systematically depriving people of their homes and food.

The UK made its 21-page “declaration of intervention” jointly with five other countries, but it is not supporting South Africa as it prepares to try to convince the ICJ on Thursday that Israel is at risk of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

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Sunak says he wants to reduce workers’ taxes this year and may cut benefits

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PM sets up possibility of income tax coming down in March and says control of welfare is a priority

Rishi Sunak has said he wants to cut taxes for working people further this year, possibly cutting welfare payments to fund it.

The prime minister said on Sunday his priority before the budget in March would be further tax cuts, which he said would entail stricter controls on public spending and benefits.

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Spanish woman removed from UK after returning from Christmas holiday

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Woman was detained overnight and removed despite presenting Home Office documents showing her right to work and live in UK

A 34-year-old Spanish woman was forcibly removed from the UK after returning from a Christmas holiday near Málaga despite presenting Brexit paperwork to border officials showing she has a right to live and work in the country.

She was flown back to Spain after being detained overnight in Luton airport on 26 December and told she was “wasting her time” if she thought the Home Office documentation she had showing her right to live in the UK was valid.

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‘A national emergency’: UK theatres fear closure after more local funding cuts

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Windsor and Maidenhead scraps cultural budget in wake of similar moves in Suffolk, Bristol, Nottingham and Birmingham

The chill blast of damaging cuts to provincial arts venues has returned to Berkshire this weekend as the cash-strapped local authority becomes the latest to scrap its cultural budget.

Local MP and former prime minister Theresa May was among those to salute a reprieve back in February. But theatre lovers in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead now fear their venues are in jeopardy again, since no cultural funds appear in the next budget.

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Testify under oath about Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal, Prince Andrew urged

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Duke of York must answer to claims in new documents while ‘facing all the trappings of the law’, says victims’ lawyer

Prince Andrew must testify under oath about his role in the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal so that he faces the threat of prison if he lies, a lawyer for several of Epstein’s victims has said.

Amid growing calls for a police investigation into allegations of sexual assault against the royal, Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney, told the Observer that the Duke of York “needs to answer for what is now coming out” and should give his account with “all the trappings of the law” so that he is legally obliged to tell the truth.

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Key Covid inquiry report creates election date headache for PM

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Heather Hallett’s first findings are to be published before the summer and will show how austerity and Brexit hit pandemic planning

An explosive report spelling out how the Conservative government failed to prepare the country for the Covid-19 pandemic as it obsessed about Brexit is to be released before the likely date of the next general election, the Observer has been told.

In a move that will cause alarm in Downing Street, Heather Hallett’s independent Covid-19 inquiry will issue a detailed interim report “before the summer” on the first batch of public hearings held last June and July, which revealed a catalogue of errors, including the lack of PPE and failures to act on recommendations of previous pandemic planning exercises.

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Charity criticises ‘crazy’ rules for flood defence funding in England and Wales

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The National Flood Forum says flooded communities face future misery if they can’t make a business case for help

People affected by this month’s floods will face the same problems in future because their communities cannot access government support, campaigners have warned.

Small towns and villages affected by floods in England and Wales can ask for flood defences and mitigation through their council or the Environment Agency (EA), but are being turned down because they cannot make a business case, according to the National Flood Forum.

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Couple found dead in Greenock property named by police

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Police treating deaths of Neil and Alison McLaughlin as ‘unexplained’ but say no information suggests anyone else involved

A man and woman found dead at a property in Greenock have been named by police.

The deaths of Neil and Alison McLaughlin are being treated as “unexplained”, however detectives said they have no information to suggest anyone else is involved.

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Hundreds block off Westminster Bridge in call for Gaza ceasefire

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Protesters also call for UK to stop arms sales to Israel and end to Israeli occupation of Palestine

Hundreds of protesters in London have staged a sit-in on Westminster Bridge, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in the first big demonstration of the year.

Elsewhere on Saturday, there were protests in Belfast and Dublin.

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Met police officer charged with two counts of rape and suspended

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Andrej Sagaidak appears at Westminster magistrates court in connection to report of an incident in Islington on 1 January

A serving Metropolitan police officer has been charged with rape and suspended from duty, the force has said.

PC Andrej Sagaidak, attached to the local policing team in south-east London and who was working in his probation period, was charged on Friday with two counts of rape, one count of non-fatal strangulation and one count of causing actual bodily harm.

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Key Post Office Horizon campaigner ‘Mr Bates’ calls for faster compensation

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Victim of software scandal says TV drama has reignited issue as 50 new operators contact lawyers

A former post office operator who led a campaign to fight against wrongful convictions brought by the Post Office has called for compensation for the victims to be sped up after the broadcast of an ITV drama about the scandal.

The Metropolitan police confirmed on Friday the Post Office was under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal.

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Post Office under criminal investigation for potential fraud over Horizon scandal

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Metropolitan police interview two people under caution over scandal that led to wrongful conviction of 700 post office operators

The Post Office is under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal, the Metropolitan police have confirmed for the first time.

Officers are “investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from sub-postmasters [operators] as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”, Scotland Yard said on Friday evening.

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