The Plaza Prizes offered 10 awards in 2025 but some judges say they were not paid, while a number of winners hit back over AI accusations
A competition for new writers that promised a £20,000 prize fund appears to have shut down, leaving winners and judges, including a Booker prize-winning novelist, out of pocket.
Established in 2022, the Plaza Prizes last year offered 10 awards that were judged by the “finest poets and writers in the world”.
Continue reading...Hannah Spencer says minister ‘continuously offends people by saying working-class people don’t care about dogs’
Labour is “offensively caricaturing” working-class people by saying they do not want a greyhound racing ban in England, the Green party MP Hannah Spencer has said.
The sport has traditionally been associated with working-class culture and has historically been popular in so-called red wall areas, which Labour insiders suggest is part of the reason why there are no plans for England to follow bans announced last month in Scotland and Wales.
Continue reading...Reports of alleged crime led to protests in the Surrey town this week, after claims woman in her 20s attacked
Police investigating a rape incident in Epsom have said they have “not found any evidence” of the offence as reported. The reports prompted protests in the Surrey town this week.
Sarah Grahame, assistant chief constable at Surrey police, said the force was continuing to investigate a report that a woman in her 20s had been raped by a group of men on 11 April in Epsom after she left the Labyrinth Epsom nightclub. The alleged attack is said to have happened between 2am and 4am outside a Methodist church.
Continue reading...Homelessness charity distances itself after Osbourne says she plans to attend far-right ‘unite the kingdom’ march
The homelessness charity Centrepoint has confirmed it will cut ties with its celebrity ambassador Sharon Osbourne after she expressed support for a far-right rally being organised by Tommy Robinson.
The charity, of which the Prince of Wales is patron, has been forced to distance itself from comments made by Osbourne. The TV personality indicated this week that she would be attending an event organised in London by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Continue reading...‘Discarded items’ assessed as officers investigate video in which group claims to have targeted embassy with drones
Police in protective clothing are responding to an incident near the Israeli embassy in central London as counter-terrorism officers investigate a video shared online overnight in which a group claims to have targeted the embassy with drones carrying “dangerous substances”.
The Metropolitan police said there was an increased police presence in Kensington Gardens as officers investigated a number of “discarded items” and have urged people to avoid the area while they carry out their work.
Continue reading...Adult video platform to sell minority stake to increase stability after death of its founder Leonid Radvinsky
OnlyFans, the UK adult video platform, is in talks to sell a minority stake to a US investor that will value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The London-based company is in advanced talks to sell a stake of less than 20% to the San Francisco-based investment firm Architect Capital, according to the Financial Times. Sources familiar with the process confirmed the talks to the Guardian.
Continue reading...Campaigners organise open letter to director demanding ‘fair day’s wage’ for all workers at V&A museums
A row over pay has broken out at the V&A before the opening of its newest site , with thousands of people calling for it to become a living wage employer.
On Saturday, V&A East will open its doors in Stratford, east London, showcasing stunning fabrics, photos and black British music. It joins a wider group of V&A museums including its original site in South Kensington, Young V&A in Bethnal Green and V&A Dundee. The V&A describes its latest opening as one of the most significant new museum projects in the UK.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer understood to have lost confidence in official over decision to override security vetting failure
Sir Olly Robbins, the UK Foreign Office’s top civil servant, has been forced out of his post after the decision to fail Peter Mandelson during his security vetting was overruled by his department.
Robbins was the Foreign Office’s most senior official in late January 2025 when the decision was made, paving the way for Mandelson to become the US ambassador.
Continue reading...Officers looking into attacks on Iran International media offices, synagogue and Jewish charity ambulances
Counter-terrorism investigators are examining three separate arson attacks in London against an Iranian dissident and Jewish targets amid fears the Iranian state may be behind them.
The latest attack happened at about 8.30pm on Wednesday, outside the offices of Iran International, a Persian-language news channel that opposes the regime in Tehran.
Continue reading...Tory leader criticises Farage for saying that holding another independence vote ‘probably quite reasonable’
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative party, has accused Nigel Farage of being an opportunist who does not believe in unionism after he urged Scottish nationalists to back Reform.
Farage said earlier this week he believed “genuine nationalists” would not support the Scottish National party’s bid to rejoin the EU, and urged them to vote Reform in the Holyrood election on 7 May.
Continue reading...‘Sustained outperformance’ merits pay rise, says company after it ups profit guidance to £1.2bn for year to January 2027
The Next chief executive, Simon Wolfson, took home more than £7m last year, his highest ever pay package, and could be handed up to £9.27m this year after the retailer announced plans to increase his basic salary and bonuses.
The listed company said it was increasing its pay deal for the long-term leader of the fashion and homewares retailer, which now controls a string of brands in the UK including Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Cath Kidston, Reiss and FatFace, as his remuneration was 30% below the average for FTSE 100 bosses.
Continue reading...Individuals such as Matt Goodwin and Lord Frost benefited from largesse of self-styled ‘illiberal democracy’
The last 16 years of Viktor Orbán’s rule have been kind to a number of British political figures – from the Tory peer David Frost to Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin and James Orr.
All benefited from largesse extended by the self-styled “illiberal democracy” established by the Hungarian leader’s ruling Fidesz party, which took a particular liking for those on the harder right of British conservatism.
Continue reading...Company has received about £8.7bn in renewable energy subsidies since 2012, despite claims wood pellets are not sourced sustainably
The owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated.
The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember.
Continue reading...Lack of funding leaving police forces failing to keep pace with two-thirds annual increase in referrals, says report
Child victims of online sexual abuse are being inadequately protected from further harm because police forces are struggling to cope with an increase in this crime, his majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary has warned.
Michelle Skeer said: “Without investment and coordination, the situation will worsen and children could be put at further risk.”
Continue reading...Woman, 47, and man, 46, held on suspicion of arson endangering life after attempted Finchley attack
A 47-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of arson endangering life after an attempted attack on a synagogue in Finchley, north London, as part of an investigation into what the Metropolitan police described as an “antisemitic hate crime”.
The force said the woman was arrested at an address in Watford just after 4.45pm on Wednesday, while the man was arrested at 7.15pm in the Watford area. Both suspects remain in police custody.
Continue reading...Poll projects major political earthquake across Britain with Labour losing Wales and England’s Red Wall
In the light of what George Robertson, who led the strategic defence review for Labour, said about defence spending in his speech last night, there’s a good chance Kemi Badenoch will choose to raise this at PMQs later.
She may well raise the Times’s splash, which says Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is proposing to raise defence spending by less than £10bn over the next four years.
The State of It political podcast from The Times and The Sunday Times has been told that Reeves is unwilling to break her fiscal rules or increase taxes to boost defence spending.
John Healey, the defence secretary, is pressing for a bigger increase as there are concerns that £10bn will not be enough, given the increasing likelihood that British forces will be deployed to Ukraine and the Middle East.
Lord Robertson produced his first SDR as Tony Blair’s defence secretary in 1998, and the historian David Edgerton noted then that Britain was committing itself “to acting primarily with the USA in a wide-ranging programme of global policing”. The structure of the armed forces is designed not for autonomous defence but because “the composition … is what allows Britain to be the USA’s principal partner”. Only 15% to 20% of spending, Prof Edgerton reckoned, related to purely national defence. In that sense, the model Lord Robertson now defends was never primarily about defending the UK at all. It was about plugging into a US system and piggybacking on its arms industry base.
The Treasury is right to question prioritising defence now. Cutting welfare would hit demand and weaken growth. As Khem Rogaly of the Common Wealth thinktank argues, defence spending provides a weak economic stimulus compared with public investment – and is even worse as a job creator. Moreover, the UK is not using higher defence spending to build its own independent military, but to reshape its armed forces around a US-style venture capital and tech ecosystem. With Mr Trump in office, there is no better time to ask: whose security are we funding – Britain’s or America’s?
Continue reading...Deal will create pensions and savings group with 16m customers and £480bn of assets, while Aegon focuses on US
The Dutch financial services group Aegon has struck a £2bn deal to sell off its almost 200-year-old UK arm to Standard Life, as part of a US push in which the group will be rebranded as Transamerica.
Standard Life, previously known as Phoenix Group, said the deal to buy Aegon UK would create a pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets under administration.
Continue reading...Treasury minister James Murray hits back at George Robertson’s criticism over military budget
A Treasury minister has said balancing welfare and defence spending “is not a zero-sum game”, amid stark warnings that the UK will have to increase its military budget to ensure national security during global volatility.
James Murray, the chancellor’s deputy, said the government was pushing ahead with the biggest sustained increase in defence investments since the cold war, but he would not say when it would publish its delayed defence investment plan.
Continue reading...David Parrish, who won Cape Wrath Ultra in 2023, had been attempting gruelling route again as fundraising challenge
A 35-year-old ultramarathon champion from Dumfries has died while attempting to beat the record for a race to the most north-westerly point on mainland Britain.
David Parrish, a former Royal Marine, was trying to become the fastest man to complete the Cape Wrath trail, one of Britain’s most gruelling race routes.
Continue reading...President says he gave Britain ‘better deal than I had to’ but ally was ‘not there when we needed them’ on Iran
Donald Trump has threatened to row back on the trade deal the US signed with the UK last year, in his latest salvo against the British government over sharp differences about the US’s approach to the Middle East.
The US president said the economic deal struck with the UK, which cut some of his tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, was “better than I had to” and that it could “always be changed”.
Continue reading...