Category Archives: UK news

Nearly 2,000 Foreign Office jobs ‘at risk’, says PCS union

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Reduction in higher-level roles linked to government decision to cut foreign aid budget, says union

Almost 2,000 civil servants at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office face the risk of redundancy, with the biggest union for government workers vowing to fight the cuts.

The PCS union, which has about 200,000 members, said it has been told that 1,885 jobs at the second highest level, known as delegated grades, are “at risk”, in addition to redundancy notices that have already been issued to some senior civil servants.

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No 10 says talks happening ‘at pace’ across government to lift ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending Aston Villa match – live

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Fans of Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv banned from match at Aston Villa next month

Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP who is now a member of the Independent Alliance in parliament, alongside Ayoub Khan and four others, has also defended the Maccabi ban on the grounds that Israeli teams should not be competing in international sport. She says:

Next UEFA must ban all Israeli teams.

We cannot have normalisation with genocide and apartheid.

Apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics for 32 years.

The same people who called Nelson Mandela a “terrorist” now say we can’t boycott apartheid Israel.

There are two distinct issues. One is the safety aspect … If the police in West Midlands find it challenging because they simply do not have the resources to ensure safety, then that’s one aspect.

The second aspect is a moral argument that Maccabi Tel Aviv should not even be playing in this international competition.

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Students owe nearly £500m of ‘hidden debts’ to UK universities, figures reveal

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FoI data shows 180,000 students and graduates weighed down by private debt amid cost of living crisis

Students have accrued nearly £500m in “hidden debts” to their universities, including library fines, unpaid accommodation and support loans, according to figures that highlight the cost of living crisis on UK campuses.

The figures from freedom of information requests sent to 148 UK universities showed that 180,000 students and graduates owe private debts totalling £486m to universities, averaging about £2,650 each.

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Bank shares lead global market fall amid jitters over US private credit

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Signs of credit stress send markets in Europe and Asia down, while investors turn to safe haven assets

European stock markets fell on Friday and gold hit a record high after two US regional banks said they had been exposed to millions of dollars of bad loans and alleged fraud.

Signs of credit stress rattled markets across Europe and Asia. In London the FTSE 100 fell 0.9%, Germany’s Dax fell 1.8%, Italy’s FTSE Mib fell 1.5%, the Ibex in Spain was off 0.3% and France’s Cac 40 dropped 0.2%.

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Banks need stricter controls to prevent romance fraud, says City regulator

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FCA cites study showing victims’ ‘red flags’ are often missed and calls for improved monitoring systems

The City regulator has called on banks and payment firms to bring in stricter controls protecting customers from romance fraud after a study showed a number of missed “red flags” that led to people losing huge sums of money.

The review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted one case where someone lost £428,000, another where a customer made 403 payments totalling £72,000 to a fraudster and a case where someone wanted money to transfer cryptocurrency to their “partner” in Iraq.

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Man accused of killing Georgina Ward in 2020 appears in Dudley court

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Daniel Birtwistle, 39, faces trial for manslaughter of 24-year-old tattoo artist and other charges including assault

A man has appeared in court charged with manslaughter, assault and coercive and controlling behaviour.

Daniel Birtwistle, 39, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, appeared by video link at Dudley magistrates court on Thursday morning, where he spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.

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Sam Fender wins 2025 Mercury prize for his album People Watching

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Geordie singer-songwriter’s album reached No 1 on the UK album chart and led to a series of stadium-sized concerts this summer

Sam Fender is the winner of the 2025 Mercury prize, for his chart-topping album People Watching.

Announcing the award, Sian Eleri, BBC radio DJ and one of the judges on the judging panel, said the album was characterised by “cohesion, character and ambition. It felt like a classic album, one that will take pride of place in record collections for years to come.”

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Ministers plan high-level visits to China despite espionage trial outcry

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National security adviser, education secretary and science minister to visit before end of year as part of policy to reset relations

Ministers are pushing ahead with their reset of relations with China, including several planned high-level visits before the end of the year, despite the furore triggered by the collapse of a high-profile espionage trial.

Plans have been drawn up for Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, to travel to Beijing in November for talks before an anticipated trip by Keir Starmer next year.

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MPs to hold inquiry into collapsed China spy case after No 10 publishes key evidence

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Labour MP and chair of security committee Matt Western says there are ‘a lot of questions still to be asked’

MPs will hold an inquiry into the collapse of a trial of two men accused of spying for China, after No 10 published key evidence in an attempt to draw a line under the row.

Matt Western, a Labour MP and chair of the joint committee on the national security strategy (JCNSS), told the House of Commons there are “a lot of questions yet to be asked” and announced a formal inquiry.

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Joint committee on national security strategy to hold inquiry into collapse of China spy trial, MPs told – UK politics live

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Chairs of home affairs, foreign affairs and justice committees to be among those involved in inquiry

Ward says that “no minister or special adviser played any role in the provision of evidence” under this government. He says he cannot say if that was the case under the last government.

There is a lot of jeering at this. The Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, reprimands Tom Tugendhat for his interruption.

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UK ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows

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Lobbyists attended 48% more meetings than Tories, as Labour accused of giving them ‘backstage pass’

Government ministers met representatives from the fossil fuel industry more than 500 times during their first year in power – equivalent to twice every working day, according to new research.

The analysis found that fossil fuel lobbyists were present at 48% more ministerial meetings during Labour’s first year in power than under the Conservatives in 2023.

Ministers at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) met fossil fuel lobbyists 274 times, with industry figures present at almost a quarter of meetings.

Ed Miliband, the secretary for energy and climate change, met fossil fuel lobbyists 250 times – with a third of all his meetings attended by industry figures.

During the same period DESNZ ministers met trade union representatives 61 times

Three fossil fuel companies: BP, Shell and Equinor , met ministers 100 times between them.

Fossil fuel lobbyists attended almost every government meeting about the energy profits levy, a temporary windfall tax on the “extraordinary profits” of North Sea oil and gas companies.

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Ricky Hatton is thought to have killed himself, inquest told

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Provisional cause of death for former boxing world champion given at opening of inquest in Stockport

Ricky Hatton, the former world champion boxer who died in September, is believed to have killed himself, according to a provisional cause of death given at the opening of his inquest at Stockport coroner’s court.

Hatton, 46, was found dead in his home on 14 September. News of his death caused an outpouring of grief across the world and thousands of people lined the streets for his funeral.

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Agnes Wanjiru’s niece urges Labour to extradite ex-soldier while still in power

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Esther Njoki says family has seen ‘big change’ under Labour, after long fight for justice over aunt’s 2012 death in Kenya

The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in Kenya, said she hopes the former British soldier charged with her aunt’s murder will be extradited while the Labour government is still in power.

On her first trip outside Kenya, Esther Njoki travelled to London, where she was invited to parliament to meet the defence secretary, John Healey, whom she urged not to delay the potentially years-long extradition process.

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Case dropped against Met police officer who shot unarmed man

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Officer, known as W80, shot Jermaine Baker during a foiled prison break in 2015

The family of a man shot dead by a police officer during a foiled prison break have accused Scotland Yard of evading accountability after a case against the marksman was thrown out.

The officer, known only as W80, shot Jermaine Baker as police stopped a plot to snatch two prisoners from a van near Wood Green crown court in 2015.

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Rachel Reeves says higher taxes on wealthy ‘part of the story’ for November budget

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Exclusive: Chancellor hints at rises and calls out past ‘scaremongering’ over VAT on private schools and changes to non-doms

Rachel Reeves has said higher taxes on the UK’s wealthy will form part of next month’s budget, as she shrugged off the “scaremongering” and “bleating” of her critics, and stressed her determination to repair the public finances.

Speaking in Washington, where she is attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the chancellor told the Guardian there “won’t be a return to austerity” and hinted at tax increases for the most well-off.

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PPE firm linked to Michelle Mone misses deadline to repay £122m

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Firm was ordered by high court to return sum paid by DHSC for unusable surgical gowns by 4pm on Wednesday

A company linked to the former Conservative peer Michelle Mone has failed to pay the government any of the £122m ordered by a high court judgment for supplying unusable personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.

Mrs Justice Cockerill ruled that PPE Medpro must, by a deadline of 4pm on 15 October, return the money it was paid by the Department of Health and Social Care for 25m sterile surgical gowns under a contract awarded in June 2020.

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Starmer only read China spy witness statements this morning, No 10 says, as Cleverly accuses PM of misquoting him – as it happened

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This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

Lindsay Hoyle starts by telling MPs that speakers from the parliaments in Fiji and Ukraine are in the gallery. And he says it is four years to the day since David Amess was murdered.

It’s PMQs. Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

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Watchdog rules Red Tractor exaggerated its environmental standards

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The Advertising Standards Authority agrees with River Action that the food safety body’s 2023 advert misled the public

The UK’s advertising watchdog has upheld a complaint that Britain’s biggest farm assurance scheme misled the public in a TV ad about its environmental standards.

The Red Tractor scheme, used by leading supermarkets including Tesco, Asda and Morrisons to assure customers their food meets high standards for welfare, environment, traceability and safety, is the biggest and perhaps best known assurance system in Britain.

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Exiled Hong Hong dissidents say UK plan to restart extraditions puts them in danger

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Legislative change comes five years after treaty suspended in response to city’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists

Exiled Hong Kong dissidents say they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the city could put them in greater danger, saying Hong Kong authorities will use any pretext to pursue them.

An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to the government crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, and its imposition of a Beijing-designed national security law.

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Vets could be made to publish prices after UK watchdog investigation

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Market ‘not fit’ for purpose and must be modernised, CMA says, with pet owners paying 16.6% more at large groups

Vets in the UK could be forced to publish their prices and whether they are part of a larger group after an investigation by the markets watchdog into claims that chain-owned surgeries have left pet owners with dwindling choice and higher bills.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found pet owners pay 16.6% more on average at large vet groups than at independent vets. It said the £6.3bn market was “not fit” for purpose and needed to be modernised.

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