Category Archives: UK news

Tata Steel to shut down Port Talbot blast furnaces, putting 3,000 jobs at risk

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Firm rejects union plan, leaving UK on course to become only major economy unable to make steel from scratch

The owners of Port Talbot steelworks have rejected a trade union plan designed to keep its blast furnaces running, putting nearly 3,000 jobs at risk and leaving the UK on course to become the only major economy unable to make steel from scratch.

In what one union said would be a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking, Port Talbot’s parent company, the Indian-owned Tata Steel, told workers’ representatives that it could no longer afford to continue production at the loss-making plant in south Wales while it completed a four-year transition plan to greener production.

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Rishi Sunak challenges House of Lords to accept ‘the will of the people’ and pass Rwanda bill – UK politics live

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Prime minister says he wants first flight to leave ‘as soon as practicably possible’ but will not give date

Q: When you said you would stop the boats, people thought that meant reducing them to negligble numbers. That is not going to happen, is it?

Sunak says he is proud of the progress he has made. He always said it would be difficult.

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UK banks expect sharp rise in defaults on unsecured debt

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Lenders forecast biggest quarterly increase in missed repayments on credit cards and loans since 2009

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Britain’s biggest high street lenders expect the sharpest rise in defaults on unsecured lending since 2009, according to a Bank of England survey, as households come under growing pressure amid the cost of living crisis.

The figures from Threadneedle Street show banks expect a marked rise in the number of people who fail to meet repayments on credit cards, loans and other forms of unsecured borrowing over the next three months.

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Two men jailed on racist police officer’s evidence have convictions overturned

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Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin’s convictions linked to British Transport Police officer Derek Ridgewell posthumously quashed

Two men who were jailed based on evidence from a racist and corrupt police officer have had their convictions posthumously overturned by the court of appeal.

Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin are the 10th and 11th people to have convictions relating to the British Transport Police (BTP) officer DS Derek Ridgewell quashed. Their appeals after a referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) were uncontested on Thursday.

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To rhyme with ‘cone’ or ‘gone’? Countdown’s Susie Dent reveals most common question

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Programme’s lexicographer says audiences are consumed by correct pronunciation of the word ‘scone’

As the in-house lexicographer on Channel 4’s enduringly popular Countdown programme, Susie Dent has been arbitrating on word-related disputes for more than 30 years.

Now, Britain’s most famous word expert has revealed the question she is asked most frequently about the sometimes idiosyncratic English language: the correct pronunciation of the word “scone”.

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Royal Mail hails best Christmas for four years – but staff miss £500 bonus

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Delivery company says nearly all festive deliveries arrived on time and its revenues rose

Royal Mail has said it had its best Christmas for four years, with nearly all festive deliveries arriving on time – despite missing a target that would have handed postal workers a £500 bonus.

The delivery company’s owner, International Distributions Services (IDS), on Thursday reported group revenues rose nearly 10% to £3.6bn in the final three months of 2023.

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‘Greedy and dishonest’ touts sold tickets worth £6.5m, court hears

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Ed Sheeran and Little Mix fans among those targeted by firm that resold on Viagogo and StubHub

Ticket touts acting out of “greed and dishonesty” sold tickets worth £6.5m to music fans, a court has heard, as a woman known as the “Ticket Queen” pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading nearly seven years after being named in an Observer investigation.

TQ Tickets Ltd, owned by Maria Chenery-Woods of Norfolk, used fake identities to hoover up large numbers of tickets for acts such as Ed Sheeran and Little Mix, prosecutors for National Trading Standards said.

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Sheryl Sandberg to leave board of Facebook parent Meta

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Former chief operating officer was lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model

Sheryl Sandberg is to step down from the board of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, nearly two years after quitting her executive role at the business.

Sandberg was the lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model as Meta’s chief operating officer.

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Middle East conflicts and the Rwanda bill – Politics Weekly UK podcast

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As tensions in the Middle East continue to rise, this week John Harris speaks to Niku Jafarnia of Human Rights Watch about the regional conflicts. The Rwanda bill passed its third reading and Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, reveals what happened behind the scenes. And the former No 10 adviser Gavin Barwell talks about the increasingly vicious struggles within the Conservative party

Archive: GB News

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Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill passes third reading in Commons

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Flagship policy passes committee stage after tense lead-up in which Tory divisions came to the fore

Rishi Sunak has survived a damaging row over his flagship Rwanda bill after a Conservative rebellion melted away and dozens of rightwing MPs balked at further undermining the prime minister’s authority.

After a crucial 11th hour meeting of more than 45 Tory rebels, the group’s leaders concluded that defeating the bill by voting alongside Labour during an election year could risk collapsing the government.

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UK urges west to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine’s economy

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Foreign secretary says there are legal, moral and political justifications for using assets of $350bn

Britain is ramping up pressure on western governments to use $350bn (£275bn) of frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine’s war-shattered economy, with David Cameron insisting there were legal, moral and political justifications for action.

The foreign secretary said the countries that were backing Ukraine had economies that when combined were 25 times the size of Russia and it was important to make that firepower count.

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Rwanda bill vote: Tory rebels have not shown amendments are legally robust, No 10 says – live

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Sunak’s press secretary says Downing Street not shown legal basis for rebel amendments, despite this being offered and asked for

Rishi Sunak starts with the usual spiel about his engagements, and how he has got meetings with colleagues.

Rishi Sunak is taking PMQs in 10 minutes.

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Social media built narrative that Christopher Kapessa’s death was racist killing, say police

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Suggestions that 13-year-old was pushed into river by schoolmate led to online comparisons with Stephen Lawrence murder

A senior police officer has raised concerns that a “narrative” was built up suggesting the death of a black boy allegedly pushed into a Welsh river by a schoolmate was a racist killing.

Det Ch Insp Matt Powell, who led the police investigation into 13-year-old Christopher Kapessa’s death, said comparisons to Stephen Lawrence’s murder on social media led to tensions rising in the community and meant the suspect had to be given protection.

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Two-year-old boy died of starvation curled up next to dead father

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Lincolnshire council launches review after death of Bronson Battersby, who was subject to children’s services checks

A two-year-old boy was left alone to die of starvation curled up next to the body of his father, who had suffered a fatal heart attack, his family has revealed.

Bronson Battersby was found dead on 9 January, alongside his 60-year-old father, Kenneth, at their home in Skegness, Lincolnshire – 14 days after they were last seen.

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Chris Packham given bodyguard for BBC Winterwatch after ‘threats’

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TV presenter says he reported most recent threats ‘to harm you and your family’ to police

Chris Packham has been given a bodyguard while filming the latest series of BBC’s Winterwatch after “specific threats” were made against him.

The presenter has faced persistent abuse in recent years, including in 2011 an arson attack on his home.

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Sexual harassment has shifted away from the office to work trips, MPs told

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In wake of #MeToo, sexism in the City has become more ‘underhand and pernicious’, women tell inquiry

The social change sparked by the #MeToo movement has not translated to the UK’s financial sector, with sexual harassment merely shifting outside the office to conferences and work trips, MPs have heard.

A summary of private hearings held as part of the Treasury committee’s sexism in the City inquiry showed that, while a small number of women said workplaces had become more inclusive in recent years, the majority felt the Square Mile was still an “old boys’ club” with misconduct and misogyny widespread.

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Uniqlo sues Shein over ‘imitation’ banana-shaped ‘it’ bag

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Petition demands online retailer stop immediate sale of bags and compensation for damages incurred

Uniqlo is suing the Chinese online retailer Shein over the sale of items it claims copy its popular banana-shaped ‘it’ bag, the “round mini”.

The petition demands that Shein immediately stops the sale of “the imitation products” and pays compensation for damages incurred as a result of their sale. It was filed last month in the Tokyo district court against the fast-growing business’s parent groups Roadget and Fashion Choice, as well as Shein Japan.

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Rwanda president: efforts to implement asylum plan cannot ‘drag on’

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Paul Kagame also says he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped

Rwanda’s president has said there are limits to how long attempts to implement an asylum deal with Britain can “drag on”, indicating he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped.

Paul Kagame’s comments on Wednesday came before Rishi Sunak faced a potentially leadership-ending rebellion by Conservative MPs threatening to vote down his Rwanda deportation bill on Wednesday night.

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UK curator of African film to receive Bafta award

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June Givanni founded London archive documenting Pan-African cinema over 40 years

A pioneering curator, writer and programmer of African film is to receive Bafta’s outstanding British contribution to cinema award.

June Givanni is the founder of a London archive that has amassed more than 10,000 items – including films, ephemera, manuscripts, audio, photography and posters – documenting Pan-African cinema over 40 years.

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