Category Archives: UK news

Waitrose in talks with Amazon over online grocery deal, says report

Posted on by

Supermarket said to be considering third-party deal after share of UK market falls

Waitrose is reportedly in talks with Amazon to sell groceries via the internet marketplace, in an attempt to lure in more shoppers and claw back market share.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that the upmarket supermarket, part of the John Lewis Partnership, and Amazon were discussing a third-party deal, after the world’s biggest online retailer struck a similar agreement with the supermarket Iceland recently.

Continue reading...

Black British films as valuable as other UK and European genres, says academic

Posted on by

Clive Nwonka says genre should stand with traditions such as the French new wave and British social realism

The black British urban genre should be as valuable to British film culture and academia as the French new wave and British social realism, a leading academic has said.

Clive Nwonka, an associate professor of film, culture and society at UCL, began his academic research in 2010, during a critically important era of black representation in British film and TV.

Continue reading...

‘Living in fear’: the renters in England facing two-month ‘no fault’ evictions

Posted on by

Charities fear landlords are pushing evictions through before the renters’ reform bill becomes law

When Kitto Haywood moved into their eighth-floor flat in Manchester last year, they planted tomatoes, strawberries, garlic, carrots and mint in pots on the balcony. It had taken five months to find an ideal home after moving from Brighton. “I finally felt like we were going to be there long-term,” says Haywood.

But over the summer, Haywood, 24, let the plants wilt. On 21 May they received a “no-fault” section 21 eviction notice from their estate agent, telling them to leave in two months. Four months later, they’re still in limbo.

Continue reading...

Bank of England sounds out buyers for Metro Bank including NatWest

Posted on by

JP Morgan also approached as Metro reportedly tries to thrash out rescue package with investors

The Bank of England’s regulatory arm is understood to have approached a number of big lenders in the past few days, including NatWest and JP Morgan Chase, to see if they had any interest in the embattled high street rival Metro Bank.

JP Morgan Chase examined a potential bid to take over the whole of Metro after speaking to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) but decided on Saturday night not to go ahead with it, a source said.

Continue reading...

Briton, 20, serving in Israeli army killed in Hamas attack

Posted on by

Family of Nathanel Young say they are ‘heartbroken’, as fellow Briton Jake Marlowe is reported missing

A 20-year-old British man serving in the Israeli army has been killed in an attack by Hamas militants, while another British citizen is missing.

The family of Nathanel Young, who was serving with the Israel Defence Forces when he was killed on Saturday, said: “We’re heartbroken to share that our little brother Nathanel Young was tragically killed on the Gaza border yesterday.”

Continue reading...

Met increases patrols in London after reports of Israel attack celebrations

Posted on by

Minister shares video posted by Rachel Riley of people waving Palestinian flags in west London

The Metropolitan police have said they have increased patrols in London after receiving reports of people celebrating the attack on Israel by Hamas.

Hamas sent fighters across the border and fired thousands of rockets in what it said was a new operation on Saturday morning. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the group would “pay a price that it hasn’t known until now” as he called up reservists.

Continue reading...

Ex-wife of Boris Johnson to help Labour protect women from bullying at work

Posted on by

Marina Wheeler KC to be tasked with strengthening rights to safeguard women who report workplace harassment

A leading barrister and ex-wife of Boris Johnson is set to be appointed as Labour’s new “whistleblowing tsar”, offering advice on proposed protections for women against workplace harassment.

Marina Wheeler KC will help the party with its plans to strengthen employment rights to safeguard women from abusive colleagues, the Independent reported.

Continue reading...

Hull City ‘appalled’ by alleged racist abuse of player as Millwall fan arrested

Posted on by
  • Fan detained over incident during 2-2 Championship draw
  • Millwall ‘working with police, security staff and Hull City’

Hull said they were “appalled” after one of their players was the subject of alleged racist abuse during their 2-2 draw with Millwall at the Den.

Joe Bryan secured the Lions a point with a 54th-minute equaliser, but the Championship game was overshadowed by the incident, which led to a Millwall fan being arrested.

Continue reading...

Terence Davies, award-winning film-maker, dies at 77

Posted on by

The revered director and lyrical chronicler of working-class life in Distant Voices, Still Lives, died peacefully at home after a short illness

• Peter Bradshaw appreciation

• A life in pictures

Terence Davies, the film-maker regularly hailed by critics as among Britain’s greatest, has died aged 77.

The Liverpool-born director, perhaps best known for his semi-autobiographical study of working-class family life Distant Voices, Still Lives, starring Pete Postlethwaite, was working on a new project at the time of his illness and only two years ago released Benediction, starring Jack Lowden in the role of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon.

Continue reading...

Starmer warns Labour: ‘Don’t get giddy over prospect of election victory’

Posted on by

In an exclusive interview, the party’s leader says it is on course for Downing Street, but must not repeat past opposition mistakes

• Keir Starmer interview

Keir Starmer on Sunday warns his party not to become “giddy” about the prospect of power, as he declares that Labour is “bang on schedule” to win the next general election.

After his party’s stunning win over the Scottish National party in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection, the Labour leader uses an exclusive interview with the Observer to spell out how a Labour government will “power” economic growth across the country by training up hundreds of thousands of workers in a new nationwide network of skills colleges, geared to the needs of local economies and industries of the future.

Continue reading...

Martin Scorsese tells young film-makers to embrace new tech for ‘serious’ work

Posted on by

Director in London for Killers of the Flower Moon premiere says it is time to ‘rethink what you want to say and how you want to say it’

Martin Scorsese has urged young film-makers to use new technology for “serious” work, as he emphasised the importance of cinema over content.

Speaking at a Screen Talk at the BFI London film festival hosted by the British film-maker Edgar Wright, Scorsese – arguably America’s highest status film director – said the industry’s “period of reinventing” didn’t have to spell the end of auteur-led film-making.

Continue reading...

Flooding in Scotland could pose danger to life, Met Office says

Posted on by

Warnings issued for across the country, with a month’s worth of rain in 36 hours expected in some areas

Flooding in Scotland could present a danger to life, the Met Office has said, as heavy rain led to train services being suspended.

A number of rail lines and roads, including the M9 motorway, were hit by flooding on Saturday morning, and rain is expected to continue into Sunday.

Continue reading...

Labour’s stunning Scottish byelection win means there may be little need to bargain with the SNP

Posted on by

A decade of SNP dominance will be swept away in Scotland if Labour can repeat its Rutherglen success at a general election

Thursday was a big day for Scottish Labour. Within minutes of the declaration that Labour had retaken Rutherglen and Hamilton West from the SNP, phones and social media lit up with triumphant messages from the winning party. And with good reason. This was the best result for Labour in a Scottish byelection since the second world war, and the worst for the SNP since the independence referendum upended Scottish politics.

Some caveats apply. This was one of the SNP’s most marginal seats, where Labour prevailed as recently as 2017. A cloud of scandal hung over a contest triggered after the sitting MP Margaret Ferrier was sanctioned for repeatedly breaking Covid rules. As Boris Johnson has learned, voters judge such behaviour harshly.

Continue reading...

BBC denies report decision has been made to axe Top Gear

Posted on by

Corporation says decision will be made ‘in due course’ after show’s staff reportedly told to look for other work after Andrew Flintoff crash

The BBC has denied Top Gear has reached the end of the road amid reports the show had been axed.

The Sun reported on Friday that the broadcaster had told production staff on the long-running show to look for other work after the presenter and former cricketer Andrew Flintoff was injured during filming last December.

Continue reading...

Driver who swerved across three lanes of M25 on spare tyre disqualified

Posted on by

Jack Doolan, 22, failed to stop after undertaking one car and then crashing into another and the motorway’s central barrier

Dramatic footage shows a driver swerving violently across the M25 and hitting another car before crashing into a concrete barrier.

Jack Doolan, 22, was travelling between junctions 21 and 21a at about 7.50pm on 20 December 2022 when the crash occurred.

Continue reading...

Poll predicts landslide Labour election victory with 12 cabinet ministers losing their seats

Posted on by

Dramatic findings point to Conservatives losing every red wall seat that they secured at the last election

Labour is currently on course to win a landslide victory on the scale of 1997, according to dramatic new modelling that points to the Conservatives losing every red wall seat secured at the last election.

The Tories could also lose more than 20 constituencies in its southern blue wall strongholds and achieve a record-low number of seats, according to a constituency-by-constituency model seen by the Observer. Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leadership contender Penny Mordaunt are among those facing defeat. Some 12 cabinet ministers face being unseated unless Rishi Sunak can close Labour’s poll lead.

Continue reading...

Chris Grayling joins list of Tories standing down at next election

Posted on by

MP since 2001, nicknamed ‘Failing Grayling’ for fraught record as transport secretary, says time for a change after cancer treatment

Chris Grayling, the former transport secretary, has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he is standing down at the next general election.

Grayling said he had been successfully treated for prostate cancer this year and the diagnosis had led him to decide it was “time for a change”.

Continue reading...

Met police failing children at risk and victim blaming, says damning report

Posted on by

Inspectorate demands emergency changes as Scotland Yard accepts its child protection services are in chaos

The Metropolitan police are failing in their efforts to protect children from criminal and sexual exploitation while bungling efforts to find missing young people, a damning official report has found.

The findings have led Scotland Yard to accept its child protection services are in chaos, and a senior officer admitted that “too often we are letting them down”. The policing inspectorate, which authored the report, said it was also concerned with “the frequency with which officers and staff use victim-blaming language”.

Continue reading...