Category Archives: UK news

Italian citizen’s bank accounts frozen owing to ‘shameful’ post-Brexit rules

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Massimo and his British wife Dee say settlement scheme designed to frighten immigrants into leaving the UK

An Italian restaurant owner and his British wife have had their bank accounts frozen overnight after 15 years of custom in a “catastrophic” post-Brexit tactic they say is designed by the government to frighten immigrants into leaving the UK.

Massimo and Dee are two of thousands of EU citizens who are discovering the permanent residence (PR) cards they obtained were invalidated by Brexit and even after 21 years of paying tax in the UK it does not entitle them to remain.

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Rightwing Tory MPs criticise Rishi Sunak’s ‘weakness’ over family visas U-turn – UK politics live

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The government says it is still planning to increase salary threshold to £38,700 but Tory backbenchers have called the move ‘deeply disappointing’

Regulated rail fares in England will rise by nearly 5% in March, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Department for Transport has set a cap of 4.9% for increases to most fares regulated by the government, which include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.

July’s RPI measure of inflation, which is traditionally used to determine annual fare rises, was 9.0%.

Having met our target of halving inflation across the economy, this is a significant intervention by the government to cap the increase in rail fares below last year’s rise.

Changed working patterns after the pandemic mean that our railways are still losing money and require significant subsidies, so this rise strikes a balance to keep our railways running, while not overburdening passengers.

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Brianna Ghey trial: judge warns against threats towards killers’ families

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In written judgment stating two teenagers can be named, Mrs Justice Yip urges people to avoid ‘vitriol or malice’

The judge in the Brianna Ghey trial has warned those “tempted to direct vitriol or malice” towards the families of her teenage killers that such action would ignore the “express wishes” of the victim’s grieving mother.

Mrs Justice Yip said on Thursday she would lift the reporting restrictions preventing the pair from being named when they are sentenced on 2 February, saying there was a “strong public interest in full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case”.

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‘Sign of weakness’: Home Office U-turn on visa salary threshold divides Tories

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Rightwing factions criticise decision to raise minimum salary to £29,000 in spring, rather than £38,700

Rightwing Conservatives have expressed concern at the decision to U-turn on more than doubling the minimum salary needed for British nationals bringing foreign relatives to the UK, in yet another sign of the party’s continued splits on migration.

In a surprise and low-key announcement on Thursday evening, the Home Office said the threshold would still rise significantly from the current £18,600, but to £29,000 instead of the £38,700 initially announced earlier this month.

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Fintech firm Revolut hit by £25m loss after rise in staff wages

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Firm gave near 80% pay increase to founder despite uncertainty over approval of UK banking licence

Revolut swung to a £25m loss in 2022 after shelling out more on staff and a near 80% pay jump for its founder, despite uncertainty over the approval of the fintech firm’s UK banking licence.

The company, which became the UK’s most valuable fintech firm in 2021, detailed the loss in its delayed annual report on Friday, marking a return to the red after reporting its first-ever annual pre-tax profit – worth £39m – a year earlier.

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Home Office banned from routinely placing lone children in asylum hotels

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High court order says hotels can be used only for very short periods ‘in true emergency situations’

The Home Office has been banned from accommodating lone asylum seeker children in hotels apart from for very short periods “in true emergency situations” after a long-running high court case.

The home secretary’s practice of routinely and systematically accommodating these children in hotels has been ruled unlawful in an order finalised on Thursday. The order states that since December 2021 this practice has “exceeded the proper limits of his powers”.

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Christmas getaway disruption continues amid Dover, road and rail delays

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Eurostar and Eurotunnel services resume on Friday but drivers face 60-minute queue for French border controls

Christmas getaway disruption was continuing on Friday with long queues for cross-Channel journeys, motorway closures and train cancellations on one of the busiest days of the year for travel.

In the late afternoon the Port of Dover in Kent said it was taking about 60 minutes to process cars before French border controls.

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Home Office accused of ‘chaos’ after U-turn on earnings threshold for family visa

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Department unexpectedly announces interim increase to just £29,000, with no timeline given for planned full rise to £38,700

The Home Office has made a U-turn on its much-criticised plan to imminently raise the minimum salary requirement for British nationals bringing foreign family members to the UK, saying the threshold will first be raised to £29,000 instead of £38,700.

The revised proposal, announced unexpectedly and without fanfare in a parliamentary answer, said the threshold would be increased “incrementally” and would still eventually hit £38,700, but gave no timescale for when this would happen.

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‘It doesn’t get easier’: Thomas Orchard’s family on their search for truth

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After 11-year wait for inquest into his death in custody, relatives say Devon and Cornwall police still need to admit mistakes

One of the most poignant moments for Alison Orchard came when she was sorting out her son Thomas’s room after his fatal collapse while in police custody.

Over the years, Thomas Orchard had experienced mental health problems and had not been allowed to fulfil one of his ambitions: to drive.

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Police use of belt over Exeter man’s face may have contributed to death, inquest jury finds

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Thomas Orchard died a week after a mental health crisis in which police put an ‘emergency response belt’ over his face

Prolonged use of a heavy webbing belt by police over the face of a vulnerable man during a mental health crisis may have contributed to his death, an inquest jury has concluded.

The way officers used the belt on church caretaker Thomas Orchard would have hampered his ability to breathe and increased his stress levels, the jury said.

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Cancer and maternity patients at risk if junior doctors strike in January, NHS bosses warn

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NHS Employers writes to British Medical Association warning of dangers of proposed six-day stoppage

Patients have been harmed as a result of doctors striking this year, and others needing time-critical treatment will be at risk during next month’s walkout in England, hospital bosses have said.

Cancer patients and women having induced or caesarean section births will be in danger of damage to their health unless junior doctors in those areas of care abandon their plans to strike for six days in January, they said.

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Post Office almost halves amount set aside for Horizon IT scandal compensation

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Annual results show it holds only £244m for payments to wrongly convicted branch managers, after fewer appeals than expected

The Post Office has almost halved the amount set aside for payments to branch managers wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal as fewer than expected have won or brought appeals.

The scandal, frequently described as “the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history”, resulted in more than 700 post office operators being prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting because of faulty accounting software installed in the late 1990s.

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Eurostar cancellations add to disruption on storm-hit rail network

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Last-minute Eurotunnel strike by French unions in Calais halts services as Storm Pia causes travel problems across country

Passengers are suffering fresh disruption in the Christmas getaway after severe weather left rail lines blocked around Britain, while a strike by French Eurotunnel workers has halted Eurostar trains and cross-Channel shuttle services.

Strong winds from Storm Pia, including gusts of up to 80mph in northern Britain, have blown down trees on tracks around the country.

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French police botched Michel Fourniret case, say UK victim’s parents

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Roger Parrish and Pauline Murrell say police might have stopped serial killer and his accomplice sooner

The parents of Joanna Parrish, the British student who was murdered by the French serial killer Michel Fourniret 33 years ago, have said their daughter and other victims could have been saved if police in France had done their job properly.

Roger Parrish and Pauline Murrell believe chances were missed to get to Fourniret before he beat, raped and killed their daughter and threw her body in a river in 1990.

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Police to be able to run face recognition searches on 50m driving licence holders

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Exclusive: Privacy campaigners say clause in new criminal justice bill will put all UK drivers on ‘permanent police lineup’

The police will be able to run facial recognition searches on a database containing images of Britain’s 50 million driving licence holders under a law change being quietly introduced by the government.

Should the police wish to put a name to an image collected on CCTV, or shared on social media, the legislation would provide them with the powers to search driving licence records for a match.

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Teenagers guilty of ‘senseless’ murder of transgender girl Brianna Ghey

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Murder-obsessed 16-year-olds convicted of killing girl who was stabbed 28 times in Warrington park

Two 16-year-olds have been found guilty of the “senseless” murder of Brianna Ghey, a “witty, funny and fearless” transgender girl who was stabbed 28 times in a Warrington park this year.

The murder-obsessed teenagers, known as Girl X and Boy Y to protect their identities, were found guilty unanimously by a jury at Manchester crown court on Wednesday after it deliberated for four hours and 40 minutes.

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Wellingborough byelection gives Labour another chance to humiliate Rishi Sunak

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Recall of MP Peter Bone opens up Brexit-leaning former safe seat where defections from Tories in any direction could help Labour win

The public’s dissatisfaction with Rishi Sunak’s government runs deep. In his first year in No 10, the prime minister led the Conservatives to six byelection defeats – though many Tories believed they never stood a chance with the vote in West Lancashire.

On paper the results show that national polling, which puts the Labour party ahead of the Conservatives with a 20-point lead, is pretty accurate. Labour figures believe the anti-Tory sentiment that is radiating from the polls is very reflective of the mood in Wellingborough – which will become the latest site for a byelection showdown.

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Surveillance technology is advancing at pace – with what consequences?

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Plans for facial recognition searches across UK driving licence records could threaten idea of policing by consent

In the summer of 2019, Nikolay Glukhin travelled on the Moscow underground with a lifesize cardboard cutout of a young political protester, Konstantin Kotov. On a banner he had scrawled of Kotov’s fate: “I’m facing up to five years … for peaceful protests.” A few days later, Glukhin himself was arrested.

Glukhin’s peaceful initiative is believed to have been picked up on social media and CCTV cameras. His image is thought to have been matched through facial recognition technology to a database of photos, the source of which has yet to be confirmed.

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No 10 drops proposal for end-of-year Sunak speech on immigration

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Idea quietly shelved after Tory splits over Rwanda bill, as Home Office is accused of ‘fiddling’ asylum claim data

No 10 has dropped a proposal for an end-of-year immigration update from Rishi Sunak amid concern that key policies that are meant to “stop the boats” are running into trouble.

The prime minister had been expected to make a statement in December outlining progress on the Rwanda deportation scheme and plans to house asylum seekers in ships such as the Bibby Stockholm and in former barracks, Whitehall sources said.

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