Defence secretary says proposal being discussed would reduce reliance on UK and other Nato members’ bases
The new defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said he has held talks with army leaders about deploying British troops within Ukraine for the first time for a training programme.
Shapps, who met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for talks in Kyiv earlier this week, said the proposal being discussed would reduce the reliance on the UK and other Nato members’ bases.
Continue reading...Exclusive poll for Observer reveals Conservatives have lost support in their southern England heartlands and the Red Wall
The coalition of voters that delivered the Tories a big majority at the last election is crumbling, according to dramatic new evidence that the party is losing support in key battlegrounds across England.
The findings, revealed in a special poll of 2019 Tory voters for the Observer, comes as Rishi Sunak faces a series of competing and contradictory demands from warring Tory factions ahead of the party’s conference in Manchester.
Continue reading...Two more teenagers suffer life-threatening injuries and two more seriously injured in consecutive nearby incidents
Three teenagers have been arrested after a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Luton on Friday.
Police were called to Nunnery Lane, Bedfordshire, after reports that three teenagers had been stabbed at about 7pm.
Continue reading...Arrival result of Enfield reintroduction scheme, started last year as part of natural flood defence project
A baby beaver has been photographed in London for the first time in 400 years, 18 months after an initiative began to reintroduce the species to the capital.
Enfield council began London’s beaver reintroduction programme last year as part of a wider rewilding and natural flood-management project.
Continue reading...Police are investigating after two Sheffield Wednesday fans appeared to mock the death of football mascot Bradley Lowery during a match against his favourite team.
The six-year-old Sunderland fan, who struck up a close friendship with the team’s striker Jermain Defoe after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma, died in 2017 having helped raise more than £1m for charity.
Continue reading...Appointment to board of banker who ran rightwing social media platform Parler suggests channel will not turn its back on radical libertarianism
The leadership of the rightwing TV channel GB News is trying urgently to avert fresh public censure following the Laurence Fox and Dan Wootton debacle, the Observer has learned.
Under scrutiny are a number of incidents, including last week’s crude, on-air attack on the journalist Ava Evans by the actor and pundit Fox, and Friday’s interview of Suella Braverman, the home secretary, conducted by the deputy chair of her own party, the Conservative MP Lee Anderson.
Continue reading...In an excruciating BBC interview, the transport minister sticks resolutely to the party line on rail link … and fails to answer the question
Mark Harper is not the first cabinet minister to suffer a difficult early-morning interview, but the transport secretary seemed oddly blindsided by a quizzing about the future of HS2. No fewer than 12 times he dismissed the issue as “speculation”. If only there were a senior figure from the Department for Transport to clear things up? Here is an edited version of his awkward interview with the BBC Today Programme’s Mishal Husain:
Husain Has something changed on HS2 plans since the last update to parliament in June?
Continue reading...UK-based charter firm launches ‘ludicrous’ £8,166 Dubai-London route for clients who want to fly with pets
Environmentalists have condemned a “ludicrous” private jet service that transports wealthy people’s dogs, which this week ran its first flight from Dubai to London.
For £8,166, one way, customers were able to sit with their dogs on their laps and sip champagne as they travelled from Al Maktoum international airport to Farnborough in a Gulfstream IV-SP jet.
Continue reading...Saturday train services halted as Aslef drivers begin industrial action in long-running pay dispute
Rail passengers are facing another day of disruption as a strike by train drivers halts virtually all national rail services in England.
Members of the Aslef union have started a 24-hour walkout in the long-running pay dispute, targeting the start of the Conservative party conference in Manchester.
Continue reading...Hundreds of events lined up for October, with focus on role black women have played in shaping British history
Black History Month launches with hundreds of events planned across the UK in October, with celebrations focusing on the contributions of black women and the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush.
First celebrated in the UK in October 1987, Black History Month has since morphed into a big cultural and political event to highlight the historical and contemporary contribution of black Britons.
Continue reading...Several people received minor injuries after the heritage train was involved in a ‘shunting’ incident, according to police
Several people were injured after two trains, one of which was the famous Flying Scotsman, collided at “slow speed” in the Highlands of Scotland, police said.
The crash happened at Aviemore railway station in the Cairngorms at 7.10pm on Friday. The station is home to Strathspey Railway, a heritage line that takes visitors on steam trains in northern Scotland.
Continue reading...Pret a Manger’s ‘posh’ cheese and pickle sandwich grabbed headlines for its £7.15 price tag, but it’s not all gloom
It’s not often that a cheese and pickle sandwich turns heads, but this week Pret a Manger’s “posh” version grabbed headlines after a tweet decrying its £7.15 price tag went viral.
Although that included VAT for eating in, the social media post shone a spotlight on the rising cost of lunch on the go, as the soaring cost of ingredients has been passed on to consumers.
Continue reading...Low-traffic neighbourhoods and fines also face clampdown under plans condemned by active travel groups
Rishi Sunak has pledged to end “anti-car measures” as he set out a series of ideas to prioritise the needs of drivers at the likely expense of other road users such as bus passengers, cyclists and pedestrians.
Outlining what he called a “long-term plan to back drivers”, the prime minister unveiled a clampdown on 20mph limits, bus lanes, low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), and the ability of councils to fine drivers who commit offences.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report by aid campaign One finds costs now take up nearly a third of the official aid budget
The UK is spending 40% a person more than any other European country on housing asylum seekers with the costs taking up nearly a third of the official aid budget, which forced a 16.4% cut in the amount of aid spent overseas in 2022.
The findings come in a report by One, the aid campaign, which argues the proportion of the aid budget being spent on housing refugees in the UK is totally out of sync with its neighbours and is making the British aid budget both unpredictable and unmanageable
Continue reading...Head of Northamptonshire force faces questions over allegations about potentially misrepresenting service record
A chief constable once tipped to lead Scotland Yard is under investigation after being accused of wearing a Falklands war combat service medal despite being a 15-year-old sea cadet at the time of the conflict.
Nick Adderley, 57, who leads Northamptonshire police, has been pictured regularly wearing the South Atlantic medal and rosette, which is awarded to anyone who served in the Falklands combat zone in 1982.
Continue reading...Number of house sales also fell in August compared with a year earlier, says HMRC
UK mortgage approvals fell in August to their lowest level in six months, as high interest rates cooled the housing market.
The Bank of England said net mortgage approvals for house purchases fell from 49,500 in July to 45,400 in August and were down by a third from the same month last year.
Continue reading...Force apologises to victims, who included a traumatised woman, for Sgt Simon Lythgoe’s ‘inexcusable’ behaviour
A police officer and power-lifting champion has been dismissed after using “extreme” force against two detainees, including a traumatised woman.
Hampshire police described the actions of Sgt Simon Lythgoe, who was based on the Isle of Wight, as inexcusable and apologised to his victims.
Continue reading...PM preparing to curb English councils from introducing speed limits ahead of party conference
UK sanctions have been imposed on Russian officials involved in “sham” elections in annexed Ukrainian territory, the Foreign Office has announced.
Labour is currently on course to win a majority of 90 in a general election, according to polling published by the Times.
Rishi Sunak’s projected 196-seat tally would be the worst recorded by any Conservative leader since William Hague’s 166 in 2001. Labour’s 372 seats would give Sir Keir Starmer a comfortable working majority of 90, the party’s biggest since 2001.
Highlighting the Tories’ vulnerabilities in their traditional southern heartlands, the Liberal Democrats would be returned with 36 seats and 10.8 per cent of the vote, a marked improvement on the 15 seats they hold at present.
Continue reading...Independent Office for Police Conduct orders misconduct hearing into incident in which Jermaine Baker was killed
A Metropolitan police firearms officer who shot dead an unarmed man at point blank range should face a hearing for gross misconduct which could see him sacked, the police watchdog has said.
The officer, known only as W80, shot dead Jermaine Baker, 28, in 2015 as he prepared to try and free a prisoner from custody near Wood Green crown court, in north London.
Continue reading...Joey the tortoise, from Cornwall, is recovering after surgery to remove 150g growth
Joey, an 82-year-old tortoise in Cornwall, is recovering from surgery after the removal of a bladder stone the size of a cricket ball.
Two veterinary surgeons had to cut through Joey’s shell to remove the growth, which at 150g was almost three times the weight of a tennis ball.
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