Case follows Walliams’ exit as BGT judge after transcript surfaced of him making offensive off-air comments about contestants
David Walliams has filed a case against the production company that makes the ITV show Britain’s Got Talent.
The action being taken by the show’s former judge against FremantleMedia is listed as dealing with data protection, according to the BBC. No other details have been given.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Questions mount over ties between Farhad Moshiri and tycoon, before he was put under sanctions
The Everton Football Club owner, Farhad Moshiri, received more than £400m from Alisher Usmanov companies in the run-up to the Russian billionaire being placed under sanctions, documents suggest, raising fresh questions about the financial ties between the two men.
Records seen by the Guardian appear to show that Moshiri borrowed £145m from a company wholly owned by the Russian-Uzbek tycoon from about 2020.
Continue reading...Home secretary argued that ‘uncontrolled’ migration poses ‘existential challenge for institutions of the west’
The Sun is carrying a story today saying Rishi Sunak’s “decision to stall the net zero ban on selling new petrol cars has seen him catch up eight points in the polls”. It is based on the results of this Deltapoll poll.
For a more considered view, it is worth reading this article in the i by Prof Sir John Curtice, Britain’s leading psephologist. He says the impact of the net zero speech on the polls has been much more modest. Here is his conclusion.
Whatever the popularity of the measures, if, as has been alleged, Mr Sunak’s motivation was to try to reduce Labour’s lead, it looks as though he has so far reaped little reward. Four polls of voting intention conducted after last Wednesday’s announcement have so far been published. Between them they put Labour’s lead on 17 points – just a point below the polling average shortly before last week’s drama.
Moving the polls is, it seems, just as difficult as dealing with climate change.
Continue reading...Fewer than half of companies meeting their targets on leaks, says the regulator, Ofwat
Water companies in England and Wales have been ordered to return £114m to customers through lower bills next year because progress on leakage and sewage spills has been “too slow”.
In its annual water company performance report, the regulator, Ofwat, said the majority of water and wastewater companies were underperforming on targets set for 2020-25 to deliver better outcomes, for customers and the environment.
Continue reading...Labour says veterans minister inferred he did not receive money
Johnny Mercer received almost £8,000 in taxpayers’ cash after he was sacked by Liz Truss, it has emerged.
The veterans minister was dismissed from his ministerial role as soon as Truss obtained the keys to No 10 last September. He appeared angry about Truss’s move saying he was “disappointed” but accepted that the prime minister is “entitled to reward her supporters”.
Continue reading...Coogan will follow in Peter Sellers’ footsteps to play multiple roles in stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satirical war film
Steve Coogan is to star in Armando Iannucci’s stage adaptation of the satirical war film Dr Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
The play, set to open in London next autumn, reunites the pair who worked together more than 30 years ago on the BBC radio comedy On the Hour, in which Coogan played Alan Partridge, and on subsequent Partridge projects.
Continue reading...Online fashion retailer says it has reduced its stock levels by 30% amid fall in customer numbers
The online fashion retailer Asos said sales in July and August were hit by wet weather, prompting it to cut its estimate for annual profits.
Asos said the poor weather compounded weaker online demand for clothing. Total sales declined by 15% in the quarter to 3 September, with the UK down 16%. The sales washout resulted in a £60m hit to cashflow. July was the wettest such month in England since 2009.
Continue reading...UK home secretary in US to call for rewriting of UN asylum rules so they are ‘fit for the modern age’
A Labour MP has urged LGBTQ+ Conservatives to condemn Suella Braverman’s speech, in which she will say that Britain should not grant asylum to people who simply express a fear of persecution for being gay.
Ben Bradshaw, a former minister, made the call before a speech the home secretary is due to make in the US, where she will make her case for the rewriting of key international refugee rules so they are “fit for the modern age”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Pan-European investigation looked at thousands of transactions since Paris climate agreement in 2016
Banks including some of Europe’s largest lenders have helped fossil fuel companies to raise more than €1tn (£869bn) from the global bond markets since the Paris climate agreement, according to an investigation by the Guardian and its reporting partners.
In the push to zero carbon, Europe’s biggest lenders face growing pressure to limit their financial support for fossil fuel companies through direct loans and other financing facilities.
Continue reading...When it comes to investigating police shootings, what all sides agree on is it takes is too long
The Metropolitan police’s firearms command is seen as prestigious to serve in, but Louise Casey’s damning report into Britain’s largest force published in March found it had become dogged by cultural issues.
Some of its virtues can slide into vices. It is close knit, offering strong support for colleagues in trouble, which can turn into an insularity. It’s members volunteer to face extreme danger, rarely open fire, and some can appear to sneer at those who question them, viewing it as doubting their professionalism.
Continue reading...Comments from Paul Johnson of Institute of Fiscal Studies come as Downing Street hints at delay to work on second phase of rail link
Around 20,000 university workers are out on strike this week at more than 50 universities across the UK, despite a dramatic last-minute scaling back of industrial action.
Strikes had been set to go ahead at 142 UK universities this week as part of a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions, but it emerged last week that two thirds of branches of the University and College Union (UCU) had declined to take part.
Davey said the Lib Dem commitment – dating back to 1992 – to raise income tax by 1p to improve public services is unsustainable in the current economic climate. Originally the money raised was earmarked for education, but at the last election the party said it would use it to fund the NHS.
Speaking from Bournemouth to broadcast studios, Davey suggested the burden should instead fall on companies making “huge profits” while people struggle with the cost of living.
Continue reading...Latest figures show 1,015,067 ‘episodes of care’ have been postponed since end of last year
More than 1m outpatient appointments and operations have been cancelled since strikes began in December across the NHS in England, figures reveal.
Last week’s four-day stoppage by consultants and junior doctors forced hospitals to reschedule 129,913 more “episodes of care”, taking the total to just over 1m, NHS England said.
Continue reading...Airport will share 164 cancellations between airlines until Sunday as it seeks to avoid diversions
Thousands of passengers flying to and from Gatwick this week will have their flights cancelled after the airport announced a cap on movements because of a shortage of staff in air traffic control.
Gatwick imposed an immediate cap on Monday of 800 flights taking off or landing a day.
Continue reading...British territory’s commissioner withdraws decision after supreme court challenge
A group of Tamil asylum seekers stranded on a tiny British territory in the Indian Ocean have won their fight against being forcibly returned to Sri Lanka after a government climbdown.
The group are on Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands, which the UK calls the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and over which it continues to claim sovereignty despite a UN court ruling that they are part of Mauritius.
Continue reading...Force says allegations against performer are non-recent and there have been no arrests
The Metropolitan police have received a number of sex offence allegations following news reports about Russell Brand.
The comedian and actor denied accusations made by four women in an investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Continue reading...Representative for Louise Redknapp says sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett refused to play Pride events due to trans people ‘hijacking’ gay community
Chart-topping British girl group Eternal have cancelled a planned full-band reunion due to an alleged difference in views on transgender rights.
A representative for singer Louise Redknapp, who went on to have a successful solo career, confirmed reports that she had left the reunion due to a clash in values with sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett.
Continue reading...Fatal crash occurs after two marked police bikes follow 18-year-old on motorbike carrying machete-wielding passenger
A teenage motorcyclist who was being followed by police has died after a crash with a taxi and street furniture in central London.
The 18-year-old, who was riding the motorcycle carrying a knife-wielding passenger, ran a red light in Oxford Street at about 6.45am on Monday, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...Country needs successful firms to grow and struggling ones to shrink, says Resolution Foundation
The UK needs more businesses to fail, or at least shrink, to solve the economy’s long-running productivity crisis, a study has argued.
The country’s lack of “economic dynamism”, whereby weaker firms or lower productivity sectors shrink, and more productive ones grow, has caused GDP to be 4% lower between 2008 and 2019 than it would otherwise have been, according to a paper published on Monday by the Resolution Foundation.
Continue reading...Researchers explore whether the animals adapt their behaviour in response to people’s happiness, sadness or anger
They are known for living in packs and being sociable animals. Now meerkats are being investigated to see if they can also pick up on human emotions.
Researchers and psychologists from Nottingham Trent University are studying meerkats in zoos to see if they can detect emotions such as happiness, sadness or anger from people, and whether they then adapt their behaviour accordingly.
Continue reading...Thousands of women who have been underpaid by up to £11,000 a year set to launch claim, GMB union says
Sheffield city council is to become the latest local authority to face a mass equal pay claim from women who have been underpaid by up to £11,000 a year, the GMB union has said.
Thousands of women will launch claims against the council on Monday over a “scandalous” job evaluation scheme that discriminates against female-dominated roles, the union claimed.
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