Category Archives: UK news

Labour may not be able to afford to ditch ‘bad policies’– shadow minister

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Lucy Powell defends Starmer over resistance to scrapping two-child benefit cap amid growing discontent

Labour may not be able to afford to reverse “lots of bad policies”, a member of the shadow frontbench has said as she defended Keir Starmer’s resistance to scrapping the two-child benefit cap amid growing discontent from party MPs and others.

The Conservatives were “waiting” for Labour to commit to uncosted spending commitments, the shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, said, as Starmer faced potential opposition at a meeting of his shadow cabinet on Tuesday morning.

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UK relaxes visa rules for foreign builders amid Brexit shortages

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Bricklayers and other construction jobs added to list alongside care workers and engineers

Bricklayers, plasterers and other construction jobs have been added to the government’s “shortage occupation list”, making it easier for foreign builders to come to Britain amid labour shortages partly caused by Brexit.

The UK government has relaxed visa restrictions for a number of sectors that face severe worker shortages, and has added bricklayers and masons; roofers, roof tilers and slaters; carpenters and joiners; plasterers and other construction workers to the list. Fishing jobs have also been added to the list.

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Police officers guilty of sexual relationships with domestic abuse victims

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The two West Midlands officers pressured women into sexual acts when attending their homes in response to incidents of domestic violence

Two West Midlands police officers who had inappropriate sexual relationships with domestic abuse survivors have been found guilty of misconduct in public office.

One serving officer – PC Anthony Ritchie, 46 – and one former officer – Steven Walters, 55 – were each found guilty of two counts of misconduct in public office at Birmingham crown court, with one count involving the same victim of domestic abuse.

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Tory MPs condemn delay to ban on LGBTQ+ conversion practices

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Letter from cross-party MPs and campaigners says slow progress on legislation is a ‘moral failing’

Senior Conservative MPs have accused the government of a “moral failing” for delaying the long-promised ban on conversion practices that they say damage the lives of LGBT+ people.

In a letter to Rishi Sunak, a cross-party group of politicians and campaigners criticised the slow progress in bringing forward new legislation since the pledge was made five years ago.

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Grant Shapps appears to row back on supermarket petrol prices law

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Energy secretary backs voluntary price comparison scheme in meeting with supermarket bosses rather than new law

The energy secretary, Grant Shapps, appears to have rowed back on plans for a law to force supermarkets to make fuel prices more transparent, instead backing a voluntary price comparison scheme in a meeting with supermarket bosses.

Shapps on Monday endorsed the non-mandatory scheme, which had been suggested by the competition regulator, after a summit with retailers that he had promised would involve him holding “rip-off retailers” to account.

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Post Office inquiry chair criticises Horizon compensation scheme

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Wyn Williams calls for legislative change to resolve issues for those affected by the scandal

Schemes set up to compensate former post office operators wrongly accused of crimes are “a patchwork quilt” with “holes in it” that are likely to miss the deadline to pay up, the chair of the inquiry into the scandal has said.

More than 700 people were prosecuted for theft and false accounting between 2000 and 2014 after the Post Office’s flawed Horizon IT system incorrectly suggested there were financial shortfalls.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Woman, 22, charged with procuring poison to abort her child

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Bethany Cox appears at Teesside magistrates court charged with procuring her own miscarriage shortly after first Covid lockdown

A 22-year-old woman has appeared in court accused of procuring a poison to abort her child shortly after the first Covid lockdown.

Bethany Cox, of Eaglescliffe in Stockton-on-Tees, appeared before Teesside magistrates court on Monday charged with child destruction and procuring her own miscarriage “by poison/use of instrument”.

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Welsh government and Cornwall council sign collaboration deal

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Celtic authorities to work together on areas such as holiday homes crisis, offshore wind and language conservation

They are separated by choppy waters – and different political ideologies.

But the leaders of Wales and Cornwall have come together to sign an agreement vowing to work together on shared issues, ranging from the crisis of holiday homes to the prospect of cooperating on offshore wind power projects in the Celtic Sea.

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Betting firm logos shown on TV up to 3,500 times in Premier League matches, study finds

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Average was once every 16 seconds across 10 matches last season, with a total of 3,522 in West Ham v Chelsea

Betting company logos appear as often as 3,500 times during the course of a televised football match, the majority on pitchside hoardings, prompting renewed scepticism about top-flight clubs’ plan to give up front-of-shirt betting ads only.

A study led by psychology experts from four universities measured the volume of gambling adverts during 10 matches that took place last season, featuring every Premier League club.

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UK installations of heat pumps 10 times lower than in France, report finds

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Analysts call on government to make pumps mandatory for all new homes and scale up grants for installation in existing properties

The UK is lagging far behind France and other EU countries in installing heat pumps, research has shown, with less than a tenth of the number of installations despite having similar markets.

Only 55,000 heat pumps were sold in the UK last year, compared with more than 620,000 in France. Twenty other European countries also had higher installation rates than the UK.

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Has Britain become a country of shoplifters? – podcast

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Shopkeepers complain the number of thefts from stores is soaring. Is the cost of living crisis to blame or organised gangs?

It could be laundry tablets, lipstick or even baby milk. According to shopkeepers in the UK the number of thefts is rising. The British Retail Consortium said there were 8m instances of theft from shops last year, which cost businesses nearly £1bn. The Office for National Statistics reports a 22% rise.

For shop assistants and managers it is a daily struggle, which can be costly and infuriating – but what’s behind it? The Guardian’s North of England editor, Helen Pidd, spoke to shopkeepers on one Manchester street to see how they were coping, and spent the day in a magistrates court to find out what happens when a shoplifter is caught. She explains how organised crime may be a factor behind the rise.

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Labour plans new taskforce to target contractors linked to hostile nations

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Exclusive: Yvette Cooper to tell RUSI thinktank that economic security and national security go hand in hand

Contractors linked to hostile foreign powers such as China will be targeted by a new security taskforce if Labour wins the next general election.

In a joint initiative from the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the new body will aim to anticipate risks to Britain’s national security.

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Green energy tycoon to launch UK’s first electric airline

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But Dale Vince’s Ecojet plane will run on kerosene-based fuel in 2024 to enable quick start to project

The green energy tycoon Dale Vince is planning to launch Britain’s first electric airline in a move designed to prove polluting industries can decarbonise.

Ecojet, styled as a “flag carrier for green Britain”, will launch early next year with a 19-seater plane travelling on a route between Edinburgh and Southampton.

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Cage director banned from France as ‘threat to public order’

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Human rights campaigner Muhammad Rabbani accused of spreading conspiracy theories about ‘Islamophobic persecution’

The director of the campaign group Cage was detained in Paris for almost 24 hours last week and then sent back to London after the French government accused him of spreading conspiracy theories about “Islamophobic persecution”.

In 2020, Cage, which campaigns on behalf of communities affected by the “war on terror”, overturned a French travel ban for its director, Muhammad Rabbani. But on arrival in Paris last Tuesday for meetings with French journalists and civil society leaders, Rabbani was told that the interior ministry had imposed a new travel ban preventing him from entering the country. He was questioned and then sent back on a flight to London.

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Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76

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Best known for the sexually explicit 1969 hit Je t’aime … moi non plus, her adopted France took her to its heart

France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.

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Brighton fire: police extend cordon around Royal Albion hotel

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Hotel continues to smoulder after blaze broke out on Saturday, with council advising people to avoid area

A police cordon around the Royal Albion in Brighton has been extended as the hotel continues to smoulder after a fire broke out on Saturday evening.

Fifteen fire engines from across the south-east were dispatched to the scene just before 5.30pm on Saturday and continued to battle the blaze long into the night.

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‘He could have died’: family calls for better jaundice testing of black and Asian babies

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Jaxson’s symptoms were initially dismissed by health staff in a case that could have had fatal consequences

Soon after her son Jaxson was born, Lauren Clarke spotted that his eyes were yellow and bloodshot. “We kept asking if he had jaundice, but each time we were told to keep feeding him and just put Jaxson in front of a window,” she says.

It was only when Clarke was readmitted six days later with an infection that Jaxson’s jaundice was detected by a midwife. By this time, his levels were becoming dangerously high.

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Labour would keep two-child benefit cap, says Keir Starmer

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Leader says party in power will stick with Tory policy seen as driving low-income families into deeper poverty

Keir Starmer has confirmed that a Labour government would keep the Conservatives’ controversial two-child benefits cap, despite unease among his top team and leading academics over the policy, which has been blamed for pushing families into poverty.

Starmer said on Sunday that he was “not changing that policy”, when asked if he would scrap it if Labour wins the next election. His shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, had condemned it as “heinous” just last month.

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Scheme to stop people being quizzed by abuser in court failing, lawyers say

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Exclusive: Courts in England and Wales unable to attract sufficient numbers of advocates

A scheme designed to ensure people representing themselves in court do not have to be questioned by their abuser is failing due to lack of resources, family law experts have said.

Since last year, family and civil courts have been required in certain cases to appoint a qualified legal representative (QLR) so that litigants in person are not cross-examined by the perpetrator or alleged perpetrator of their abuse and vice versa, but there has been a shortage of lawyers signing up to the scheme.

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‘A huge market going untapped’: lack of visitors worries Wales

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Country does not seem to get its fair share of tourists or money, despite so much spectacular mountain scenery and coastline

Any summer’s day on top of Yr Wyddfa you may be forgiven for thinking all is well with Welsh tourism. People are queuing to touch the summit cairn, the cafe is rammed and the railway fully booked.

But the Welsh affairs committee at Westminster this week voiced serious concerns. It pointed out that in 2019, international visitors spent about £515m in Wales, less than 2% of the £28bn they spent in the UK overall. Closer scrutiny revealed other worrying signs: in 2022, there were almost 2.8bn day trips taken by British residents but only 6% happened in Wales, and on those visits people spent less than elsewhere in Britain.

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