Category Archives: UK news

Sunak planning to drop net zero policies in pre-election challenge to Labour

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Plans set to be announced on Friday could include delaying ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars

Rishi Sunak is planning to row back on some of the government’s net zero policies that impose a direct cost on consumers as the Conservatives attempt to create a dividing line with Labour before the next election.

The Guardian understands that the move, expected to be announced in a major speech this Friday, could include delaying a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and watering down the phasing out of gas boilers.

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NHS consultants offer to call off strikes for 12% pay rise in apparent olive branch

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BMA also offers to take non-pay investments into account to reach agreement – but No 10 insists pay talks will not be reopened

Hospital consultants in England have offered to call off their strikes if they receive a pay rise of about 12% this year – double the increase that ministers insist is their final offer.

Their proposal, and the disclosure of recent “constructive” conversations with the government, appear to be a conciliatory move by the British Medical Association (BMA) to end their pay dispute.

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Diane Abbott accuses Labour of ‘fraudulent’ inquiry into racism comments

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MP says investigation sparked by a letter to the Observer seen as arguing there is a hierarchy of racism is being run out of party HQ

Diane Abbott has accused Labour of leading a “fraudulent” investigation into her comments about racism that left her suspended from the party.

Abbott, who became the UK’s first black female MP in 1987, has claimed the party’s whips office is no longer conducting a formal investigation. Instead, she claims the internal inquiry is “now run entirely out of the Labour party HQ, which reports to Keir Starmer – and there is no investigation”.

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UN report urges countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery

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UN secretary general says no country has comprehensively accounted for the past

A UN report calling on countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery has been hailed as a significant step forward by campaigners.

The report by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said no country had comprehensively accounted for the past and addressed the legacy of the mass enslavement of people of African descent for more than 400 years.

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Almost 90% of voters – including 65% of Tories – say Britain needs fresh team of leaders, poll suggests – UK politics live

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Rishi Sunak’s government seen as less competent that Boris Johnson’s administration

The UK economy is set to witness the highest inflation rate of the world’s G7 advanced economies this year, according to new forecasts, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also increased its predicted average UK inflation rate for 2023 compared with its previous estimate.

Economists at the globally recognised organisation also reduced their UK growth forecast slightly for next year amid pressure from higher interest rates.

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Starmer wraps up foreign mini-tour with visit to Macron in Paris

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Talks between Labour leader and French president at Élysée described as ‘warm and engaging’

Keir Starmer has completed his international mini-tour by meeting Emmanuel Macron in Paris for symbolically significant if low-key talks that skirted around specifics of Brexit or migration policy.

After discussions in The Hague with EU law enforcement officials, and weekend meetings with Justin Trudeau and others in Montreal, the Labour leader held 45 minutes of one-to-one talks with the French president at the Élysée Palace.

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City watchdog ex-chair says he faced ‘political pressure’ to let in crypto firms

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Charles Randell says some of the exchanges the FCA was pressed to allow to trade in the UK are now being investigated in the US

The UK’s financial watchdog came under “political pressure” to welcome crypto firms into the British market, its former chairman has said.

Charles Randell, who stepped down as chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the spring, said it was an example of the kind of influence that elected politicians have tried to exert on independent regulators.

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Senior Tory Lee Anderson broke MPs’ code by filming on Commons roof

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Anderson apologises over GB News clip and for sending email about his show from his official address

Lee Anderson, the Conservative party’s deputy chair, has been found to have broken parliamentary rules by filming a promotional clip for his GB News programme from the roof of the House of Commons.

The senior Tory apologised and promised not to do it again after admitting having breached the MPs’ code of conduct by being filmed on the roof terrace and sending an email advertising his programme from his parliamentary email address.

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Tributes paid to Germany’s ‘favourite Englishman’ Roger Whittaker

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Baritone, who has died aged 87, cultivated loyal German fanbase by learning to sing translated lyrics phonetically

Tributes are being paid across Germany to the singer Roger Whittaker, described as the country’s favourite Briton who served his biggest and most loyal fanbase by singing in their tongue.

Whittaker, whose death at 87 was announced on Monday, admitted to never learning to speak the language, but became one of the most prolific recording artists in German by having his translated lyrics transcribed phonetically and taking lessons to sound as if he meant what he sang.

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Braverman stopped immigration centre inspections despite safeguarding warnings

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Inspector says home secretary halted annual review of ‘adults at risk’ days after he raised concerns

Suella Braverman halted annual inspections of immigration detention centres such as Brook House last year, shortly after ministers received direct warnings that vulnerable people such as torture victims had been left unprotected, the immigration watchdog has disclosed.

In an article for the Guardian, David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI), said the home secretary stopped his annual review of “adults at risk” held in removal centres last September.

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YouTube suspends Russell Brand’s revenues from his channel

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Google-owned company says move is due to it ‘violating our creator responsibility policy’

YouTube has suspended Russell Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform after allegations of rape and sexual assault in a massive hit to his finances.

The video-sharing and social media site said it had suspended Brand’s channel from the YouTube partner programme after serious allegations against him, meaning his videos are no longer able to be monetised on the platform.

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Commissioners to run Birmingham city council, Michael Gove says

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Recovery plan for country’s largest authority could include job cuts, asset sales and council tax rises

Ministers have announced commissioners will run Birmingham city council as part of a series of drastic emergency measures for the country’s largest authority, which has in effect declared itself bankrupt.

On 5 September the council issued a section 114 notice stating it did not have the resources to balance its budget because of a series of problems including a spiralling equal pay bill and IT failures.

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Football fans received 11,000 gambling messages in Premier League opening weekend

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Study for 5 News warns of ‘overwhelming and inescapable’ betting imagery in the game

Football fans were bombarded with 11,000 gambling messages during the opening weekend of the latest Premier League season, according to a study that warns of “overwhelming and inescapable” betting imagery in the game.

Clubs in the top flight agreed earlier this year to ban gambling firms from sponsoring the front of players’ shirts from 2025, but the research – which analysed social media posts alongside hours of TV and radio – cast doubt on the likely effect of that measure, given the saturation of football with other gambling messages.

the sheer volume of gambling messages;

social media content not clearly labelled as ads; and

insufficient safer gambling messaging.

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‘Size of a small police force’ of Met officers are suspended or on restricted duties

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Scotland Yard says it will take ‘two or more years to root out those who are corrupting policing’

Scotland Yard has said it will take years to root out rogue officers serving in the capital as “the size of a small police force” is suspended or on restricted duties.

Britain’s biggest force revealed that 201 officers were suspended and 860 were on restricted duties, equivalent to the size of Warwickshire or Wiltshire police forces. There are 34,000 police officers in the Metropolitan police.

100 officers have been sacked for gross misconduct in the past year, up by 66% on the normal rate.

201 officers are suspended, up from 69 in September last year.

275 are awaiting a gross misconduct hearing, a significant proportion of which involved alleged violence against women and girls, compared with 136 last year.

The number of reports from the public and officers of alleged misconduct has doubled.

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Thérèse Coffey ‘complacent’ in dealing with water companies, peers say

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Underinvestment in infrastructure will have serious consequences for environment and security of water supplies, committee says

Thérèse Coffey has been “complacent” in dealing with water companies, risking water shortages as well as extreme environmental consequences, a House of Lords committee has said.

In a letter to the environment secretary, the peers criticised her department’s “dismissive brevity and complacent tone” in response to their report published earlier this year, which found water companies had been too focused on maximising financial returns at the expense of the environment.

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People born by egg or sperm donor in UK will be able to find out biological origins

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Changes to anonymity law mean people can apply to discover donor’s name, date of birth and address

Dozens of young adults born via sperm or egg donation will be able to find out their biological origins in the coming weeks, with the first just days away from being able to apply to find out more information about their donor, health officials have said.

Changes to the donor anonymity law will mean that most donor-conceived young adults born after a certain date will be able to discover the people whose donations led to their conception.

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Burberry shows off killer trenchcoat and blue strawberries at London show

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Prints symbolising British summertime appear on fashion week catwalk alongside modernised version of brand’s staple product

The scene before the biggest show of London fashion week was quintessentially British: an orderly queue for tea, coffee and eccles cake. Britishness, along with trenchcoats and checked scarves, is what Burberry stands for. This is surely the only catwalk show where Hollywood action hero Jason Statham, acclaimed choreographer Wayne MacGregor and Arsenal striker Bukayo Saka can be found rubbing shoulders in the front row.

The first look on to the catwalk was a trenchcoat. The trench is a Burberry staple – but this had a notably slimmer cut, an elegant dropped-waist silhouette, and was black rather than beige. There were more trenchcoats to follow: some sleeveless, some leather, all of them sleek and minimal.

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How Russell Brand maintains his income and influence

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He may no longer be a fixture on British TV and radio, but he has a profitable online media empire. Can he hang on to it?

During the 2000s Russell Brand was ubiquitous in the British media, adopting a scattergun approach that saw him host his own BBC Radio 2 show, present Big Brother spinoff shows, work the chatshow circuit, tour his live comedy act, present documentaries, write a bestselling autobiography and even football blogposts for the Guardian, before heading off to Hollywood to briefly achieve global fame.

Nowadays he has a much smaller but still profitable media empire of his own, built on a set of online platforms that barely existed when he was at the peak of his fame. As a result he retains his direct access to his loyal audience, unlike in a previous era where he could be taken off air by an employer pending an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and rape – which Brand has denied.

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Monday briefing: How the Russell Brand story unfolded

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In today’s newsletter: An investigation by the Sunday Times and Dispatches accused Brand of rape and sexual assault, leaving the entertainer and the companies that employed him facing serious questions

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Good morning. Allegations that Russell Brand raped and sexually assaulted several women at the height of his career have thrown the entertainment industry into crisis. Today, politicians of all stripes are expected to demand explanations from TV executives about what they knew – and when.

In a detailed investigation by, the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, five women accused Brand of abusive and predatory behaviour, including rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013. Brand denies the allegations, and said his relationships were “always consensual”.

Russell Brand | Broadcasters have launched urgent investigations into the historical conduct of Russell Brand while the Metropolitan police has appealed for any potential victims to come forward after the comedian was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.

Labour | Keir Starmer has committed to pursuing a major rewrite of the Brexit deal with the EU if Labour is elected, citing his responsibility to his children and future generations. He told the Financial Times he would seek a closer trading relationship with Brussels when the agreement negotiated by then-prime minister Boris Johnson comes up for review in 2025.

Economy | Liz Truss will blame the UK’s economic problems on “25 years of economic consensus” as she doubles down on the policy proposals that helped trigger financial turmoil and caused her to be ousted from Downing Street after just 49 days. The former prime minister will give a speech at the Institute for Government on Monday, almost exactly a year since her government’s “mini-budget”, which caused the pound to crash and ultimately led to her downfall.

Donald Trump | The former US president, and Republican frontrunner for the 2024 nomination, said people in his party “speak very inarticulately” about abortion and criticised those who push for abortion bans without exceptions in the cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother.

Russia | US oil and gas multinationals are facing fresh questions over their trade with Russia after customs records revealed that more than $7.1m (£5.7m) worth of equipment manufactured by Halliburton has been exported into the country since it announced the end of its Russian operations.

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UK manufacturers cut hiring plans amid ‘sharp slowdown’, survey finds

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Firms preparing for difficult year as ‘potent cocktail’ of difficulties takes hold, says industry lobby group

UK manufacturers are cutting their recruitment plans after being hit by a slowdown in orders as a downturn looms, a new survey shows.

Britain’s manufacturers are “battening down the hatches” amid a sharp drop in activity, according to the latest quarterly data from Make UK, which represents manufacturers, and the business advisory firm BDO.

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