Tories suspended MP in April last year amid claims over sexual harassment and drug use
The Conservative MP David Warburton has announced that he is resigning his seat.
Warburton was suspended from the party in April 2022 pending the outcome of an independent complaints and grievance scheme (ICGS) investigation into allegations of harassment and drug use.
Continue reading...Footage shows members of staff drinking alcohol and dancing at the gathering on 14 December 2020
New footage has emerged appearing to show a Christmas party at Conservative party headquarters during coronavirus restrictions in 2020.
The video, obtained by the Mirror newspaper, shows members of staff drinking alcohol at the gathering in London on 14 December 2020. At least 24 people were reportedly in attendance.
Continue reading...Michael Gove quoted as saying council-level sanctions undermine UK foreign policy and lead to antisemitic abuse
A government bill aimed at banning councils from imposing boycotts on Israeli goods is expected to be presented next week.
The proposed legislation will prevent public bodies from adopting their own approach to international relations, including through sanctions and divestment campaigns.
Continue reading...Met police launch investigation after bodies, including two children, discovered on Friday
Four family members found dead in a flat in west London, including two children, have been named by police.
The Metropolitan police launched an investigation after the four bodies were discovered at a property in Hounslow on Friday afternoon.
Continue reading...Government adviser says Britain should confiscate mansions to fund postwar rebuilding
Ministers should confiscate the mansions, country estates and UK assets of Russian oligarchs to help pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine, a senior adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said this weekend.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a sanctions expert working in the presidential office, said Ukraine’s government would like the UK to follow Canada in implementing new regulations that allow authorities to seize and redistribute assets belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities.
Continue reading...Plan to charge £43 per consignment could see some small businesses struggle to stay open
Many UK businesses which import food products from the European Union will have to pay a special “Brexit tax” that will further drive up prices, particularly in smaller shops such as delicatessens, under proposals set out by the government last week.
The planned charge of £43 per consignment, outlined in a consultation document issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), was described on Saturday by a leading industry figure as “the sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime” that was already fuelling inflation.
Continue reading...Husband, Chris Jagger, uses 1972 album cover to support settlement application for Moller, who has lived in UK for 74 years
As a result of Brexit, Norwegians living in the UK were required to apply to the EU settlement scheme – despite Norway not being a member state – to remain living in Britain.
But after former model turned yoga teacher Kari-Ann Moller was stopped by British immigration officials earlier this year and told she was not allowed to remain because of her Norwegian passport, her husband, Chris Jagger – brother of Rolling Stone Sir Mick – got involved.
Continue reading...Survey comes as government rhetoric on immigrants gets increasingly toxic, adopting far-right slogans
Britons have among the most positive attitudes towards refugees in the world, a new global poll has found, despite increased hostility from the UK government to asylum seekers.
An international survey of almost 22,000 adults across 29 countries found British people had the third-most enthusiastic outlook towards refugees, just behind Spain and New Zealand.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ecologists say there are early signs that the population is recovering in remote forests
It is a discotheque for Britain’s biggest type of grouse. Before dawn, male capercaillie will begin their courtship rituals, their black tail feathers erect and fanning out, chests puffed out, their heads thrust high into the cold spring air.
Their dancefloors are forest clearings in the Highlands which echo the males’ wheezing, popping and clattering mating calls. Often perched in surrounding pine trees, hens will carefully watch as their potential mates compete to win their affection.
Continue reading...More than 2.4m deals are ending in 2024, raising fears of financial timebomb
More than a quarter of UK homeowners on a fixed-rate mortgage are heading for sharp increase in monthly payments before the next election, in a financial timebomb that will rock the Conservatives just as voters prepare to choose the next government.
With the Bank of England expected to increase its key interest rate next week for the 13th time, figures shared with the Guardian by UK Finance, the banking industry trade body, show more than 2.4m fixed-rate homeowner deals will expire between now and the end of 2024.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak says he is suspending anti-obesity measure to avoid restricting consumer options during cost of living crisis
The government is to delay its planned ban on two-for-one junk food deals – a key anti-obesity measure – for another two years amid the cost of living crisis.
Rishi Sunak will shelve the expected measure targeting multi-buy promotions on products high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) to avoid restricting consumer options while prices remain high.
Continue reading...Some settlements may be cut off by flooding as warm, humid air causes storms to develop, says Met Office
Thunderstorms set to sweep across the UK this weekend could cause flash flooding, forecasters have warned.
Parts of the UK could face train and bus delays and some communities may be cut off by flooding as warm, humid air causes storms to develop, the Met Office said.
Continue reading...Bullying campaigner and founder of UK buddy system for Ukrainian refugees also among hundreds recognised
Suzanne Richards lost her son Joel, 19, brother Adrian, 49, and father, Pat, 78, in the 2015 terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia. Her other son Owen, then 16, was also shot and injured by the gunmen but survived the attack in which 38 people were killed.
Their memories live on in the Smile for Joel charity, supporting families who are victims of homicide, which she and Owen run from her home in Wednesbury, West Midlands.
Continue reading...Knighthood for late novelist Amis is dated 18 May as honours cannot be given posthumously
Two giants of the literary world, the novelists Ian McEwan and the late Martin Amis, are recognised in the king’s first official birthday honours along with the fashion colossus Dame Anna Wintour.
The Booker prize-winning McEwan, whose acclaimed titles include Amsterdam, On Chesil Beach and Atonement, becomes a companion of honour, the highest award for outstanding achievement, of which there are only 65 at any time.
Continue reading...Rhun ap Iorwerth says Welsh pro-independence party is at a ‘difficult junction’ as he takes over
Rhun ap Iorwerth has been announced as the new leader of Plaid Cymru and faces the tough job of getting the party back on track after a misogyny and harassment scandal.
Despite strong calls within the party for the new leader to be a woman, ap Iorwerth was the only candidate who put his name forward.
Continue reading...Feedback argues ministers’ failure to include measures to reduce production of meat and dairy products was unlawful
Ministers broke the law by failing to make plans to cut consumption of meat and dairy in England, activists will argue in a legal challenge after they were granted permission for a full judicial review of the government’s food strategy.
Overturning two previous decisions, the court of appeal on Friday ruled that the food systems campaigners Feedback could challenge the national food strategy on the basis that it failed to take into account ministers’ duties to cut carbon emissions.
Continue reading...Some areas left with little or no water, forcing schools to shut and residents to fetch drinking water from bottle stations
A hosepipe ban is scheduled to come into effect across Kent and Sussex as a result of record demand for drinking water, South East Water bosses have said.
Parts of the region have been left with little or no water this week during the hot weather, forcing schools to shut and residents to fetch drinking water from bottled water stations.
Continue reading...Officer in a serious but stable condition after being airlifted to hospital in London
A man has been arrested after a police officer was stabbed in Maidstone.
Kent police said the officer was stabbed at an address in Albion Place at about 8pm on Thursday.
Continue reading...Sarah Crew also says force is ‘likely’ to be treating LGBTQ+ people, women and disabled people unfairly
The chief constable of Avon and Somerset police has admitted her force is “institutionally racist” and “likely” to be treating LGBTQ+ people, women and disabled people unfairly.
Sarah Crew said she was determined to fight an unjust system and would “root out” officers proved to be racist or behaving in a discriminatory way, and said she was not motivated by “wokeism or political correctness” but by “common sense”.
Continue reading...Sir Michael Wilshaw says he now thinks differently about use of one-word headline grades in England
The former chief inspector of schools in England Sir Michael Wilshaw has said Ofsted’s style of school inspections needs to change after the death of the headteacher Ruth Perry.
Wilshaw, who led Ofsted until 2016, said Perry’s death, following an inspection that downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”, had changed his mind over the use of one-word headline grades to rate schools in England.
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