Category Archives: UK news

A UK trade deal with India was promised by last October. Why is it still not ready?

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Successive prime ministers have failed to achieve what they see as one of the great dividends offered by Brexit

Liz Truss bowled into Downing Street last summer with a promise to rip up much of what her predecessor Boris Johnson had done. However, one goal remained: she insisted, as Johnson had done, she could deliver a free trade deal with India by Diwali in October.

Whitehall officials were dismayed, therefore, when they received the latest set of demands from Indian negotiators. It was not that New Delhi was asking too much, rather they were not saying what they were asking at all.

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Rishi Sunak rules out quick-fix trade deal with India

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Exclusive: Sources believe deal will not be struck before meeting with Narendra Modi at G20 summit

Rishi Sunak has ruled out a quick-fix trade deal with India, making it impossible to get an agreement over the line in time for this week’s G20 summit in Delhi – and possibly even by next year’s elections.

Multiple sources close to the negotiations told the Guardian the prime minister has rejected the idea of an “early harvest” deal, which could have lowered tariffs on goods such as whisky but would not have dealt with trickier subjects such as professional services.

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UK solar could be ‘dumping ground’ for products of Chinese forced labour, ministers warned

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Energy bill amendment requires large solar energy projects to prove supply chain free of slave labour

The UK risks becoming a dumping ground for the products of forced labour from Xinjiang province in China if it rejects reforms proposed by members of the foreign affairs select committee with cross-party support, ministers have been warned.

An amendment to the energy bill, due to be debated on Tuesday, would require solar energy companies to prove that their supply chains are free of slave labour. The Xinjiang region is the source of 35%-40% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, the key raw material in the solar photovoltaic supply chain.

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Sent home: how Kenyan’s dream of life as a UK care worker turned sour

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Anthony Mbare found his tied visa put him at mercy of his bosses. He is one of thousands who have come to plug shortages in adult social care

It is a bitter November night and Anthony Mbare is shivering in a car in rural Wiltshire, south-west England, waiting to see his next client.

It’s 3C and he has been here for almost two hours but he cannot turn on the heater because the car battery might die. A petrol-station coffee to warm him up is £3 he cannot afford. He blows on his hands, wriggles his toes and huddles under a blanket.

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Labour plans to compel publication of list of schools affected by Raac

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Party to use parliamentary mechanism to force reveal of English schools affected by concrete safety crisis

Labour plans to force a vote to compel the government to reveal the full list of schools affected by the Raac building safety crisis.

It comes amid growing demands for transparency over the extent of the impact of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in public buildings.

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Sir Mark Jones put forward as interim director of British Museum

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Former head of V&A has suggested Parthenon marbles could be shared with Greece

A former head of the V&A Museum, who previously suggested the Parthenon marbles could be shared with Greece, has been put forward as the interim director of the British Museum.

Sir Mark Jones will replace Hartwig Fischer, who quit after it emerged thousands of objects had been stolen from the museum’s collection. A police investigation is under way regarding the reported thefts.

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Two men arrested by officers investigating NI police data breach

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Suspects aged 21 and 22 arrested under Terrorism Act after leak of names of 10,000 PSNI officers and staff

Two men have been arrested under the Terrorism Act by police officers investigating the PSNI data breach.

The suspects, aged 21 and 22, were arrested on Saturday in the Portadown area of County Armagh, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said on X, formerly known as Twitter. They will be questioned at the Musgrave serious crime suite in Belfast.

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Ministers were ‘dangerously complacent’ on school safety, whistleblower reveals

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Senior civil servant says ‘many alerts’ crossed education secretary’s desk, but UK government was more concerned with saving money

A senior civil service whistleblower has told the Observer that Tory ministers and their political advisers were “dangerously complacent” about crumbling school buildings constructed with aerated concrete, and that they were more concerned with saving money than improving safety.

The source, who worked in the private office of Nadhim Zahawi, the then education secretary, saw regular alerts crossing his desk. He said ministers and special advisers were “trying to get away with spending as little as they could” and hoping to “make do” rather than treating the problem with the urgency it required.

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Rishi Sunak’s approval rating slips as big summer push fails to spark revival

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Prime minister drops further in opinion polls after populist policies on migrants backfire

Rishi Sunak’s approval ratings have failed to improve over the summer political break – despite several weeks of Tory policy blitzes intended to win back voters.

The latest Opinium survey for the Observer shows the Conservative have failed to shift the dial in Sunak’s favour, with the prime minister dropping two points in the past two weeks to a net score of -25% (24% approve, 49% disapprove).

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Heatwave set to arrive in UK next week after wet summer

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Temperatures could reach 30C for first time since early July, according to Met Office

The great British summer could finally be upon us next week with temperatures possibly reaching 30C for the first time since early July, forecasters have suggested.

The Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said 29C was “certainly possible and we may also climb towards 30C” by midweek in the first week of meteorological autumn as many schools open after the summer break.

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Home secretary orders review into ‘political activism’ within policing

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Labour accuses Braverman of focusing on her ‘political obsessions’ as she says officers should focus on crime and avoid ‘contentious issues’

The home secretary has commissioned a review into police activism and impartiality as she tells officers to focus on crime rather than being involved in “political matters”.

Suella Braverman said public confidence had been damaged as a result of police engaging in “contentious issues” such as officers taking a knee and policing gender-critical views on social media.

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Artist captures the impact of climate crisis over 150 years on Mont Blanc

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Paintings from a climb that retraced an 1800s route on western Europe’s highest mountain reveals the extent of the peak’s melting ice

A British landscape artist who recreated a climb made 150 years ago to document the impact of the climate crisis on western Europe’s highest mountain says what he found was so grim it reminded him of the “dark paintings” of Francisco de Goya.

James Hart Dyke ascended Mont Blanc’s ancien passage north face, the route taken in 1786 by the first climbers to reach the summit. It was also the same one taken in August 1873 by French painter Gabriel Loppé, whose climb inspired Hart Dyke’s own.

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Millions of ‘missing voters’ cost Labour seats due to electoral boundaries bias

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Analysis of official data has revealed the system for drawing constituencies is ‘warping’ democracy by omitting eligible voters

British democracy is being “warped” by an unfair system for drawing constituency boundaries that ignores millions of “missing voters” and hugely benefits the Tories, according to a new study of official data.

Analysis by the political commentator and pollster Peter Kellner shows that if constituencies were determined according to the size of their populations rather than the number of registered voters – as happens in most other advanced democracies – then the number of extra Labour seats created would cut the Tories’ Commons majority by 22.

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‘We don’t need police’: the New Forest village taking the law into its own hands

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At the village with the most unsolved burglaries in the UK, shopkeepers are turning to vigilante-style tactics

Within the genteel New Forest village of Lyndhurst, it was considered a crime of almost outrageous audacity.

On a busy Saturday afternoon in February, two vividly painted Moorcroft pottery charger plates were stolen in plain sight from the middle of the venerable antique store.

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Hope for new skin cancer therapy as UK cases soar

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Researchers discover a technique that can kill melanoma cells with few toxic side effects, but warn there is still no cure

Skin cancer rates are rocketing. Thanks to over-enthusiastic sunbathing in previous decades, melanoma cases have tripled in numbers in the UK since the early 1990s – and scientists predict worse is to come.

The type of cancer once relatively rare in Britain is now its fifth most common. Broadcaster Chris Evans recently revealed he had been diagnosed with the disease.

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England’s concrete crisis could extend to hospitals and courts, experts say

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Labour demands urgent audit of government’s handling of longstanding concerns about Raac

England’s growing buildings crisis could expand beyond schools to other public buildings such as hospitals and courts, experts have said.

More than 100 schools were forced to partially or fully close this week after a dramatic escalation of the government’s approach towards crumbling concrete.

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Mohamed Al Fayed, former Harrods and Fulham FC owner, dies aged 94

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Egyptian businessman and self-made billionaire dies almost 26 years to the day after his son was killed in Paris car crash

Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian-born businessman who owned the department store Harrods, has died aged 94.

His death comes almost 26 years to the day after the car crash in Paris that killed his eldest son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August 1997.

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Ex-Tory MP apologises for ancestors’ links to slavery

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Antoinette Sandbach ‘struggling with difficult history’ after initially threatening to sue University of Cambridge over academic’s research

A former Conservative MP has apologised “for the acts of my ancestors” after an academic named her as a descendant of a merchant with links to the slave trade.

On Thursday, Antoinette Sandbach had threatened to sue the University of Cambridge over an online TED Talk given by Malik Al Nasir. On Friday she said she had raised the matter with the university over concerns for her personal safety, but that she did not object to being linked to a history “that is absolutely there”.

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Ministers face calls to explain delay in closing schools over concrete crisis

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Labour calls for audit of handling of longstanding safety fears as government pledges to fund repairs expected to cost at least £100m

Headteachers are racing to find temporary classrooms for thousands of children amid a growing building safety crisis that has left ministers under pressure to explain why they were slow to shut buildings in more than 100 schools.

With the new academic year due to start next week, Labour demanded an urgent audit of the government’s handling of longstanding safety fears about aerated concrete found in the roofs, floors and walls of hundreds of schools, hospitals and other public buildings.

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Magic day out as Harry Potter fans gather at King’s Cross for return to Hogwarts

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Fans in costumes gathered at the London station to watch a train for ‘Hogsmeade’ on platform 9¾ appear on the departure board

Thousands of Harry Potter fans braved the rail strikes on Friday to gather at King’s Cross station in London for “back to Hogwarts day”.

Many wearing wizard robes and carrying wands, fans of the franchise travelled to the station to hear the magical loudspeaker call for the Hogwarts Express at 11am, inviting witches and wizards to board the train to Hogsmeade on platform 9¾.

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