Category Archives: UK news

Green party MP Caroline Lucas to stand down at next election

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Former party leader says she wants to ‘dedicate myself fully to climate and nature’

Caroline Lucas has said she feels more optimistic about the environment than when she first joined the Green party in 1986, as she prepares to retire from parliament after 13 years as her party’s only MP.

Lucas told the Guardian she felt “gratitude” for her career as the Greens’ first ever MP, adding that she took heart that many of the causes she has long championed were now the policies of both Labour and the Conservatives.

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British child among French Alps stabbing victims, says foreign secretary

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Briton was one of four children aged between 22 months and three years attacked in Annecy playground

A British child is among four children and two adults who have been injured in the town of Annecy in the French Alps, after a knifeman went on a rampage in a playground, the UK’s foreign secretary has confirmed.

At least two of the children, both aged about three, were reported to be in a critical condition in hospital, while an adult also suffered life-threatening injuries, French national police said.

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Former cabinet secretary urges Sunak to drop Covid inquiry legal challenge – live

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Lord Butler says there is ‘strong public interest in the inquiry being carried out constructively’

The North Sea oil and gas industry is in decline, the shadow business minister Seema Malhotra said, as she defended plans to block new drilling licences, a move criticised by trade unions. Aubrey Allegretti has the story here.

MPs will hold a debate on Monday on proposals to ban members from the parliamentary estate if they are being investigated for a criminal offence and are deemed to pose a risk to other people.

Last night the government was debating whether to hold a vote on Monday on proposals to ban MPs accused of violent or sexual offences from the estate — after backlash from some Tory backbenchers. One senior Tory MP told Playbook they opposed the plan because it would overturn “common practice that you are innocent until proven guilty”.

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Britain is not ready for reintroduction of lynx and wolves, Ray Mears warns

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Better management of existing apex predators and compensation schemes for farmers and gamekeepers needed, broadcaster says

Lynx and wolves are likely to become feared and hated if they are reintroduced into Britain’s forests, the adventurer and broadcaster Ray Mears has warned.

Speaking at Cheltenham science festival, he said Britain was not ready for such rewilding schemes, despite the potential ecological benefits.

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What were they smoking in Woking? Council tax payers need to be told

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Residents will no doubt have to pay a price for their authority’s risk taking and subsequent bankruptcy

Winning in the rollercoaster business of commercial property development is hard. Look at the share prices of the two FTSE 100 titans, regarded as the most diversified and solid operators in the sector. Since the financial crisis of 2008-09, which caused commercial property prices to crater, Landsec’s shares have been as low as 350p and as high as £13 and are currently 626p. British Land’s trajectory is similar.

Their investors collect dividends (most of the time), largely funded from rental income, but they also know that the value of the assets can be volatile. Less diversified firms have done much worse. Intu, a former shopping centre giant, collapsed in 2020 and an air of financial crisis has hovered over Hammerson for years. This is territory for conservative financing and strong risk-management safeguards.

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Teenage girl who pretended to be boy for sex duped second girl, court told

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Georgia Bilham, 21, is on trial in Chester for 17 sexual offences after allegedly deceiving shortsighted girl

A teenage girl who pretended to be a boy in order to engage in sexual activity with a severely shortsighted girl also duped a second teenager, a court has heard.

Georgia Bilham, 21, is on trial at Chester crown court for 17 sexual offences after allegedly deceiving a teenage girl into sex by pretending to be a boy.

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Threatened Saudi dissident told to live like Edward Snowden by Met police

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Col Rabih Alenezi received advice after reporting death threats, of which he says he receives 50 a week

A Saudi Arabian dissident living in London was told to “emulate” the life of the US whistleblower Edward Snowden by a Metropolitan police officer, amid death threats he received after fleeing his country.

Col Rabih Alenezi, 44, had been a senior official in Saudi Arabia’s security service for two decades, but sought asylum in the UK after he claimed to have been ordered to carry out human rights violations. His life was threatened for criticising the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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Boris and Carrie Johnson ‘hosted friend at Chequers during Covid restrictions’

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Exclusive: friend ‘helped the couple plan their wedding’ in May 2021 when restrictions on indoor gatherings in place

Boris and Carrie Johnson hosted a close friend, who helped plan their wedding, overnight at Chequers when a number of Covid restrictions were in place, the Guardian has been told.

Dixie Maloney, a corporate events organiser, stayed at the former prime minister’s grace-and-favour country mansion on 7 May 2021 when indoor gatherings between different households were banned except when “reasonably necessary” for reasons such as work or childcare.

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‘Former estate agents’: the strange life of the Barclay twins

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Losing Telegraph newspapers will not turn remaining twin Frederick Barclay into a pauper, but it’s a bitter end to brothers’ empire-building

From humble beginnings growing up in a west London house so close to the railway line the window frames rattled when a train passed, the Barclay twins, Frederick and David, became an extraordinary, energetic and eccentric power couple.

They built an empire of glitzy hotels and made many millions in shipping and retail before plunging into the world of newspapers but – largely – eschewed the trappings of life in the London fast lane to live in strange isolation in a sprawling mansion on a small rocky island just off the French coast.

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Watchdog considers action over Oxfam cartoon of anti-trans ‘hate groups’

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Oxfam International apologised and re-edited cartoon alleged to include racial stereotyping and JK Rowling attack

The UK charities watchdog is assessing whether it will take action against Oxfam after receiving complaints about a cartoon published by the charity that ignited a row about transgender issues.

Oxfam International put the cartoon out on Twitter last week to mark pride month, but took it down on Tuesday after a backlash against its use of the term Terf (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) in an image depicting anti-trans “hate groups”.

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Greek pilot who killed British wife drops appeal over life sentence

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Babis Anagnostopoulos received a 27-year sentence for smothering his wife in Athens

The Greek pilot who killed his British wife, Caroline Crouch, in a crime he tried to pin on ruthless foreign robbers, has unexpectedly announced he will drop an appeal to overturn his life sentence.

Babis Anagnostopoulos said he had elected “for extremely serious reasons” to put a stop to appeals court proceedings under way since May, without further explanation.

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Conservative donor has defamation case against Tory MP struck out

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Mohamed Amersi criticised by high court judge for his conduct in proceedings against Charlotte Leslie

A major Conservative party donor has had his defamation claim against a former Tory MP struck out by a high court judge, who criticised his conduct.

The telecoms businessman Mohamed Amersi, who has donated more than £500,000 to the party since 2018, sued Charlotte Leslie – the director of the Conservative Middle East Council (CMEC), which was also a defendant – claiming several documents that were circulated to influential individuals between late December 2020 and early January 2021were defamatory of him.

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Lucy Letby texted about doctor ‘crush’ hours before attempt on baby boy’s life, court told

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Nurse accused of murdering seven babies and attempted murder of 10 more at Chester hospital in 2015-16

Lucy Letby was texting about a doctor on whom she allegedly “had a crush” hours before she attempted to murder a vulnerable baby boy, a court has heard.

The nurse, 33, denied the doctor was her boyfriend or that she was “sweet” on him, as she gave evidence for a 12th day at Manchester crown court.

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Shell’s ‘green’ ad campaign banned in UK for being ‘likely to mislead’

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Advertising Standards Authority says ads do not make clear company’s business is mostly based on fossil fuels

An ad campaign by Shell promoting its green initiatives has been banned for not telling consumers that most of its business is based on environmentally damaging fossil fuels such as petrol.

Shell, which has set goals to become a net zero carbon energy company by 2050 while also expanding its gas business by a fifth, ran a TV, poster and YouTube campaign pushing renewable electricity, wind and car charging point initiatives.

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More wildlife-friendly farming needed to stop decline of insects in Britain, says report

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Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have declined twice as fast on land farmed for crops in the past 30 years, despite funding for more sustainable farming methods

Conservation measures over the past 30 years have failed to stop the decline of insects on British farmland, a new report shows. Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have disappeared twice as fast in areas intensely farmed for crops, according to the paper, which looked at citizen science data on more than 1,500 invertebrate species.

Although there was a push to intensify agriculture after the second world war, since the early 90s more sustainable and wildlife-friendly farming practices have emerged, with EU agri-environment funding made available for farmers to plant hedgerows and wild flowers, alongside better regulation of pesticides. However, these have not managed to stem biodiversity loss.

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England ‘4,700 years from building enough onshore windfarms’

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Thinktank says effective ban on planning permissions means country is way behind on much-needed renewable energy

It would take almost 4,700 years for England to build enough onshore windfarms to help meet the UK’s clean energy needs unless the government lifts an effective block on new turbines, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Only 17 small-scale onshore windfarms have been approved in England since 2015 when the government changed planning laws to create a de facto ban on onshore windfarms, according to the thinktank.

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MPs call for action on pandemic-widened gap between England’s poor and rich pupils

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Public accounts committee warns that without more intervention, attainment gap could take decade to return to pre-Covid levels

It could take a decade for the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers to return to pre-pandemic levels in England without faster and more effective intervention, MPs have warned.

The estimate was made during evidence given to parliament’s influential public accounts committee (PAC) as part of its inquiry into education recovery after the disruption of Covid.

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US judge hears rightwing thinktank’s challenge over Prince Harry visa

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Heritage Foundation, which claims duke may have lied about past drug use on application, wants US government to release records

A federal judge has given the US government a week to decide how to respond to a rightwing thinktank that alleges Prince Harry may have lied about past drug use on his visa application.

The Duke of Sussex moved to southern California with his wife, Meghan Markle, an American citizen, and their young family in 2020 after they left British royal life and embarked on new projects, including the release of his memoir, Spare in January.

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Tony McPhee, singer and guitarist for rock band the Groundhogs, dies aged 79

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Musician who led acclaimed band on and off between 1962 and 2015 – and scored three UK top 10 albums – had suffered a fall last year and a series of strokes

Tony McPhee, the singer and guitarist who led British blues and rock group the Groundhogs across six decades, has died aged 79.

A message was posted on the group’s Facebook page confirming that he died peacefully at home” on 6 June from complications after a fall last year. He had also suffered a series of strokes in later life.

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