IOPC confirms West Yorkshire police had contact with victims and man charged with their murder in days before killings
Police were in contact with a man and a woman who were victims of a suspected double murder in the days before their deaths, a watchdog has confirmed.
Katie Higton, 27, and Steven Harnett, 25, were killed in a suspected knife attack at Higton’s house in the Dalton area of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, between Sunday and Monday.
Continue reading...Twitter owner and Tesla chief defends tweet about George Soros after being accused of antisemitism
Elon Musk has said he will continue sending controversial tweets even it loses him money, as he defended himself against accusations of antisemitism over tweets about George Soros.
The Twitter owner and Tesla chief executive said he is “allowed to say what I want to”, as he defended a tweet posted on Tuesday saying the billionaire financier “reminds me of Magneto” – the Jewish villain in the X-Men series.
Continue reading...Announcement to take decision away from councillors comes after local party called ‘dysfunctional’
The national Labour party has announced it will appoint the next leader of the city council in Birmingham, taking the decision away from councillors, after a damning internal report said the local party was “dysfunctional” and dominated by “personality-driven factionalism”.
The move would in effect oust the current leader, Ian Ward, who was re-elected as leader of the UK’s largest local authority after a contest in May last year, and his deputy, Brigid Jones.
Continue reading...E.ON Next, Octopus and Good Energy did not supply final bill on time to many households that had switched
Three energy suppliers have been made to pay compensation totalling £8m for failing to supply a final bill on time to more than 100,000 households that had switched provider.
The energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, said E.ON Next was ordered to pay £5.5m to almost 95,000 customers because it did not provide them with a final bill within six weeks of moving to another supplier, nor did it pay compensation for the delay within 10 days of the missed deadline.
Continue reading...Ex-Brexit party MEP says there is no ‘given right’ to low food prices despite families struggling with cost of living
Families should go without cheese sandwiches if they cannot afford the ingredients, Ann Widdecombe has said.
The former Brexit party MEP said there was no “given right” for low food prices, despite being told families “cannot afford to feed their children” and were having to make huge sacrifices as the cost of living crisis deepens.
Continue reading...Campaigners say development of huge Rosebank field in North Sea would drive climate breakdown
The Norwegian government is facing growing pressure to scale back its huge global fossil fuel expansion plans – including the development of a controversial new oilfield in the North Sea.
Climate activists from around the world descended on Stavanger in Norway last week to attend the AGM of the state-owned oil and gas giant Equinor. They warned that its plans to develop the huge Rosebank field in the North Sea, as well as other mega-projects in Canada, Brazil and Suriname, would drive climate breakdown with devastating consequences for humanity.
Continue reading...Carmakers call on Britain to change rules on batteries that they say threaten electric vehicle production
Three big global carmakers have called on the UK government to renegotiate the Brexit deal, saying rules on where parts are sourced from threaten the future of the British automotive industry.
Ford and Jaguar Land Rover have joined Stellantis, which owns the Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroën brands, to warn the transition to electric vehicles will be knocked off course unless the UK and EU delay stricter “rules of origin”, due to kick in next year, that could add tariffs on car exports.
Continue reading...Investor Brian Basham alleges that Lee Harpin threatened to blow the whistle on voicemail interception
A leading Mirror journalist allegedly blackmailed the company as it attempted to cover up phone hacking, the high court was told on Tuesday.
Lee Harpin, who held a number of senior roles at the People and Sunday Mirror, was alleged to be a known phone hacker whose understanding of illegal behaviour at the newspaper group caused anxiety at board level.
Continue reading...Scheme provided falsified passports to formers suspect in Stephen Lawrence case and Irish crime boss
The ringleaders of a gang that specialised in supplying fake passports to high-level criminals allowing them to evade arrest and identification have been jailed.
Anthony Beard, 61, paid individuals for expired passports and applied for renewals using photographs of criminals who paid up to £20,000 to start new lives in Dubai, Portugal and Spain.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak’s Farm to Fork meeting, the first of its kind, failed to address solutions to inflation, soaring costs and food security, say attenders
Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street food summit has been described as “empty" by food and farming industry representatives, who rounded on the prime minister for failing to discuss soaring inflation or set out measures to safeguard British food production.
The Farm to Fork summit, the first meeting of its kind, brought together farmers, food producers and some of Britain’s largest supermarkets.
Continue reading...Government’s intentions revealed in document produced for surveillance camera commissioner
Ministers are calling for facial recognition technology to be “embedded” in everyday policing, including potentially linking it to the body-worn cameras officers use as they patrol streets.
Until now, police use of live facial recognition in England and Wales has been limited to special operations such as football matches and public events such as the coronation.
Continue reading...President of Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly says UK faces exclusion if it choses to ignore its obligations. This live blog is now closed
Today the BBC is reporting that Javad Marandi, a businessman whose foreign companies were part of a global money laundering investigation, is a major donor to the Conservative party. Marandi, who strongly denies wrongdoing and who is not subject to criminal sanctions, has been named after losing a legal battle with the BBC to protect his anonymity.
There will be an urgent question on the case at 12.30pm, tabled by the SNP MP Alison Thewliss. According to the Commons authorities, she has tabled a question asking a Home Office minister to make a statement “on the implications of the National Crime Agency’s investigation into Mr Javad Marandi”.
Rishi Sunak’s food summit is little more than a stunt to hide years of inaction from his government.
The Tories’ shambolic handling of food security has resulted in huge vegetable price increases across the country.
No ifs, no buts, supermarkets must cut these basic prices now.
Rishi Sunak needs to grow a spine and stand up for struggling families and pensioners by demanding supermarkets slash prices. They have no excuses, wholesale prices are down, yet food prices are up, with their profits soaring.
Continue reading...Chain resolves heated debate with council amid concerns over antisocial behaviour
A heated debate over Greggs’ right to trade into the early hours in central London, amid warnings it could cause a wave of crime and disorder, has been resolved.
Greggs said it could now open its Leicester Square flagship store until 2am from Thursday to Saturday and until midnight through the rest of the week after Westminster council allowed it to sell hot drinks, such as tea and coffee, as well as its sausage rolls, pizza slices and steak bakes, after an 11pm curfew.
Continue reading...Refugees, including a special forces soldier and a political adviser, receive ‘notice to quit’ letters from home secretary
Afghan refugee families uprooted from London to Yorkshire earlier this year have been issued with eviction notices in the name of Suella Braverman.
This will be the fourth time that some of the families have been forced to move home, sometimes leaving jobs and schools, since being airlifted out of Kabul to the UK in August 2021. They were invited to the UK under Operation Pitting because at least one family member worked closely with the British authorities and it was believed that their lives would be at risk if they remained in Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Charity says number of potential victims identified via helpline more than doubled last year
The number of potential victims of modern slavery in the UK more than doubled to record levels last year, with a particularly sharp increase in alleged exploitation in the care sector, figures show.
Calls to the UK modern slavery helpline identified 6,516 potential victims last year, an increase of 116% from 2021, according to the figures from the anti-slavery charity Unseen. It said the potential victims included 173 children.
Continue reading...Jeremy Hunt’s freeze on allowances and thresholds will put a quarter of teachers and one-eighth of nurses in 40% income tax bracket
One in four teachers and one in eight nurses will be higher-rate taxpayers by 2027 as a result of the government’s record freeze on income tax allowances and thresholds, according to a leading thinktank.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said better-paid public sector workers will be among the almost 8 million people – one in five of all taxpayers – who will pay income tax at 40% or above as result of the Treasury’s attempt to reduce the UK’s budget deficit.
Continue reading...Ten-year science strategy of UK Health Security Agency will use data to combat infectious diseases faster and more effectively
Health officials in the UK have drawn up plans for a “genomics transformation” that aims to detect and deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases faster and more effectively in the light of the Covid pandemic.
Information gleaned from the genetics of Covid proved crucial as the virus swept around the globe, revealing how the pathogen spread, evolved, and responded to a succession of vaccines and medicines developed to protect people.
Continue reading...The actor, who has previously starred as Hamlet at the Young Vic, is to play Lady Macbeth among a wave of star-powered Shakespeare productions this year
Cush Jumbo is to play Lady Macbeth this winter in a production at London’s Donmar Warehouse that reunites her with David Tennant, her co-star in the Channel 4 TV series Deadwater Fell.
Earlier this month it was announced that Tennant would take on the title role in Max Webster’s production of Macbeth, expected to be one of this year’s hottest tickets. Jumbo’s casting marks her return to the Covent Garden theatre where she played Mark Antony in an acclaimed all-female production of Julius Caesar in 2012, directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
Continue reading...Watchdog’s chief writes to energy bosses as Grid sets out plan to cut waits by up to a decade
The energy watchdog for Great Britainwill label the decade-long wait to connect low-carbon projects to the electricity grid as “unacceptable”, amid tensions over a “blame game” for a mounting backlog of green power projects.
Jonathan Brearley, the chief executive of Ofgem, has written to energy bosses to warn that the current system, whereby energy projects queue for their connection, could be replaced by new methods to match power generation with demand.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sector’s staffing crisis will have knock-on effect on whole NHS system, warns healthcare leader
UK ministers must set out how to recruit and retain thousands more mental health nurses to plug the profession’s biggest staff shortage, healthcare leaders are warning.
Mental health nurses account for nearly a third of all nursing vacancies across England, resulting in overstretched services that are struggling to deliver timely care, according to research carried out by the NHS Confederation’s mental health network.
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