Category Archives: UK news

Online safety bill: changes urged to allow access to social media data

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Campaigners say bill in ‘serious peril’ of passing without powers to make platforms more transparent

Online safety experts will struggle to sound the alarm about harmful content if landmark legislation does not allow independent researchers to access data from social media platforms, campaigners have warned.

The government is being urged to adopt amendments to the online safety bill enabling researchers to access platform data in order to monitor harmful material. Access would be overseen by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, and would protect user privacy.

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Labour shadow minister meets CBI boss, suggesting boycott may be ending

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Jonathan Reynolds and new DG Rain Newton-Smith hold ‘warm’ meeting after party cut ties due to sexual misconduct scandal

The Labour party has moved closer to ending its boycott of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in an early sign that steps to rehabilitate the crisis-hit UK lobby group may be working.

Labour on Sunday confirmed its shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, had met the new CBI director general, Rain Newton-Smith, last week.

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Who was at Conservative HQ Christmas party during Covid lockdown?

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New Partygate video shows Tory officials at party at height of pandemic. We look at who was there

A new Partygate video that shows Conservative officials dancing, joking and drinking during lockdown has forced thousands of people across the UK to relive harrowing memories of the sacrifices they made during lockdown.

Michael Gove has apologised and said their actions were “indefensible”, but he refused to back calls for some of the attendees to lose honours they were given by Boris Johnson, who has been found guilty of misleading parliament over the Partygate scandal.

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New British mayor of Mallorcan town to start work with nice cup of tea

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Teacher from west Sussex says victory was down to strong manifesto and knowing everyone in Sant Joan

The new mayor of Sant Joan, a small town of 2,000 people that sits in the centre of Mallorca, likes to joke that his main priority when he begins work on Monday will be ensuring a kettle is installed in his office.

Last month’s regional and local elections – which left the ruling Socialists with a bloody nose, triggered a snap general election and caused the conservative People’s party (PP) to forge a coalition with the far-right Vox party to rule the Valencia region – have also had unexpected consequences in Sant Joan.

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Model embryo with heartbeat replicates cells in early pregnancy

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Exclusive: Scientists used stem cells to create the structures, which were unable to develop into a foetus

Scientists have created a model human embryo with a heartbeat and traces of blood in an advance that offers an extraordinary window into the first weeks of life.

The synthetic structure, created from human stem cells without the need for eggs, sperm or fertilisation, replicated some of the cells and structures that would typically appear in the third and fourth week of pregnancy. But it was specifically designed to lack the tissues that go on to form the placenta and yolk sac in a natural embryo, meaning that it did not have the theoretical potential of developing into a foetus.

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‘Indefensible’: Michael Gove apologises for Tory HQ Partygate video

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But levelling up secretary insists Shaun Bailey and Ben Mallet should keep their honours

Michael Gove has apologised for a new Partygate video that shows Conservative officials dancing and laughing as they broke Covid lockdown rules, deeming their actions “terrible” and “indefensible”.

The video, obtained by the Mirror, shows members of staff drinking alcohol at the gathering in London on 14 December 2020, and mocking lockdown rules the public were following at the time. At least 24 people were in attendance, including Shaun Bailey – made a peer in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list – whose campaign team organised the event. He left before the video was taken.

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EU countries accuse TfL debt collectors of breaching data protection laws over London penalty fines

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Belgium and Dutch vehicle licensing agency say citizens’ details obtained unlawfully to issue driving fines

Two EU countries have accused Transport for London’s debt collection agency of breaching data protection laws to obtain the names and addresses of citizens in order to issue fines for driving in the capital.

Motorists from across Europe have been hit with penalties, some totalling thousands of pounds, for driving in London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez). Penalty notices are being sent to foreign motorists who enter the capital without pre-registering their vehicle, and the Guardian has revealed hundreds of drivers have been fined despite driving emissions-compliant cars.

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Tory peer faces questions over links to cryptocurrency lobbying firm

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Exclusive: James Wharton is helping to forge Westminster connections for the cryptocurrency sector

A former campaign manager to Boris Johnson who was appointed to lead an education quango is facing fresh questions over his role in a cryptocurrency lobbying firm.

James Wharton, a peer and former MP who chairs the Office for Students (OfS), has launched a new public affairs company that pledges to “help clients navigate the complexities of Whitehall and Westminster” and specialises in “disruptive” highly regulated sectors.

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Nicola Sturgeon: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’

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Scotland’s ex-first minister returns home after arrest as poll suggests Labour on course to defeat SNP

Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said “I’ve done nothing wrong” as she returned home for the first time following her arrest last Sunday.

Her statement came as a Sunday Times poll suggested Labour would defeat the SNP at the next election for the first time since 2010 to become Scotland’s largest party at Westminster.

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Can Boris Johnson emulate Donald Trump and make a comeback? No chance

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Half of all Tory voters take a dim view of the former prime minister whereas the ex-president has a strong Republican support

There are two very big differences between the situation confronting Boris Johnson and that facing the man with whom he is frequently compared, Donald Trump – namely, popularity and context.

Johnson is weaker than Trump. First, because he is less popular with Conservative voters than Trump is with his Republican supporters. About half of 2019 Conservative voters disapprove of Johnson’s performance in office. And at the time he left office, 40% or more rated him as untrustworthy, dishonest and/or incompetent.

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Sunak, Hunt and homebuyers brace for an economic Big Wednesday

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The midweek inflation bulletin could be the most significant piece of government data published this year

This Wednesday will mark the longest day of the year and not long after the sun comes up the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will publish its latest cost of living bulletin. To say the data is eagerly awaited is an understatement. There is unlikely to be a more significant piece of official data released in the current parliament.

The reason is simple. Despite raising interest rates 12 times since December 2021 in an attempt to quell upward price pressures, inflation is proving harder to shift than the Bank of England imagined.

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Adam Kay tells of life ‘transformed’ by two babies

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Writer of comic medical memoir This is Going to Hurt reveals surrogacy on BBC’s Desert Island Discs

Adam Kay, the author of This is Going to Hurt, the bestselling “secret diary” of a junior doctor, is now the father of two babies, he has revealed.

Kay, who was portrayed by Ben Whishaw in the Bafta-winning BBC1 adaptation of his comic memoir, said life with his husband, TV producer James Farrell, has been “absolutely transformed for the better” by the arrival through surrogacy of their two children.

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David Warburton: Conservative MP suspended over drugs allegations to resign seat

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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.

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Video emerges of Conservative HQ Christmas party during Covid

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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.

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UK government expected to table bill banning boycotts of Israeli goods

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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.

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UK ‘should seize oligarchs’ assets to pay for reconstruction of Ukraine’

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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.

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UK delis could be forced to put up prices after new Brexit tax

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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.

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Norwegian Roxy Music model Kari-Ann Moller fights to stay in UK after Brexit

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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.

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UK is among countries with the most positive attitude towards refugees, poll finds

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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.

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