Category Archives: UK news

UK ministers could ban flavoured vapes to deter sales to children

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Tighter rules could also demand plain packaging and more curbs on promotion of products

• Vaping: quitter’s aid or addiction risk?

Ministers are considering further vaping laws, such as a ban on colourful branding or flavours, to deter their sale to children amid calls for plain packaging to be extended to the products.

No 10 said the government was considering “further steps” on vaping, with a call for evidence due to close next week. The government announced on Tuesday that it was closing a loophole in the law that allowed companies to give away free samples to children, as concern grows that usage of vapes among under 18s has been on the rise.

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Sunak accused of trying to cover up ministers’ actions during pandemic

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PM challenged as Cabinet Office battles to withhold Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from Covid inquiry

Rishi Sunak has been accused of attempting to cover up the actions of ministers during the pandemic as the Cabinet Office intensified its battle to withhold Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from the Covid inquiry.

The prime minister insisted his government has been cooperating with the investigation but is facing increasing calls from experts and MPs – with some coming from within his own party – to hand over evidence without redactions.

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Why it’s not quite back to the 70s with talk of food price controls

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Statutory caps were brought in under Heath, now the government wants a voluntary store scheme to meet Sunak’s pledge to halve inflation

A cost-of-living crisis. Pressure on the government to step in to help hard-pressed consumers. Calls for supermarkets to cut prices on staple food items. Substitute Rishi Sunak for Ted Heath, step into a time capsule and journey back to Britain in 1972.

Let’s be clear: ministers are not considering imposing the sort of statutory price controls on a loaf of bread, a pint of milk or a bar of soap that were put in place half a century ago. Not now and not ever, according to Whitehall sources. But it has emerged that Sunak and his team are certainly not averse to the big supermarkets coming up with their own voluntary agreement to reduce the cost of the weekly shop.

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MPs ‘to question ITV’ over Phillip Schofield’s affair with younger colleague

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Reports say members of CMS committee will discuss the handling of the issue with executives

MPs are reportedly planning on questioning ITV executives over This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield’s affair with a younger male colleague.

It came as the Prince’s Trust said it had dropped Schofield as an ambassador. “In light of Phillip’s recent admissions, we have agreed with him that it is no longer appropriate to work together,” a spokesperson for the charity said on Tuesday.

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Ministers plan to ban retailers in England from giving children free vapes

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Promotional samples dodge rules forbidding sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s, who are vaping in rapidly increasing numbers

Retailers will no longer be able to hand out free samples of vapes to children after ministers announced plans to close a legal loophole.

Although it is illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s, it is not illegal for retailers and marketing firms to hand out free samples. This is because vapes are not covered by the tobacco advertising rules prohibiting free distribution, as they are not considered a tobacco product.

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St Mungo’s homelessness charity workers begin month-long strike

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Members of the Unite union will picket in London, Brighton, Bristol and Oxford after ‘pitiful’ pay offer

Workers at the homelessness charity St Mungo’s will begin a month-long strike on Tuesday in a dispute over pay.

Members of Unite who work at the organisation will mount picket lines outside its head office in Tower Hill in London and in Brighton, Bristol and Oxford. The union said the industrial action was over a “pitiful” pay offer of 2.25%, which was made in April 2023.

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Agreed house sales in UK at highest point this year, says Zoopla

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But property website warns that rebound in activity could be hit by rising mortgage rates

More prospective house sellers are returning to the UK’s property market, pushing agreed home sales to their highest point of the year in May, according to Zoopla, although it warned that the rebound in activity could be knocked by rising mortgage rates.

House prices have fallen by 1.3% nationally over the past six months, the property website found, but the speed of price falls has been decreasing as buyer confidence slowly improves.

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UK food inflation falls in May, raising hopes prices may have peaked

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British Retail Consortium says rate fell from 15.7% to 15.4% even as rise in overall shop prices hits fresh high

Food inflation in the UK fell in May, lifting hopes that the rapid increase in grocery prices may have reached its peak after keeping the broader consumer prices index painfully high so far this year.

After more than a year of sharp increases in the price of food, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said annual food inflation eased this month from 15.7% to 15.4%, even as the overall rise in shop prices hits a fresh high.

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NHS England workforce plan delayed amid rumours of cost issues

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Health secretary Steve Barclay not confirming when strategy to increase numbers of doctors and nurses will be published

NHS leaders have raised concerns about the delay to the long-awaited workforce plan, after the health secretary, Steve Barclay, refused to give a deadline for its publication amid rumours it is considered too costly.

The plan, which was expected to be published on Tuesday, appears to have been delayed, according to the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery.

Barclay blamed the pandemic and “various things that have been happening in recent years” for the delay during broadcast interviews over the weekend. He had previously promised that the plan to increase the number of doctors and nurses would be published before the next general election.

Cordery said the plan, which has already been postponed from last year and aims to fix the UK’s crumbling healthcare system by plugging chronic staff shortages, was needed “as quickly as possible”.

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Nobel literature prize fell into my life ‘like a bomb’, says Annie Ernaux

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In conversation with Sally Rooney at Charleston festival author says award has hindered her ability to focus on writing

Annie Ernaux, the French winner of the 2022 Nobel prize in literature, has said she never wanted the award and that it fell into her life “like a bomb”, hindering her ability to focus on writing.

In conversation with the novelist Sally Rooney on the final day of Charleston festival, Ernaux was talking via an interpreter as she explained her tricky relationship with the prize.

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Jeremy Paxman bows out as host of University Challenge

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Former Newsnight presenter, 73, will end stint as longest serving current quizmaster on British television

Jeremy Paxman’s stint as the longest serving current quizmaster on British television will come to an end on Monday night when he presents his final edition of University Challenge.

The 73-year-old former Newsnight presenter is bowing out from the show after revealing he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

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Plan to scrap specialist sex offender teams ‘a danger to public safety’, says probation union

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Highly skilled officers in England and Wales to be replaced by less qualified staff under MoJ proposals

Plans to disband specialist teams that deliver treatment courses for sex offenders have prompted fears public safety will be jeopardised.

Under the Ministry of Justice proposals, which are being fiercely resisted internally, behaviour programmes for a wide variety of offenders would be delivered by staff who are not fully qualified probation officers.

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Met plan to stop mental health response will leave thousands ‘without support’

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Health groups raise alarm after Sir Mark Rowley says he will order officers not to attend 999 calls about mental health incidents

Thousands of people in a mental health crisis will be “left without support” under worrying and inappropriate police plans to “walk away” from emergency incidents, health chiefs have said.

In a letter seen by the Guardian, the Metropolitan police comissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said that from September he would order the force’s police officers not to attend thousands of 999 calls about mental health incidents.

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Kathleen Stock says she is a ‘moderate’ as protests planned over Oxford debate

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Former professor who argues trans people cannot expect all rights afforded by biological sex is due to speak at Oxford Union

Kathleen Stock, the gender-critical feminist whose forthcoming address to Oxford university students on Tuesday has prompted planned protests, has insisted that she is a “moderate” and has a right to upset people.

Before her contested appearance at the Oxford Union, Stock said it was her trans activist opponents, who want the event cancelled, who were extreme.

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Gender pay gap for women in their 50s won’t close before 2050, claims Labour

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‘Equal pay generation’ of female workers abandoned by Tories, says Anneliese Dodds, who commissioned research

The so-called equal pay generation of female workers born near the passing of the 1970 Equal Pay Act are unlikely to see the gap close during their working lives, a Labour analysis has shown.

Research carried out for Anneliese Dodds, the shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, calculated that such is the slow rate of change with equal pay for women in their 50s, the gender pay gap will not close before 2050 at the current trajectory.

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Ex-This Morning doctor Ranj Singh says culture on show became ‘toxic’

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Doctor also says he was ‘managed out’ of the show after raising concerns over how people were being treated

A TV doctor who previously worked on ITV’s This Morning has said the culture on the show became “toxic” and that he was “managed out” after he tried to raise his concerns.

Dr Ranj Singh, who made regular appearances offering medical advice, said that, over 10 years on the show, he grew “increasingly worried about how things were behind-the-scenes and how people, including myself, were being treated”.

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Nick Cave speaks out against boycotting songs because of creators’ actions

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Australian musician told Hay festival we should not ‘eradicate the best of these people in order to punish the worst of them’

Nick Cave has said that boycotting songs because of the actions of the artist “is not a very good way to go about things”.

The Australian singer-songwriter told the Hay festival: “Making art – especially making music – it prevents you from becoming the worst aspects of your character, and that’s why I very much think we need to be very, very careful about the music we don’t think people should listen to any more because of what the artist who has made that music may have been like,” the Australian singer-songwriter said.

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At least three people drown over bank holiday weekend as UK sees hottest day

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Two men in their 20s were pulled from the sea near Torbay as boy who died in Carlisle named as Lewis Michael Kirkpatrick, 15

At least three people have drowned over the bank holiday weekend as the UK experienced the hottest day of the year so far on Sunday.

Two men in their 20s died after being pulled from the sea off the coast of Torbay, Devon and Cornwall police said. Officers were called to assist the coastguard at about 9am on Saturday after reports of concern for two people off Oddicombe beach.

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Guantánamo detainee accuses UK agencies of complicity in his torture

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Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri wants to bring case examining alleged role of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ in his mistreatment by CIA

A Guantánamo Bay prisoner tortured by the CIA has accused British intelligence agencies of complicity in his mistreatment in a new case before one of UK’s most secretive courts.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is alleged by the US to have plotted al-Qaida’s bombing of an American naval ship, is seeking to persuade the court to consider his complaint against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

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