Category Archives: UK news

Tory MPs threaten to rebel against UK bill banning boycotts of Israeli goods

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Rebel group of 50 have voiced objections to the bill designed to stop public bodies boycotting Israel

As many as 50 Conservative MPs are threatening to rebel against a government measure due to be debated on Monday that would impose fines on public bodies, including local councils, that seek to mount boycotts against Israel.

The proposal – piloted by the communities secretary, Michael Gove – is a Conservative manifesto commitment, and has caused divisions in both main parties, highlighting the controversy surrounding the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

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Police name woman and two children killed in fire in Cambridge

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Gemma Germeney, 31, died at scene of flat fire in King’s Hedges, while Lilly and Oliver Peden, eight and four, died later in hospital

Police have named a woman and two young children who were killed in a fire in a flat in Cambridge.

Gemma Germeney, 31, died at the scene of the fire in Sackville Close, King’s Hedges, on Friday morning, according to Cambridgeshire police, while Lilly Peden, eight, and Oliver Peden, four, were taken to hospital where they later died.

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British peers attended Russian ambassador’s party in London

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Lords Balfe and Skidelsky were at event in June where ambassador sought to justify Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine

Two British peers were among 50 people who attended a party organised by the Russian ambassador to the UK at his opulent residence in west London last month, to mark the creation of a Russia independent of the Soviet Union.

Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador, spoke at the event where he sought to justify his country’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, while those attending included the Conservative Lord Balfe and cross-bencher Lord Skidelsky.

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Thames Water shareholder gives backing to crisis-hit firm

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USS support for turnaround plan comes as water company buckles under £14bn debt burden

One of Thames Water’s big shareholders has given its backing to the embattled water company, after the surprise departure of its chief executive and crisis talks with the government over its viability.

Thames Water, which is buckling under a £14bn debt burden and has embarked on an eight-year turnaround plan, is owned by a series of pension funds and other governments’ sovereign wealth funds. The second-biggest shareholder is a UK pension fund for academics, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which holds about 20% and is the first investor to make public its support for the company.

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Emmerdale actor Meg Johnson dies aged 86

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Soap star who also acted in Coronation Street, Brookside and the musical Chicago, had dementia, her family said

The soap opera stalwart Meg Johnson has died at the age of 86 after having had dementia “for the last few years”, it has been confirmed.

The death of Johnson, who had played Pearl Ladderbanks in Emmerdale since 2003, was announced in a joint statement from her family, the talent agency Jorg Betts Associates and the ITV show.

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Second world war British fighter planes unearthed in Ukraine

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Remains of eight Hurricanes dating back to 1940s conflict found south of Kyiv

Authorities in Ukraine have discovered the remains of eight British Hurricane fighter planes dating back to the second world war.

The aircraft, found near an unexploded bomb dating from the same conflict in a forest south of Kyiv, were sent to the Soviet Union by Britain after Nazi Germany invaded the country in 1941.

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UK to breach Iran nuclear deal with refusal to lift sanctions

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Decision by UK and other European powers comes amid uncertainty over future of 2015 agreement

The UK and other European powers are expected to announce plans to breach the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for the first time when they confirm they are not going to lift sanctions on Tehran’s use of missiles this October as required in the agreement.

Donald Trump took the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, but Germany, France and the UK remained inside the deal, even though Iran responded to the US walkout by breaching the agreed limits on the quality and quantity of enriched uranium. Iran is closer to producing weapons-grade uranium than ever before.

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UK airports say they can reach net zero and still expand. Is it just pie in the sky?

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Despite the Climate Change Committee’s warnings to stop growing capacity, Gatwick is gearing up for another try at a second runway

So what bit of “no new airport capacity” did airports not understand? The Climate Change Committee (CCC) spelled it out again on Wednesday: flying accounted for 7% of UK carbon emissions last year, the trend is upwards, and more airport capacity is “incompatible” with national net zero targets.

Of course, they’ve said it before: but as the committee noted in its 2023 progress report, airports have since have been racing to expand. This time, hammering it home, the CCC says that no expansion at all should go ahead until the government sorts out a proper way to manage it.

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Revealed: record 170,000 staff leave NHS in England as stress and workload take toll

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Health service shown to be under some of worst pressure in its history in week Rishi Sunak launched plan to retain and recruit workforce

• ‘You start thinking you will crack’: former NHS tell their stories

Nearly 170,000 workers left their jobs in the NHS in England last year, in a record exodus of staff struggling to cope with some of the worst pressures ever seen in the country’s health system, the Observer can reveal.

More than 41,000 nurses were among those who left their jobs in NHS hospitals and community health services, with the highest leaving rate for at least a decade. The number of staff leaving overall rose by more than a quarter in 2022, compared to 2019.

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Exclusive: UK water giants recruit top staff from regulator Ofwat

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Demands for an end to the ‘revolving door’ as ex-Ofwat directors are hired by key firms

Two-thirds of England’s biggest water companies employ key executives who had previously worked at the watchdog tasked with regulating them, the Observer can reveal.

Cathryn Ross, the new interim joint chief executive of Thames Water and a former head of watchdog Ofwat, is one of several ex-employees working for water companies in senior roles such as strategy, regulation and infrastructure.

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Man, 46, arrested over double Islington stabbing as teenage victim is named

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Man, 23, and 15-year-old Leonardo Reid stabbed to death in north London on Thursday, while third man also wounded

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after a young man and a teenage boy were stabbed to death in north London.

The 46-year-old man was arrested on Saturday afternoon and was in custody at a north London police station.

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‘Rightwing, illiberal’: Labour MP Jon Cruddas condemns Keir Starmer’s ‘witch-hunt’

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MP says moves to discipline Neal Lawson, who heads pressure group Compass, are a ‘disgrace’

A senior Labour MP claims today that Keir Starmer’s party has fallen under the control of a “rightwing, illiberal” faction that is embarking on a “witch-hunt” not only against the Corbynite left but also anyone with an independent voice.

In an extraordinary intervention, Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, says that moves by the party to discipline and possibly expel Neal Lawson, a former speechwriter for Gordon Brown who now heads the pressure group Compass, are a “disgrace” in a party built on pluralist values and traditions.

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Man and woman arrested over ‘suspicious’ death of girl, 2, in Suffolk

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Investigations ongoing after body of toddler found in Ipswich on Friday morning

A man and a woman have been arrested over the “suspicious” death of a two-year-old girl. Police said they found the body of the toddler at a property in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, Suffolk, on Friday morning.

Investigations at the property are ongoing and officers said the death was being treated as suspicious.

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British holidaymakers warned of risk of disruption from French riots

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Foreign Office updates travel advice for France, saying location and timing of clashes is unpredictable

British holidaymakers travelling to France have been warned they could face disruption after four nights of unrest in reaction to the police killing of a 17-year-old boy of Algerian and Moroccan descent.

The Foreign Office has changed its travel advice, warning of the potential for disruption to travel, curfews and that the “location and timing of riots are unpredictable”.

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Councils in England hit by ‘unsustainable’ £450m bill for free bus passes

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LGA says services being put at risk by huge cost and calls way Whitehall funds scheme not fit for purpose

Councils in England are being hit by a “completely unsustainable” annual bill of more than £450m to prop up the free bus pass scheme, according to an analysis.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which calculated the figure, said the enormous cost was putting services at risk.

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Direct Line ordered to review five years of car claims after underpayments

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Insurer told to reassess vehicle write-offs to identify any unfair settlements

Britain’s second-biggest car insurer, Direct Line, has been ordered to go back through five years of claims after admitting it had underpaid some customers who had their cars and vans written off.

After an investigation into the car insurance market that began in December 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), this week ordered Direct Line to conduct a review of claims where vehicles had been written off “to identify any policyholders who received unfair settlements and provide them with appropriate redress”.

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Many high-street frappés contain more sugar than a Mars bar

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Which? finds some Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffè Nero coffees contain more sugar than recommended daily allowance

An iced coffee is a cool pick-me-up on a hot day, but it might not be the caffeine boosting your mood as many of the blends sold by well-known high street coffee chains contain more sugar than a Mars bar or can of Coke.

The consumer group Which? looked at the sugar load in frappés and Frappuccinos being served up this summer by three of the biggest coffee chains, Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffè Nero, and found many “regular” size drinks contained more than an adult’s recommended daily allowance.

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Jeremy Clarkson’s Sun article on Meghan was sexist, says press regulator

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The Sun will have to print a front-page statement explaining that its columnist was found to have discriminated against the duchess

Jeremy Clarkson discriminated against the Duchess of Sussex when he used an article in the Sun to describe his “hatred” of her with a series of sexist tropes, a press regulator has ruled.

Clarkson used his national newspaper column to describe how he hated Meghan on a “cellular level” and suggested she had used “vivid bedroom promises” to transform Prince Harry into a “warrior of woke”.

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NHS plan: the numbers are impressive, but where are the new ideas?

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Health bosses will welcome tens of thousands of new recruits, but the plan has little to say on how to change the culture to keep them

It was on 8 November 2017 that Jeremy Hunt, the then health secretary, first promised that the government would bring forward a long-term, comprehensive plan to end the NHS’s lack of staff.

It would, he said, be the “first proper NHS workforce plan that we have had since 2000”. And the plan would emerge quickly, he added, reflecting the urgency of tackling what has become the most debilitating of the NHS’s many problems – shortages of staff, everywhere.

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Plans to shorten medical training put quality of NHS care at risk, doctors say

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Unions say government proposals to cut training by a year and introduce apprenticeships could dilute skills

Plans to shorten medical training could dilute the calibre of doctors entering the NHS in England and damage the quality of care patients receive, doctors’ leaders have warned.

Government proposals to cut doctors’ time in medical school from five to four years, and to introduce medical apprenticeships, could “water down” training for health service staff, they said.

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