Exclusive: Ministers facing growing anger from Tory backbenchers over use of hotels in their constituencies
The Home Office is planning to use disused cruise ships to house asylum seekers amid growing anger from Conservative backbenchers over the use of hotels in their constituencies.
Ministers are looking at possible vessels including a former cruise ship from Indonesia, which would be moored in south-west England, the Guardian understands.
Continue reading...Government to roll back section 40 legislation, recommended by Leveson, as part of media bill
Ministers will push ahead with plans to abolish a key piece of press regulation law, unpicking one of the main recommendations of the Leveson inquiry into the culture of the British newspaper industry.
The government said they would roll back a rule that could require news outlets to pay the costs of the people who sue them unless the news outlet is signed up to a state-backed press regulator. Labour indicated that opposition MPs will not object to the plan, meaning it is likely to sail through the House of Commons.
Continue reading...Charles and president likely to instead stage back-to-back visits to mark 25 years of Good Friday agreement
Hopes that Joe Biden’s landmark trip to Belfast next month will be rounded off by a meeting with King Charles are fading after the US president brought forward by a week his trip to celebrate 25 years of peace.
It now appears likely the king and the president will stage back-to-back visits in an echo of historic visits to Dublin by Barack Obama and the queen in 2011.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Diane Abbott says Miliband and Keir Starmer have given different reasons for Corbyn’s ban
Nadia Whittome, the leftwing Labour MP, has said this morning that she hopes the party’s national executive committee throws out the motion that would ban Jeremy Corbyn from being a candidate for the party.
Labour has now sent out the full text of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Green Alliance this morning. We have already covered the main points (here and at 10.55am), but it was a substantial, serious speech, and here are some futher things he said.
Miliband confirmed that Labour would issue no more licence for oil and gas fields in the North Sea. This is from my colleague Fiona Harvey.
Continue reading...MI5 increases level from ‘substantial’, meaning an attack is highly likely
MI5 has increased the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland from substantial to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, has said.
Heaton-Harris cited a “small number” of individuals who remain determined to use “politically motivated violence”.
Continue reading...Labour criticises Rishi Sunak ‘vanity project’ announced weeks before collapse in value of cryptocurrencies
The UK government has dropped its plans to produce a non-fungible token for sale through the Royal Mint, just under a year after it first announced the project.
In response to a question from the Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin, the Treasury’s economic secretary, Andrew Griffith, confirmed the abandonment, saying: “In consultation with HM Treasury, the Royal Mint is not proceeding with the launch of a non-fungible token at this time but will keep this proposal under review.”
Continue reading...CWU union lines up action as MP brands bosses’ threat to put service into administration as ‘scandalous’
Postal workers at Royal Mail are poised to stage a fresh wave of strikes after Easter as talks stalled, amid a “scandalous” threat by bosses to put the company into administration.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 115,000 postal workers, is close to agreeing multiple strike dates to take place later in April, the Guardian understands, in the long-running dispute between the company and union. A formal announcement of the strike dates is expected this week.
Continue reading...Credit Suisse crisis was ‘drawn out’ compared with SVB demise, Andrew Bailey tells MPs
The governor of the Bank of England has admitted he was surprised by how quickly Silicon Valley Bank failed, saying it was the fastest demise of a lender since Barings Bank collapsed in the mid-1990s.
Andrew Bailey told MPs on the Treasury select committee it had been decades since a lender had gone from “health to death” within a matter of days, saying that Barings Bank – which was brought down by the rogue trader Nick Leeson – was the only worthwhile comparison to what happened to the US tech lender.
Continue reading...Former chief operating officer to be one of fewer than 10 women leading FTSE 100 companies
The world’s biggest spirits maker, Diageo, has appointed Debra Crew as chief executive, one of few women to lead a FTSE 100 company.
The company, which makes well-known brands including Johnnie Walker scotch whisky, Guinness and Baileys, announced that Sir Ivan Menezes would step down on 30 June after 10 years as chief executive. It decided to promote Crew from chief operating officer to the top job, effective from 1 July.
Continue reading...Ministers announce refugees in hotels will be offered move to a home on condition they accept first offer
People who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan are at risk of homelessness in the UK, humanitarian groups have warned, after ministers announced plans to move the refugees out of hotels and into homes on the condition they accept the first offer made to them.
Afghans living in “temporary bridging accommodation” in the UK under the UK’s two resettlement schemes would be given additional support to find settled accommodation after 18 months in hotels, the Home Office said.
Continue reading...Kit Malthouse tells home secretary of risks of moving substance from legitimate market into the illegitimate market
As Alex Wickham from Politico points out, the questions Rishi Sunak is getting this morning suggest this audience is not happy with the government’s record on crime.
Q: The Conservatives have “dropped the ball a little bit, to be honest”. The questioner says laughing gas is the least of their problems. People are using much harder drugs. He has skimmed through the action plan document. Some of it is good. But punishments need to be firmer. People probably won’t turn up for community sentences. And the government needs to tackle drugs at source.
Continue reading...Authors say supported mindfulness-based cognitive therapy also cheaper than treatment NHS usually offers
Practising mindfulness is much better than taking part in talking therapies at helping people recover from depression, a British study has found.
People who used a mindfulness self-help book for eight weeks and had six sessions with a counsellor experienced a 17.5% greater improvement in recovery from depressive symptoms than those who underwent cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) while being supported by a mental health practitioner.
Continue reading...Corporation rejects freedom of information request from campaigner who claims show is ‘rigged’
The BBC has been accused of “hiding” the extent of its Oxbridge bias on University Challenge in a deepening row about alleged elitism on the show.
The Guardian revealed that Frank Coffield, a Durham-based emeritus professor of education at University College London, is campaigning for fairer entry rules for the show for what he says is a rigged contest.
Continue reading...Ammar Al Khudairy’s remarks about Swiss lender spurred investor panic that led to emergency takeover
The chair of the Saudi National Bank has resigned for “personal reasons” less than two weeks after his comments spurred investor panic over Credit Suisse that ended in an emergency takeover by its larger Swiss rival, UBS.
The Saudi National Bank (SNB), which was Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder, announced on Monday that it had “accepted” Ammar Al Khudairy’s resignation, and that he would be immediately replaced by its chief executive.
Continue reading...Court appearance in privacy claim should not come as a surprise given prince’s loathing for Associated Newspapers
The sight of Prince Harry marching up the steps of the high court on Monday came as a shock. On the agenda was a pre-trial legal hearing in his claim against the Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers. This was not promising material for a courtroom drama. But Harry’s presence suddenly changed that, as news alerts were pinged out to mark his “surprise” court visit.
In hindsight it should not have come as such a surprise. The prince has repeatedly expressed his loathing for the British press and the Mail in particular.
Continue reading...Airport security staff due to hold 10 days of strikes over pay, forcing airline to axe 5% of its schedule
British Airways is to cancel more than 300 flights to and from Heathrow over the Easter holiday period due to strikes by airport security staff.
The airline is axing about 5% of its schedule, with 16 return short-haul flights cancelled daily. It said the majority of affected customers would be booked on to alternative flights within 24 hours, or could be fully refunded.
Continue reading...Police will also have greater drug testing powers as part of crackdown on antisocial behaviour
The sale of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to the public will be banned and the police will be given enhanced drug-testing powers as part of Rishi Sunak’s attempt to crack down on antisocial behaviour “with urgency”.
The levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, said the proposals would stop parks being turned into drug-taking arenas, and would help ministers stamp out antisocial behaviour.
Continue reading...About 200 barrels of reservoir fluid leak into the Dorset harbour, a site of special scientific interest
A major incident has been declared on Sunday following an oil leak from the UK’s largest onshore field into Poole harbour in Dorset.
The incident, which took place at Wytch Farm oilfield in Dorset, resulted in approximately 200 barrels of “reservoir fluid” being released.
Continue reading...Unions, regulators and NHS England all say staff shortages are affecting health of medics and patients
“There’s a gap today that no locum filled, so I am carrying both bleeps and doing the work of two people.” That recent tweet, by a children’s doctor, is one of many examples posted on social media by medics illustrating how NHS staff shortages affect them, patients, the smooth running of important services – and, sometimes, the safety of those who are receiving care.
It is a concern shared by every organisation that represents frontline staff, by regulators such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and by NHS England, the body that oversees the service. Just as one example, in January the CQC reported that an inspection it had undertaken of Colchester hospital in Essex found patients were missing out on meals because there were too few staff on duty to feed them. Some patients were wearing dirty dressings, and others did not have their call bells answered promptly, for the same reason.
Continue reading...Exclusive: workplace plan sent to ministers says deficit will rise rapidly from current 154,000 if current trends continue
The NHS in England needs a massive injection of homegrown doctors, nurses, GPs and dentists to avert a recruitment crisis that could leave it short of 571,000 staff, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian.
A long-awaited workforce plan produced by NHS England says the health service is already operating with 154,000 fewer full-time staff than it needs, and that number could balloon to 571,000 staff by 2036 on current trends.
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