Category Archives: UK news

UK ministers ‘trying to avoid scrutiny’ by releasing 150 documents in 48 hours

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Exclusive: Labour says record number of disclosures before Easter recess is effort to evade accountability

Labour has accused ministers of being “desperate to avoid scrutiny” after government departments published a record number of “transparency disclosures” over a 48-hour period before parliament rose for the Easter break.

The Cabinet Office website shows that 150 documents were released over 30-31 March, more than in the previous 44 days and beating the previous record, set exactly a year ago, when there was a data dump of 120 documents just before the recess.

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Suella Braverman won’t say Rwanda deportation flights will start by summer

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Home secretary refuses to give a deadline for when her controversial policy for asylum seekers will begin

Suella Braverman has been unable to confirm that the first promised deportation flights to Rwanda will take off this summer, as the controversial policy continues to face scrutiny in the courts.

The home secretary, whose officials briefed that plans were on track during her trip to the African country last month, played down the prospect of the flights going ahead shortly.

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British cows could be given ‘methane blockers’ to cut climate emissions

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UK’s 9.4m cattle produce 14% of human-related emissions, mostly from belching, but green groups remain sceptical

Cows in the UK could be given “methane blockers” to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas as part of plans to achieve the country’s climate goals.

Farmers welcomed the proposal, which follows a consultation that began in August on how new types of animal feed product can reduce digestive emissions from the animals.

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Reporting suspected sexual abuse to be mandatory for those working with children

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Law must be strengthened, says home secretary, so professionals like teachers and carers face ‘full force of law’ if they fail in their duty to protect

The home secretary is to spell out new requirements for people working with children in England to report signs or suspicions of sexual abuse.

The government is expected to set out details of plans in the coming days to tackle grooming gangs and better protect children.

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Free portraits of Charles III for all public bodies, but £8m cost branded ‘shameful’

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Anti-monarchist claims the official portraits of the head of state are ‘scandalous’ at the time of spending cuts

Ministers have been accused of “losing the plot” after setting aside £8m to offer every public body a free portrait of King Charles.

In a move that drew criticism amid complaints of shrinking budgets across Whitehall and local government, Oliver Dowden, the cabinet office minister, said it was part of plans to celebrate the new reign and bring the nation together.

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Frank Skinner says former radio co-host Gareth Richards is fighting for his life

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Comedian broke down in tears live on air as he told listeners his friend was involved in serious road accident

Frank Skinner told listeners to his Saturday radio show that his friend and former co-host Gareth Richards is fighting for his life after a car crash.

The 66-year-old comedian and broadcaster broke down in tears as he revealed that Richards was in a “very big road accident” on Monday.

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‘Most amusing’: Gilbert and George welcome the public to their own gallery

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Artists open centre in area of east London where they have lived and worked for decades

Every creative person yearns for a room of their own. But for the stars of Britain’s contemporary art world, it seems that now only a venue of their own will do. Last weekend it was Tracey Emin in Margate; on Saturday morning it was the turn of the veteran duo Gilbert and George.

“It is very exciting to see so many people,” said George Passmore, 81, after the gates swung wide at 10am to let in an orderly queue of first visitors. “Most amusing,” added his lifelong collaborator – and, since 2008, civil partner – Gilbert Prousch, 79. “They will all keep coming along, we hope.”

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Christopher Eccleston: it would be impossible for me to become an actor today

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Theatres such as now-closed Oldham Coliseum vital for northern working-class people, says actor

Christopher Eccleston has said it would be impossible for him to become an actor in today’s world, in an impassioned interview after the closure of Oldham’s Coliseum theatre.

The British actor spoke about how the closure of the historic theatre would affect the acting community and people from working-class backgrounds.

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Pacific trade deal is more useful to Joe Biden than it is to the UK’s economy

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Hailed by Tory MPs as a Brexit benefit, CPTPP membership actually turns the UK into a willing pawn in Washington’s geopolitical game

Tory MPs hailed the UK’s entry last week into the Indo-Pacific trading bloc as a major step on the road to re-establishing Britain as a pioneer of free trade.

It was a coup for Rishi Sunak, said David Jones, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Eurosceptics, who was excited to be aligned with “some of the most dynamic economies in the world”.

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Port of Dover adds overnight sailings to help clear severe coach backlog

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School holiday delays of up to 14 hours blamed on ‘French border processes and sheer volume’

Extra sailings are to run overnight at the Port of Dover to try to clear a backlog that left passengers stuck in Easter school-holiday traffic for hours on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the port, which declared a critical incident on Friday, said it was hoping to clear the backlog by lunchtime on Sunday as some travellers said they had been held up for 14 hours.

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Amid the Prince Harry circus lies a court battle with the highest stakes

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The Daily Mail’s owner, the prince and Elton John could be on the road to one of the biggest media trials in British history

When the Duke of Sussex unexpectedly arrived at the high court on Monday morning he became the most senior royal to appear in a courtroom since Princess Anne admitted being in charge of an English bull terrier that was dangerously out of control in a public space.

Prince Harry was there to allege that Associated Newspapers, the parent company of the Daily Mail, was similarly out of control.

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Body of man killed in custody may have been shown to trainees, Yorkshire police admit

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Body of Christopher Alder could have been seen by cadets after mixup of remains, says South Yorkshire force

South Yorkshire police have admitted that officers may have been shown the body of Christopher Alder, a former paratrooper who died in police custody, in a mortuary as part of their routine training years after he was supposed to have been buried.

Alder, an ex-Parachute Regiment soldier, choked to death while handcuffed and lying face down on the floor of a Hull police station on 1 April 1998. CCTV footage showed officers laughing, joking and making monkey noises while he lay unconscious in a pool of blood. It was more than 10 minutes before police went to his aid.

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Farne Islands shut to visitors over fears of new avian flu outbreak

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Rangers work to avoid repeat of last year’s devastating losses in breeding seabird colonies on the islands off the Northumberland coast

The Farne Islands will not open to visitors this spring in anticipation of bird flu once again ravaging breeding seabird colonies, after an “unprecedented” spate of deaths last year.

The rocky outcrop of islands off the coast of Northumberland has been looked after by the National Trust since 1925 and there are no previous records of so many endangered seabirds dying at once. More than 6,000 carcasses were picked up last year, which is believed to be the tip of the iceberg compared with how many birds would have died in total.

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Tougher second homes regulations come into force in Wales

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Council tax and planning changes aim to make housing more affordable for those on local incomes

Radical measures giving councils in Wales a raft of extra powers designed to stop second homes hollowing out communities, especially in coastal and rural areas, have come into force.

Local authorities across Wales are using the powers to increase the amount of council tax that second home owners must pay and will also be able to bring in changes to planning rules to make it harder for houses and flats to be snapped up as holiday boltholes.

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Planning applications in England fall to record low in housing blow

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Experts say developers deterred by changes to planning system brought in by successive Tory governments

Planning applications in England have fallen to their lowest level in at least 16 years, according to figures published this week by the levelling up department that highlight the scale of the country’s housing crisis.

Local authorities received fewer applications to build new buildings or improve old ones in 2022 than at any point since before 2006, the earliest year for which the government provides statistics.

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Woman fatally injured at Arthur’s Seat said husband had pushed her, witness says

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Kashif Anwar is accused of murdering Fawziyah Javed and her unborn child by pushing her from hill

A woman walking on Arthur’s Seat on the night a husband is alleged to have pushed his wife off the Edinburgh hill claimed the alleged victim told her he had pushed her, a court has heard.

Kashif Anwar, 29, is accused of murdering Fawziyah Javed, 31, and her unborn child in September 2021 by pushing her from the landmark.

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BBC journalists to strike during local elections over radio cuts

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NUJ members’ 24-hour stoppage on 5 May will coincide with the reporting of poll results

BBC journalists in England have announced a second 24-hour strike, to run from midnight on 5 May to coincide with the reporting of local election results, in a dispute over cuts to local radio.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the broadcaster’s management want local radio stations to share programmes across the network from 2pm on weekdays and at weekends, going from more than 100 hours of local programming on every station each week down to 40.

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Cambridgeshire shootings: man charged with murder over deaths of father and son

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Stephen Alderton, 66, will appear in court in connection with killings of father and son Gary and Josh Dunmore

A man has been charged with the murders of a father and son following two shootings in villages in Cambridgeshire.

Stephen Alderton, 66, has been charged with the murders of Gary
and Joshua Dunmore after the incidents near Huntingdon on Wednesday, Cambridgeshire police said.

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Starmer accuses government of ‘turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer’

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Lib Dems call for Thérèse Coffey to resign after raw discharges sent into English rivers 825 times a day last year

Keir Starmer has accused the government of “turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer”, as data showed raw discharges were sent into English rivers 825 times a day last year.

Private water companies have been consistently accused of failing to take action, and the Environment Agency admitted there were more than 300,000 spillages into rivers and coastal areas in 2022, lasting for more than 1.75m hours.

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Three Insulate Britain protesters face retrial over London street blockade

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Giovanna Lewis, Amy Pritchard and Paul Sheeky were part of group who glued themselves to road in City of London in 2021

Three climate protesters who stopped traffic to bring rush-hour chaos to the City of London are facing a retrial.

Giovanna Lewis, 65, a councillor from Dorset, Amy Pritchard, 37, a horticultural worker and Paul Sheeky, 46, a screenwriter, were part of a large group of Insulate Britain protesters who glued themselves to the ground and blocked traffic between Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street on 25 October 2021.

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