Category Archives: UK news

First UK industrial action against Amazon is ‘making an impact’, says GMB

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Managers said to be covering for striking staff, though firm insists action has not disrupted activity

Workers at Amazon’s huge Coventry depot described the “stressful” conditions inside as they staged a historic strike to demand pay of £15 an hour – the first time the corporation has faced industrial action in the UK.

The local GMB organiser Amanda Gearing said the action on Wednesday was “making an impact”, despite Amazon’s insistence that work was proceeding as usual inside the high-walled warehouse.

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Mother wins legal battle over tribunal’s refusal to say why son’s killer was discharged from hospital

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Teresa Maher’s son, Kyle, was killed by Richard Wilson-Michael in supported accommodation in London in 2017

A woman has won a legal battle against a mental health tribunal over its refusal to provide her with the the reasons for releasing her son’s killer into the community

In a boost to open justice, a high court judge ruled that the tribunal unlawfully rejected requests for information from Teresa Maher, who feared that her son’s killer still posed a risk.

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‘Potentially risky’ people being released after years on remand, watchdog warns

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Growing number of offenders on remand in England and Wales not offered support before being freed, prisons inspector says

Potentially dangerous prisoners are spending years on remand before disappearing into the community after their release without being properly monitored, the prisons watchdog has warned.

Charlie Taylor, HM’s chief inspector of prisons, said a restructuring of probation services last year failed to address the growing number of offenders held on remand who are not offered support before being freed.

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Row growing after third historic rail bridge filled in with concrete

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National Highways faces third intervention by a local authority over infilling, after burying Congham bridge in Norfolk in tonnes of concrete

A controversial practice by the government’s roads agency of burying historic railway bridges in concrete has been dealt a fresh blow after a third council intervened over another infilled structure.

King’s Lynn and West Norfolk council has told National Highways it must apply for retrospective planning permission if it wants to retain hundreds of tonnes of aggregate and concrete it used to submerge Congham bridge, a few miles east of King’s Lynn.

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British opera singer creates work to reveal humanity of enslaved ancestors

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Insurrection: A Work in Progress by Peter Brathwaite will highlight folk traditions as a form of resistance

A leading British opera singer is developing a work based on the music of his enslaved ancestors in Barbados as a way of examining complex historical events and highlighting forms of resistance.

Peter Brathwaite and the Royal Opera House (ROH) will present Insurrection: A Work in Progress to audiences in March, inviting feedback from the public that will shape the opera’s next stages.

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Celebrities call on UK banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coalfields

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Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance add their voices to Richard Curtis’s Make My Money Matter campaign

Famous names including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance have joined activists and businesses in calling on the UK’s big five banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coal expansion.

Make My Money Matter, a campaign set up by Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, director and Comic Relief co-founder, has written to the chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds to urge these banks to “stop financing fossil fuel expansion”.

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Labour asks why Treasury unit let sanctioned oligarch bring UK libel case

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Key Putin ally, who founded Wagner mercenaries, attempted to ‘subvert sanctions and silence journalist’

The Treasury must explain how the Russian founder of a mercenary army was given permission to circumvent sanctions, to attempt to silence a British journalist, Labour has said.

In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, seen by the Guardian, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden, said that No 11 had to say why it had granted the permission and whether similar allowances had been made for other sanctioned oligarchs to use libel lawsuits.

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‘He doesn’t care’: Rishi Sunak is failing nurses and NHS, say voters in Stoke

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In a focus group, residents of Stoke-on-Trent describe the health service as an ‘absolute mess’ and say the PM has just disappeared

Rishi Sunak should pour money and staff into the “crippled” NHS, and reward striking nurses with better pay, Conservative 2019 voters from a “red wall” constituency have said.

Stoke-on-Trent residents in a focus group organised by More in Common for the Guardian described the health service as “struggling”, being in an “absolute mess” and “on its backside”, with all members able to describe just how difficult it is to get an appointment. On top of this, the locals expressed a huge amount of sympathy for striking health workers, who are “worked to the bone”.

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Two missing Britons killed in Ukraine while evacuating citizens from Soledar

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Foreign Office confirms Chris Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 47, killed carrying out humanitarian work on frontline

Two Britons missing in Ukraine were killed while trying to carry out a humanitarian evacuation in the east of the country, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

Chris Parry, 28, and his colleague Andrew Bagshaw, 47 – who held dual UK and New Zealand citizenship – had been attempting the evacuation of an elderly woman from Soledar when their car was hit by an artillery shell, Bagshaw’s family said in a statement.

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No 10 declines to say Sunak confident Zahawi has always told him truth about his tax affairs – UK politics live

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Downing Street spokesperson also says inquiry into former chancellor’s affairs to be ‘conducted swiftly’

There are two urgent questions in the Commons later. At 12.30pm Caroline Lucas (Green) is asking one about the child asylum seekers who have gone missing from hotel accommodation provided by the Home Office, and that will be followed by Ben Bradshaw (Lab) asking one about the Church of England’s stance on equal marriage.

After those are over Damian Hinds, the justice minister, will deliver a statement about the probation inspectorate.

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Almost one in 10 local bus services axed over last year in Great Britain

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Exclusive: cuts come despite government’s levelling up promise to improve transport connectivity

Almost one in 10 local bus services were axed in Great Britain in the last year despite government promises to improve local transport connectivity being a key pillar of its levelling up agenda.

The reductions – equivalent to more than 1,000 registered routes – follow the publication of a national bus strategy for England in 2021, aimed at improving routes and service frequencies. The figures suggest the “bus back better” strategy, conceived under the then prime minister Boris Johnson, has failed to halt the decline in local bus services.

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MPs to recall Royal Mail boss to parliament to face questions

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Simon Thompson has been summoned back over accuracy of evidence he gave to committee

The chief executive of Royal Mail is to face a rare recall to parliament to face questions over the accuracy of evidence he gave to a committee of MPs.

Simon Thompson, Royal Mail’s boss, has been summoned back by the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, after giving evidence in a sometimes testy exchange last week.

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Primark enjoys bumper festive UK sales thanks to heels and baggy suits

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Owner ABF says its grocery brands such as Twinings and Kingsmill also increased trading

Strong sales of heels, baggy suits and knitwear propelled Primark’s sales ahead of expectations over Christmas as shoppers returned to city centres and consumer spending was more resilient than anticipated.

Sales at the cut-price fashion chain’s established stores rose by 11% in the four months to 17 January, compared with the same period a year before, as the owner, Associated British Foods (ABF), said it had sold more items of clothing while prices had also risen by about 8%.

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New suspect arrested on suspicion of Manchester rape for which man served 17 years

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Andrew Malkinson’s case sent to court of appeal after DNA breakthrough

A man has been arrested on suspicion of committing a rape for which another man served 17 years in prison.

Andrew Malkinson was convicted of raping a 33-year-old woman by a motorway in Greater Manchester in 2003. The case is being sent back to the court of appeal after a DNA breakthrough.

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Couple missing with newborn baby may have been sleeping rough, police fear

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Constance Marten and Mark Gordon last seen on 7 January in east London after buying tent and bedding

Police are growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of a newborn baby whose parents officers believe are sleeping rough in freezing temperatures.

The missing aristocrat Constance Marten and her boyfriend, Mark Gordon, a convicted sex offender, were last seen more than a fortnight ago in east London after buying a tent and bedding. Detectives fear their baby has been exposed to the sub-zero temperatures and has received no medical attention since birth in early January.

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UK government ‘let lawyers bypass sanctions’ to help Putin ally sue journalist

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Documents seen by Open Democracy show UK firm got approval to engage with Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin

British lawyers were given government dispensation to bypass sanctions in order to help Yevgeny Prigozhin, the controversial Russian businessman and Wagner group founder, sue a journalist, according to documents made available to the website Open Democracy.

The documents concern a libel case brought by Prigozhin against Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative group Bellingcat, in 2021. The revelations will raise further questions about the abuse of UK libel law by the super-rich.

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Eurostar trains forced to run with empty seats due to Brexit passport rules

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About 350 out of 900 seats normally left unsold on the first services between London, Paris and Brussels

Peak time Eurostar trains are daily forced to run across the Channel with hundreds of empty seats because border police cannot process passports quick enough.

About 350 out of 900 seats are normally left unsold on the first services between London, Paris and Brussels despite “huge demand” for the greenest form of international travel, Eurostar bosses said.

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Probation service and ministers have ‘blood on hands’, say Zara Aleena’s family

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Watchdog report uncovers series of failings in supervision of Jordan McSweeney, who murdered the law graduate last year

Ministers and the probation service have been accused of having “blood on their hands” after a watchdog uncovered failings which left a violent, woman-hating racist free to murder the law graduate Zara Aleena.

Jordan McSweeney should have been seen by probation officers as a high-risk offender with a long history of misogynistic and racially aggravated incidents and recalled to prison after missing appointments, the chief inspector of probation, Justin Russell, said.

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C of E leaders call for tax rises to fund NHS-style social care system

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Archbishops of Canterbury and York say ‘national care covenant’ needed with stronger role for state

England’s most senior church leaders want tax rises to fund a new NHS-style universal social care system that could cost an extra £15bn a year.

In a challenge to the government to overhaul support for 1 million elderly and disabled people, the archbishops of Canterbury and York have called for a “national care covenant” with a stronger role for the state and citizens delivering more care.

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Poorest in UK have £40 a month less to spare than a year ago, study finds

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Richest have gained similar amount over same period, reflecting differing impacts of inflation

The UK’s least affluent households have almost £40 a month less spare cash than they did a year ago while the richest have gained a similar sum in the same period, according to figures exposing how inflation has hit the poorest the hardest.

The wealthiest 20% of households had £36 a month more in discretionary income in December compared with a year before, as they enjoyed record earnings growth which offset rising energy and food bills, analysts at Retail Economics found.

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