Warmer conditions in north contrast with freezing fog and cold warnings in south of UK
Temperatures will plunge to -9C across parts of southern England overnight, the Met Office said on Monday, with the freezing weather expected to last until the end of next week.
Freezing fog will remain in some areas on Tuesday morning, as the cold snap shows no sign of abating.
Continue reading...Shadow foreign secretary to mark out diplomatic mission of a future Labour government in landmark speech
Labour will make closer cooperation with Europe across security, trade and foreign policy a central plank of a plan to reconnect “a tarnished UK” with its closest allies, David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, will say in a landmark speech designed to mark out the diplomatic mission of a future Labour government.
Addressing the thinktank Chatham House on Tuesday, he will say the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has not been given a clear set of goals post-Brexit. “Ideological leadership and reckless choices have left Britain increasingly disconnected from its closest allies, an economy in crisis, and a tarnished international reputation.”
Continue reading...That former PM secretly secured a loan of up to £800k no surprise as financial reliance on others stretches back many years
Boris Johnson is deeply protective of his personal life – but one thing almost universally acknowledged by those who know him is that he has a tricky relationship with money.
It came as little surprise to them, therefore, that he was alleged to have secretly secured an up to £800,000 loan guarantee while prime minister.
Continue reading...Labour MP asks whether Zahawi statement in the summer was untrue, with Cabinet Office minister saying he does not know the answer
Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chair, has welcomed the decision by Rishi Sunak to ask the No 10 ethics adviser to investigate his case. “I am confident I acted properly throughout,” Zahawi said.
Zahawi seems to be using a narrow definition of “properly”. In the statement he issued yesterday, he accepted that his original decision not to pay the tax that HM Revenue and Customs subsequently concluded he should have paid was down to a careless error. He said:
Following discussions with HMRC, they agreed that my father was entitled to founder shares in YouGov, though they disagreed about the exact allocation. They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error.
Integrity and accountability is really important to me and clearly in this case there are questions that need answering …
That’s why the independent adviser has been asked to fully investigate this matter and provide advice to me on Nadhim Zahawi’s compliance with the ministerial code, and on the basis of that we’ll decide on the appropriate next steps.
Continue reading...Police searching for driver of vehicle after four people were taken to hospital and two treated at scene
Six people have been injured after being hit by a car in north London on Sunday, police have said.
Officers are searching for the driver of the vehicle after four people were taken to hospital and two were treated at the scene. None of the six was thought to have life-threatening injuries.
Continue reading...Museum of London Docklands appeals for missing pieces whose influential creators have been overlooked
Wanted: David Bowie’s dress, Greta Garbo’s hats and the shirts worn by Sean Connery in his first role as James Bond.
They are iconic items of 20th-century clothing – but their whereabouts is unknown. Now the Museum of London Docklands has made a public appeal for help locating these and other garments before a big exhibition scheduled for later this year.
Continue reading...Alarm raised on Sunday after man went missing from offshore installation south-east of Aberdeen
Rescuers are searching for a man missing from an offshore installation off the coast of Scotland.
The operation was launched after the alarm was raised at about 9pm on Sunday.
Continue reading...Ofgem could look to take legal action if companies are not taking proper care of vulnerable households
Energy companies are to be investigated by the regulator Ofgem after the number of households struggling with their bills being forced on to prepayment meters has increased sharply.
Ofgem could consider taking legal action if it determines that the rise in the number of homes being forced on to prepayment meters is proven to show companies are not taking proper due care of vulnerable households.
Continue reading...The UK charity facilitates music workshops in immigration detention centres – but frequently faces a lack of resources and the deportation of key players
Lamin Joof began making music in the Gambia at the age of 16. He sang in a band called Chossan Bi with three friends until, one by one, everyone but Joof left the country to find work elsewhere. After the group disbanded, Joof began DJing at nightclubs and wedding parties and formed a sound system of reggae artists. But, despite spending a year building a musical career, Joof struggled to sustain himself. In 2015, he left the Gambia to find employment in the UK. There he was detained for nine months in three immigration detention centres.
“Most of the tunes I make now are inspired by that experience,” Joof says today, speaking via video. “When I was at Brook House in Gatwick, the only outside space was a smoking area, which was tiny and [crowded]. Above was a net instead of the sky. Detention centres are similar to prison, but it’s worse than prison because you don’t have a release date. In my music, I want to convey the struggle that I went through, how I was mistreated, and how I fought to get to where I am today.”
Continue reading...Effluent in Gloucestershire river pinpointed by digital map as water companies accused of routinely pumping out waste to rivers
The market town of Fairford, nestling in the Cotswold hills, is perhaps best known for its church, which has the only complete set of mediaeval stained glass windows in England.
But thanks to a more modern phenomenon, an interactive digital map produced by Thames Water, the Gloucestershire town, with its traditional honey coloured limestone houses, is becoming better known for its continuous, gushing, raw sewage overflow.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Forecasts predict exports will fall to £707bn next year and target will not be reached until 2035
Ministers have been accused of leaving a “record of failure and broken promises” as internal forecasts show Britain will be 15 years late in achieving its £1tn annual export target after being hit by Brexit.
Projections from the Department for International Trade (DIT) show the value of UK exports will not reach £1tn until 2035, based on current trends, with the total due to fall to £707bn next year.
Continue reading...All-party group including peers backs campaign by victims’ group, saying Cape ‘knowingly put people in danger’
MPs and peers have written to one of the biggest manufacturers of asbestos, calling on it to make a £10m donation towards mesothelioma research “for knowingly putting people in danger”.
In a letter to Altrad, parent company of Cape, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on occupational safety and health says that documents released after a long-running court battle show that Cape historically “provided misleading reassurance about the dangers of asbestos”.
Continue reading...Ingeniously simple lab experiment led by Prof Clare Burrage recognised by Blavatnik awards
Dark energy is the enigma at the heart of modern physics: the universe is supposed to be awash with the stuff, but it has never been seen and its nature is unknown.
When faced with a mystery of such epic proportions, simply eliminating certain options is considered a success. This week such an advance, using an ingeniously simple desktop experiment, was recognised by the prestigious Blavatnik award for young scientists.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner says Rishi Sunak should come clean about any concerns raised with No 10 about ex-chancellor and HMRC penalty
Nadhim Zahawi’s political future appeared under increasing threat on Sunday night, after Labour pushed hard for answers about his tax issues and government colleagues offered little support for his plight.
After a weekend dominated by questions over the Conservative party chair’s tax position, Labour signalled its intention to pin the controversy on to Rishi Sunak, demanding the prime minister explain if he knew about the issue when he appointed Zahawi to his cabinet.
Continue reading...Parents of boy stabbed in Manchester urge people to ‘do the right thing’ as police offer £50,000 reward
The parents of a 16-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in Manchester have urged anyone with information to “do the right thing” as police announced a £50,000 reward on the anniversary of his killing.
Joan Dixon and Glen Carter said they “can’t move on” until the person who stabbed “cheeky chappy” Kennie Carter on 22 January last year is brought to justice.
Continue reading...Immigration experts scathing about Home Office plans to tighten access to services for people without legal status
Home Office plans to reheat “thoroughly discredited” hostile environment policies show the government has not learned lessons from the Windrush scandal, immigration experts have said.
A taskforce to crack down on illegal immigration is being set up, the Home Office announced on Sunday. As well as blocking access to banking for those without immigration status, it intends to find new ways of checking individuals’ immigration status when they use schools or the NHS.
Continue reading...Move follows bishops’ refusal to back gay marriage while blessings to be on voluntary basis for clergy
Sandi Toksvig has said she will be meeting the archbishop of Canterbury for coffee, after bishops this week refused to back gay marriage but said civil partnerships could be blessed in church.
“Quick update – I will be meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury for a long promised coffee next week,” the broadcaster and author, who is gay, tweeted on Saturday.
Continue reading...Reports Richard Sharp helped ex-PM arrange guarantee on £800,000 loan before he was recommended for job
Labour is calling for an investigation after claims that the BBC chair helped Boris Johnson arrange a guarantee on a loan of up to £800,000 weeks before he was recommended for the job by the then prime minister.
The party has written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, after a report in the Sunday Times that Tory donor Richard Sharp was involved in talks about financing Johnson when he found himself in financial difficulty in late 2020.
Continue reading...People are being encouraged to ‘support their local areas’ in a drive to mark the three-day celebration in May
Britons will be encouraged to spend a day volunteering in their communities to mark the King’s coronation. The Big Help Out will take place on Monday 8 May and is intended to create a “lasting legacy” of the coronation weekend.
Buckingham Palace said it hoped to convince as many people as possible to “join the work being undertaken to support their local areas” on the day, which has been designated as an extra bank holiday.
Continue reading...More than 3,000 people protest on estate of Alexander Darwall after his court victory ends right to wild camp in England
More than 3,000 people joined one of the UK’s largest ever countryside access protests on Saturday on the Dartmoor estate of a wealthy landowner who won a case ending the right to wild camp in England.
Groups of walkers, families, students and local people arrived by foot, shuttle bus and bike to the small Dartmoor village of Cornwood throughout the morning and then thronged for hours along moss- and ivy-draped lanes up on to the rugged, boulder-strewn moorland owned by the Conservative party donor and hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall.
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