Yes, the mood has shifted against Brexit. But the road back to Brussels is long and hard

Three years on, the reality of the split with the EU has changed minds. But dashed hopes could come to haunt Labour, too

Brexit is three years old and less popular than ever. More people are unhappy with Brexit outcomes to date, and pessimistic about the gains to come today than at any point in the Brexit process so far. “Rejoin” has opened up a double-digit lead over staying out in polls asking voters how they would choose in a second referendum on EU membership.

While voters have swung against Brexit before, the current shift is different. Earlier remain gains were driven by abstainers and those too young to vote in 2016 breaking against Brexit and by demographic changes which have slowly pulled the electorate in a pro-EU direction. The vast majority of leave and remain voters have hitherto stood by the choices they made in June 2016. That is now changing, and it is Brexiters who are reconsidering. One in five leave voters now say they would vote to rejoin the EU, while remain switching has stayed much lower. The scales of opinion are being tipped against Brexit by growing doubts among its original supporters.

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‘It’s soul destroying’: why so many NHS staff are off sick with burnout

Doctors, paramedics and nurses explain the stress and anxiety of working in a system that has reached breaking point

“Frustration with the system was why I went off in the end,” said Conor Calby, 26, a paramedic and Unison rep in southwest England, who was recently off work for a month with burnout. “I felt like I couldn’t do my job and was letting patients down. After a difficult few years it was challenging.”

While he usually manages to keep a distinct divide between work and home life, burnout eroded that line. He also lost his sleep pattern and appetite.

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Stop UK mobile and broadband firms ‘lining their pockets’, urge consumer experts

Companies facing backlash amid warning of mid-contract price rises of up to 17% during cost of living crisis

Britain’s telecoms regulator is being urged to intervene over concerns that mobile and broadband operators are “lining their pockets” with £2.2bn of above-inflation price rises during the cost of living crisis.

While ministers have urged employees to show pay restraint, the mobile phone and broadband firms are facing a consumer backlash as they announce record price increases.

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Care worker whistleblower outed by Home Office over exploitation claims

Zimbabwean worker whose visa relies on job says government disclosed confidential details of interview to employer

A victim of suspected labour abuse who confidentially disclosed details of exploitation to government investigators says she has been subjected to threats and intimidation after she was outed to her employer.

The Zimbabwean national, 25, was interviewed by Home Office compliance officers for an investigation into illegal recruitment practices and told them she had paid a fee of about £1,500 to an agent who arranged for a care home in Surrey to sponsor her visa.

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Dominic Raab: more civil servants in bullying complaint than previously thought

Some officials were signed off for ‘extended periods’ while others stayed at work to protect colleagues, says complaint made by 27 staff at Ministry of Justice

A single official complaint regarding the behaviour of the deputy prime minister Dominic Raab represented the concerns of 27 of his officials, the Observer has been told.

The group of Ministry of Justice officials are understood to be represented by a memo warning that some colleagues had been forced to take time off for “extended periods” as a result of having to deal with Raab. It states that others affected felt they needed to stay at work to stop extra pressure being placed on their colleagues.

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Witness comes forward in Nicola Bulley case as police warn against speculation

Police had released CCTV images of a woman pushing a pram near where the dog walker went missing, urging her to get in touch

A woman described as a “key witness” by police searching for missing mother Nicola Bulley has come forward, as the force warned against “totally unacceptable” speculation and abuse on social media.

On Saturday, officers released CCTV images of a woman, dressed in a yellow coat and pushing a pram, who was in St Michael’s on Wyre on the morning of 27 January, when Bulley was last seen.

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Nurses offer to call off strikes if Sunak matches Welsh pay offer

Union appeals to prime minister to compromise to avert massive disruption

The head of the UK’s biggest nursing union has issued a last ditch appeal to Rishi Sunak to agree a compromise over pay, to prevent the worst strikes in the NHS’s history from causing massive disruption to patients across England on Monday.

In a letter to the prime minister, Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said she was “appealing directly” to Sunak for the first time as she asked him to match offers made by the Welsh and Scottish governments, both of which have led to strikes being suspended.

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Sunak ‘risks full-scale trade war’ with Brussels by scrapping EU laws

Leading European politicians have warned that the prime minister’s plan to ditch EU legislation will trigger retaliatory countermeasures, including imposing tariffs on goods

Rishi Sunak’s plan to scrap thousands of EU laws by the end of this year risks triggering a full-scale trade war between the UK and Brussels, senior figures in the European Union have warned.

Letters from leading EU politicians, seen by the Observer, reveal deep concern that the UK is about to lower standards in areas such as environmental protection and workers’ rights – breaching “level playing field” provisions that were at the heart of the post-Brexit trade and cooperation agreement (TCA).

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Liz Truss expected to launch political comeback on Sunday

Former PM whose No 10 stint ended after 49 days understood to have written piece for Sunday Telegraph

Liz Truss is expected to launch her political comeback on Sunday, months after her calamitous tenure in Downing Street ended after 49 days.

Her return is expected to begin with an opinion piece in this weekend’s Sunday Telegraph, as well as a number of planned media appearances.

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Refuse firm Lord of the Bins ordered to change its name by Tolkien franchise

Two-man business contacted by lawyers of Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns rights to Lord of the Rings

A refuse firm in Brighton called Lord of the Bins has been ordered by lawyers to change its name after being accused of breaching trademark laws.

The two-man waste collection business was contacted by Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the worldwide rights to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

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Woman pushing pram in critical condition after hit and run in London

Woman in life-threatening condition but baby unharmed, say police, after driver fails to stop in Southall

A woman is in a life-threatening condition after being knocked down by a hit-and-run driver while pushing a pram.

Metropolitan police officers said they were called to the junction of North Hyde Lane and Raleigh Road in Southall, west London, at about 12.30pm on Friday to reports of a collision involving a car and pedestrian.

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‘My forefathers did something horribly wrong’: British slave owners’ family to apologise and pay reparations

The Trevelyans were shocked to see their name in a slavery database and a journey to Grenada confirmed the continuing impact of their grim history

An aristocratic British family is to make history by travelling to the Caribbean and publicly apologising for its ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved Africans. The Trevelyan family, which has many notable ancestors, is also paying reparations to the people of Grenada, where it owned six sugar plantations.

Last weekend, the family met online and agreed to sign a letter of apology for its enslavement of captive Africans. Forty-two members of the family have so far signed and more signatures are expected.

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Bodies of two Britons killed in Ukraine recovered as part of prisoner swap

Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw died in Soledar area while helping to evacuate people from frontline

The bodies of two British volunteers killed in Ukraine while carrying out a humanitarian evacuation have been recovered, a Ukrainian official has said.

Chris Parry, 28, and his colleague Andrew Bagshaw, 47, who held dual UK and New Zealand citizenship, had been trying to evacuate an elderly woman from Soledar when their car was hit by an artillery shell.

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‘I’ve given up getting paid’: global tech platform accused of exploiting artists

Talenthouse claims to ‘democratise creativity’, but designers who have completed commissions for top brands are out of pocket

It is a global technology platform that claims to “democratise creativity” by allowing up-and-coming artists to submit work to the world’s biggest brands.

But Talenthouse, which boasts clients including Netflix, Sony, Coca-Cola and the United Nations, has been accused of exploiting artists and failing to pay them, in some cases leaving them thousands of pounds out of pocket.

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Brexit causes collapse in European research funding for Oxbridge

Oxford and Cambridge universities, once given more than £130m a year in total by European research programmes, are now getting £1m annually between them

One of the UK’s most prestigious universities has seen its funding from a large European research programme plummet from £62m a year to nothing since Brexit, new figures show.

The latest statistics from the European Commission reveal that Cambridge University, which netted €483m (£433m) over the seven years of the last European research funding programme, Horizon 2020, has not received any funding in the first two years of the new Horizon Europe programme.

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Royal Navy sailors in hospital after ‘wrong chemical’ added to ship’s water

Navy says HMS Portland sailors hospitalised as precaution after drinking accidentally contaminated water

Sailors are being treated in hospital after drinking “contaminated” water on their ship, the Royal Navy has said.

Frigate HMS Portland is believed to have diverted to Portsmouth naval base earlier on Friday after the discovery that the “wrong chemical” had entered the ship’s system to convert seawater to drinking water.

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High court overrules Bournemouth’s unlimited strip club policy

Judge rules Bournemouth, Christchuch and Poole council unreasonable to dismiss women’s safety concerns as ‘moralistic’

A council’s policy on lapdancing and strip clubs was overturned by a high court judge, after a challenge by a sexual abuse survivor who said it would have a negative impact on women’s safety.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council adopted a new policy in November 2021, which allowed an unlimited number of sexual entertainment venues in the area.

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Scams: FCA blocks more than 10,000 ads from Instagram, Facebook and YouTube

Financial watchdog warns over rise of ‘fin-fluencers’ targeting younger people on social media

More than 10,000 misleading financial promotions and scams aimed at consumers via social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok have been identified and targeted by the financial watchdog during the past year.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the use of social media marketing channels and the rise of so-called “fin-fluencers” – particularly directing investment products at younger age groups – exploded last year, resulting in a record number of takedown notices and alerts.

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