Category Archives: UK news

UN human rights chief says UK should rethink plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda

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Exclusive: Volker Türk critical of scheme he considers ethically problematic and believes government must look again at how to deal with people-smuggling gangs and the treatment of refugees

The new UN human rights chief has urged the British government to reconsider its plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, warning that in the past similar “offshoring” schemes had led to “deeply inhuman” treatment of refugees.

In his first public comments on the controversy since taking office two months ago, Volker Türk rejected prime minister Rishi Sunak’s description of the £140m deal as “common sense”, saying that as well as being legally and ethically problematic it was also “very costly” and unlikely to work.

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Ambulance strike: NHS leaders urge public to avoid risky activity

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Bodies representing NHS care in England also call for Rishi Sunak intervention but PM refuses to budge on pay

NHS leaders have urged the public to avoid risky activity on Wednesday for fear they may be left helpless and unable to reach A&E during the ambulance strike.

The industrial action by staff across England and Wales comes as the ongoing pay dispute between ministers and NHS workers looks poised to descend into an increasingly bitter and disruptive war of attrition that could go on for months.

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London extends lead as most searched UK location on Rightmove

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Capital now top location by some distance after Cornwall led for several months during pandemic

The lockdown dream of leaving the city behind and owning a spacious house in the countryside or by the sea faded in 2022 as homebuyers picked up where they left off before the pandemic: house hunting in London.

Rightmove said the capital was 2022’s top location by some distance with searches 9% higher than last year. Meanwhile the number of searches for homes in Cornwall and Devon fell sharply although the counties, famous for their spectacular coastlines, hung on to second and third place on the property website’s annual list of most searched for locations.

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Children in hostels with ex-prisoners up to 55 miles from school, Shelter warns

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Charity documents experiences of some of England’s 121,000 children housed in temporary accommodation

Children in temporary accommodation are living in cramped conditions and alongside former prisoners, in hostels up to 55 miles away from school, according to a leading housing charity.

One 16-year-old from Manchester, who is sharing a single room in an emergency B&B with her mother and two sisters, described having to study sitting on the toilet, her textbook propped on her knees, to revise for GCSEs. “It’s so cold in there my legs go numb after 10 minutes,” she said.

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Mike Hodges, Get Carter and Flash Gordon director, dies aged 90

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British director was known for his often bleak and brutal gangster films, most famously his 1971 film Get Carter starring Michael Caine

Mike Hodges, the British director known for films including Get Carter, Croupier, The Terminal Man and Flash Gordon, has died at the age of 90.

Mike Kaplan, a longtime friend and producer on Hodges’ final feature film I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, confirmed his death to the Guardian. Hodges died at his home in Dorset on Saturday. A cause of death was not given.

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Scottish transgender reform looks imminent after marathon Holyrood debate

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Crunch vote looms after debate prolonged by disruptions, attempted delays and uncertainty over possible amendments

Transgender 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland are set to be able to apply to change the sex on their birth certificate for the first time as MSPs debated long into the night the Scottish government’s controversial gender recognition reforms.

The marathon session took place amid chaotic scenes at Holyrood, including disruption from the public galley, uncertainty over whether certain amendments opened the bill to legal challenge, and attempts to delay proceedings into the new year.

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More pain for online retailer THG as top insurer reduces cover

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Cut-back of cover for suppliers is latest in a series of headaches for founder of the troubled business

The troubled online beauty retailer THG faces more pain after a leading credit insurer reduced cover to its suppliers.

The Guardian can reveal that Allianz Trade, one of the UK’s largest credit insurers, cut back cover for suppliers to the beauty-to-nutrition retailer, formerly known as the Hut Group, in recent weeks.

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Russia plans to boost military links with Iran, says UK defence secretary

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Ben Wallace says Putin regime will supply military technology in return for drones used to attack Ukraine

Russia plans to deepen its military cooperation with Iran in return for Shahed drones that have been used to bomb Ukraine’s cities and energy network since September, according to Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace.

The west must hold Russia’s “enablers to account”, he said, in a Christmas update in which he was also forced to admit the UK had not completed a Ukraine “action plan” by the end of the year as promised.

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Met to investigate Tory MP Bob Stewart over alleged racial abuse

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Scotland Yard to look into footage in which Beckenham MP tells activist Sayed Alwadaei ‘go back to Bahrain’

Police are to investigate an allegation of racial abuse after the Guardian revealed a confrontation in which the Tory MP Bob Stewart told an activist to “go back to Bahrain”.

Scotland Yard has said it will investigate video footage after a complaint from Sayed Alwadaei, the director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), who had an angry exchange with Stewart outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy.

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Germany returns 21 Benin bronzes to Nigeria – amid frustration at Britain

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Artefacts looted in 19th century by UK soldiers and sold on, with many more still held by the British Museum

Twenty-one precious artefacts that were looted by British soldiers from the former west African kingdom of Benin 125 years ago have been handed over by Germany to Nigeria amid laughter, tears, and some audible frustration with the ongoing silence of the country that first stole them.

The objects from the haul of treasures known as the Benin bronzes, including a brass head of an oba (king), a ceremonial ada and a throne depicting a coiled-up python, were taken from the sacked city during a British punitive expedition in 1897 and later sold to German museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne.

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Rishi Sunak warns NHS strikes could go on for months as he rules out reopening pay offers – live

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Prime minister issues warning as nurses take action again today, with ambulance staff striking on Wednesday

In his interviews this morning Will Quince, the health minister, said that the military personnel who are helping out when ambulance staff are on strike tomorrow will not be allowed to turn on blue lights when driving ambulances, or drive them through red lights. “They will be there to drive ambulances in a support capacity for individual trusts,” he said.

At the health committee hearing Dr John Martin, president of the College of Paramedics, told MPs that ambulance staff are now having to deal with “a sicker population who are calling us more often” than they were in the past. But, despite that, ambulance staff were seeing fewer patients per shift, he said, because of the delays getting people into hospital because of delayed discharges.

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‘I was a nobody’: Boris Becker gives first interview since leaving UK prison

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Former Wimbledon champion tells German broadcaster he learned a hard lesson and experience was ‘worthwhile’

Boris Becker has given his first interview since leaving prison in the UK and being deported back to Germany earlier this week, telling German viewers: “In prison I was a nobody.”

The former Wimbledon champion, appearing slimmed down and sporting a new hair colour and style, told the broadcaster Sat 1 that as an inmate he was not called by his first name, and “no one gave a shit” about his champion status.

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TSB fined £48m over ‘serious failings’ in IT meltdown

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FCA penalises bank after millions of customers were locked out of their accounts for weeks

City regulators have fined TSB £48m for “widespread and serious” failings related to the IT meltdown in 2018 that left millions of banking customers locked out of their accounts for weeks.

The long-awaited fine is expected to draw a line under the scandal, which tarnished the challenger bank’s reputation and forced its chief executive to step down within months of the botched move to a new IT platform.

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Scotland’s proposed gender recognition reforms explained

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Holyrood bill introducing a system of self-declaration for gender recognition has polarised opinion

Scottish government plans to reform how a transgender person changes the sex on their birth certificate will reach their last legislative stage with week, with amendments to a bill being discussed on Tuesday and the final debate and vote on Wednesday.

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Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland strike for second day

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Tuesday’s strike goes ahead as Royal College of Nursing highlights low pay

Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland went on strike on Tuesday in an ongoing dispute with the government about pay and concerns about patient safety.

Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) took part after it balloted its members in October. It has said that low pay is the cause of chronic understaffing that is putting patients at risk and leaving NHS staff overworked.

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Train drivers to stage fresh 24-hour UK strike on 5 January

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Aslef action falls between two 48-hour strikes by RMT, knocking out most trains for five days

Train drivers have called a fresh 24-hour strike on 5 January in the long-running dispute over pay and conditions on UK railways.

The action at 15 train operators by members of the Aslef union falls between two 48-hour strikes by the RMT union on 3-4 and 6-7 January, meaning most trains will be wiped out for five consecutive days.

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Ambulance strike in England and Wales will bring ‘huge risk of harm’

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Patients with serious conditions and injuries will have to get themselves to A&E, NHS chiefs say

Thousands of patients who have had strokes, heart attacks or broken bones will have to get themselves to A&E on Wednesday when ambulance staff strike over pay, NHS bosses have warned.

The disruption is expected to last for up to three days, with crews not reaching some patients who called 999 on Wednesday until Thursday or Friday.

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King Charles III bank note designs revealed by Bank of England

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Monarch’s portrait on £5, £10, £20 and £50 likely to enter circulation in 2024

Designs for bank notes featuring an image of King Charles III have been revealed by the Bank of England, with plans to enter circulation by mid-2024.

Announcing the design for the first time in the run-up to the coronation in May, the UK central bank said the king’s portrait would appear on existing designs of all four of its polymer bank notes currently in circulation – £5, £10, £20 and £50.

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Exodus of more than half a million from workforce ‘puts UK economy at risk’

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Loss of employees since Covid raises fears of weaker growth and higher inflation, says Lords report

An exodus of more than half a million people from the British workforce since the Covid pandemic is putting the economy at risk of weaker growth and persistently higher inflation, a Lords report has warned.

The House of Lords economic affairs committee said the sharp rise in economic inactivity – when working-age adults are neither in employment nor looking for a job – since the onset of the health emergency was posing “serious challenges” to the economy.

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Terry Hall: lead singer of the Specials dies aged 63

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Having survived a tough childhood in Coventry, Hall became one of pop’s defining voices at the turn of the 80s, chronicling British decline and disfranchised youth with the 2 Tone band

• Alexis Petridis: ‘Terry Hall was the self-assured eye of the Specials storm’
• Terry Hall: a life in a pictures

Terry Hall, the lead singer of the Specials and a former member of Fun Boy Three and the Colourfield, has died aged 63, his bandmates in the Specials have confirmed.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, following a brief illness, of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced,” the band tweeted.

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