The prime minister says due process needs to be followed after revelations about Baroness Mone in the Guardian
Everyone is hard up at the moment – including the Conservative party, it seems. According to Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham, the party is raising membership fees by 56%.
This morning Steve Barclay said Rishi Sunak was taking “a very strong stand in terms of the priority of getting inflation down”. (See 10.02am.) But not for Tory members, it seems.
Continue reading...Pub and restaurant group Mitchells & Butlers lauds sales rise but warns of risks ahead
The All Bar One owner, Mitchells & Butlers, has lauded recent encouraging sales at the pub and restaurant group but warned that risks from rising food and energy costs lie ahead.
The hospitality chain, which also owns Toby Carvery and Harvester, told shareholders on Wednesday that like-for-like sales had increased by 6.5% since the end of its latest financial year in late September.
Continue reading...Albanian ambassador to UK calls for end to ‘campaign of discrimination’ amid debate over small boat arrivals
Albanian children are being subjected to racist bullying in UK schools because of the debate surrounding arrivals by small boats, the country’s ambassador in London has said.
Qirjako Qirko spoke out after Albanians were singled out by ministers and sections of the media during the recent rise in the number of his country’s citizens travelling across the Channel to claim asylum in the UK.
Continue reading...Unanimous judgment in UK’s highest court means Stormont assembly can proceed with abortion services bill
The Northern Ireland assembly can legislate to create buffer zones around abortion clinics to protect users and staff, the UK’s highest court has ruled.
The supreme court’s unanimous judgment means the assembly can proceed with the abortion services (safe access zones) (Northern Ireland) bill, which criminalises people who enter the specified areas and influence people attending clinics.
Continue reading...PM responds to question from Keir Starmer about Tory peer who appears to have received millions from PPE firm awarded government contracts
Rishi Sunak has said he was “shocked” to read allegations surrounding the Conservative peer Michelle Mone, after Keir Starmer used prime minister’s questions to ask him how she appeared to have received millions from the profits of a PPE company.
“How did his colleague, Baroness Mone, end up with nearly £30m of taxpayers’ money in her bank account?” the Labour leader asked, citing information revealed by the Guardian.
Continue reading...MPs question transport secretary about reports government stipulation may have scuppered rail deal
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, has refused to deny reports that the government pushed rail companies to include future use of driver-only trains as a condition of a pay deal, thus potentially scuppering an agreement.
Under sustained questioning before the Commons transport committee, Harper at first said he had not seen the report, before repeatedly declining to engage with the subject beyond saying that reforms in how the railways were run were necessary to make savings.
Continue reading...‘It was quite amusing, until it actually happened,’ says customer, after being left £75,000 overdrawn
A family of four were told they owed nearly £1m to EDF for a year’s electricity and had £80,000 taken by direct debit, despite telling the company it was clearly incorrect.
The payment, which put Richard Baron and his family more than £75,000 over their overdraft limit, was refunded by their bank’s fraud team before any serious damage was done. However, after cancelling their direct debit, they were put on a higher tariff with the energy provider.
Continue reading...Duke and Duchess of Sussex honoured for their activism days ahead of revelatory Netflix show
A US human rights charity has awarded Harry and Meghan its Ripple of Hope award for their activism on racial justice and mental health.
In a statement celebrating their award, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said “a ripple of hope can turn into a wave of change”. The couple received the award on Tuesday night in New York, two days before the release of a tell-all Netflix show expected to include damning revelations about the royal family.
Continue reading...Leaders announce partnership to reduce global dependence on Russian energy
Joe Biden has agreed a deal to ramp up gas exports from the US to the UK as part of a joint effort to cut bills and limit Russia’s impact on western energy supplies.
Sunak and Biden announced an “energy security and affordability partnership” and set up a joint action group, led by Westminster and White House officials, with the aim of reducing global dependence on Russian energy.
Continue reading...Crowds mass joyfully in centre of capital after 3-0 victory on penalties against Spain puts team in quarter-finals
Elated Morocco fans celebrated on the streets of London on Tuesday night following their team’s triumph over Spain in the last 16 of the World Cup.
Footage showed crowds of people around Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus and Edgware Road chanting, dancing and waving Moroccan flags after the result.
Continue reading...Labour’s motion calling on the government to release all documents and advice relating to contracts awarded to PPE Medpro has also now passed
Labour received £4.7m in donations between July and September, more than any other party, PA Media reports. PA says:
The sum received by Labour is significantly greater than that donated to the Conservatives, which, according to Electoral Commission data, received £2.9m over the same period.
The Liberal Democrats recorded about £1.7m, according to returns submitted to the Electoral Commission, with more than £11m in total donated to 19 separate UK political parties.
Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said the government was to blame for not allowing the train companies to make an offer acceptable to his members. He said:
The government are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what is going on. They have held back even these paltry offers to the last minute.
He claimed the rail companies were not losing out from strike action, because they were subsidised by the government, and he described this system as “perverse and corrupt”. He explained:
They get indemnified for every day of strike action. They are paid the money that they would otherwise have lost, and the only people that lose are my members who lose their wages and the public and these businesses in hospitality who lose their income as well, while the people I negotiate with lose no money whatsoever.
It is the most perverse and corrupt system we have ever seen in British business where those people that are conducting the dispute make no losses whatsoever and the taxpayer subsidises those people by money given directly from the DfT [Department for Transport].
He said the timing of the latest strikes was “unfortunate”, but he claimed the union was forced to act. He said:
We have to respond to what the companies are doing, and they’re doing that very deliberately. They’re seeking to ratchet up the dispute.
He accepted that, although the additional strikes were over Christmas, when rail services were very minimal anyway, they would create further disruption for passengers. In the past Lynch had said the RMT wanted to avoid strike action over Christmas.
He defended the RMT’s decision to object to a move to driver-only trains. Driver-only operation was “less safe”, he said. Women and disabled passengers wanted to see guards on trains, he said, because they felt that was safer and more welcoming. When the presenter, Justin Webb, put it to Lynch that driver-only trains still had another member of staff on board, and that they just did not have a staff member operating the doors, Lynch said that was wrong. He said most of these services did not have anyone else on board, apart from the driver.
Continue reading...Labour force move to release material about awarding of contract to PPE Medpro through humble address in Commons
Ministers will have to release papers, advice and correspondence relating to the award of contracts to PPE Medpro, a company recommended by Conservative peer Michelle Mone who subsequently appeared to receive millions originating from its profits.
Labour forced the move through a “humble address” in parliament on Tuesday, which asked for the government to hand over documents involving ministers and special advisers relating to PPE Medpro to parliament’s public accounts committee.
Continue reading...The environment secretary tells MPs it is ‘not the role of government to provide free food’ or to intervene in markets
The government has ruled out making any intervention in the market to help farmers or consumers with high food prices, the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has said.
Food prices have soared in the past year, in part owing to higher input prices such as energy, fertiliser and animal feed. Last month, food price inflation hit a fresh high of 12.4%, with poorer households hit hardest.
Continue reading...Comedian who has co-hosted Channel 4 show for three series to focus on other projects including Fantasy Football League
Matt Lucas has announced he is stepping down from his presenting role on The Great British Bake Off.
The 48-year-old comedian, who has hosted the popular Channel 4 show alongside Noel Fielding for three series, explained he was leaving as he could no longer commit to the programme’s schedule alongside his other projects, including his new hosting role on the revived comedy show Fantasy Football League.
Continue reading...Stephen Flynn, 34, who won seat in 2019, expected to seek more independence from party’s Edinburgh leadership
An Aberdeenshire MP little known outside Scotland’s political bubble has been elected the Scottish National party’s new leader at Westminster, as the party tries to keep its independence dreams alive after a fresh vote was blocked by the supreme court.
Stephen Flynn, 34, a former city councillor who only won his seat in 2019, will face Rishi Sunak at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday after beating Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss, a surprise late entry into the race, to lead the UK parliament’s third biggest bloc.
Continue reading...Find dating from about 650AD in Northamptonshire includes jewelled necklace and changed archaeologists’ view of the period
Archaeologists don’t often bounce with excitement, but the Museum of London archeology team could hardly contain themselves on Tuesday as they unveiled an “exhilarating” discovery made on the last day of an otherwise barren dig in the spring.
“This is the most significant early medieval female burial ever discovered in Britain,” said the leader of the dig, Levente Bence Balázs, almost skipping with elation. “It is an archaeologist’s dream to find something like this.”
Continue reading...‘Famine in all but name’ ravaging Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, yet British aid is one-fifth of 2017 amount
The UK urgently needs to do more to help more than 28 million people in drought-stricken Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, two former secretaries of state for international development and the heads of 14 of the UK’s leading aid agencies have warned in a joint letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
They say one person is dying every 36 seconds, yet British aid to the region is only one-fifth of what Britain provided when the region was struck by famine in 2017. More than 7 million children are acutely malnourished across the three countries.
Continue reading...Lack of funding identified as biggest obstacle to planting and maintaining hedgerows
Farmers are urging the government to include hedge creation in its nature-friendly farming subsidy scheme in an attempt to increase biodiversity.
Details about the post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s common agricultural policy have been scarce, with land managers simply told they would get payments for providing “public goods” such as protecting nature.
Continue reading...Total sales rose by 4% but figures were helped by inflation masking lower volumes, says BRC
Britain’s retailers benefited from a November sales boost fuelled by Black Friday discounts and colder weather as consumers bought winter coats, hot water bottles and hooded blankets, according to industry data.
In its latest snapshot of high street and online spending, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sales growth picked up last month compared with October, despite mounting concern over the cost of living crisis.
Continue reading...Labour-endorsed study finds initiative would save families thousands of pounds, cut benefits spending and raise tax revenues
Free universal preschool childcare and more funding for after-school clubs could increase government revenues and save a family with young children between £620 and £6,175 a year, a joint report endorsed by the Labour party has revealed.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the charity Save the Children have called for a universal childcare guarantee for all families until the end of primary school to allow more women to get back into work and reduce the attainment gap between rich and poor children in their early years.
Continue reading...