Category Archives: UK news

Union fury as Rishi Sunak unveils anti-strike laws for ‘minimum service levels’

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Legislation will allow bosses of key public services to sue unions and sack employees who refuse to work

Rishi Sunak’s new anti-strike legislation to enforce “minimum service levels” in key public sectors including the NHS and schools has drawn a furious reaction from unions as the prime minister scrambles to get a grip on industrial disputes.

The law, which the government plans to introduce in the coming weeks, will allow bosses in health, education, fire, ambulance, rail and nuclear commissioning to sue unions and sack employees if minimum levels are not met.

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Prisoner fighting extradition ‘bullied’ by cellmates singing Leaving on a Jet Plane

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Nicholas Rossi, 35, says he is being taunted with John Denver song over his possible extradition to the US

An alleged fugitive fighting extradition to the US is seeking to be freed on bail from a Scottish jail because fellow prisoners are taunting him by singing John Denver’s hit Leaving on a Jet Plane.

Nicholas Rossi, 35, faces extradition to the US over charges of serious sexual assault in Utah, after he was arrested in an intensive care ward in Glasgow following his admission with Covid.

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A centrist pitch from Keir Starmer means he will need to show how he differs from Sunak

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Labour will not ‘spend its way out of the mess’ but will a more pragmatic approach persuade the core support the party still stands for something?

Keir Starmer was looking assured, shirt sleeves rolled up and cracking jokes, as he stood in front of a giant orange robotic arm in an east London design lab to make his new year speech.

Just 24 hours earlier Rishi Sunak had given his own address on the state of the nation at the building next door, prompting the Labour leader to quip: “I won’t tell the prime minister where I’m going on holiday this year just in case I find him there as well.”

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Briton shot dead in Jamaica was victim of contract killing, police say

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Jamaican police say fatal shooting of Sean Patterson, 33, was ‘contract killing that emanated from Britain’

A British man who was shot dead in Jamaica this week was the victim of a contract killing ordered in Britain, according to local police.

Sean Patterson, 33, a personal trainer from west London, was found with gunshot wounds to his upper body and head at about midday on Monday in Bogue Hill, St James, police said.

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Keir Starmer to promise ‘completely new way of governing’ in major speech – UK politics live

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Latest updates: Labour leader to say he plans to move away from the ‘sticking plaster politics’ of short-term decision making

Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, which represents train drivers, told the Today programme this morning that he did not think the anti-strike legislation proposed by the government (see 8.48am) would make life harder for his union.

He suggested the law would lead to unions like his having to organise strikes across more localised units, instead of nationally.

If we’ve got to sit down in 15, 20 or 30 different undertakings and agree different levels of [minimum service], all it means is that we put more strikes on to pick up the shortfall, create greater strife, the connectivity of the railway falls apart, the logistically it’s impossible.

There have been minimum [service] levels in European countries for several years. They have never been enacted because they don’t work.

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UK average annual temperature tops 10C for first time

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Mean temperature of 10.03C beats 2014’s 9.88C, confirming 2022 as country’s warmest on record

The UK’s annual average temperature topped 10C for the first time in 2022, as last year was confirmed as the country’s warmest on record.

The mean temperature across the 12 months was 10.03C, beating the previous all-time high of 9.88C in 2014, the Met Office said on Thursday.

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Cold snap boosts pre-Christmas sales at Next

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Retailer reports much better than expected data in December but remains ‘cautious’ about 2023

Next has upped profit forecasts for the year by £20m after better sales than expected in the run-up to Christmas, but said it remained “cautious” about the year ahead.

The fashion and home retailer said sales had risen by 4.8% in the nine weeks to 30 December, well above predictions of a 2% fall, delivering £66m more sales than expected.

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FTSE 100 bosses paid more in three days than average UK worker for whole year

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CEOs pass milestone nine working hours earlier than last year, with pay up 39% on January 2022

The bosses of Britain’s biggest companies will have made more money in 2023 by Thursday afternoon than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, according to analysis of vast pay gaps amid strike action and the cost of living crisis.

The High Pay Centre, a thinktank that campaigns for fairer pay for workers, said that by 2pm on the third working day of the year, a FTSE 100 chief executive will have been paid more on an hourly basis than a UK worker’s annual salary, based on median average remuneration figures for both groups.

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Stephen Fry calls for return of Parthenon marbles to Athens

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Removing sculptures from Greece was like ‘removing Eiffel Tower from Paris’, says actor

The removal of the Parthenon sculptures from Athens was akin to removing the Eiffel Tower from Paris or Stonehenge from Salisbury, Stephen Fry has said, as he called for the return of the classic Greek sculptures to their country of origin.

The actor and writer, who has been advocating for the return of the sculptures held at the British Museum in London, said there was a “win-win” solution to the centuries-old debate over ownership of the Parthenon marbles. He called for a cultural partnership under which other incredible Greek artefacts would be exhibited in the UK for the first time.

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Council providing three-minute care visits to vulnerable – ombudsman

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Overworked staff allocated extremely short care calls by local authority struggling to meet users’ needs

Care workers are taking as little as three minutes to help vulnerable people in their own homes, the social care ombudsman has found, after discovering a council was allocating extremely short visits to hundreds of people.

Amid chronic staff shortages and rising unmet care needs nationwide, a homecare worker commissioned by Warrington borough council sometimes stayed for just three minutes, despite the family paying for the full visit. The council was found to have allocated 15-minute care calls to more than 300 people in the region, despite national guidance stressing these were “not usually appropriate”.

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Energy efficiency ‘war effort’ needed to cut bills and emissions, say MPs

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Ministers missed crucial opportunities but should use energy windfall tax to speed up insulation efforts, committee says

A national “war effort” on energy efficiency is required to cut energy bills, reduce climate-heating emissions and ensure energy security, according to a cross-party committee of MPs.

Boosting efficiency in homes and businesses is the fastest way to cut energy use but the government missed a “crucial window of opportunity” last summer, the report from the environmental audit committee (EAC) said. The energy bills crisis was sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while political turmoil in the UK resulted in three prime ministers in office between July and October.

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‘No tricks, no ambiguity’: Rishi Sunak vows to deliver on ‘people’s priorities’

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PM makes five pledges for public to judge him against, but gives little detail or timescale

Rishi Sunak has asked the public to judge him on results as he revealed his strategy for the run-up to the next general election, hinting at pay rises in the public sector next year and vowing to get the economy growing.

The prime minister staked his premiership on a five-point plan to get through to polling day, expected in the autumn next year, admitting that the government could then be judged to be “delivering for you or not”.

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Labour dismisses Rishi Sunak’s five new pledges as mostly ‘so easy it would be difficult not to achieve them’ – as it happened

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Prime minister urges public to judge him on whether he delivers on new pledges but Labour says most ‘were happening anyway’. This blog is now closed

Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, has issued a statement welcoming the government’s proposal to abandon the privatisation of Channel (without actually putting it in those terms). She says the government should never have floated the plan in the first place, and that it has been a “total distraction” for the broadcaster. She says:

The Conservatives’ vendetta against Channel 4 was always wrong for Britain, growth in our creative economy, and a complete waste of everyone’s time.

Our broadcasting and creative industries lead the world, yet this government has hamstrung them for the last year with the total distraction of Channel 4 privatisation.

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Sunak strives to be reassuring but is five-point plan all sleight of hand?

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PM plans a ‘no tricks’ reset but with an inflation fall already expected this is more about hanging on at an election

In his first big speech since taking over at No 10, Rishi Sunak promised “no tricks, no ambiguity” as he announced his five promises to reset the government after a difficult year.

The prime minister said he would be focusing on halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting NHS waiting lists, and stopping small-boat crossings to the UK.

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PPE Medpro: UK government alleges firm supplied defective gowns to NHS

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Exclusive: DHSC alleges gowns were not sterile, could not be used within NHS ‘for any purpose’, and technical labelling was ‘invalid’

The UK government has accused a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone of supplying defective gowns that could have compromised the safety of patients had it been used in the NHS.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) paid the company, PPE Medpro, £122m for 25m sterile surgical gowns under a contract awarded in June 2020 after Mone first approached ministers offering to supply PPE. However, the DHSC has alleged the gowns were rejected because they were not sterile, their technical labelling was “invalid” and “improper”, and they “cannot be used within the NHS for any purpose”.

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Dignity funeral services firm targeted in first UK takeover bid of the year

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Consortium spearheaded by Direct Line founder, Sir Peter Wood, have swooped for company

A consortium spearheaded by Direct Line founder Sir Peter Wood has swooped for the funeral services company Dignity in the first UK takeover attempt of the year.

A subsidiary of Valderrama – a joint venture between Wood’s investment firm SPWOne and investment house Castelnau Group – has made a possible offer for the London-listed company, whose board recommended the deal to shareholders.

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Two men suspected over raid at Mark Cavendish’s home not found, court told

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Police have not tracked down two men suspected of involvement in robbery of Olympic cyclist, trial hears

Two of the suspects wanted over a knifepoint raid at the home of the Olympic silver medallist Mark Cavendish have not been tracked down by police, a court heard.

The cyclist and his wife, Peta, were robbed by a masked gang, while one of their children was hidden under bed covers, Chelmsford crown court was told earlier in the trial.

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Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti released from jail after family post bail

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Alidoosti was arrested for support of women’s movement in Iran, including posing on Instagram without hijab

The celebrated Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti has been released from prison by the authorities after her friends and family provided bail. Pictures of her outside jail with campaigners holding flowers and without a hijab were shown on Iranian social media.

She had been arrested for issuing statements of support for the women’s movement in Iran, including by posing on Instagram without a hijab, the compulsory hair covering in the country.

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Jeremy Hunt tells business leaders energy support is ‘unsustainably expensive’ – as it happened

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Business groups fear government will halve energy support after March, while commuters face more disruption on the railway

Households in the UK spent £1.1bn more on groceries in December than a year earlier, taking Christmas spending to a record £12.8bn, but got fewer items in their baskets as rampant inflation hit home.

Many stocked up on alcohol to enjoy while watching the men’s football World Cup, with sales of beer reaching the highest level for the year on the day of England’s quarter-final against France on 10 December.

This was a big drop. Mortgage approvals fell by 11,800 in November, the biggest fall since April 2020 and are at their lowest level since June 2020. This is not the news the housing market was hoping for in the first week of the new year.

Mortgage approvals are the key lead indicator for housing transactions, lower mortgage approvals today means fewer housing transactions tomorrow. A reduction in housing transactions will hurt all those businesses that are involved in the home-moving process, but the absence of forced sellers implies that house prices will not fall as far or as fast as housing transactions.

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