Category Archives: UK news

Liz Truss refuses to rule out real-terms benefits cuts

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PM facing fresh battle with MPs as she declines to commit to raising benefits in line with inflation

Liz Truss has refused to commit to raising benefits in line with inflation, amid a fresh battle with MPs over cuts to spending including concern from among her cabinet.

The prime minister said pensions would rise in line with inflation, having committed to the pensions “triple lock” during the leadership campaign. But she said people on welfare benefits were in a “different situation” and said they were more able to look for more work.

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People of colour far likelier to live in England’s very high air pollution areas

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Study finds minority ethnic people make up nearly half of populations in areas with very high NO2 or PM2.5 levels

People of colour in England are more than three times more likely to live in neighbourhoods with very high air pollution, putting them at disproportionate risk of heart attacks, cancer and strokes, according to research.

Minority ethnic people make up nearly half the populations living in areas where average levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or small particulate matter (PM2.5) were double World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, research based on official statistics showed.

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Cop27 host Egypt warns UK not to backtrack from climate agenda

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Unusual diplomatic intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zero

The Egyptian government, host of the next UN climate summit, has warned the UK against “backtracking from the global climate agenda”, in a significant intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zero.

The warning before the Cop27 conference, which will take place in just over a month in Sharm el-Sheikh, to the host of Cop26, which took place in Glasgow last November, is highly unusual in diplomatic terms. The hosts of successive Cops are responsible for a smooth handover of the talks.

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Kwasi Kwarteng set to address Tory conference with authority on the line after 45% tax rate U-turn – UK politics live

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Chancellor expected to give changed address after confirming plan to axe top rate of income tax has been scrapped

Q: Where does this leave your credibility?

Kwarteng says he has been in parliament for 12 years. He says ministers do sometimes change their minds.

I decided, along with the the prime minister, not to proceed [with the policy].

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Guardian and Observer photographer Eamonn McCabe dies aged 74

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Tributes paid to one of the most celebrated newspaper photographers and picture editors of his generation

Eamonn McCabe, one of the most celebrated and admired newspaper photographers and picture editors of his generation, has died aged 74.

McCabe was a multi-award-winning sports photographer at the Observer from 1976 and later became a trailblazing picture editor of the Guardian at a key moment in its history. His third act was as a portrait photographer, with 29 examples of his work in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

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People with recent dementia diagnosis found to have higher suicide risk

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Calls for more support after England research shows those diagnosed under 65 also at greater risk

People who have recently been diagnosed with dementia, or who are diagnosed with the condition at a younger age, are among those at increased risk of suicide, researchers have found. The findings have prompted calls for greater support for those experiencing such cognitive decline.

While previous research has explored a potential link between dementia diagnosis and suicide risk, the results have been inconclusive, with some suggesting a raised risk and others a reduced risk.

•In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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MoD apologises over ‘unacceptable’ standard of army homes

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Families sent letter admitting to failures amid claims of squalid and even dangerous accommodation

The Ministry of Defence has been forced to apologise after army families were left enduring the “unacceptable” standards of housing contractors given management deals worth £650m six months ago.

The contracts had been lauded by the defence minister Leo Docherty in April but a letter was sent to families last week admitting to multiple failures amid claims of squalid and even dangerous accommodation.

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US pollster urges Tories to ditch culture wars

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Frank Luntz tells Tory conference meeting weaponising such issues is likely to ‘win an election but lose the country’

A US pollster who advised Boris Johnson has delivered an impassioned plea for Tories to stop weaponising culture war issues, warning them they would “win an election but lose the country”.

“It guarantees divisions for generations and it can get you elected but you will hate the result,” Frank Luntz told a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference, which was packed out with Tory activists and elected officials eager to hear his advice on language and campaigning.

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Truss picked ‘cronies off backbenches’ for cabinet, says Heseltine

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Former Tory ‘big beast’ says PM needs to ‘appoint ministers who know what the heck they’re doing’

Liz Truss packed her cabinet with “cronies off the backbenches” rather than competent ministers with a range of views, and appeared to have no coherent plan behind her mini-budget, Michael Heseltine has said.

The ex-deputy prime minister and former senior Conservative, who sits in the Lords as an unaffiliated peer after being suspended from the party in 2019, also predicted that Truss’s chances of winning the next election were “looking pretty bleak”.

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‘Unprecedented’ bird flu epidemic sees almost 50m birds culled across Europe

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Poultry farmers from Arctic to Portugal reported 2,500 outbreaks in past year, with migrating birds taking avian flu to North America

The UK and continental Europe have been hit by an “unprecedented” number of cases of avian flu this summer, with 47.7m birds having been culled since last autumn, according to new figures.

Poultry producers from as far north as Norway’s Svalbard islands to southern Portugal have together reported almost 2,500 outbreaks of the disease since last year.

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Unions brand bid to exempt firms with up 500 staff from new rules ‘reckless’

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Government says change would apply to all new regulations and it would look to raise in threshold in future

Ministers are seeking to exempt firms with up to 500 staff from new regulations, with unions warning that they could soon be spared from reporting on gender pay gaps and executive pay ratios in a “cynical and reckless” move.

Liz Truss announced on Sunday that companies with up to 500 staff would now be treated the same way as small businesses with fewer than 50 staff, which are exempt when new regulations are introduced.

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Labour demands names of guests at champagne event Kwarteng attended

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Drinks reception with wealthy Tory donors took place on same day the chancellor delivered mini-budget

Pressure is growing on the Tory party to provide a full list of attendees at a private champagne reception attended by the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, hours after he delivered his mini-budget.

Anneliese Dodds, the Labour chair, has written to her Conservative counterpart, Jake Berry, calling on him to release a list of those in attendance and whether they pledged donations or paid a fee to be there.

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Tory MPs threaten rebellion against Liz Truss over mini-budget

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Party conference overshadowed by fears that refusing to do a U-turn on tax and spending cuts will kill off election chances

Liz Truss is struggling to persuade Conservative MPs to back her controversial mini-budget, with some even threatening all-out rebellion amid fears that they will once again become known as the “nasty party”.

The prime minister faces with a rising drumbeat of discontent that is overshadowing the Tory conference after she insisted she would “stand by” her plans to cut the top rate of income tax and ram through public spending cuts.

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Ex-Spice Girl Mel B tells Tory conference of need for domestic abuse reforms

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Singer tells event societal change is required if the lives of women are to be freed from threat of abuse

The former Spice Girl Melanie Brown has told an event at the Conservative party conference of her fears that the “massive issue of domestic abuse” will slip down the agenda during “these times of absolute economic chaos”.

The singer, known to millions as Mel B or “Scary Spice”, was speaking at a meeting organised by the Sun and Women’s Aid, which she became a patron of in 2018 after leaving what she described as an abusive relationship.

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Truss’s mini-budget looks likely to cost the Tories the next election | Pippa Crerar

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Tory MPs fear voters see them as the nasty party again after the prime minister refused to rethink tax cuts for the rich

Liz Truss has long channelled Margaret Thatcher – echoing her rhetoric, her free market instincts and even her clothes – but as the Tory conference kicked off in Birmingham on Sunday many in her party were hoping that she would relinquish ambitions to be the next Iron Lady and drop her mini-budget plans.

There were early glimmers of hope. In an article for the Sun, she admitted her proposals would cause “short term disruption” but that she had an “iron grip” on the country’s finances. Then she told the BBC she understood public concerns. “I do accept we should have laid the ground better,” she said.

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Kwasi Kwarteng reportedly spoke of austerity cuts at champagne party on mini-budget day

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Jake Berry says event on mini-budget day, where guests allegedly told Kwasi Kwarteng to stick to his policies, was ‘not unusual’

The Conservative party chair has defended the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and said that people who attended a private champagne reception with him on the day he delivered his mini-budget should be “lauded” as Britain’s leading entrepreneurs.

Jake Berry said the drinks reception was not unusual and that, along with hedge fund managers, property developers had also been present.

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Tory MP Steve Baker apologies to Ireland and EU for behaviour during Brexit

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Northern Ireland minister says he and colleagues had not always respected others’ ‘legitimate interests’

Steve Baker – arch Brexiter and one of the Conservative party’s fiercest campaigners to get the UK out of the EU – has apologised to Ireland and Brussels for the way he and some of his colleagues behaved over the past six years.

Baker told the Tory party conference that he and others in the party had not shown respect to the “legitimate interests” of Ireland or the EU during the campaign to leave the bloc.

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Body of aid volunteer Paul Urey returned from Ukraine to UK

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Family members raised £9,000 for repatriation after Foreign Office said it was unable to pay transport costs

The body of Paul Urey, a British aid volunteer who died after being captured by Russian fighters in Ukraine, has been returned to the UK.

Family members of the Warrington man raised £9,000 to repatriate his body after the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was unable to pay the transport costs.

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Co-founder of collapsed energy firm Bulb hopes to expand battery business

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Loss-making venture led by Amit Gudka eyes continent as countries move towards using renewable power

The co-founder of collapsed energy supplier Bulb is planning to expand his loss-making battery storage venture into Europe as the energy crisis escalates.

Amit Gudka hopes to develop Field Energy, the business he set up after leaving Bulb in February 2021, on the continent as countries attempt to switch toward renewable power.

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Michael Gove says Liz Truss’s tax cut plans ‘not Conservative’

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Influential former minister hints he will not vote for mini-budget measures, in blow to PM

Michael Gove said Liz Truss’s programme of tax cuts was deeply concerning and “not Conservative”, and hinted he would not vote for them, in a major blow to the prime minister’s authority.

Gove, who was removed as levelling up secretary before Boris Johnson left No 10 but remains a hugely influential Tory MP, said he could not back Truss’s abolition of the top 45p rate of tax, or the removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses.

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