Category Archives: UK news

Starmer must not ‘sit back’ if Labour is to win next election, Mandelson says

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Former cabinet minister urges Labour leader to be ‘restless for change’ and challenge ‘post-truth’ campaign by Truss government

Liz Truss will mount a “post-truth” campaign presenting the Conservatives as the party of change at the next election, Peter Mandelson has warned, as he called on Keir Starmer not to “sit back” and assume automatic victory.

While Labour has held a steady lead in the opinion polls for nine months, Starmer was urged by the former cabinet minister to “do a better job” of showing voters how the party has evolved under his leadership to cement its chances of entering government.

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Tory MPs angrily challenge Rees-Mogg’s fracking revival plan

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Energy secretary considers bypassing local planning rules as backbenchers voice opposition

Ministers face a furious backlash from Conservative MPs after overturning a manifesto pledge to pause fracking until it is proved safe, and then indicating drilling could be imposed without local support.

Outlining a return to shale gas extraction in England after three years, Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed worries about earthquakes caused by the practice as “hysteria”, claiming this was often down to a lack of scientific understanding.

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UK in recession and further interest rate hikes probable, Bank warns Kwarteng

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Threadneedle Street makes clear on eve of tax-cutting mini-budget that plans risk triggering more rate rises

The Bank of England has warned Kwasi Kwarteng the economy is in recession and it will most probably need to push interest rates higher after Friday’s tax-cutting mini-budget.

On the eve of a major package of support from the chancellor designed to break what he called the economy’s “cycle of stagnation”, Threadneedle Street said the UK economy was heading for a second consecutive quarter of falling output, with gross domestic product set to shrink 0.1% in the three months to September.

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New bill vows to stop kleptocrats ‘treating UK as their safe deposit box’

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Proposed reforms previously delayed by Boris Johnson reannounced amid accusations Tories are soft on ‘dirty money’

Companies House will be given new powers to challenge incorrect or fraudulent claims made by kleptocrats and their agents in an economic crime bill that was previously delayed by Boris Johnson a few weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The new bill – the second of two that had to be hurriedly reannounced amid accusations the government had gone soft on dirty money – is backed by the new security minister, Tom Tugendhat.

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Rail strikes: 40,000 RMT members to stage further action on 8 October

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Strike will affect Network Rail and 15 train operators and comes on top those planned for 1 and 5 October

Another rail strike has been announced for next month, continuing the wave of industrial action sweeping the country.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) announced that 40,000 of its members at Network Rail and 15 train operators will strike on 8 October.

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National insurance increase will be reversed from 6 November, says Kwasi Kwarteng – UK politics live

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The chancellor says the move will save 28m people £330 on average next year

Catholics outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time, a demographic milestone for a state that was designed a century ago to have a permanent Protestant majority, my colleague Rory Carroll reports.

Thérèse Coffey is deputy prime minister as well as health secretary. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning, and responding to a question from the former Labour MP Ed Balls, who was presenting, she said that as deputy PM whould be would “chairing things like the home affairs committee and different elements like that”. But she rejected claims this meant she would be doing the health job part time. She said:

I’m conscious that in two weeks we’ve already pulled together our plan for patients and we will continue to develop that.

I don’t think it will be a case of being part-time ... We don’t have fixed working hours.

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Activists subvert poster sites to shame aviation and ad industries

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Billboards have been hijacked across Europe to highlight role of airline emissions in climate crisis

As Kate, 23, walked out of Seven Sisters station, in Tottenham, north London, she noticed an airline advertisement attracting unusual attention.

“I was on my way back home, I was coming out of the station, and I saw two people taking pictures of the billboard,” she said. “I thought at first it was just a normal airline ad, so I just walked past. Then I did a bit of a double take.”

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Family of woman who had fatal reaction to ‘vegan’ wrap call for better testing

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Celia Marsh’s family say more people will die unless testing throughout food industry is improved

The family of a woman with a severe dairy allergy who suffered a fatal reaction after eating a “vegan” Pret a Manger wrap contaminated with milk protein have warned that more people will die unless comprehensive testing throughout the food supply chain and better labelling is introduced.

Celia Marsh’s family also said they believed the 42-year-old dental nurse would still be alive if a company that made a coconut yoghurt added to the wrap had informed Pret there was a risk it could have been contaminated because it was made in a factory that used milk.

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Health secretary sets up £500m fund to discharge medically fit NHS patients

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Thérèse Coffey announces measure aimed at freeing up beds in hospitals in England before winter pressures

Ministers are setting up a £500m emergency fund to get thousands of medically fit patients out of hospital as soon as possible in an attempt to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed this winter.

Thérèse Coffey, the new health secretary, unveiled the move in the Commons on Thursday as part of her plans to tackle the growing crisis in the health service, especially patients’ long delays for care.

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Liz Truss could follow Trump and move UK embassy to Jerusalem

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PM considering breaking with decades of British foreign policy by relocating UK embassy in Israel

Liz Truss has said she is considering relocating the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a controversial move that would break with decades of UK foreign policy in order to follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump.

In a meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, the prime minister told Israel’s caretaker leader, Yair Lapid, about a “review of the current location” of the building, Downing Street said in a statement.

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‘Father of quantum computing’ wins $3m physics prize

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David Deutsch, who proposed an as yet unbuildable machine to test existence of parallel universes, shares prize with three others

A theoretical physicist who has never had a regular job has won the most lucrative prize in science for his pioneering contributions to the mind-bending field of quantum computing.

David Deutsch, who is affiliated with the University of Oxford, shares the $3m (about £2.65m) Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics with three other researchers who laid the foundations for the broader discipline of quantum information.

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Northern Ireland power sharing slips to 2023 as few relish a winter election

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Delay to protocol resolution likely to pause Stormont elections that were expected this year

The UK has given a six-month deadline for the Northern Ireland protocol row to be resolved, indicating Liz Truss is far more relaxed about the absence of a devolved government in Stormont than previously indicated.

An April 2023 date for the resolution of the Brexit row emerged after a meeting between the prime minister and the US president, Joe Biden, and would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday agreement.

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Aiden Aslin among 10 international ‘prisoners of war’ released by Russian authorities

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Five UK and two US foreign fighters captured in Ukraine among 10 freed after Saudi Arabia’s intervention

A Briton who was threatened with execution after being captured by Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol has been released alongside four other Britons and five other international prisoners after the intervention of Saudi Arabia.

Aiden Aslin and “the other British prisoners of war held captive by the Russian authorities” were already on their way back to the UK, said Aslin’s MP, Robert Jenrick, after being flown from Russia to Saudi Arabia.

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TikTok removes posts promoting weight loss aids to children

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The Pharmaceutical Journal found users being offered prescription drugs as diet pills

TikTok has removed postings promoting migraine and epilepsy drugs to under-18s as weight loss aids after criticism that hosting them was a danger to young people’s health.

The social media platform, which is popular among teenagers, acted after an investigation by the Pharmaceutical Journal found that users were being offered prescription drugs as diet pills.

6% of 10- to 15-year-olds say they are unhappy with life as a whole, up from 4% a decade ago.

Many more (12%) say they are not happy at school, a 3% rise on 10 years ago, with older children more likely to hold that view.

85% of parents and carers are concerned about how the cost of living crisis will affect their families in the next year.

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UK children’s doctors given advice on how to help families in poverty

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Health experts encourage doctors to talk about nutrition and socio-economic circumstances

Children’s doctors plan to help poor families cope with the cost of living crisis and its feared impact on health, amid concern that cold homes this winter will lead to serious ill health.

In an unusual move, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) is issuing the UK’s paediatricians with detailed advice on how they can help households in poverty.

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Kwasi Kwarteng to shrink part-time work benefits to grow labour supply

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New UK chancellor aims to reverse inactivity in labour market, especially among over-50s

Kwasi Kwarteng will tighten benefit rules for part-time workers, requiring them to work longer hours or take steps to increase their earnings.

The new rule will require benefit claimants working up to 15 hours a week to take new steps to increase their earnings or face having their benefits reduced. The current threshold is nine hours, though it was increased this summer to 12 hours, which will come into force next week.

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Striking union members should ‘get back to work’, says Liz Truss

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PM maintains pledge to bring in measures limiting industrial action but denies planning to rip up EU rules on workers’ rights

Liz Truss has told striking workers to “get back to work” as she doubled down on her pledge to bring in measures to limit industrial action within weeks of coming to power.

The prime minister suggested that a planned wave of strikes by workers ranging from train drivers to barristers, risked holding the country back during the toughest economic climate in a generation.

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No one should wait more than two weeks to see GP, Coffey to say

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New health secretary’s demand to improve patient access to GP care in England is immediately criticised by family doctors

No patient should have to wait more than two weeks to see a GP, the new health secretary will demand , in a move that has already been criticised by family doctors.

Thérèse Coffey will on Thursday set out a new “expectation” that everyone seeking an appointment with a GP should get one within 14 days while outlining a major plan to tackle the NHS’s growing crisis.

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Liz Truss dismisses Putin’s nuclear threats as ‘statement of weakness’

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UK PM spurns Russian president’s ‘sabre-rattling’ as she prepares call for democratic renewal in UN address

Liz Truss has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia will use “all the means at our disposal” to protect itself as “sabre-rattling” in advance of her UN speech, where she will warn him: “This will not work.”

The Russian president’s threats in a televised address to the nation appeared to suggest the conflict in Ukraine could spiral into a nuclear crisis, prompting a furious response from world leaders, led by the US president, Joe Biden.

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