Category Archives: UK news

Ofwat letting water firms charge twice to tackle sewage, court to hear

Posted on by

River Action bringing legal action against water regulator over who should foot bill for firms’ past failures to invest

Ofwat is unlawfully allowing water companies to charge customers twice to fund more than £100bn of investment to reduce sewage pollution, campaigners will allege in court on Tuesday.

Lawyers for River Action say the bill increases being allowed by Ofwat – which amount to an average of £123 a year per household – mean customers will be paying again for improvements to achieve environmental compliance that should have been funded from their previous bills.

Continue reading...

Phillipson calls for ‘less public debate’ from EHRC on gender recognition rules

Posted on by

Minister responds to calls from watchdog’s chair to approve new guidance on transgender rights ‘as soon as possible’

Bridget Phillipson has urged the equalities watchdog to focus more on helping ministers do their jobs and less on having public debates as a row continues about how long it will take to implement new rules on gender recognition.

The comments by Phillipson, who is the equalities minister as well as the education secretary, come after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took the unusual step of urging the government to “act with speed” in approving its statutory guidance on responding to a landmark supreme court ruling on transgender rights.

Continue reading...

Counter-terror police investigate claim UK university halted research after Chinese pressure

Posted on by

Sheffield Hallam University ordered professor to cease human rights study into Uyghurs forced labour in China

An investigation into allegations that a British university was subjected to pressure from Beijing authorities to halt research about human rights abuses in China has been referred to counter-terrorism police.

The Guardian reported on Monday morning that Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC) research institution, had ordered professor Laura Murphy to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in the country in February.

Continue reading...

Reeves to lay groundwork for tax rises in ‘candid’ speech about budget

Posted on by

Chancellor to promise ‘fairness and opportunity’ but will not repeat manifesto pledge on tax, after PM’s hint at breach

Rachel Reeves will lay the groundwork for a tax-raising budget that could break Labour’s election promise on income tax, in a major speech in which she will be “candid” about the tough choices ahead.

The chancellor will give the speech as the markets open on Tuesday, when she will promise to make fair choices at this month’s budget but decline to repeat her manifesto pledge of no rise in income tax, VAT or national insurance.

Continue reading...

John Lewis ad kickstarts Christmas countdown to the tune of 90s club classic

Posted on by

Department store chain banks on nostalgia to get customers into festive mood with Where Love Lives

John Lewis is hoping that a dash of nostalgia will get consumers into the festive mood this year as it officially kickstarts the countdown to Christmas with the launch of its 2025 advert to the tune of the 1990s club classic Where Love Lives.

The department store chain is appealing to ageing clubbers – and their teenage kids – with this year’s ad focused on a middle-aged dad transported back to his clubbing days after receiving a vinyl record from his son.

Continue reading...

French taxi driver cleared of stealing from David Lammy after fare dispute

Posted on by

Nassim Mimun, who left with Lammy’s and his wife’s bags after ‘tone escalated’, acquitted owing to lack of evidence

A French taxi driver accused of stealing money and luggage from David Lammy has been acquitted due to lack of evidence, a prosecutor said.

Nassim Mimun, 40, drove the deputy prime minister and his wife, Nicola Green, more than 600km (370 miles) from Forli, near Bologna in northern Italy, to the ski resort of Flaine in the French Alps on 11 April.

Continue reading...

Farage accused of betraying pensioners after triple lock hint in speech Tories say was rambling and incoherent – UK politics live

Posted on by

Reform leader refuses to commit to keeping mechanism that guarantees how pensions are increased

Farage is speaking now. He says another “depressing budget hoves into view”. It will be a budget that “doesn’t have the guts to cut public spending”.

He says Britain has been living under an illusion.

I think for some years we’ve actually been living under an illusion. We’ve not been prepared to face up to just how much of an economic mess we genuinely in.

As we slipped down the global league tables, we kid ourselves that it’s OK, we’ve got GDP growth.

Continue reading...

My Father’s Shadow looms over competition at British independent film awards

Posted on by

Akinola Davies Jr’s Nigeria-set drama has 12 nominations, including best film and besr director

Nigeria-set drama My Father’s Shadow is the leading contender at this year’s British independent film awards (Bifas), after it scooped 12 nominations, including best British independent film, best director for Akinola Davies Jr, and best screenplay for Davies’s brother Wale. The film came out ahead of Pillion, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’s coming-of-age relationship story, which got 10 nominations, and biopic I Swear, which got nine.

My Father’s Shadow, which stars Sope Dirisu and is Davies’s debut feature as a director, premiered at the Cannes film festival to admiring reviews. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described it as “a transparently personal project and a coming-of-age film in its (traumatised) way, a moving account of how, just for one day, two young boys glimpse the real life and real history of their father who has been mostly absent for much of their lives”. The film is yet to be released in the UK, but has already come out in Nigeria.

Continue reading...

Nigel Farage backtracks on Reform UK’s promise to cut £90bn of taxes

Posted on by

Party leader says proposal had been an ‘aspiration’ and accuses Tories and Labour of ‘wrecking the public finances’

Nigel Farage has rowed back from his party’s election promise to cut £90bn of taxes, accusing Labour and the Tories of “wrecking the public finances” and saying Reform UK would need to get public spending under control first.

The Reform leader rejected suggestions he had been forced to break manifesto promises in order to gain economic credibility, suggesting the proposal had only ever been an “aspiration”.

Continue reading...

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China

Posted on by

Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities

A British university complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped, the Guardian can reveal.

In February, Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China.

Continue reading...

Pregnant British teen accused of drug-smuggling moved to baby unit in Georgian prison

Posted on by

Mother of Bella May Culley, 19, awaiting sentencing on Monday, says conditions have improved after transfer to new jail

A pregnant British teenager accused of drug-smuggling has been moved to a mother and baby unit in a Georgian prison, her mother said.

Bella May Culley, 19, who is reported to be eight months pregnant, was arrested at Tbilisi airport in May.

Continue reading...

Richard Gott, former Guardian journalist and historian, dies aged 87

Posted on by

Charismatic figure of the left is remembered as one of the most informed commentators on Latin American affairs

The former Guardian journalist and historian Richard Gott has died aged 87.

Gott’s career at the Guardian began in 1964 and included spells as foreign correspondent, leader writer, features editor and literary editor.

Continue reading...

Paintings by UK pioneer of abstract art to be displayed in West Country

Posted on by

Large-scale William Scott works feature in exhibition that tells story of artist’s friendship with Mark Rothko

The story of how one of the UK’s great abstract painters was inspired by ordinariness – and the extraordinary meeting he had with an American artistic giant – is being told in a new exhibition in the West Country.

Three large-scale paintings by William Scott (1913 –1989) have been loaned to the Museum of Somerset in Taunton, not far from the artist’s home and studio in the countryside south of Bath.

Continue reading...

Two arrested after multiple people stabbed on train in Cambridgeshire

Posted on by

A number of injured taken to hospital after incident in Huntingdon, according to Cambridgeshire police

Two people have been arrested after several people were stabbed on a train to Huntingdon, Cambridge, police have said.

Cambridgeshire constabulary said armed police attended after officers were called to the scene at Huntingdon station at 7.39pm on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Big belly, wavy fur and a nose for trouble: we exclusively reveal the new-look Paddington

Posted on by

It’s been the biggest secret in theatre: what will the marmalade-loving, hyper-polite Peruvian look like in Paddington the Musical? As the curtain rises, we speak to the new bear’s creator, a veteran of Star Wars and PG Tips ads

Paddington stands within touching distance. His fur flutters as he turns, his neat button nose sniffs the air, and his eyes soften with a smile. For years, design details of the bear for Paddington the Musical, directed by Luke Sheppard, have been kept top secret. Now here he is, in his blue duffel coat and red hat. A quiet theatrical marvel. “What we’re doing,” says producer Sonia Friedman, “has never been done before.”

Standing around 1.2 metres (just under 4ft) tall, the bear is beautifully round, all belly and sloping shoulders. He is not an exact replica of the Paddingtons we’ve seen in illustrations or movies, but something new. His shaggy, caramel fur has a gentle wave, and his white snout is dotted with a brown nose, ideal for sniffing out trouble. Around his neck sits a label, threaded through an old piece of string, asking for someone to look after him.

Continue reading...

Man killed in South Yorkshire helicopter crash named as Peter Smith

Posted on by

Seventy-year-old, who died in incident near Bentley, said by family to be ‘a beloved husband, father and grandfather’

A man who was killed in a helicopter crash in Doncaster, South Yorkshire on Thursday has been named by his family as Peter Smith.

The family described Smith, 70, as “a beloved husband, father and grandfather” and said they were “all devastated by this sudden loss”, in a statement released by South Yorkshire police.

Continue reading...

Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana gets driving ban for speeding on hard shoulder

Posted on by

Footballer pleads guilty to one count of driving dangerously after his offence was caught on camera

A Chelsea footballer who was caught on camera speeding down the hard shoulder of a busy A road in his Lamborghini has been handed a lengthy driving ban.

Wesley Fofana, 24, pleaded guilty at North East Surrey magistrates court to one count of driving dangerously on 20 April along the A3 Esher bypass in Hook, Hampshire. The incident came to light after another motorist captured the footage on a dashcam and reported it to the police.

Continue reading...

Police charge 11 after cannabis worth nearly £14m seized at Birmingham airport

Posted on by

Officers confiscated more than half a tonne of class B drug in 22 suitcases from air passengers travelling from Thailand

Police have charged 11 people in connection with an attempt to smuggle 22 suitcases packed with cannabis from Thailand to Birmingham worth nearly £14m.

More than half a tonne of the class B drug, described by the National Crime Agency (NCA) as an “enormous amount”, was seized at Birmingham airport in August 2024. The 11 people charged, aged from 21 to 35, all travelled to the UK from Thailand via Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

Continue reading...

Britain one of least ‘nature-connected’ nations in world – with Nepal the most

Posted on by

Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain

Britain is one of the least “nature connected” nations in the world, according to the first ever global study of how people relate to the natural world.

Britain ranks 55th out of 61 countries in the study of 57,000 people, which looks at how attitudes towards nature are shaped by social, economic, geographical and cultural factors.

Continue reading...

Unregulated sperm donor still advertising services despite court warnings to women

Posted on by

Exclusive: Behaviour of Robert Albon, or ‘Joe Donor’, described as compulsive by judge who said he targeted vulnerable women

A prolific unregulated donor is still attempting to sell his sperm despite warnings from two family court judges, a Guardian investigation has found.

Robert Albon, who calls himself “Joe Donor”, has appealed to the courts to gain access to at least four of his biological children against their mothers’ wishes. In a rare move, a judge named him in 2023 to warn women of the risks of using his services, which he promotes on social media.

Continue reading...