Catherine Poole tells prime minister to pay staff more, raising a finger and saying: ‘You need to try harder’
Rishi Sunak got a tase of how the “difficult decisions” he has said will guide spending cuts may go down with the public, when he was challenged by a hospital patient about nurses’ pay.
During a tour of Croydon University Hospital in south London, Sunak met NHS workers and posed for smiling selfies with them, but was confronted by 77-year old Catherine Poole.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak needs to clarify whether his home secretary’s security breach contained market sensitive data, Labour says
Rishi Sunak needs to clarify whether Suella Braverman leaked market-sensitive data before she resigned and then was reappointed as home secretary, Labour said on Friday.
Amid further warnings that her re-appointment was a mistake, Pat McFadden, a shadow Treasury minister, said the prime minister needed to clarify urgently whether companies or individuals could have benefited financially from her security breach.
Continue reading...Authors and politicians have accused the US comedian of projecting an American cultural context on to the UK
The row began with a single call to a UK radio station, was stoked by one of America’s best-known comedians and ended with former Cabinet ministers wading in – and Downing Street, too.
At the heart of the furore: a claim that Rishi Sunak had experienced a racist “backlash” after becoming the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister.
Continue reading...Data suggests hospital admission rates among children under five have almost doubled in two weeks
Parents are being urged to get their young children vaccinated against flu as data suggests hospitalisation rates among under-fives have almost doubled in England in the space of two weeks.
Data suggests the UK could face a triple whammy of respiratory illness this winter. While experts are concerned there could be another Covid wave, levels of both flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are increasing. The latter is a common winter virus that typically affects young children and can cause bronchiolitis.
Continue reading...Steven Craig served prison time for 1998 attack on Jacqueline Kirk and was re-arrested after her death in 2019
A man has been convicted of murdering his ex-partner, who died 21 years after he doused her with petrol and set her on fire.
Steven Craig, now 58, inflicted horrendous injuries on Jacqueline Kirk in a car park in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in April 1998. Kirk had burns to 35% of her body, required a tracheotomy and operations including skin grafts, and was in hospital for nine months.
Continue reading...EU commissioner says Elon Musk’s platform must ‘fly by our rules’ as UK minister raises concerns over content moderation
Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has been polarizing, sparking reactions from politicians, regulators and non-profits across different continents.
Some have expressed concerns about potential changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies now that it’s in the hands of the Tesla billionaire, while others celebrated how they expect the platform’s newly minted leader will handle content and speech on Twitter.
Continue reading...Now is not the right time to take this policy forward, says prime minister’s spokesperson
Rishi Sunak has dropped his Conservative leadership campaign pledge to fine patients £10 if they miss a GP or hospital appointment.
The prime minister had told Tory members in August it was “wrong” that there are “15m missed appointments every year NHS” at GPs and hospitals, as he justified the fine as a “tough” measure to change people’s behaviour.
Continue reading...Oil company’s third-quarter result smashes Wall Street forecasts – as does Chevron’s £11.2bn
The US oil supermajor ExxonMobil has reported a quarterly profit of nearly $20bn (£17.3bn), $4bn more than analysts had forecast, almost matching the earnings of the tech giant Apple.
Exxon’s $19.7bn profit for the third quarter outstripped the record $17.9bn it reported for the previous quarter, as it became the latest fossil fuel producer to enjoy soaring earnings, a day after Shell announced global profits of $9.5bn between July and September.
Continue reading...Draft deal includes targets and staff bonuses for tackling the number of asylum seekers in the UK
Rishi Sunak is aiming to reach an agreement with France to address the unprecedented number of Channel crossings by asylum seekers which could include new targets and bonuses, according to reports.
Ministers and officials are expected to review a draft deal that was previously close to being signed with France, which encompasses targets for how many boats are stopped from reaching the UK and a minimum number of French officers patrolling the beaches at any one time, sources told the Times.
Continue reading...Royal College of Midwives will soon ballot English and Welsh members after below-inflation offer is rejected in Scotland
Midwives in Scotland have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action over what they described as an “insulting” pay offer.
More than 88% of midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) in Scotland, who are part of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), voted to strike in a turnout of 61% of eligible voters.
Continue reading...British Transport Police are hunting a man who assaulted one man at a tube station and then pushed another on to the tracks at a different stop
British Transport Police are hunting a suspect who assaulted one man at a tube station and then pushed another on to the tracks at a different stop.
At 11.50am on Thursday, the first victim was assaulted by the man at Baker Street station.
Continue reading...One minister resigned to vote against making it easier for transgender people in Scotland to change their legal sex
The Scottish National party suffered its largest backbench revolt in its 15 years in power over the vote on its bill making it easier for transgender people to change their legal sex, with one minister resigning in order to vote against the plans.
The community safety minister, Ash Regan, quit, prompting Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, to accuse her of failing to raise her concerns with colleagues. Seven SNP members voted against the party whip and two abstained.
Continue reading...Group’s earliest primogenitor was probably a diminutive creature with a long snout, researchers suggest
The last common ancestor of today’s placental mammals – a group that includes humans, whales and armadillos – was probably a shrew-like creature with a long snout, researchers have revealed.
The forerunners of mammals are believed to have split from what eventually became reptiles around 320m years ago, but it was not until some time between 70 and 80m years ago that placental mammals arose.
Continue reading...Comedian and campaigner tells planning inquiry retailer is failing to use landmark building imaginatively
The comedian Griff Rhys Jones is the latest high-profile name to weigh in against Marks & Spencer’s plan to raze and redevelop its main London store, accusing the retailer of not making the most of its landmark building.
Jones, who presented the BBC TV series Restoration in the 2000s, which identified significant buildings in need of repair, told an inquiry into the development of the store on Oxford Street near Marble Arch that, having shopped there, he “would venture that M&S are not using the space in a very imaginative way compared to the possibilities old buildings offer. I wonder if the ‘unsuitability’ has more to do with the desire to create a much bigger floor space and offices.”
Continue reading...Former intelligence select committee chief warns issue threatens to undermine confidence in sharing sensitive information
Suella Braverman is under pressure to answer fresh questions about alleged “security breaches”, as a former head of parliament’s intelligence and security committee warned the row threatened to undermine officials’ confidence in sharing sensitive information with her.
The account given by the home secretary and backed up by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, when he defended reappointing her just six days after she was found to have broken the ministerial code were challenged by government insiders and a senior Conservative MP.
Continue reading...Government considering proposals so that officials could ‘quickly’ remove migrants from country if they are unsuccessful
Albanians could be given a “bespoke route” to have their immigration cases heard upon arrival in Britain so officials can “quickly” remove them from the country if they are unsuccessful, MPs have been told.
Government figures circulated earlier this year claimed about 60% of migrants making Channel crossings every day were from Albania, although officials noted the numbers fluctuate.
Continue reading...Temperatures expected to hit 20C in UK, Germany and France this weekend
Three months ago, Britain experienced its hottest day on record. Records were similarly broken in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands as an extreme heatwave swept across much of Europe.
Now, with much of western Europe experiencing unusually mild autumnal temperatures caused by the jet stream – strong winds blowing from west to east – figures are expected to reach 20C this weekend in parts of Britain, Germany, France and elsewhere, according to national weather services.
Continue reading...MPs and peers say Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s life is seriously at risk and his sister is being ignored
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has been accused by MPs and peers of ignoring the case of jailed British-Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd El-Fattah.
He has also been accused of failing to engage with the activist’s sister, Sanaa Seif, who has camped outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office for 10 days in an effort to force the British government to act.
Continue reading...Oil giant to boost dividends as firm continues to benefit from energy price spike after Ukraine invasion
Shell has reported profits of nearly $9.5bn (£8.2bn) between July and September, more than double the amount it made during the same period a year earlier, as it said it would increase its payments to shareholders.
The oil company continued to benefit from soaring energy prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it was not able to match the record $11.5bn profit it earned between April and June, because of weaker refining and gas trading.
Continue reading...Larger-than-forecast drop to £1.5bn in third quarter came despite rising interest rates
Profits at Lloyds Banking Group dropped by 26% in the three months to September, as the UK’s “deteriorating” economic outlook forced it to put aside nearly £670m to protect against potential defaults on loans and mortgages.
Lloyds, which owns Halifax and is the country’s largest mortgage lender, said pre-tax profits had tumbled to £1.5bn in the third quarter, down from £2bn during the same period last year. That was larger than the 9.5% fall to £1.8bn that analysts had predicted.
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