Lawyers had requested that 12-year-old be moved from Royal London hospital to spend his last moments in private
A ruling on whether 12-year-old Archie Battersbee can be moved from hospital to a hospice to die is expected at the high court on Friday morning.
Lawyers for the boy’s family took part in an hours-long legal hearing on Thursday, with the court in London sitting until late in the evening.
Continue reading...Tory leadership rivals disagree on how to turn economy around and avoid predicted downturn in Sky news debate
Liz Truss has claimed her tax cut plans could avert the looming recession, after the Bank of England forecast 13% inflation and a downturn lasting more than a year.
In a televised leadership interview, the foreign secretary was challenged about gloomy projections made by the Bank on Thursday, as it increased interest rates by 0.5 percentage points.
Continue reading...Tory hopefuls face questions from party members and are interviewed by Kay Burley as interest rates go up sharply. This blog is now closed.
The NHS has been “absent” from the Conservative leadership contest, the former health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said at a time when “staff shortages and morale have never been worse” in the health service.
Hunt, who is backing Sunak in the race, warned that “after energy bills the biggest issue facing the new prime minister will be a looming winter crisis”.
If the NHS continues this spiral of decline with ambulances, A&Es & GP surgeries all in serious crisis, we’ll see avoidable deaths mount up this winter. Staff know there’s no silver bullet, but they need to know there’s a plan.
Make flexible working automatic across the NHS so we don’t drive staff with young families to become locums or agency nurses, which is often the only way they can juggle work and home life.
Continue reading...Labour leader was late in declaring eight interests but watchdog called breaches ‘minor and/or inadvertent’
Keir Starmer has been found to have breached the MPs’ code of conduct by failing to register on time eight interests, including gifts from football teams and the sale of a plot of land.
An inquiry into the Labour leader was opened in June by the parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, relating to claims about late declaration of earnings and gifts, benefits or hospitality from UK sources.
Continue reading...Base rate raised by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75%, as Bank says inflation will hit 13% in October
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has left Britain on course for a recession lasting more than a year and inflation above 13%, the Bank of England has warned as it raised interest rates for a sixth successive time.
Threadneedle Street said it had no choice but to increase borrowing costs by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75%, blaming Russia for cost of living pressures not seen in more than four decades and a 5% drop in living standards straddling this year and next – the biggest since records began in the 1960s.
Continue reading...Octogenarian and child of five among adopted children or parents applying for unrestricted access to early years data
An 81-year-old, adopted as a child, and a 74-year-old mother who gave up her baby for adoption, are among 900 people who have registered to trace their parents or children after landmark legislation was passed in Ireland.
The public response to the new laws, which came into force on 1 July, is opening decades-old wounds for children and parents who were separated at birth, some sent to the UK or the US, during the past 100 years.
Continue reading...Michael Gunning calls for event to push for change after a ‘petrifying’ visit to his home country, Jamaica
The former Team GB swimmer Michael Gunning has called on the Commonwealth Games to do more to help improve LGBTQ+ rights in member countries as he talked of his “petrifying” experience visiting his home country, Jamaica, for the first time since he came out as gay.
Gunning, who retired from swimming earlier this year to help promote equality in sport, said the event could do more on the global stage to push the issue.
Continue reading...Author of Lords report says government’s approach ‘feels like setting off on a marathon with your shoelaces tied together’
Britain’s plan to become a “science and technology superpower” is so lacking in focus and so full of new organisational structures that the country risks becoming a “bureaucracy superpower” instead, an influential crossbench peer has said.
Prof John Krebs, the co-author of a Lords report on the government’s global ambitions for science and technology, said despite laudable rhetoric, there was no clear strategy as to how the “superpower” ambition might be realised, and reasons to doubt it would succeed.
Continue reading...South of England experiencing faster recovery than north, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Visits to high streets and shopping centres dipped to below pre-pandemic levels last month, with the north of England – plus Scotland and Northern Ireland – trailing behind the south in terms of the overall recovery from Covid-fuelled gloom.
Footfall decreased by 14% in July compared with 2019, reversing gains made in April, as retailers struggled to entice shoppers amid a heatwave in the third week of the month and surging inflation.
Continue reading...Rise in listening hours down to BBC budget cuts and rivals’ investment in marketing
Radio fans spent more time listening to commercial stations than the BBC over the first part of the summer – for the first time since the 1990s – as deep-pocketed rivals invest heavily in marketing, poaching talent and launching new services.
Continued budget cuts at the BBC have hampered the corporation’s ability to invest in its own services and retain talent with big names from Chris Moyles, Chris Evans, Eddie Mair and, more recently, Andrew Marr, Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis signing lucrative deals to move to commercial radio rivals.
Continue reading...Which? says people are cutting food and clothes spending to pay for mobile, broadband and landline
Almost 6 million UK households are struggling to pay their mobile, landline and broadband bills, with the cost of living squeeze forcing many to cut back on essentials such as food and clothes, cancel or change a service, or miss payments to stay connected.
A report from the consumer group Which? estimates that 5.7 million households have experienced at least one “affordability issue” in April, as cash-strapped homes struggle to cope with soaring bills and other costs.
Continue reading...Scunthorpe neighbourhood rallies to replace £1,000 of chocolate liquified in July’s heatwave
An online appeal has raised funds for the owners of a corner shop whose entire stock of chocolate worth nearly £1,000 melted after its air conditioning failed to cope during the recent heatwave.
More than £630 has been raised to replace the lost sweets after a GoFundMe page was set up by Claire York, the daughter of the store’s owners, Stephen and Linda Ellis.
Continue reading...Study finds reduced risk of cervical cancer recurring after HPV vaccination post-surgery, though further research is needed
Giving women the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine when precancerous lesions are removed from their cervix may cut the risk of cells recurring and them getting cervical cancer, a study has found.
Cases of cervical cancer in the UK have fallen hugely since school pupils aged 13 and 14 – first girls and later boys – began being offered HPV jabs in 2008 as protection against the disease.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary calls US House speaker’s trip ‘perfectly reasonable’ and urges China to de-escalate
Liz Truss has criticised China’s “inflammatory” response to a senior US politician visiting Taiwan and called for a de-escalation ahead of military drills expected over the coming days.
Hours after the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, ended a historic trip to the island about 100 miles east of China, the UK foreign secretary said her meetings with human rights activists and others were “perfectly reasonable”.
Continue reading...YouGov poll gives Truss large lead against Sunak as hopefuls prepare for third hustings in Cardiff
Rishi Sunak’s proposals to strengthen the government’s anti-terrorism programme risk “straying into thought crimes” and are potentially damaging to national security, a former senior police chief has said.
The former chancellor announced measures to beef up the Prevent programme on Tuesday night, as part of a bid to boost his flagging campaign to succeed Boris Johnson as the next prime minister.
The widening of Prevent could damage its credibility and reputation. It makes it more about people’s thoughts and opinions.
It is straying into thought crimes and political opinions.
Political opposition is not where police should be, it is those who pose a serious threat and risk of violence, not those opposed to political systems.
You can’t afford to make those sorts of judgmental errors. And I think that’s one of the reasons I think it’s actually going to turn out to be good that the polling is delayed slightly by a week because people have more time to see with both candidates whether they think their judgement is good, whether they think their instincts are good.
And that, I think, will favour my candidate.
Continue reading...Elaina Cohen wins two claims against Khalid Mahmood but loses claim that dismissal was related to her race, religion or belief
A parliamentary aide and former partner of a Labour MP has won a claim against him for unfair dismissal with a tribunal also agreeing she was “isolated and marginalised” for a year before being sacked.
Elaina Cohen won two claims that she made against her former boss Khalid Mahmood, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr. But she lost other claims including that her dismissal was related to race, religion or belief.
Continue reading...Family submit application to Strasbourg-based court in attempt to postpone withdrawal of life support
The parents of Archie Battersbee have submitted an application to the European court of human rights (ECHR) in an attempt to postpone the withdrawal of his life support.
Lawyers acting for Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, had been given a deadline of 9am on Wednesday to submit the application.
Continue reading...Civil rights activist led 1963 protests paving the way for passing of UK Race Relations Act
The civil rights activist Roy Hackett, who was one of the lead organisers of the Bristol bus boycott, has died at the age of 93.
The 1963 campaign, which lasted four months, mobilised people across the city to stop using Bristol Omnibus Company buses because of its refusal to hire black and Asian people. At the time, a “colour bar” in Britain meant that people from minority ethnic backgrounds could legally be banned from housing, employment and public places.
Continue reading...Results of 10-year project reveal that rewilding areas can boost biodiversity and crop yields
Putting farmland aside for nature does not have a negative effect on food security, a study has found.
A 10-year project by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology revealed that nature-friendly farming methods boost biodiversity without reducing average yields.
Continue reading...Global management consultancy’s three-year ban follows pressure by ex- Labour minister Peter Hain
The global management consultancy Bain & Company has been barred from tendering for UK government contracts for three years after its “grave professional misconduct” in state corruption in South Africa, the Cabinet Office said.
Britain became the first western country to take this step, after pressure from the former Labour minister and anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain.
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