Category Archives: UK news

£1bn needed to speed up mental health care for UK children, report says

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Call for ‘once in a generation’ package for NHS so young people can receive treatment within four weeks

Children needing mental health services should be guaranteed treatment within four weeks, with next-day referrals for those at risk of self-harm and suicide, according to an inquiry into the explosion in demand from young people for psychiatric help.

The inquiry by the Commission on Young Lives, chaired by the former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield, said a “once in a generation” £1bn recovery package was needed to boost an overstretched NHS system too often forced to turn away unwell youngsters.

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Cost of living crisis: new website speeds up help for Britons facing hardship

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Online platform cuts the time it takes to get grants to needy households as their bills soar

With the cost of living crisis worsening, it is vital that those facing hardship can access financial help quickly.

A new one-stop online platform that allows people in need to receive grants and other support from charities and local authorities claims it is massively speeding up the process – in some cases cutting the time it can take from several weeks or even months to only a few days.

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Disposable barbecues must be banned in England, says fire chief

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London commissioner Andy Roe calls for national ban after barbecues blamed for blazes across the country during driest spell in 111 years

London’s fire commissioner has joined calls for a total national ban on disposable barbecues after they were blamed for starting wildfires in England during the recent spate of dry weather.

The barbecues are a fire risk, especially when used on dry ground, and areas of England have seen the driest weather experienced for 111 years.

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Eurozone inflation hits record high of 8.9% as energy prices soar

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Cost of living crisis comes as 19-member currency bloc beats growth forecasts in second quarter

Inflation in the eurozone reached a record high of 8.9% this month, closing the gap with the UK’s 9.4% rate.

Dearer energy was blamed for the lion’s share of the increase from 8.6% in June, as the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to hammer European economies.

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Keir Starmer urged not to abandon pledge to abolish House of Lords

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Exclusive: Gordon Brown warns plans to flood upper chamber with dozens of Tory peers proves urgent need for reform

Keir Starmer has been urged not to abandon a key leadership pledge of abolishing the House of Lords, with Gordon Brown warning that plans to “gerrymander” parliament’s upper chamber by flooding it with dozens of Tory peers proved the need for drastic reform.

Alarm was raised by the former Labour prime minister over a proposal drawn up by a political lobbying group for Boris Johnson to appoint up to 50 new Conservatives to ram contentious legislation through given a series of embarrassing defeats by peers.

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‘If there is anywhere that can put on a party’: UK cities bid to host Eurovision

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Sheffield, Glasgow and others tell why they should play host after decision not to hold event in Ukraine

In 1956 Sheffield became, it is believed, the first UK city to officially twin with one behind the iron curtain, partnering with a similar steel and mining-rich place then called Stalino, but later Donetsk.

It is the reason that there is a Shefield Square on the banks of the River Kalmius. In Sheffield there’s a long, busy road called Donetsk Way. And it those links that are one reason the Yorkshire city is now bidding to host next year’s Eurovision song contest, which is coming to the UK but, everyone agrees, should really be in Ukraine.

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Sam Tarry says it would have been ‘dereliction of duty’ not to stand on picket line after accusing Starmer of ‘car crash’ – live

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Sacked Labour frontbencher says rail workers had the right to expect Labour to stand with them

Boris Johnson’s reluctance to leave Downing Street in the face of opposition from ministers and Tory MPs seemed a bit “let’s storm the Capitol, chaps”, according to a former senior No 10 aide, likening it to the January 6 insurrection in Washington DC.

The comparison was made by Cleo Watson, a former special adviser to Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings in an article for Tatler magazine.

These workers are being forced to take industrial action. I’m a Labour MP so I’m a member of the Labour trade union. When the call comes out from CWU for solidarity to join the picket lines, of course I respond positively.

The actions of the Labour leadership is disgraceful. We will have to deal with that. I think what will happen is that people will see through Labour unless they change their position because it seems to me that Labour want to win an election without any principles or any policies and people won’t accept that.

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‘Utter tragedy’: Boston in shock after girl, 9, dies in suspected stabbing

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People in Lincolnshire town react with horror following girl’s death from a single wound on Thursday

A town has reacted with shock and horror after a nine-year-old girl died following a suspected stabbing as people walked home from work.

The victim, who has not been named, died from a single wound in Boston town centre, Lincolnshire, shortly after 6pm on Thursday.

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BA owner IAG returns to profit for first time since start of Covid pandemic

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Airline group says demand is strong despite ‘historic challenges’ at Heathrow and elsewhere

British Airways has returned to profit for the first time since the start of the pandemic, with its owner International Airlines Group saying demand was strong despite “historic challenges” still facing the industry.

IAG said that there was no sign of bookings tailing off in the autumn and beyond – in the face of pessimistic forecasts from its main airport base, Heathrow – and that demand for the most lucrative transatlantic routes was continuing to grow.

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Brexit realism? The NHS? Some of the key issues ignored by Sunak and Truss

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Tory leadership candidates have clashed bitterly but many pressing matters have been overlooked

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have clashed vehemently over tax and spending, immigration and the UK’s stance on China in their acrimonious battle to become prime minister – but have had little to say about many other pressing issues. Here are some largely overlooked key issues of the contest so far.

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Bohra imam’s visit puts British girls at risk of mutilation, warn FGM campaigners

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Dawoodi Bohra leader Mufaddal Saifuddin, who is in the UK to preach, is an advocate of the abusive practice whose visa should be revoked, say activists

Campaigners have criticised the UK government for granting a visa to a religious leader who has advocated for female genital mutilation (FGM).

Mufaddal Saifuddin who is the syedna, or leader, of the Dawoodi Bohra community, a sect of Shia Islam with 1.2 million followers worldwide, will give sermons in front of tens of thousands of people at Northolt mosque in London between 29 July and 7 August.

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So, Prince Harry’s memoir is done – but what’s likely to be in it?

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Ghostwritten book, with interviews conducted mostly during ‘peak rage’, expected to be published by end of year

The manuscript is, reportedly, written; the ink now dry. Publication is said to be on course to capitalise on the lucrative Christmas market.

Few crumbs, if any, of the contents of the Duke of Sussex’s much-anticipated memoirs have so far emerged. “It’s juicy, that’s for sure,” one source told the Page Six website, with another adding: “There is some content in there that should make his family nervous.”

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Rupert Murdoch’s flagship Australian newspaper deletes story on sex life of British royal

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The Australian’s online youth section, The Oz, published salacious gossip about a royal based on an unverified online rumour site

It is known as the most conservative newspaper in Australia but on Friday Rupert Murdoch’s national masthead ventured into the surprising territory of highly salacious and unsubstantiated gossip about the British royal family.

Minutes after the Guardian asked the editor-in-chief of the Australian, Christopher Dore, to comment on why the unusual article purportedly about a royal’s sex life had been published, it was taken down.

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Foreign Office admits multiple errors in UK’s exit from Afghanistan

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Officials say they can not provide hope of resettlement for Afghans who worked for UK civilian schemes

The UK Foreign Office has admitted a catalogue of errors over its handling of Britain’s exit from Afghanistan, but has shut the door on many Afghans who helped the UK prior to the Taliban takeover last August, saying it will not provide false hope that they will be given the chance to come to the UK.

Foreign Office officials say it is difficult to judge whether Afghans who worked on UK-funded civilian schemes, such as the British Council, are truly in danger from the Taliban, saying the evidence is that the threat primarily applies to those who provided security support to the UK.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss facing Tory members in Leeds for first official leadership hustings – UK politics live

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Leadership rivals bid to win members’ support in foreign secretary’s home town

Drug-related deaths in Scotland fell by nine in 2021, according to the latest figures released by National Records of Scotland, the first decrease since 2013 but falling well short of the significant reduction that campaigners are calling for.

The latest figure of 1,330 is still the second highest annual total on record, and Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe and five times the rate in England.

We’ve had a raft of reports, policies and strategies that say what needs to change, and families are more likely to be included round the table, but it’s much harder to track their influence on the ground. We don’t understand what’s getting in the way of good words becoming good deeds.

1,330 of our fellow Scots have died entirely preventable deaths and we should not be celebrating this as an achievement ... The solutions are no secret. We need action, not reports with recommendations that are never implemented.

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Tavistock gender identity clinic is closing: what happens next?

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Analysis: as NHS shuts London clinic for young people, new regional hubs are planned – but thousands remain on waiting lists

When the Gender Identity Development Service for Children and Adolescents (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust in London was established in 1983, it was a different era in terms of the medical understanding of gender dysphoria and the cultural debate around appropriate treatments for transgender young people.

The demand for the service was unrecognisable for what it is today: in the past decade alone, the number of referrals to the GIDS went from 138 in 2010-11 to 2,383 in 2020-21.

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Slough could raise council tax by 20% and be forced to sell off thousands of assets

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Local government minister describes scale of financial challenge as ‘unprecedented’

A bankrupt local authority could have to raise council tax by 20% a year and will be forced to sell off thousands of homes and other assets under “unprecedented” plans imposed on it after it ran up catastrophic debts amid overspending running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

The scale of the financial and management chaos at Labour-run Slough council is revealed in a stark report by a team of government commissioners sent in to run the authority after it declared effective bankruptcy a year ago.

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Solemn sentencing is no circus as cameras enter English courts

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Analysis: viewers stand to gain an insight into judges’ decision-making at a time when transparency is being reduced elsewhere

Almost 100 years after a ban on cameras in criminal courts was enshrined in law, the first broadcast from an English crown court went out on Thursday and is likely to have left many viewers asking: “Why has it taken so long?”

Resistance in the past has often been motivated by fears that allowing in cameras could risk turning cases into the sort of media circus seen around high-profile US trials such as that of OJ Simpson or, albeit a civil case, the recent Johnny Depp v Amber Heard defamation proceedings.

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Up to 70 Labour MPs may join pickets as Starmer faces test of party unity

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Union source claims MPs will join BT staff on Friday despite Labour leader’s call for frontbenchers to stay away

Up to 70 Labour MPs could join union picket lines on Friday as Keir Starmer faces a renewed battle to maintain party unity over support for striking workers.

One shadow minister was believed to be considering joining a Communication Workers Union (CWU) picket line as thousands of BT staff began two days of strikes over pay, which would set up a fresh potential conflict with the Labour leader’s office.

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Taxpayers left with £421m bill after one in 12 firms default on Covid loans

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About 8% of borrowers – 130,000 firms – have so far failed to repay government-backed emergency loans

Taxpayers have been left to foot a £421m bill to cover soured Covid debts, after one in 12 businesses defaulted on state-backed emergency loans distributed at the height of the pandemic, official figures reveal.

In the first set of figures detailing the performance of government-backed loans offered to struggling firms during the outbreak, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said about 8% of 1.6m borrowers – roughly 130,000 – failed to repay their debts as of March this year.

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