Former chancellor says opponent’s economic policies risk stoking inflation and pushing up interest rates
Rishi Sunak has launched his strongest attack yet on his rival Liz Truss’s economic policies, claiming her £30bn plans for unfunded tax cuts risk stoking inflation and pushing up interest rates.
His attack came as a new poll of Tory party members gave Truss a commanding lead in the race to become prime minister.
Continue reading...Medical secretary’s body lay in her London flat for over two years despite neighbours raising the alarm
It was “difficult to comprehend” that a “model tenant” could die and lie undisturbed in her flat for over two and half years, despite not paying her rent and neighbours raising the alarm, an inquest into the death of Sheila Seleoane heard.
On Thursday, coroner Julian Morris said it was “clear something went wrong” when Seleoane’s repeated failure to engage with her landlord, gas engineers or the police, failed to flag up concerns or trigger any suspicions.
Continue reading...The final evidence sessions have heard unflinching accounts of how victims died, panicking and desperate in horrific conditions
The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster is ending as it began: with a shocking reminder of the human cost. It opened in May 2018 with elegies to the 72 victims. Its final evidence sessions have been unflinching accounts of the violence of their final moments.
The hearings sought to satisfy the fact-finding requirements of the coroner but swung the spotlight of an often highly technical inquiry back to the sheer barbarity wrought upon a community that still awaits justice.
Continue reading...Analysis: experts are lining up to warn that her policies will increase inflation and leave the UK with higher debt
Liz Truss claims her economic agenda of tax cuts and public spending will revitalise the UK economy, but it is not just her rival prime ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak arguing that the measures will be self-defeating.
Economists have lined up to warn that her £30bn package – including the reversal of this year’s national insurance rise, the suspension of green levies on power bills, and the cancellation of a sharp rise in corporation tax in 2023 – will increase inflation and leave the government with higher debt bills.
Continue reading...Independent review criticises Lisa Osofsky personally after two businessmen’s convictions were overturned
Britain’s most senior anti-bribery prosecutor has been personally criticised in an independent review that examined flaws in a major corruption trial.
Lisa Osofsky, the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), was judged to have made a “number of mistakes and misjudgments” in her handling of a prosecution which has ultimately resulted in the convictions of two businessmen being overturned.
Continue reading...Richard Moore says 400 intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover have been expelled
Half of all the Russian spies operating under diplomatic cover around Europe have been expelled since the start of the war in Ukraine, the chief of MI6 has told a US security conference.
Richard Moore, who heads British foreign intelligence, said the expulsions of about 400 Russian diplomats from countries in continental Europe, including France and Germany, had dramatically reduced the Kremlin’s espionage capabilities.
Continue reading...Ten said they were providing aid, did not inform police of their intent to travel and were asked to leave
Ten British sex offenders travelled to Poland after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, under the guise of humanitarian aid, according to British police.
In the six weeks after the outbreak of war, the individuals, all of whom had convictions for sex offences, travelled to Poland. The offenders were supposed to inform British police of their intent to travel, a spokesperson for the National Crime Agency said, and declare any convictions upon arrival.
Continue reading...Heads of GCHQ and NCSC say client-side scanning could protect children and privacy at the same time
Tech companies should move ahead with controversial technology that scans for child abuse imagery on users’ phones, the technical heads of GCHQ and the UK’s National Cybersecurity Centre have said.
So-called “client-side scanning” would involve service providers such as Facebook or Apple building software that monitors communications for suspicious activity without needing to share the contents of messages with a centralised server.
Continue reading...Zurich UK says fraudulent property claims from 1 January to 31 May 25% higher than in same period in 2021
A growing number of financially squeezed households are “turning to crime” by submitting bogus insurance claims, with data revealing a sharp rise in cases over the past year.
Zurich UK, one of Britain’s biggest insurers, said the cost of living crisis was fuelling the increase in insurance fraud, where people exaggerate or make up claims for items such as jewellery and electrical goods.
Continue reading...App is used by 7% of adults for news with nearly half turning to TikTokers rather than conventional outlets for updates
Watch out Huw Edwards, the TikTokers are coming. The social video platform is the fastest growing news source for UK adults, according to a survey, but nearly half of people using it for current affairs turn to fellow TikTokers rather than conventional news organisations for their updates.
TikTok is used by 7% of adults for news, according to the UK’s communications watchdog, up from 1% in 2020. The growth is primarily driven by young users, with half of its news followers aged 16 to 24.
Continue reading...The final two will face each other in a TV debate on Monday before weeks of hustings with Conservative members
In an analysis of the yesterday’s public sector pay awards published this morning, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says the new prime minister will have to decide whether to increase departmental spending budgets, to fund the higher-than-expected pay awards, or to require the awards to be funded from existing budgets, requiring cuts elsewhere. It says:
One option is to top up spending plans to at least partially fund the costs of higher-than-expected pay awards, shoring up departments’ ability to deliver on the government’s public service objectives (such as clearing the NHS backlog). This would come at the cost of higher borrowing and reduced fiscal room for the tax cuts seemingly desired by the entire field of would-be prime ministers.
The other option is to stick to existing spending plans, instead requiring public services to make some painful cuts: to other budgets, to headcount, or to the range and quality of service provision. Reducing the government’s public services ‘offer’ is a coherent response to a series of global economic shocks that make us poorer as a nation. But the government should be honest about what that implies for the NHS, local government, and other public services.
Continue reading...Twitter complaints of sexism and dated views pour in after 1922 Committee tries jest with teapot amid Tory leadership contest
Attempts to inject some levity into the Conservative leadership contest on social media fell flat on Wednesday when a photograph tweeted of the 1922 Committee led to criticism that it was sexist and outdated.
With the announcement of the two remaining candidates for the UK prime minister role about to be announced (at 4pm this Wednesday) or at “tea time” as it was described, the photograph showed members of the committee representing Tory backbenchers posing with teacups in hand and a teapot.
Continue reading...The Guardian is attempting to overturn decision that prevented media from attending hearing
A leading judge acted unlawfully by authorising a secret court hearing in which he decided that Prince Philip’s will should be kept secret without notifying the media, an appeal court has heard.
On Wednesday the Guardian opened its legal case to overturn the decision that prevented media from attending the hearing, arguing that it was a serious interference with the principle of open justice.
Continue reading...Antelope by Samson Kambalu depicts John Chilembwe wearing hat in defiance of colonial rule in Nyasaland, now Malawi
A sculpture of a preacher who was killed in an anticolonialist uprising in what is now Malawi will be unveiled in September on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Antelope by Samson Kambalu is the 14th contemporary artwork to be commissioned for public display in the historic central London square.
Continue reading...Annual rate in June up from May’s 9.1% figure and exceeds analysts’ expectations
Rising petrol and diesel prices for motorists and dearer food pushed Britain’s annual inflation rate to a fresh 40-year high of 9.4% last month.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the government’s preferred measure of the cost of living – the consumer prices index – was up from May’s 9.1% figure.
Continue reading...A cache of emails and documents sheds light on the would-be ruler’s activities at a time when he was entering public life
The organiser said it would be “the most amazing party ever done in Punta del Este”, a glamorous seaside resort in Uruguay. He offered his client a sound system, a DJ, decorators, fireworks and “naked models swimming in the pool”. The client – a fixer with close ties to the rulers of Libya – turned down the fireworks.
It appears the fixer wired the organiser $34,300 – and asked him for a whole roast lamb to be delivered every day to the party villa between 30 December 2006 and 6 January 2007. He would be joined there by fellow Libyans and his boss, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who was due to fly in from South Africa.
Continue reading...With medical and food supplies hit, volunteers foraged in the British countryside for useful species
In the second world war tonnes of deadly nightshade leaves and roots were collected to extract atropine, a drug used for eye operations. Foxgloves were harvested for digitalis, the powerful drug used for regulating abnormal heart rhythms – abundant foxgloves found in the Chilterns were rich in digitalis. And in the first world war sphagnum moss found in bogs was used as a highly absorbent and naturally antiseptic wound dressing, and a million dressings a month were sent to military hospitals around the world by the end of the conflict.
These were some of more than 80 wild plant species recruited during the world wars to make up for the vital pharmaceutical supplies that had been imported from Germany but which were cut off in wartime. There were other valuable wild plants, such as rose hips made into a syrup rich in vitamin C, which was in short supply because of severely limited fruit supplies.
Continue reading...Indie productions struggling to compete with well-financed, studio-backed projects, research shows
There are serious questions about the long-term viability of independent film-making in Britain, the British Film Institute (BFI) has said.
Making Oscar-winning films such as The King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire has become all the more difficult, with “significant challenges” putting the sector on a downward trend, research shows.
Continue reading...Homeowners can boost property value by average of £10,000, shows research by WWF and ScottishPower
Britons could cut their annual energy bills while slashing their carbon emissions and boosting the price of their home, research has shown.
A study by WWF and ScottishPower has found that installing green technologies could reduce energy bills by up to £1,878 a year and cut home carbon emissions by more than 95% over the lifetime of their installation.
Continue reading...Study found that the most at-risk neighbourhoods were also among the most ethnically diverse and have lower carbon footprints than average
People of colour are four times more likely to live in areas at high risk from heatwaves in the UK as the climate heats up, according to experts.
Researchers at the University of Manchester and Friends of the Earth found one in three people from minority ethnic groups lived in areas most exposed to extreme heat, compared with just one in 12 white people.
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