Category Archives: UK news

Labour to push energy price cap policy in campaign blitz

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Party aims to get out message on plan to tackle cost of living before new Conservative PM enters No 10

Labour is planning a campaigning blitz in order to take ownership of its new energy price cap policy in case the next Tory leader bows to pressure and cancels the 80% rise expected in October.

Keir Starmer has vowed that his party “wouldn’t let people pay a penny more” on their gas and electricity bills this winter, proposing freezing the price cap at current levels and preventing the average household bill from reaching £3,600.

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Interest-free loans to be rolled out in UK to help with food bills

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Supermarket Iceland is part of scheme to offer sums of £25 to £100 to buy everyday items

A zero-interest loans scheme aimed at helping thousands of people who are struggling to put food on the table is being rolled out across the UK.

The initiative, the result of a link-up between the supermarket chain Iceland and a charity-owned lender, is the latest interest-free loans scheme to launch in response to growing concern about households who find themselves at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis and are unable to access or afford existing forms of credit.

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Steve Toussaint reveals racist abuse after being cast in House of the Dragon

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Actor tells Radio Times of social media backlash after landing part in Game of Thrones prequel

Steve Toussaint has revealed he received racist abuse online after he was cast as Corlys Velaryon in the upcoming Game Of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon.

The 57-year-old British actor has previously starred in Doctor Who, Line of Duty and Death in Paradise.

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Labour demands action over Avanti West Coast reduced train service

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Transport secretary urged to press for restoration of full timetable or strip operator of contract after 12 cancellations on Monday

Labour has written to Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, urging him to take immediate action to ensure Avanti West Coast restores more frequent services on its busy intercity rail route, or else strip the train operator of its contract.

The rail firm, which runs trains between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, cancelled another 12 services on Monday morning, on the first full day of an already drastically reduced emergency timetable.

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Five Europeans face trial on mercenary charges in separatist-controlled Ukraine

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Three Britons and two EU citizens appear in Donetsk court accused of ‘undergoing training to seize power by force’

Five Europeans captured in eastern Ukraine have gone on trial in a court administered by Kremlin-backed separatists in the city of Donetsk, Russian media reported.

The five – Mathias Gustafsson of Sweden, Vjekoslav Prebeg of Croatia, and Britons John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy – all pleaded not guilty to charges of being mercenaries and “undergoing training to seize power by force”, according to Russian media reports.

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Oil prices hit lowest level since Ukraine invasion on China growth fears

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Chinese recovery from lockdowns shows signs of fizzling out as central bank cuts interest rates

Global oil prices have dropped amid concerns over weaker growth in the Chinese economy caused by repeated Covid lockdowns and a downturn in the property sector.

A barrel of Brent crude fell by about 5% to below $94 (£78) on Monday, hitting the joint lowest levels since the Russian invasion of Ukraine as traders reacted to weaker figures from the world’s second-largest economy.

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Calls to cut bonuses for UK water bosses until reservoirs built and leaks fixed

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Multimillion-pound payouts should be shelved until investment put in to help country recover from drought

Water company bosses should be stripped of their multimillion pound bonuses until they fix leaks and build reservoirs, politicians and campaigners have said as the country is gripped by drought.

The current drought, in which parts of England are the driest they have been since records began after five consecutive months of below average rainfall, have led to homes running out of water, rivers turning dry and farmers facing crop failures, causing many to be outraged at the companies that have failed to invest in reservoirs, fix leaks and stop sewage pollution from their pipes.

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As drought hits, what are UK water company chief executives paid?

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Anger is growing over the huge sums handed to shareholders and executives

Britain’s biggest water companies have come under the spotlight as the nation swelters during what could become the worst drought in 500 years, with hosepipe bans introduced across much of England in an attempt to fend off shortages.

Anger is growing over the huge sums handed to their shareholders and executives, given the companies’ record on tackling leaks and pollution and their failure to build more reservoirs. Politicians and campaigners are now calling for water company bosses to have their bonuses banned until they tackle these issues.

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Liz Truss cabinet predictions: who could be in and who would lose out?

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Analysis: Kwasi Kwarteng and Thérèse Coffey could be among the big winners if Truss becomes PM

Liz Truss has three weeks before she is likely to walk through No 10’s black door as prime minister, facing a difficult in-tray. Here we take a look at how senior roles could shape up.

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UK treatment of Afghan refugees ‘continues to be source of shame’

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MoD sources accuse other parts of Whitehall of failing to do enough to help Afghans who worked with British forces

Two RAF flights carrying as many as 500 Afghans who worked with British forces and their relatives are landing in the UK each month from Pakistan but there is deep frustration within the Ministry of Defence about how the rest of government is struggling to accommodate arrivals.

It comes as the Taliban and western allies mark the first anniversary of Nato’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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Benjamin Mendy raped women in locked ‘panic rooms’, jury told

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Man City defender and alleged ‘fixer’ accused of ‘callous indifference’ to 13 young women they allegedly attacked

The Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy raped women in locked “panic rooms” in his isolated mansion from which they believed they could not escape, a court has heard.

The 28-year-old French international defender abused his wealth and fame to lure women back to his gated Cheshire home and rape them when they either said no or were too drunk to consent, a jury at Chester crown court heard on Monday.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Experienced British skier died in off-piste fall in France, inquest told

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Michael Rowell, 34, from Hampshire is thought to have slipped on to rocks in Alps while skiing with friend

An experienced British skier fell to his death while attempting to traverse an off-piste slope with a friend in the French Alps, an inquest heard.

Michael Rowell, 34, from Farnborough, Hampshire, who had skied since he was five, is thought to have slipped and fallen 24 metres (80ft) from an edge on to rocks.

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‘A hotel is not home’: Afghan families still wait for a place of their own in UK

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Families who fled Taliban rule say they are grateful for the help they have received but long for a home where they can settle

The west London hotel where Fawzia Amini, a senior Afghan judge, her husband and their four daughters have lived for the last nine months has comfortable sofas in the foyer, a restaurant serving tasty meals on the first floor, and friendly reception staff – but it isn’t home.

After the turmoil and danger of fleeing their spacious home in Kabul when the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital, the family say that while they are grateful for everything the UK government has done for them, they long to be in a place of their own where they can cook their own food, work, study, and entertain relatives and friends.

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England ‘failing to invest in water networks to avoid future droughts’

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Government policy amounts to ‘keeping fingers crossed’ rather than acting to adapt to changing climate, says infrastructure chief

England is failing to invest in the water networks needed to avoid a future of recurrent serious droughts, with current policies amounting to the government “keeping [its] fingers crossed”, the UK’s infrastructure chief has warned.

The current drought was a warning that water systems could not cope with the changing climate, with more hot dry spells interspersed with heavier rainfall, said Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission.

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Government urged to classify Covid as an occupational disease

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TUC calls on Department for Work and Pensions to make move to help workers access key benefits

Ministers should urgently classify Covid-19 as an occupational disease to prompt employers to reduce the risk of exposure and help workers access key benefits, the TUC has said.

The UK is out of step with other major countries that have recognised Covid as a disease that people can get in the course of their work, especially in certain sectors, it says.

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Number of EU citizens moving to UK plunges post-Brexit – report

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Data shows just 43,000 EU citizens received visas for work, family, study or other purposes in 2021

The number of EU citizens moving to the UK has plunged since Brexit closed the doors to low-paid workers, according to a report.

The dramatic decline in migration from the EU has hit hospitality and support services hard. But the Migration Observatory (MO) at the University of Oxford and ReWage, a group of independent experts, have said that while Brexit “exacerbated” chronic labour shortages in Britain, it was not the only cause.

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Sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos pulled over by police in London for second time

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Athlete and his partner, sprinter Bianca Williams, were stopped and handcuffed two years ago

An athlete who was allegedly racially profiled during a stop and search two years ago has said he was pulled over for a second time by “seven armed officers” while driving home in London at the weekend.

The Portuguese sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos published a series of tweets and video footage of him being pulled over and questioned by police.

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Three arrested on suspicion of murder after man, 60, dies in Dagenham

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Victim pronounced dead at scene after police called to reports of a fight in east London

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 60-year-old man died in east London.

The Metropolitan police were called at just after midnight on Sunday to reports of a fight at the junction of Ford Road and Broad Street in Dagenham. Officers and the London ambulance service attended but the man was pronounced dead.

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Labour announces plan to freeze energy price cap with reinforced windfall tax

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Keir Starmer says people won’t pay ‘a penny more’ and that plan would reduce inflation

Keir Starmer has put a beefed-up £8bn windfall tax on energy company profits at the heart of a new plan to stop people having to pay “a penny more” on fuel bills this winter.

The Labour leader confirmed that under his plan the energy price cap would be frozen at the current level, meaning that an expected 80% rise in October – taking an average household bill to about £3,600 – would not go ahead.

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