Category Archives: UK news

Prison system was days from collapse three times under Sunak, review finds

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Emergency measures bailed out jails at last minute as No 10 refused to cut prisoner numbers until ‘cliff edge’ reached, former watchdog reports

The criminal justice system was within days of collapse on three occasions before being bailed out by “last-minute emergency measures”, an independent review by a former prisons watchdog has found.

Dame Anne Owers said the prison system, under pressure from overcrowding, was “in crisis” between autumn 2023 and the summer of 2024, but No 10 under Rishi Sunak refused to cut the numbers in jail until “the next predictable cliff edge”.

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UK to start small boats returns to France ‘within days’ after EU gives green light

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Some asylum seekers will be sent back across Channel for first time under treaty agreed with French president

The UK will begin detaining people who arrive on small boats and returning some to France “within days” after the EU gave the green light to a deal agreed with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

The treaty between France and the UK will allow the Home Office to return some asylum seekers back across the Channel for the first time in exchange for accepting others directly from France via a safe route.

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British couple held in Iran moved to separate prisons heightening welfare concerns

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Lindsay and Craig Foreman were detained seven months ago on espionage charges while on global motorbike trip

A British couple detained in Iran for seven months on espionage charges have been moved to separate prisons in and near Tehran, heightening fears for their welfare, their son said on Monday.

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both 52 and who previously split their time between south-east England and Spain, were seized in Kerman, in central Iran, in early January while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.

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Search intensifies for British woman missing from Greek beach

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Coastguard and police continue to scour land and sea for Michele Bourda, who was last seen on a sunbed

A mammoth search-and-rescue operation for a British woman last seen lounging on a sunbed in Greece has intensified days after her “mysterious” disappearance.

The Hellenic coastguard, backed by a flotilla of pleasure craft and fishing boats, has fanned across the waters off Ofrynio beach near the northern town of Kavala, where Michele Bourda, 59, went missing on 1 August.

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UK politics live: Farage announces defection of Leicestershire’s police and crime commissioner from Tories to Reform UK

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Rupert Matthews, elected to post as Conservative in 2021, claims police are ‘fighting crime with one hand tied behind their back’

George Finch, the Reform UK leader of Warwickshire county council, goes next. (Aged 19, he is the youngest council leader in the country.)

He claims the police have opposed his attempts to expose the immigration status of someone arrested in connection with an alleged crime.

It was dirty, run down and had major drug issues. My attitude to the task was assertive and no nonsense. That’s the approach that I will take for my role within Reform UK [advising on crime].

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Rescued British hiker billed €14,225 for ignoring rockslide signs in Dolomites

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Local rescue service chief says two helicopters had to be used after man, 60, ventured on to path closed due to risk

A British hiker has been charged more than €14,000 (£12,000) by the Italian mountain rescue service after ignoring danger warnings in the Dolomites.

The man, aged 60, had to be rescued after venturing to the Ferrata Berti, a rocky mountain path at an altitude of 2,500 metres (8,200ft) in the San Vito di Cadore area of the northern Italian peaks where dozens of paths were closed last week because of the high risk of landslides.

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‘Cat-sized’ rat found in Teesside town puts focus on pest control cuts

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Rodent said to be 22in (56cm) long from nose to tail found in Normanby, where rat problem is said to be worsening

Cuts to council pest control services are being blamed for a town’s rodent problem, which includes the discovery of a supersize rat said to be 22in (56cm) from nose to tail.

The giant rat, about the length of the carry-on luggage people might be wheeling on to a flight – or, if not on holiday, a desktop monitor – was found inside a person’s home in Normanby, Teesside.

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Police plan to arrest anyone supporting Palestine Action at London protest

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Source says presence of large crowds would not prevent arrests under terrorism laws

Police are planning to arrest anyone demonstrating in support of Palestine Action this weekend.

The group has been banned under terrorism laws and this weekend a large event protesting against its proscription has been organised by the group Defend Our Juries.

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George Osborne says UK has been left behind in cryptocurrency boom

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Ex-chancellor criticises hesitant approach to crypto and warns country in danger of missing next surge in market

The UK has been left behind in the cryptocurrency boom and is in danger of missing a second wave of demand, according to the former chancellor George Osborne.

Osborne, who has an advisory role at the crypto exchange firm Coinbase, said the country already missed out on the first generation of crypto because the formerly sceptical US had embraced digital currencies under Donald Trump.

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BP makes its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil

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Company to carry out more tests on its Santos basin find as it continues shift from renewables back to fossil fuels

BP has made its largest oil and gas discovery of the past 25 years off the coast of Brazil as it continues to shift its focus away from renewables and back to fossil fuels.

The Santos basin oil and gas discovery, which is located in deep waters, is the company’s 10th oil discovery of the year and could be its largest since its discovery at the Shah Deniz gasfield in Azerbaijan in 1999.

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Ministers to spend extra £100m on stopping small boat crossings to UK

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Home Office’s announcement follows growing number of protests outside asylum seeker hotels

Ministers will spend an extra £100m on measures to deter Channel crossings, including on the planned “one in, one out” returns agreement with France, the Home Office has said.

In a third immigration policy pledge within 24 hours, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the money would pay for up to 300 more National Crime Agency officers, as well as new technology and equipment to step up intelligence-gathering on people-smuggling gangs.

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Millions in line for payouts from £18bn car loan compensation scheme

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City regulator says motorists should start to get payments in 2026 with ‘most payouts likely to be under £950’

Millions of drivers could be handed a share of a multibillion-pound compensation package after the City regulator said it would open a redress scheme for consumers affected by the car finance scandal.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will consult on the redress scheme, which could cost banks between £9bn and £18bn when it begins paying consumers compensation next year.

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Oasis ‘shocked and saddened’ after fan dies in fall at Wembley concert

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Man understood to have been sitting in London stadium’s upper tier was pronounced dead at the scene

Oasis have said they are “shocked and saddened” after a man fell to his death at Wembley Stadium during the band’s Saturday concert.

The man was understood to be sitting in the upper tier of the 90,000-seat stadium – the highest stands of which are 50 metres above the ground – as the Gallagher brothers performed as part of their reunion tour.

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UK pornography taskforce to propose banning ‘barely legal’ content after Channel 4 documentary airs

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Programme about performer Bonnie Blue condemned for ‘glamorising and normalising’ extreme pornography

The new pornography taskforce will propose legislation this autumn aimed at banning a type of “barely legal” content produced by the porn star Bonnie Blue, the Guardian has learned.

The proposed action by the independent pornography taskforce, launched last month by the Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin, comes in response to the broadcast of the Channel 4 documentary 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story. The programme followed the performer for six months and included her claim to have had sex with 1,057 clients over the course of 12 hours.

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UK to evacuate ill and injured children from Gaza to receive NHS care

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Government to announce taxpayer-funded initiative after three children were brought to UK under private scheme

The UK government will evacuate seriously ill and injured children from Gaza to the UK for NHS treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks.

Ministers will enable children in severe need to receive taxpayer-funded care. Three children were brought to the UK this year through a private scheme by the charity Project Pure Hope.

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Family of Kenyan woman allegedly murdered by UK soldiers criticise defence secretary

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Niece of Agnes Wanjiru says she thinks John Healey is ‘taking us for a ride’

The niece of a Kenyan woman who was murdered more than a decade ago, allegedly by British soldiers, has said her family now believe the defence secretary “just made a promise for his political gain” when he met them in April.

John Healey told the family of Agnes Wanjiru of his “determination to see a resolution” in the case of her murder, pledging the UK’s full support for the investigation.

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British man dies after falling ill at hair transplant clinic in Turkey

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Former teacher Martyn Latchman, 38, became unwell during the preparatory phase of £1,500 procedure

A British man has died after starting a hair transplant procedure in Istanbul.

Martyn Latchman, 38, from Milton Keynes, who left a 16-year career in teaching last year to become a defence contractor, died last week after becoming unwell during the preparatory phase of the £1,500 procedure.

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Revealed: Yorkshire Water boss was paid extra £1.3m via offshore parent firm

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Company says extra payments relating to work for Kelda Holdings were covered by shareholders not billpayers

The boss of Yorkshire Water, one of Britain’s biggest water suppliers, has received £1.3m in previously undisclosed extra pay since 2023 via an offshore parent company, the Guardian can reveal.

Nicola Shaw received £660,000 from Yorkshire Water’s Jersey-registered parent company, Kelda Holdings, in the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 financial years. The size of the fees was not disclosed in the annual report of the regulated subsidiary, Yorkshire Water Services.

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Social media ads promoting small boat crossings to UK to be banned

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Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities

Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.

The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.

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UK has got ‘fat’ on decades of free labour by women, says MP Jess Phillips

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Minister points to ‘sexist’ practice of country relying on women to provide services so government did not have to

Labour MP Jess Phillips has said the UK has got “fat” from the free labour of women for decades.

The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls said the country has relied on women providing charity, adding it was a “fundamentally sexist” practice that meant the government was less willing to provide the service itself.

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