Judge refuses to grant interim relief after lawyers for asylum seekers argued policy was unlawful
A high court judge has ruled that a controversial deportation flight to Rwanda that was due to take off early next week can go ahead.
Mr Justice Swift refused to grant interim relief – urgent action in response to an injunction application made by several asylum seekers facing offshoring to Rwanda.
Continue reading...Draft legislation to be issued Monday, as Keir Starmer promises a Labour government would repeal law if it passes
Legislation to disapply parts of the Northern Ireland protocol will be published next week, but senior government sources acknowledge it is going to be a “difficult” process to get it through parliament.
The new laws are aimed at unilaterally changing parts of the protocol to make trade easier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, but critics say overriding the post-Brexit treaty could contravene international law.
Continue reading...Letters to asylum seekers assured them UNHCR was ‘closely involved’ in deportation scheme, high court hears
The United Nations refugee agency has made a dramatic intervention to try to halt Priti Patel’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
In a late submission of evidence, the UNHCR claimed the home secretary misled refugees over the organisation’s support for the plan. The agency has also said the scheme failed to meet the required standards of “legality and appropriateness” for transferring asylum seekers from one country to another.
Continue reading...Shortage of candidates since January means thousands of vacancies unfilled
UK employers increased the number of new staff in May at the slowest pace since early 2021 after a steep fall in the number of workers responding to job adverts.
After an increase in job switching by workers last year, often to secure higher pay, employers said the shortage of candidates since January meant they were unable to fill thousands of vacancies.
Continue reading...HMS Gloucester could be the ‘most historic maritime discovery since the raising of the Marie Rose’
The wreck of a Royal Navy warship which sank in 1682 while carrying the future king James Stuart has been identified off the coast of Norfolk.
The wreckage of HMS Gloucester was actually found in 2007 by two brothers, Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, alongside their late father and two friends, following a four-year search which covered an area of more than 5,000 nautical miles.
Continue reading...As five-year anniversary approaches, figures reveal public inquiry into the fire has spent £149m so far
Legal bills relating to the Grenfell Tower fire are on course to top a quarter of a billion pounds, according to figures obtained by the Guardian on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the disaster.
The public inquiry into the causes of the fire that killed 72 people in the west London tower block has spent £149m so far with more than £60m going to lawyers working for the core participants, the inquiry revealed on Thursday.
Continue reading...Former National Crime Agency chief worries civil service reductions could have devastating effect
The former head of Britain’s equivalent of the FBI has said she fears ministers’ plans to cut civil servant posts could have a “devastating” impact on tackling serious and organised crime.
Speaking to Policing TV, Dame Lynne Owens, the former director general of the National Crime Agency (NCA), said she was keeping a “keen eye” on discussions about proposals to axe 90,000 jobs and how they may affect the agency she led for five years.
Continue reading...Disagreements have led to delay in course rollout as civil servants think empire material ‘too controversial’
Civil servants have attempted to “sanitise” a Home Office teaching module on race, empire and colonialism, according to those involved in devising a mandatory course on British history for the department’s 36,000 employees.
Disagreements have led to a year-long delay in the rollout of the project, which was due to be launched in June 2021. Home Office civil servants are understood to be nervous that some of the proposed material addressing issues of race, colonialism and empire is “too controversial” and have urged academics to tone down some of the content.
Continue reading...Labour accuse chancellor of wastefulness for failing to insure against interest rate rises
Rishi Sunak has been accused of wasting £11bn of taxpayers’ money by paying too much in interest servicing the government’s debt.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the losses were the result of the chancellor’s failure to insure against interest rate rises on £900bn of reserves created through the quantitative easing (QE) programme.
Continue reading...TSSA union ballots could lead to complete national shutdown by time of Commonwealth Games in July
Managers and train drivers could join the strikes across the railway, potentially setting up a complete national shutdown by the time of the Commonwealth Games in July.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union, whose members manage control rooms, signalling and power for train operators and Network Rail, has launched its first strike ballot, while the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef) union has called the first regional walkouts by drivers.
Continue reading...Energy crisis has made Kent scheme aimed at unobtrusively building up solar output more timely
Tennis fans tucking into strawberries at Wimbledon this month may find their fruit has an unusual origin – a solar-powered greenhouse.
Transparent panels have been attached to the sides of glasshouses in Kent as part of a trial to build up solar power supplies without using more land.
Continue reading...Can Arslan stabbed Matthew Boorman to death on lawn and seriously injured two others
A “monster” who murdered one neighbour and seriously wounded two others in a “spree of planned violence” after they took legal action to try to curtail his 12-year campaign of extreme harassment has been jailed for at least 37 years.
Can Arslan, 52, stabbed Matthew Boorman on Boorman’s front lawn in the village of Walton Cardiff, Gloucestershire, on 5 October last year. Boorman’s wife, Sarah, sustained a knife wound to her thigh as she tried to help, while another neighbour, Peter Marsden, was stabbed eight times but managed to fend off Arslan.
Continue reading...Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner were captured while fighting in Ukrainian army
Pro-Russia officials have sentenced to death two British men and a Moroccan national captured while fighting in the Ukrainian army in Mariupol.
A court in Russian-controlled east Ukraine convicted Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner after a days-long process that observers have called a “disgusting Soviet era show trial” meant to imitate war crimes trials against Russian soldiers in Kyiv.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can read more on Boris Johnson’s comments about a potential ‘wage-price spiral’ here
The Queen has received a present from the cabinet to mark her Platinum Jubilee, No 10 says. It is a specially-commissioned musical box, with pictures of all the 14 prime ministers who have served here around the side. When it opens it plays Handel’s Hallelujah.
In every office there is always someone who organises the presents and this picture, on the No 10 Flickr account, suggests that in cabinet that job falls to Michael Ellis, the paymaster general.
Continue reading...Sian Phillips joins London vigil for Briton and the Brazilian Bruno Araújo Pereira who have vanished in Amazon
The sister of a British journalist missing in the Amazon has said she still has hope he will be found.
Sian Phillips was joined by supporters at a vigil for her brother Dom Phillips, who has worked as a freelance correspondent for the Guardian, and the Brazilian Indigenous affairs official Bruno Araujo Pereira outside the Brazilian embassy in central London on Thursday.
Continue reading...Regulator berates network operators for ‘unacceptable’ time taken to restore power to thousands of homes
Power companies must “up their game” after thousands of households in Britain faced “appalling conditions” when they were left without power for more than a week after Storm Arwen hit last year, the industry watchdog has said.
Publishing its full report into the response of power distributors to the storm, Ofgem said they were underprepared and provided an “unacceptable service” to customers, with nearly 1m homes losing power and 4,000 of those cut off for longer than a week.
Continue reading...Figures shows 10% rise in FSM across England and school leaders say real child poverty level is even higher
Nearly one in three children in the north-east of England are receiving free school meals (FSM), according to figures that reveal a 10% rise across England, as school leaders say the real level of child poverty is even higher.
The figures released in the Department for Education (DfE) annual school census show that 22.5% of state school pupils are on FSM, up from 20.8% last year, reflecting the increasing number of households receiving universal credit and earning less than £7,400 a year after tax.
Continue reading...Mukesh Ambani teams up with US private equity fund, with Walgreens expected to retain minority stake
The Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has teamed up with the US private equity fund Apollo Global Management to make a £5bn bid for the UK’s Boots chain.
The US group Walgreens, which has controlled the pharmacy and beauty retailer since 2012, is expected to keep a minority stake under the deal.
Continue reading...Media organisations call on Brazil’s president to step up efforts to find Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira
Editors and journalists from some of the world’s biggest news organisations have written to the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, to ask that he “urgently step up and fully resource the effort” to find missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.
Led by the Guardian and the Washington Post, two newspapers for whom Phillips worked as a freelance correspondent, editors from at least 20 major media and press freedom organisations signed the open letter that was published on Thursday.
Continue reading...PM pledges £80m of government funding to move industry to circular model
There has been little cause for celebration in Downing Street this week. But on Wednesday evening the prime minister, accompanied by his wife, Carrie Johnson, and their children, hosted a champagne reception in honour of sustainable fashion.
Boris Johnson pledged £80m in government funding for a programme of structural change which the British Fashion Council believes can move the UK industry toward a circular model.
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