Category Archives: UK news

White, male field likely in search for new Met head as frontrunner steps aside

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Decision by Lynne Owens not to apply leaves former top officer turned thriller writer Mark Rowley a favourite

A frontrunner to be the next Metropolitan police commissioner has said she will not apply, leaving a former top cop turned thriller-writer as one of the favourites for the role.

Lynne Owens was the previous director general of the National Crime Agency and stood down last year to focus on her treatment for cancer. On Tuesday she wrote on Twitter that she had spent weeks considering whether to apply for the post of Britain’s top officer, but her decision was not health related.

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BP profits soar to $6.2bn amid calls for energy windfall tax

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Company beats forecasts thanks to high oil and gas prices but is hit by offloading its stake in Russia’s Rosneft

BP’s profits more than doubled to $6.2bn (£5bn) in the first three months of the year, boosted by soaring oil and gas prices.

It was well ahead of the $4.5bn of expected by analysts and is likely to revive calls for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who argue the money raised could be used to ease the burden for those hardest hit by the cost of living costs.

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Most Britons back curbs on bosses’ pay, survey finds

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Sixty-three per cent of people said CEOs should be paid no more than 10 times earnings of lower- or mid-ranking employees

Six in 10 people think company bosses should be prevented from earning more than 10 times the average paid to employees, according to polling shared exclusively with the Guardian.

A poll for the High Pay Centre, a thinktank that campaigns for fairer pay for workers, found that 63% of Britons said chief executives should be paid no more than 10 times the earnings of lower- or mid-ranking employees.

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NHS ambulance service cuts presence at Gatwick airport and sports venues

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South East Coast service stops providing onsite paramedic at airport to focus on 999 response

An NHS ambulance service is cutting back its presence at Gatwick airport and major sports events so it has more crews available to answer 999 calls, amid unprecedented pressures.

The South East Coast ambulance service (Secamb) has ended a longstanding arrangement under which Gatwick paid it to have an ambulance car and paramedic on site.

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‘Deeply honoured’: Billy Connolly to receive Bafta fellowship

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Comedian says he does not let Parkinson’s disease dictate who he is, as he speaks of delight at accolade

Sir Billy Connolly said he does not let his Parkinson’s disease dictate who he is as he spoke of his honour at receiving this year’s Bafta fellowship.

The 79-year-old comedian, known as the Big Yin, will be celebrated for a career spanning more than five decades at the awards ceremony on 8 May. The fellowship is the highest Bafta accolade given to recognise outstanding and exceptional contribution in film, games or television.

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Kirsty Young to anchor Queen’s platinum jubilee coverage on BBC

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Presenter will return to broadcaster for first time since 2018 to oversee weekend of programming

The radio and TV presenter Kirsty Young will return to the BBC for the first time since 2018 to lead the broadcaster’s platinum jubilee coverage.

Young, who presented BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs for 12 years, stepped back from the programme in August 2018 because she had a form of fibromyalgia, a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body.

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‘Teesside, Tyneside, all the same to him’: Johnson appears lost on campaign trail

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Prime minister ridiculed over apparent location confusion in since-deleted tweet

Boris Johnson is facing ridicule after he appeared confused about the location of his campaign activity in north-east England.

In a since-deleted tweet, the prime minister called for his followers to vote Conservative in Thursday’s local elections and stated that he was in Teesside where the Conservatives are “delivering a massive programme of investment as part of our plan to level up the whole of the UK”.

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Boris Johnson to hail Ukraine’s ‘finest hour’ in address to Kyiv parliament

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PM to be first world leader to address parliament since war began, as his chancellor faces questions over Infosys

Boris Johnson will hail Ukraine’s resistance against tyranny as an exemplar for the world as he delivers a virtual address to the country’s parliament on Tuesday.

Recalling Britain’s resolve during the second world war, the UK prime minister will say that “we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour”. He will say the bravery demonstrated by those who have sought to defend their country from Russian invaders means the war will come to be known as Ukraine’s “finest hour”, too.

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Sunak urged to issue green bonds with higher returns if climate goals missed

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Thinktank says following Chile’s example would give ministers greater incentive to meet targets

Rishi Sunak is being urged to issue a new generation of green bonds that would offer higher returns to investors if the UK government fails to hit its climate change targets.

The Social Market Foundation (SMF) said its plan for sustainability-linked bonds would provide ministers with a greater incentive to meet carbon-reduction goals and would help boost the UK’s prospects of being a global financial hub for green finance.

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Firebombs and death threats: councillors need more protection, say UK bodies

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Dozens of seats going uncontested as candidates step down due to ‘truly toxic’ environment

More must be done to protect councillors from abuse, according to local government bodies, as those on the frontline of local democracy describe a “truly toxic” political environment where online aggression spills over into real-life behaviour.

Candidates for council elections on Thursday across the UK have shared their experiences of escalating hostility as the chair of the Local Government Association (LGA), councillorJames Jamieson, warned that “an increasing number … are being subjected to abuse, threats and intimidation both online and in-person, undermining the principles of free speech, democratic engagement and debate”.

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Small boat asylum seekers undeterred by Rwanda plan, survey finds

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Survey of asylum seekers in northern France finds three-quarters will try to reach UK despite government’s offshoring plans

Deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlikely to deter those in northern France hoping to cross the Channel in small boats, according to a survey that found that three-quarters said they would still try to make the journey.

The snapshot survey of more than 60 asylum seekers in Calais and Dunkirk was carried out by the charity Care4Calais, which provides practical support to asylum seekers in both northern France and across the UK.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cinderella to close in the West End

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Shock news that show will end in June at London’s Gillian Lynne theatre brings heartache for company and those who had been due to join cast

The curtain is to come down on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new West End musical Cinderella, just under a year after opening, with its final performance set for 12 June.

In a statement released on Sunday by Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, the composer said “mounting a new show in the midst of Covid” had been an “unbelievable challenge” and that a new production of Cinderella would open on Broadway in 2023.

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Edinburgh show will display street photographer’s never-before-seen work

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University will host major survey of Robert Blomfield’s shots of student life in 1950s and 60s

Previously unseen work by a photographer who captured life in Edinburgh and has been compared to the great Henri Cartier-Bresson is to go on display at an exhibition in the city where he lived and worked.

Robert Blomfield moved to Edinburgh from Yorkshire and studied medicine in the city while living a second life as a pioneering street photographer who shifted between shooting university students, locals and the landscape of the Scottish capital.

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Raw sewage ‘pumped into English bathing waters 25,000 times in 2021’

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Liberal Democrats condemn ‘environment scandal’ as party releases figures compiled from Environment Agency data

Untreated sewage was discharged into England’s coastal bathing waters for more than 160,000 hours last year, according to figures collated by the Liberal Democrats to mark the start of the summer sea-swimming season.

Data compiled by the party using Environment Agency figures on 2021 discharges shows that water companies released raw sewage 25,000 times into designated bathing waters off the English coast.

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30,000 cancer patients waiting for treatment in England

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Experts call on ministers to tackle chronic staff shortages, with delays worsened by pandemic

Tens of thousands of patients are still waiting to start cancer treatment in England due to disruption during the pandemic, according to NHS figures, as medical charities called on the government to tackle chronic staff shortages in the health service.

Following a dramatic slump in cancer referrals in 2020, the number of people being investigated for the disease bounced back in the past year, data from NHS England and NHS Improvement show, rising from 2.4 million to a record 2.66 million.

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Netflix drops Meghan’s animated series amid cutbacks – report

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Pearl was to have focused on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl inspired by historically influential female figures

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has fallen victim to cutbacks at Netflix, according to a US report that said the struggling streaming giant has dropped plans for her animated series Pearl.

Announced to fanfare last summer, with Meghan as its creator and executive producer, the “family series” was to have focused on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl inspired by historically influential female figures.

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Bank of England ‘duty bound’ to trigger recession to curb inflation

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Ex-official says policymakers must shrink the UK economy to limit upward pressure on prices made worse by Brexit

Britain’s central bank policymakers are “duty bound” when they meet this week to push the UK into recession to cap rising inflation, a former Bank of England (BoE) official has said.

Adam Posen, who runs Washington-based thinktank the Peterson Institute, said that while the Bank of England would not want workers to lose their jobs, it should hike interest rates now to squeeze out inflationary pressures made worse by Brexit trade and immigration restrictions.

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Judge in Afghanistan ‘backstabbed’ by UK government’s refusal of sanctuary

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Officials say man in hiding who helped prosecute terrorists does not meet relocation criteria, despite high court ruling in his favour

A senior judge who prosecuted terrorists and is now in hiding in Afghanistan feels “heartbroken, abandoned and backstabbed” by the British government for refusing to bring him to safety despite a high court ruling in his favour.

The high-profile judge, whom the Guardian is not naming for his safety, also received strong support from two former independent reviewers of terrorism legislation.

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Rising feed prices mean chicken could soon cost as much as beef, says Co-op

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Price of UK’s most popular meat is rising faster than any other protein, according to retailer’s boss

Chicken’s relative affordability has helped make it the country’s meat of choice but one of the UK’s biggest food retailers has warned it could soon be as pricey as beef as production costs soar.

Steve Murrells, chief executive of the Co-op, said that feed costs had become a huge challenge for the poultry industry. “Chicken could become as expensive as beef. Chicken, which was incredibly cheap and great value for money, is rising quicker than any other protein.”

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Local government in England ‘hollowed out’ under Conservatives

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Major report finds poorer areas worst affected by deep cuts in government funding

Poorer areas have been hit disproportionally by a combination of cuts to neighbourhood services such as parks, libraries, refuse collection and children’s centres that have left English councils “hollowed out” since 2010, a major report into local government has concluded.

The study by the Institute for Government thinktank found that while some councils coped better than others, and reduced spending did not necessarily mean worse results, a lack of information made it difficult to learn lessons.

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