Serious health and safety risks costing NHS £340m a year, public accounts committee report finds
More than one in eight privately rented homes in England pose a serious threat to people’s health and safety, costing the NHS about £340m a year, according to a report from a committee of MPs.
It also uncovered evidence of unlawful discrimination, with an estimated one in four landlords unwilling to let to non-British passport holders.
Continue reading...Practitioners’ struggles include increased workloads, greater demand from patients, and paperwork
A third of GPs in England say they want to quit within five years, according to a regular survey which warns that clinical doctors are especially unhappy with the number of hours they work.
The survey of 2,195 GPs undertaken in 2021 found 33% planned to leave “direct patient care” by 2026. The figure represents a return to levels last seen in 2015, after plans to quit peaked in 2018 when two in five GPs wanted to stop seeing patients within five years.
Continue reading...Few sexually transmitted infection test kits available online meet official standards, BMJ study finds
Patients are being put at risk in the UK because very few sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests offered online meet official standards, experts have warned.
The NHS provides free in-person tests for STIs via its network of sexual health and genitourinary medicine clinics. Patients can also order tests via the internet from both NHS-commissioned and private providers, a practice that has become increasingly popular during the pandemic.
Continue reading...Aiden Aslin said his unit in Mariupol has run out of food and ammunition and can no longer hold out
A Briton who has been fighting with the Ukrainian armed forces in the besieged city of Mariupol has been forced to surrender along with his unit to the Russians because they have run out of food and ammunition.
Aiden Aslin, from Newark, joined Ukraine’s marines in 2018 but has told friends and family that he and his comrades cannot hold out any longer as the Russians gradually tighten their grip on the southern port city.
Continue reading...Bailey says he has continued to suffer from trauma of nerve agent attack in Salisbury in March 2018
A police officer who suffered novichok poisoning when he searched the home of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal following the Salisbury nerve agent attack has reached a settlement with his former force.
Lawyers for Nick Bailey argued that he continued to suffer from the trauma of the poisoning more than four years on and made a personal injury claim against Wiltshire police.
Continue reading...Latest updates: all the news and developments in politics in the UK
As mentioned earlier, it is crime week in the Labour elections campaign grid and last night the party announced that - as it put it in its own press release - it was “calling for immediate nationwide injunctions to block Just Stop Oil protests as demonstrations continue to cause misery for motorists across Britain”.
Keir Starmer tweeted about this last night.
Up and down the country, people are struggling to get fuel to put in their cars to get to work to put food on the table, pay rent or mortgage and it’s a very basic thing. People are struggling under the cost of living crisis already with stratospheric energy bills. Life is tough enough. And we want people who need their cars to get to work to be able to.
Continue reading...Investigation launched after whistleblowers said colleagues regularly paid sex workers for 10 years
An investigation has been launched after claims that Home Office contractors paid for sex while deporting people abroad, the Guardian has learned.
Five whistleblowers have said some colleagues regularly paid sex workers on overnight stopovers over a period of 10 years after accompanying migrants on flights from the UK.
Continue reading...Tory MP said trial in which colleague was found guilty was ‘nothing short of an international scandal’
The Conservative MP Crispin Blunt is under pressure to apologise for and retract comments that a fellow MP found guilty of sexual assault was a victim of a “miscarriage of justice”.
Blunt deleted the tweet and removed the comment from his website after an intervention from Tory whips overnight. A Tory source said: “Crispin’s views are wholly unacceptable. Following exchanges late last night we expect the statement to be retracted first thing this morning.”
Continue reading...Pressure for more support for households and businesses after consumer prices rise 6.2%
Business live updates: jobless rate drops and wage squeeze continues
Britain’s cost of living crisis moved into its fourth consecutive month in February despite a jump in wages and a fall in unemployment to just 3.8%, its lowest level since 1974.
The Office for National Statistics said average earnings growth of 5.4%, including bonuses, failed to keep pace with a 6.2% rise in the consumer prices index in February, while for those who missed out on a bonus the situation was even worse after average wages increased by only 4%.
Continue reading...Rate of abuse against parents is highest among 19- to 25-year-olds and most perpetrators are male
At least 40% of child-to-parent violence and abuse incidents are unreported to police, according to research.
The study into the “hidden harm” commissioned by the London mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) found that the rate of violence and abuse against parents and carers was highest among those aged 19-25, and 81% of perpetrators were male.
Continue reading...Surf Wood for Good aims to tackle waste caused by polystyrene bodyboards by lending beachgoers UK-made wooden boards
A new initiative is offering free bellyboard hire across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to discourage the use of polluting plastic boards.
Surf Wood for Good aims to tackle the waste caused by polystyrene bodyboards, which are usually imported and single-use, by lending beachgoers British-made wooden boards.
Continue reading...Anti-poverty campaigners say world’s largest fund manager refuses to reduce or delay payments on Zambia’s debt
BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, has come under pressure to delay demands for debt interest payments from Zambia to prevent the crisis-hit African country’s finances from spiralling out of control.
Anti-poverty campaigners said BlackRock, which manages $10tn (£7.68tn) of assets, was among the private sector lenders that had refused to reduce the interest rate or delay payments on Zambian bonds, unlike governments and international agencies that hold the country’s debts.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. You can see some of our latest politics stories below:
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the No 10 spokesperson confirmed that Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministerial standards, would be conducting an inquiry into Rishi Sunak’s declarations of interest. Sunak requested one last night – but Geidt is only allowed to launch an inquiry with the permission of the PM, which has now been given.
But the spokesperson was unable to confirm that the inquiry would cover Sunak’s decision to retain his US green card after he became a minister, and even while he was chancellor. It is reported that he only gave it up last October.
Continue reading...Shortages at filling stations reported as campaign obstructs deliveries from fuel terminals in England
Downing Street has condemned the “guerrilla tactics” of protesters who have blockaded fuel distribution terminals, as reports of shortages at petrol station forecourts spread and figures showed a fall in fuel deliveries.
Supporters of the Just Stop Oil campaign have taken action at 11 different fuel terminals in England since the start of the month, blockading and trespassing on sites to stop tankers entering, filling up or leaving to deliver fuel.
Continue reading...Politicians call for focus to be put on slain MP’s life and work – rather than on deeds of his murderer
Boris Johnson has joined MPs and others in paying tribute to Sir David Amess, with several stressing the importance of focusing on the Conservative backbencher’s life and work rather than the deeds of his murderer.
In a tweeted statement, Johnson called Amess, who was killed last October by Ali Harbi Ali in an Islamist-inspired terrorist attack, “a beloved colleague, public servant and friend who championed the city of Southend in everything he did”, saying his thoughts were with Amess’s family.
Continue reading...Complainant says they tried to warn Conservative party before Ahmad Khan won election in Wakefield
Imran Ahmad Khan liked to be noticed. Wandering around Westminster in a pinstripe suit with a cane, he looked and sounded like a Conservative MP from another era, calling colleagues “old boy” and “dear chap”, despite only being in his 40s – “like a tinpot Churchill”, as one of his colleagues puts it. He was prone to ostentatious displays of wealth, sometimes parking a Rolls-Royce in the parliamentary car park.
In his 2019 victory speech he paid special tribute to his mother, whom he called “ma-mah”, like a member of the royal family. He is close to his family, particularly his brothers Karim and Khaled, both lawyers, the former a prosecutor at the international criminal court in The Hague.
Continue reading...Khan, 48, faces time in jail and could be disqualified as MP from his Wakefield constituency
The Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
The 48-year-old now faces time in jail. If he receives a sentence of more than 12 months he will automatically be disqualified from being an MP, prompting a byelection in his Wakefield constituency in West Yorkshire.
Continue reading...Eleven on trial for Portland collection theft also accused of ‘ruthless’ burglaries of footballers’ homes
A gang accused of stealing the £3.75m Portland tiara and brooch from a Nottinghamshire gallery in 2018 was involved in a number of “ruthlessly executed” burglaries that also targeted footballers Ashley Cole and Tom Huddlestone, a court has heard.
Opening the case against 11 defendants at Nottingham crown court, the prosecutor, Michael Brady QC, said the burglaries and violent robberies were “extremely serious, high-profile and carefully planned”.
Continue reading...Money saving expert says UK government must do more to ensure people can heat homes and have enough food
Britain’s self-titled money saving expert Martin Lewis has warned that civil unrest over rising energy bills “isn’t far away”, as he repeated his call for more government intervention to protect people.
Lewis said he was the most scared he has been for people’s finances since he founded his popular website in 2003. It has traditionally offered advice on which bank accounts or phone providers may be cost-effective, and has been a regular port of call for people looking to switch energy provider and save money.
Continue reading...Just Stop Oil says action will affect fuel availability at petrol pumps across south-east and Midlands
Clean energy campaigners claim to have disrupted supplies from three oil terminals in the Midlands and south-east of England, as motorists complain that some petrol stations are running short of fuel.
The government said only one terminal was out of action on Sunday afternoon as a result of the Just Stop Oil protests, and that local police forces were working with the industry to ensure that fuel supplies can be maintained.
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