Five teenagers already held before 14-year-old arrested in Stretford, where attack occurred
Police have arrested a sixth teenager following the fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Kennie Carter in Manchester.
Greater Manchester police (GMP) said Kennie was found with stab wounds to the chest in Stretford at about 7pm on Saturday.
Continue reading...Furious response from MPs and bereaved after revelation of celebration held indoors in contravention of Covid restrictions
Boris Johnson was facing renewed anger from MPs and bereaved families on Monday after the disclosure that his fiancee threw him a surprise lockdown birthday party, as sources said an official inquiry had uncovered “appalling evidence of mismanagement” at the heart of Downing Street.
Sue Gray, the senior civil servant leading the inquiry into Downing Street parties, is expected to make deeply critical recommendations on overhauling No 10’s operation after hearing of repeated failures of leadership, according to a Whitehall source who spoke to the inquiry.
Continue reading...Requirement to take lateral flow test will end from 4am on 11 February, cheered by airlines as a ‘landmark’
Coronavirus testing for double-vaccinated travellers arriving in the UK will be scrapped from 4am on 11 February.
In a boost for travel firms and families planning trips abroad, eligible passengers will no longer have to take a post-arrival lateral flow test (LFT). The change will save families about £100 a trip. The industry body Airlines UK said it was a “landmark day”.
Continue reading...Devon family makes a fortune from 13th-century gold coin discovered thanks to return to an old hobby
A metal detectorist who gave up his hobby when he started a family, only to return to it when his children were old enough to nag him into taking them out detecting with him, has been rewarded with one of the most extraordinary finds – a fine example of England’s oldest gold coin, which has sold for a record-breaking £648,000 at auction.
Michael Leigh-Mallory, 52, found the Henry III gold penny buried 10cm deep on farmland in the Devon village of Hemyock shortly after taking up his old hobby again. Not realising what it was, he posted a picture of the coin on social media, where it was spotted by the auctioneers Spink in London.
Continue reading...Activists say bill being presented to parliament sanctions irreversible destruction of environment
A nationwide day of action against HS2 – involving banner drops, solidarity protests and a Twitter storm – is planned for Monday as the bill to expand the line beyond Crewe is presented to parliament.
Environmental activists say the bill will “sanction immense and irreversible destruction to the environment” and want to raise awareness of HS2’s “continuing ecocide, corruption and financial mis-management”.
Continue reading...WikiLeaks co-founder is seeking to appeal against ruling that he can be sent to US to face espionage charges
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be able to go to the supreme court to challenge a decision allowing him to be extradited to the US.
However, the high court refused him permission for a direct appeal, meaning the supreme court will have to decide whether or not it should hear his challenge.
Continue reading...PM has asked Cabinet Office to conduct inquiry into allegations, says spokesperson
Boris Johnson has ordered a formal inquiry into allegations by the Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani that she was sacked as a minister after being told her “Muslimness” was “making colleagues uncomfortable”.
In a brief statement early on Monday, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister has asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by Nusrat Ghani MP.
Continue reading...Ex-leader targets UK foreign secretary’s remarks on potential China aggression in the Indo-Pacific, adding Britain suffers from ‘relevance deprivation’
The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has accused Liz Truss of making “demented” comments about Chinese military aggression and urged the British foreign secretary to hurry “back to her collapsing, disreputable government”.
Keating, in a blistering op-ed, also said Britain “suffers delusions of grandeur and relevance deprivation” and its tilt to the Indo-Pacific lacks credibility.
Continue reading...Latest updates: follow all the news and politics developments resulting from the coronavirus pandemic in the UK and around the world
Sturgeon talks about the impact on business. She said she realises that hospitality has been badly affected by the pandemic.
“It’s not about having protective measures and businesses are damaged, or having no measures and everything is fine. It’s having measures than stem transmission, or allowing things to be controlled.”
Continue reading...Deputy PM promises ‘full transparency’ but says it is for Boris Johnson to decide how much detail is released to the public
Dominic Raab has refused to confirm that the Sue Gray report on alleged Downing Street parties will be published in full, saying the amount of detail released publicly will be a matter for Boris Johnson.
The prime minister is braced for a critical week, with many Tory backbenchers reserving judgment on his future until they see Gray’s findings and how Johnson responds.
Continue reading...Five teenagers arrested after what Greater Manchester police describe as ‘callous attack’
Five teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 16-year-old boy was fatally stabbed in Trafford.
Greater Manchester police (GMP) named the victim as Kennie Carter and said officers were piecing together the circumstances leading to the “callous attack”.
Continue reading...Former security and diplomatic chiefs warn that country is at risk of economic collapse as Taliban begin talks in Norway
Afghanistan can only be saved from state collapse and widespread starvation if the definition of legitimate humanitarian aid to the country is broadened, some of Britain’s most senior former security and diplomatic chiefs have said.
The group, including two former national security advisers, a former chief of defence staff and a former ambassador to Afghanistan, write in a letter published in the Guardian that the aid that can be sent to the Taliban-controlled country without fear of sanctions is too restricted.
Continue reading...Thousands of people say their rights have been compromised despite government promises
A 67-year-old British woman who planned to return to Britain with her 80-year-old French husband after 30 years in France has told how Home Office delays have left them waiting almost a year for the Brexit paperwork they need to set foot in the country.
Carmel and her husband, Louis, who asked that their real names not be used, sold their house last year and packed up all their belongings having read that it would take 15 days to get a family permit.
Continue reading...Group action alleges Treloar College failed in its duty of care for children who contracted hepatitis and HIV
A group of survivors and relatives of people who died in the infected blood scandal are suing a school where they contracted hepatitis and HIV after being given experimental treatment without informed consent.
A proposed group action lodged by Collins Solicitors in the high court on Friday alleges that Treloar College, a boarding school in Hampshire that specialised in teaching haemophiliacs, failed in its duty of care to these pupils in the 1970s and 80s.
Continue reading...Mark Spencer says accusations are ‘completely false’ after Nusrat Ghani says she was told her faith made colleagues ‘uncomfortable’
Mark Spencer, the chief whip, has said a Conservative MP was referring to him when she accused a member of government of telling her she had been sacked from her ministerial post because her Muslim faith was “making colleagues uncomfortable”.
Boris Johnson faces calls for an inquiry into Nusrat Ghani’s claim in an interview with the Sunday Times that, when she lost her job as a transport minister, she was told that “Muslimness” had been raised as an problem at a meeting in Downing Street.
Continue reading...Foreign Office claim of plot to install pro-Moscow government in Kyiv comes with scant detail
The Foreign Office has said that it had exposed evidence of a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, and Boris Johnson promised to “ramp up pressure on Russia”, as his own domestic political troubles deepened.
Saturday’s rare reference to intelligence-gathering went into almost no detail about a conspiracy that, if accurate, could mean a serious escalation in the threat to Ukraine. Politicians there were sceptical that the government could be replaced without a full-blown invasion of the capital, Kyiv.
Continue reading...Second British man taken to hospital following incident that reportedly took place in early hours of Saturday
The death of a British man in Thailand has been confirmed by officials amid reports he was attacked.
A second British man was taken to hospital after the incident, the Foreign Office confirmed.
Continue reading...Security logs crucial to future of key staff as Sue Gray also ‘has details of new social event’
The senior civil servant investigating allegations of at least nine lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street has been given access to a detailed log of staff movements in and out of the building from security data including swipecards.
Whitehall figures say the inquiry by Sue Gray – who is expected to publish a report of about 25 pages this week – has been “forensic”, looking in “granular detail” at who was in the building for social gatherings, some of which went on into the early hours, and the precise timings of their arrivals and departures.
Continue reading...UK detects 76,807 new cases in the past 24 hours, suggesting Omicron wave has spiked
The UK detected 76,807 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, a 54% drop on the 176,191 cases detected two weeks ago as the record-breaking Omicron wave appears to have spiked.
The UK reported a further 297 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test on Saturday, 3% up on the 287 deaths reported last Saturday. Over 177,000 people in the UK have Covid on their death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics, the seventh highest tally in the world.
Continue reading...Less than four months ago, the PM was riding high and telling jokes in Manchester, a world away from where he is now
It was not meant to fall apart as fast as this. After Boris Johnson won the general election in December 2019, he declared in a victory address: “I, and we, will never take your support for granted.”
The prime minister’s 80-seat majority, a victory for the “get Brexit done” campaign, appeared to leave him impregnable. For 18 months after, Johnson continued to defy political gravity despite repeated missteps, as the pandemic came to Britain’s shores.
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