Category Archives: UK news

The 2019ers: Tory unease as some of party’s newest MPs turn on Boris Johnson

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Members of old guard may refer to 2019 intake disparagingly, but they could hold PM’s fate in their hands

They were once among Boris Johnson’s most loyal defenders. Many of the army of the more than 100 MPs who sat in Westminster for the first time in December 2019 felt they owed the prime minister their seat.

So they were initially on their best behaviour, keen in a much-expanded parliamentary party to stand out from their peers and secure early promotion to the lowest rungs of the ministerial ladder. And most still feel that way.

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Plans to allow ‘double-jobbing’ in Northern Irish politics dropped

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PM says amendment is being pulled after Tory Northern Ireland affairs committee chair spoke out against it

The UK government has abandoned plans to introduce a law that would have allowed the leader of the Democratic Unionist party to potentially “double-job” in the Stormont assembly while remaining a Westminster MP.

Before a debate on the legislation in the Lords on Wednesday afternoon, Boris Johnson told the Commons that an amendment enabling dual mandates was being withdrawn.

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Prince Andrew’s social media accounts deleted as he fights US lawsuit

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Twitter and YouTube pages no longer accessible, while royal website refers to his role in the past tense

The Duke of York’s social media accounts are being deleted as he continues his legal battle to fight a sexual assault lawsuit filed against him in the US.

Last week the Queen stripped her second son of his honorary military affiliations and royal patronages, and he agreed not to use his royal style HRH in any official capacity.

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‘The Taliban are seeking revenge’: ex-cultural worker on a UK project

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Omar is in hiding – concerned about his five daughters, he has applied to move to Britain

Omar* worked for a UK-funded cultural programme, working on human rights and cultural projects. He lost his work when the Taliban arrived, and has applied to move to Britain. He has five daughters and is particularly concerned about their welfare.

After the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, our lives changed completely because of my work for a British organisation. Although the Taliban said in a statement that they had declared an amnesty for government workers, they have not kept that promise. They are seeking revenge against those who worked with foreign institutions. I’ve heard reports of people being arrested at night and taken to unknown places.

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David Davis tells Boris Johnson ‘in the name of God, go’ at chaotic PMQs

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Tory grandee calls on Johnson to resign at PMQs featuring fierce exchanges between PM and Keir Starmer

The Tory grandee David Davis told Boris Johnson: “In the name of God, go,” during an often chaotic prime minister’s questions overshadowed by intense doubt about Johnson’s future.

After a fierce set of exchanges between Johnson and Keir Starmer, Davis rose to tell Johnson that he had spent weeks defending him from “angry constituents”, but that repeated reports about lockdown-breaching parties were too much.

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Covid denier fined for filming in Gloucester hospital

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Debbie Hicks said she was acting as ‘guerrilla journalist’ to prove lockdown measures disproportionate

A woman acting as a “guerrilla journalist” when she filmed inside a hospital in an attempt to prove her belief that lockdown measures were disproportionate has been convicted of a public order offence.

Debbie Hicks, 47, a former teacher and psychologist, filmed twice at the Gloucestershire Royal hospital in Gloucester in December 2020 and told staff who challenged her she could do what she wanted as she paid her taxes.

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Covid live: Czech Republic scraps mandatory jabs as daily cases hit record; UK reports 108,069 cases

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Czech government scraps decree to avoid ‘deepening fissures’ in country; UK records a further 359 deaths

China has reported its lowest daily count of local Covid infections in two weeks after cities clamped down on high-risk areas, quarantined infections and conducted mass testing on residents.

Mainland China reported a total of 55 domestically transmitted infections for Tuesday, according to data from the national health commission, lower than the 127 recorded a day earlier and marking the fewest since 1 January.

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Millionaires call on governments worldwide to ‘tax us now’

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Group of 102 wealthy people say tax would help tackle gulf between rich and poor

More than 100 members of the global super-rich called on Wednesday for governments around the world to “tax us now” to help pay for the pandemic response and tackle the gulf between rich and poor.

The group of 102 millionaires and billionaires, including Disney heiress Abigail Disney, said the current tax system is rigged in their favour and needs to be rewritten to make taxation fairer for hard-working people and restore trust in politics.

Pay for the Health and Social Care Levy twice over every year – eliminating the need to raise national insurance on working people.

Cover the salaries of an additional 50,000 new nurses.

Pay for the permanent increase of universal credit.

Build 35,000 affordable houses and retrofit the UK’s draughtiest homes to reduce the cost of energy bills and help fight the climate crisis.

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Northern leaders to put culture at centre of region’s post-pandemic recovery

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Report making case for culture as catalyst for levelling up wins cross-party backing

Think of “the north” and images that come to mind include Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, the sculpture of Henry Moore and Manchester’s music scene.

But now a rare show of cross-party unity has called for all of the cultural icons of northern England to be a catalyst to rebuild the region and rebalance it with the rest of the UK.

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Tory MPs openly discuss Johnson challenge as mood ‘turns dramatically’

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MPs from across party confident of enough letters to trigger leadership contest after Sue Gray’s report

The mood of Conservative MPs was hardening against Boris Johnson on Tuesday night, with open talk of how to oust the prime minister and who should succeed him as he gave a disastrous interview claiming not to have lied over Downing Street parties.

A string of Tory MPs from various ranks and wings of the party said they believed there would be enough letters to trigger a leadership contest after the publication of the Sue Gray report into allegations of lockdown breaches, with some reports on Tuesday night that it could come sooner.

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‘I put my arms around her’: doctor’s story captures anger at No 10 parties

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Prit Buttar, who tweeted about comforting grieving woman, says he wanted to show difference in experience between ordinary people and Downing Street

When Dr Prit Buttar, a retired GP, decided to break social distancing rules and offer his embrace to a bereaved woman, it was a gesture of core humanity. “Everybody on the team would have done exactly the same, Covid or no Covid,” he said from his study near Kirkcudbright.

He did not envisage, a year on, that his recollection of that moment would inspire a cathartic outpouring of similar memories from people across the UK, or that he would become a reluctant – though passionate – advocate for the fury and dismay of ordinary people at the boozy rule-breaking in the seat of power.

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Witness willing to testify she saw Prince Andrew with a ‘young girl’ at London nightclub

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Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers seek her statement to counter the royal’s insistence he has never met their client or visited the club

A woman who may have seen Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre at a London nightclub 20 years ago is “willing” to provide testimony in Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against the royal, whom she accuses of sexual abuse, the witness’s lawyer said.

“I am proud to represent Shukri Walker, who has bravely stepped forward as a witness and encourages others who may have information to do so as well,” the lawyer Lisa Bloom said in an email.

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France reports nearly half a million new cases, a record increase; Italy records 228,179 daily infections – as it happened

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France registers 464,769 new Covid-19 infections over the last 24 hours; Italy’s cases jump from 83,403 a day earlier

China’s postal service has ordered workers to disinfect international deliveries and urged the public to reduce orders from overseas after authorities claimed mail could be the source of recent coronavirus outbreaks, Agence France-Press reports.

In recent days, Chinese officials have suggested that some people could have been infected by packages from abroad, including a woman in Beijing whom authorities said had no contact with other infected people but tested positive for a variant similar to those found in North America.

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Barbados PM who broke with Queen hopes for election boost

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Pollsters predict comfortable win for Mia Mottley, but she faces criticism of running a ‘one-party state’

She wowed Cop26 by castigating dithering global leaders for inflicting a “death sentence” on island nations and then made headlines around the world when she ditched the Queen as head of state, installing the singer Rihanna as an official national hero.

On Wednesday, the Barbados prime minister, Mia Mottley, hopes her soaring international profile will translate into a second term when the country goes to the polls in a snap general election.

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MI5 investigated Texas synagogue hostage-taker in 2020

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UK intelligence officers concluded Malik Faisal Akram posed no threat, which allowed him to travel to US and buy gun

The British man who took hostages at a Texas synagogue had been under investigation by MI5 as a possible Islamist terrorist threat as recently as 2020, Whitehall sources acknowledged on Tuesday morning.

British intelligence closed the investigation, however, after officers had concluded Malik Faisal Akram from Blackburn posed no threat, and as a result he was able to freely travel to the US and purchase a gun.

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Lying to parliament a resigning matter, says Raab, amid claims PM misled MPs

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Justice secretary says allegations that Boris Johnson lied about No 10 lockdown party are ‘nonsense’

Dominic Raab has admitted that lying to parliament is “normally” a resigning matter, amid claims that the prime minister deliberately misled MPs over his knowledge of a Downing Street party.

Boris Johnson’s former senior aide Dominic Cummings had earlier accused the prime minister of lying when No 10 denied Johnson had been warned against allowing a “bring your own booze” garden party during lockdown.

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‘We’ve been forgotten’: the British embassy security guard in Kabul

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Abdullah says guards who risked their lives for the British cannot understand why they have been abandoned

Abdullah*, 34, was a security guard for the British embassy, employed under contract by GardaWorld, and had a senior management role, looking after other locally employed embassy guards. He and about 180 colleagues had hoped to be evacuated to the UK at the end of August, but the evacuation was stopped by a bomb at the airport. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) made a clear commitment that all GardaWorld staff would be allowed to travel to the UK, but this has not happened.

We’ve heard nothing from the Home Office or the FCDO and life is becoming very hard for everyone who worked for the British embassy. Surviving when there is no income and no work is very difficult. We’re still hoping we will get an email about evacuation plans, but we haven’t heard anything. The UK government is helping footballers and writers to leave the country, but there has been no help for us. We feel like we should be first in line because we risked our lives for the British government. It’s a huge disappointment for all of us.

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‘Loud’ academic awarded more than £100,000 for unfair dismissal

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University of Exeter ordered to pay compensation to physicist Dr Annette Plaut, who was sacked after 29 years

A senior academic who says she was sacked from her post in a university’s physics department because of her loud voice has been awarded more than £100,000 after winning a claim for unfair dismissal.

Dr Annette Plaut told the Guardian she had a “naturally loud voice” that came from her middle European Jewish background and claimed it was the combination of her being “female and loud” that had led to her dismissal from the University of Exeter.

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Ex-charity worker was killed by former inmate she had a relationship with, jury told

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Michaela Hall, 49, was allegedly stabbed through eye by Lee Kendall, 42, in Mount Hawke, Cornwall

A former charity worker who worked with released prisoners was stabbed to death by an ex-inmate she had begun a relationship with, a jury has heard.

Michaela Hall, 49, was stabbed through the eye by Lee Kendall, 42, in a bedroom of her house in the Cornish village of Mount Hawke, Truro crown court was told.

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Covid live: unvaccinated over-60s face monthly fine in Greece; UK reports another 84,429 cases and 85 deaths

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Un-jabbed older people in Greece face penalties starting at a €50; UK cases continue downward trend

Germany is reporting a daily rise of 34,145 confirmed coronavirus cases and 30 deaths, according to recently released figures from the Robert Koch Institute.

The numbers bring the cumulative total of infections to 8,000,122 and 115,649 coronavirus-related deaths.

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