Water company tells creditors it will not survive long enough to agree refinancing deal without more money
Thames Water has asked its creditors for another £2.4bn as the embattled water company comes close to running out of cash.
The UK’s largest water company said on Thursday it needed another short-term cash injection because it would be unable to reach a longer-term deal to sort out its giant debt pile before running out of cash by “the end of 2026 or the start of 2027”.
Continue reading...Home secretary says she will block all Eritreans from UK unless a returns deal is agreed for rejected asylum seekers and criminals
Shabana Mahmood has been accused of launching a “perfunctory political gimmick” by the Eritrean government in a row over the return of rejected asylum seekers and criminals.
After the home secretary threatened to block all Eritreans from entering the UK unless a returns deal was agreed, the country’s embassy claimed the UK had failed to engage in “meaningful and appropriate” dialogue.
Continue reading...Exclusive: David and Anne Moffat to meet permanent secretary after coroner found Treasury ‘materially contributed’ to employee taking her own life
The parents of a woman who killed herself after facing disciplinary proceedings at the Treasury will call for anyone found to have contributed to their daughter’s death to be held to account.
A coroner found in August that the Treasury had “materially contributed” to Chloe Moffat’s death after the 26-year-old personal assistant was called into a surprise disciplinary meeting about anonymous complaints alleging she had disclosed sensitive information at work, which she denied.
Continue reading...Global human rights commitments adopted by government extend reach to enablers of unlawful activity
The UK is expanding its sanctions powers to freeze assets and target entities enabling illegal Israeli settlements, obstructing humanitarian aid or unlawfully holding prisoners.
The statutory instrument introducing the global human rights and international humanitarian law sanctions adds three new grounds to the 2020 regime: serious violations of international humanitarian law, obstruction of humanitarian assistance and serious violations of the right to liberty and security of person.
Continue reading...Only 1.04% of estimated 230,900 cases reviewed in first five months of £75m three-year scheme
Campaigners have urged Andy Burnham to step in after it emerged just a handful of the tens of thousands of unpaid carers who unknowingly racked up huge debts when welfare officials unlawfully changed benefits guidance have been repaid.
The first official update on the carers allowance reassessment exercise launched by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in April confirms that progress in cancelling wrongful overpayments has started slowly.
Continue reading...Burnham welcomes Ukraine’s president to No 10 for the first time since he became PM
PMQs is about to start.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
After @genevieve_holl reported this last night, various sources in the Trump administration who are supportive of Farage said Badenoch was needlessly trying to cause a political row (per @katyballs @MrHarryCole) and accused her of undermining the Anglo-American relationship.
It is possible that these people are particularly sensitive about this topic because they are still considering buying the islands, as @connorstringer and I reported earlier in the year. Domestic opposition to the idea of the US running Chagos in the UK would be a problem for the White House.
Calamity Kemi Strikes Again.
Kemi Badenoch has risked causing a diplomatic row with Britain’s allies, all because she cannot control the Tory spin doctors around her that oversaw the disastrous premierships of Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Theresa May, and even David Cameron.
Kemi and the Conservatives cannot be trusted by the Chagos people.
If they really have interest in the Chagos, why would you have started negotiating about things you already own?
We are confused at why @KemiBadenoch is attacking @Nigel_Farage …
We understood Nigel Farage’s comments to mean that we would get perpetual use of the base, which, frankly, we’ve always had.
Continue reading...Connor Bell died of his injuries after his friend Jack Beechy, 18, pulled the trigger, mistaking it for the safety catch
A 17-year-old boy died after he was accidentally shot in the head with an air rifle by his friend at a house party, an inquest has been told.
Connor Bell had been drinking at a friend’s house in Basingstoke, Hampshire, on 8 November last year when Jack Beechy fired the fatal shot by mistaking the trigger for the safety catch, the inquest heard.
Continue reading...Comedian faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against six women
Russell Brand was a ruthless, calculated and manipulative sexual predator who boasted about wanting to have sex with 5,000 women, a court has heard.
The 51-year-old comedian is alleged to have had an “insatiable desire” to get what he wanted and treated women as a means to an end, jurors were told.
Continue reading...Former investor alleges BitMEX sold products in UK despite not being regulated by Financial Conduct Authority
A cryptocurrency exchange founded by the billionaire Reform UK donor Ben Delo is being sued for £20m over claims that the company mis-sold financial products in the UK.
Lewis Barber, who is a software engineer, alleges that BitMEX offered crypto derivative products to investors in the UK, despite not being regulated or approved to do so by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Continue reading...Research shows that the best linguists process unfamiliar foreign speech sounds more like non-speech sounds
If you want to get really good at French, Arabic or Hungarian, don’t start with rote learning vocabulary and grammar, focus on how they sound instead, research suggests.
A new study of how humans learn modern languages has found that the brains of the most talented linguists hear foreign terms as random noise, not words.
Continue reading...Prime minister reiterates UK backing after the Ukrainian president’s latest round of difficulties with Donald Trump
Andy Burnham will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Downing Street on Wednesday as the UK seeks to further underline its support for the Ukrainian president, in contrast to his difficulties with Donald Trump.
The UK prime minister said his message to Zelenskyy and his country would be: “We are with you for as long as it takes.”
Continue reading...Annual update from MI5 chief highlighted a complex cocktail that could have real-life consequences for Britain
MI5’s annual threat update covers so much ground it is easy to feel anxious. The terror threat has become more diverse, with far-right anti-migrant threats on the rise; while Iran has now firmly emerged alongside Russia as a country seeking to undertake violent and deadly plots in the UK.
“There is no law of physics dictating that rising state threats will be accompanied by diminishing terrorist threats,” MI5’s director general, Ken McCallum, said, although one of his core messages was that people and the country at large needed to focus on being more resilient. “In this new world, we should expect to be tested.”
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says he believes the prime minister has an ‘authentic commitment’ to taking the UK back into the EU
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, has said he does not agree with his colleague Suella Braverman’s assertion that black people cannot be English.
Asked about her views in an interview on Sky News, Yusuf said:
In my view Ashley Cole is the best English fullback in history, and I won’t take any other position. So in my view, Ashley Cole is English. I think the argument that he’s not English doesn’t hold water with me.
Nasser Hussain, who I grew up watching when I went to the cricket, the idea that those people aren’t English is an alien concept to me.
I would respectfully disagree with people, who make the opposite argument.
To say I’m English is to take a ‘laissez-faire, anything-goes’ attitude to ethnicity, citizenship and identity. It also denies me my Asian heritage. The liberals (many of them in today’s Conservative party) take this cosmopolitan approach to Englishness. They’re terrified of being called racist so they say that anyone, as long as they’re born here, can be English.
I take the conservative approach. Englishness is an ethnicity. There have been English people for centuries and we need to recognise this more if we are to start taking a more muscular approach to citizenship and nationality. And no, it’s not racist to say this.
Continue reading...Audiences in Manchester will be asked to wear smart glasses for An Ark, which debuted in New York this year
Ian McKellen will star in a groundbreaking new play that gets its UK premiere in Manchester next spring. But the veteran actor will not set foot on stage.
The Lord of the Rings star is taking part in An Ark, a “mixed reality” play that had its debut in New York earlier this year. Theatregoers are asked to wear smart glasses, which project the actors into the room.
Continue reading...Price of chocolates falls in run-up to Halloween, while supermarkets use special offers to draw in sales
Grocery price inflation in the UK has picked up further, prompting shoppers to turn to special offers to keep their bills down – while the price of chocolates has fallen in the run-up to Halloween.
Supermarket prices were 2.5% higher than last year in the four weeks to 4 October, up from 2.3% last month, according to data from the retail analysts Worldpanel by Numerator.
Continue reading...Cyber-attack on TFG London comes less than a week after online fashion seller Asos was hit by hackers
The owner of Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles has said its websites and IT systems have been hit by a cyber-attack that may have compromised customers’ personal data.
The South-African listed TFG London said it identified the “cybersecurity incident” at the three UK-based retail chains on Sunday. Its two other UK brands, Inside Story and White Stuff, are not affected.
Continue reading...Spain remains most popular destination as Britons book later in hope of better deals, Abta report finds
The UK’s cost of living squeeze means fewer people plan to ringfence money for holidays abroad next year, the travel industry has warned.
Despite war, wildfires and EES border checks, the numbers of Britons taking holidays climbed back to pre-pandemic levels this year – but rising costs may mean the numbers have peaked, according to an annual travel industry report on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Party leader says Jenrick’s comments ‘misconstrued’, after MP said Royal Marines would be allowed to fire at those on boats
Nigel Farage has denied that a Reform UK government would authorise lethal force against migrant crossings in the Channel, hours after one of his MPs said the Royal Marines should be permitted to fire on the boats.
Robert Jenrick, a Reform UK MP who defected from the Conservatives, had told TalkTV that the party would deploy the Royal Marines to take boats back to France.
Continue reading...Home secretary vows to defend against ‘threats from without and within that target our democracy’
Security arrangements for high-profile public figures including politicians and members of the royal family are to be urgently reviewed in the wake of the killing of Ann Widdecombe, Shabana Mahmood said on Monday.
The home secretary said former MPs, party leaders who are not MPs, peers, former members of devolved parliaments and party spokespeople will also be offered police support.
Continue reading...The prime minister tells MPs the next summit with the EU will be held on 20 November
Burnham to urge MPs to embrace closer ties with EU
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, is speaking now. He started his speech with an account of a 73-year-old woman dying in North Wales after having to wait 23 hours for an ambulance, and he sought to link this to immigration.
He said:
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that 15,000 people across Britain died last year due to excess wait times for emergency treatment. That’s 300 people a week, 300 lives destroyed, 300 families devastated.
And that number has increased tenfold over the last decade. This is a moral outrage, and it is a direct result of decisions made by Tory and Labour governments.
I don’t think that’s because he wants to have a fight over the European Union. I think that’s because he knows what we’re talking about today impacts hard in what is known as the red wall.
Continue reading...