Category Archives: UK news

‘They couldn’t come into our internal waters’: Ardern responds to Aukus submarine deal – video

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New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says her country was ‘not approached’ to be part of a new security pact between Australia, the UK and US. ‘Nor would I expect us to be,’ she adds. ‘The anchor of this arrangement are nuclear-powered submarines and it will be very clear to all New Zealanders and to Australia why New Zealand would not wish to be a part of that project.' Since the mid-1980s, New Zealand has had a strict policy keeping its territorial sea, land and airspace as nuclear-free zones 

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Home Office hotels for asylum seekers ‘akin to detention centres’ – report

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Lawyers documented deterioration in health of asylum seekers while staying in accommodation

Conditions in hotels used by the Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers during the pandemic are akin to detention centres, according to a report that also says accommodation is often sub-standard and sometimes unsafe.

The report, Safe Environment: investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers during the Covid-19 outbreak, explores experiences in hotels and similar accommodation. It was conducted by academics at Edinburgh Napier University in partnership with grassroots organisation Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment.

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The end of furlough will lay bare Britain’s twin-speed recovery from Covid

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Workers in depressed sectors or regions won’t be able to plug gaps in areas that have been quicker to recover, ministers are being warned

There are signs outside almost every pub, restaurant and hotel dotting Torquay’s harbour: Staff wanted.

“It’s been packed solid busy, you can’t get a table anywhere,” said Brett Powis, owner of three hotels in the area including the Riviera and Lincombe Hall. For the hotelier, staff shortages made it harder to take full advantage of the busiest summertime boom in the Devon resort for decades.

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Afghanistan: former Chevening scholars accuse UK of abandoning them

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Government has prioritised rescue of current scholars but estimated 70 alumni are still in country

A group of former Chevening scholars have accused the British government of abandoning them in Afghanistan, where they say their lives are at grave risk from the Taliban.

The UK government has prioritised the rescue of 35 current Chevening scholars who were due to embark on their studies in the UK before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, but an estimated 70 former scholars are also thought to still be in the country.

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Cold war echoes as Aukus alliance focuses on China deterrence

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Analysis: military alliance is more wide-ranging than Five Eyes agreement and may come to define future approach to Indo-Pacific security

For those who study the history of the cold war, Washington’s new initiative with London and Canberra – known by its acronym “Aukus” – has eery echoes of an intelligence-sharing agreement signed 75 years ago. This agreement is now more commonly known as the Five Eyes partnership.

When the seven-page full text of UKUSA agreement – as it was originally known – was finally released in June 2010, Time magazine called it one of the cold war’s most important documents that “reveals one of the foundations of the special relationship the UK and the US still hold dear”.

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Watch in full: Biden, Johnson and Morrison announce Aukus and nuclear-powered submarine deal – video

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The US, the UK and Australia have announced they are setting up a trilateral security partnership aimed at confronting China, which will include helping Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines. US President Joe Biden, UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison announced the deal together virtually

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Gavin Williamson loses job as Boris Johnson begins cabinet reshuffle

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Education secretary confirms his departure in a tweet after being widely tipped to be replaced

Gavin Williamson has been removed as education secretary as Boris Johnson kicks off a reshuffle of his top team.

The education secretary confirmed his departure in a tweet, saying: “It has been a privilege to serve as education secretary since 2019.” He did not specify whether he had been given another post, saying only: “I look forward to continuing to support the prime minister and the government.”

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Wildflower meadow on tennis courts bulldozed by Norwich council

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Despite protests from locals and Green councillors, wildlife haven will become hard courts at cost of £266,000

A wildflower meadow containing 130 different flowering plants, dragonflies and rare bats that sprung up on Norwich’s last public grass tennis courts has been bulldozed.

Despite protests from local people and Green councillors, all-weather hard courts with floodlights and fencing are being installed in Heigham Park, where species including whiskered and brown long-eared bats, pygmy shrews, hedgehogs and 18 species of dragonfly have been recorded.

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Fire shuts one of UK’s most important power cables in midst of supply crunch

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Coal plants being warmed up as market prices surge to £2,500 per MWh from a norm of £40

A major fire has forced the shutdown of one of Britain’s most important power cables importing electricity from France as the UK faces a supply crunch and record high market prices.

National Grid was forced to evacuate staff from the site of the IFA high-voltage power cable, which brings electricity from France to a converter station in Kent, where 12 fire engines attended the blaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

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Lyra McKee: four men arrested over killing of journalist in Derry

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Police Service of Northern Ireland says the men have been detained under the Terrorism Act

Police in Northern Ireland have arrested four men as part of the investigation into the murder of the journalist Lyra McKee in 2019.

The four men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2006 on Wednesday morning. They were in the Derry area, and are now being questioned at Musgrave police station in Belfast.

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Experts warn of a rough winter but PM is clinging to plan A

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Analysis: despite Whitty and Vallance’s fears, Boris Johnson and his team remain optimistic

Twelve months ago, as a battle raged in Downing Street over whether to order a circuit-breaker lockdown, Prof Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance issued a stern public warning that England was headed for 200 deaths a day by November unless action was taken.

That was widely seen as a shocking and unacceptable figure. In the event, Boris Johnson finally caved in to the inevitable six weeks later, on 31 October, ordering a month-long lockdown.

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UK borders bill could criminalise Afghan refugees, UN representative warns

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Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor tells MPs proposed legislation could end up punishing those fleeing Taliban if travelling by illegal routes

The UN’s refugee chief in London has said the introduction of the new nationality and borders bill could criminalise Afghan people who manage to escape the Taliban.

Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor, the UNHCR’S representative in the UK, told MPs that the government could find itself in a situation where it is jailing Afghans who seek refuge in the UK because they travelled by illegal routes.

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Boris Johnson says winter Covid measures may include ‘plan B’ of home working and face masks – video

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Outlining the government's winter Covid-19 plan, Boris Johnson said the government will 'will keep further measures in reserve. A plan B.' These measures include face masks, advice to work from home and vaccine passports, the prime minister said.

Speaking at a No 10 press conference, Johnson added that 'it might still make the difference between keeping businesses open at full capacity or not'


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Winter plan: what does government’s toolkit to combat Covid include?

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Boris Johnson announces restrictions that could be used in England if NHS comes under pressure

Boris Johnson has announced the government’s “autumn and winter plan” to combat an anticipated rise in Covid infection rates over the coming months, with a toolkit of restrictions that could be introduced in England if the NHS comes under significant pressure.

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Chinese ambassador to UK barred from British parliament

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Move agreed by Speakers of Commons and Lords follows imposition of sanctions on British MPs by Beijing

The new Chinese ambassador to the UK has been barred from parliament by the Speakers in the Commons and Lords after the imposition of sanctions on British MPs by Beijing.

The new ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, was due to attend a meeting of the broadly pro-Chinese all-party group on China, but after a letter from MPs who were subjected to sanctions by China, including the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, has said the meeting is not appropriate.

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Covid booster jab to be offered to those at most risk and over-50s in UK

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JCVI recommends Pfizer/BioNTech shot be used regardless of vaccine received first time around

Covid boosters will be offered to all over-50s and those at greatest risk of the disease as part of the “toolbox” of measures for controlling coronavirus over the autumn and winter following guidance from the government’s vaccine advisers.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said a third dose of vaccine would top up the immunity in those whose protection had likely waned since they completed their first round of shots earlier in the year.

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Three people killed after car crashes into residential block in west London

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Emergency teams found vehicle on fire after being called to scene on Great Western Road in Notting Hill

Three people have died after a car crashed into a residential block in west London, the Metropolitan police have said.

Officers and emergency crews were called to Great Western Road in Notting Hill at around 4.50am and found the vehicle on fire.

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UK government threatens to suspend Northern Ireland protocol

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Brexit minister Lord Frost tells House of Lords that the European Commission must take renegotiation proposals seriously

The row over Brexit and Northern Ireland has escalated after the UK government issued a new warning to the EU that it will not shy away from unilaterally suspending the Northern Ireland protocol agreed by Boris Johnson last year.

Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, told the House of Lords on Monday night that the EU should take the UK’s proposals to renegotiate part of the protocol “seriously” if it wanted to avoid the protocol collapsing.

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