Category Archives: UK news

Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater wins narrow victory in Batley and Spen byelection

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Sister of murdered MP Jo Cox holds West Yorkshire seat for party, easing pressure on leader Keir Starmer

Labour has narrowly won the Batley and Spen byelection, holding on to the West Yorkshire seat after a hotly contested campaign.

Labour won 13,296 votes with the Tories recording 12,973, according to official results. Kim Leadbeater defeated Ryan Stephenson, the Conservative candidate, by 323 votes. George Galloway, representing the Workers Party of Britain, came third with 8,264 votes.

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Queen Victoria statue toppled in Canada amid anger at deaths of Indigenous children

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Smaller statue of Queen Elizabeth also removed in Winnipeg during protest at treatment of Indigenous children in notorious residential schools

A statue of Queen Victoria has been toppled in Canada amid growing outrage over the discovery of unmarked graves belonging to Indigenous children.

A group gathered at the Manitoba legislature pulled down the statue on Canada Day – an annual celebration on 1 July that marks the country’s confederation.

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Angela Merkel and PM to discuss Covid travel curbs during final UK visit

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Prime minister will welcome German leader at Chequers in her last visit as chancellor

Boris Johnson is to welcome Angela Merkel to Chequers on Friday, with coronavirus travel restrictions anticipated to be high on the agenda for their meeting.

The German chancellor, who is making her final visit to the UK before stepping down, has called for quarantine for all UK travellers entering the EU, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated, due to concerns over the Delta variant.

Germany has already designated the UK a “virus variant region”, meaning anyone travelling from the UK has to quarantine for two weeks on arrival – excluding those in transit.

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Ending furlough scheme too early could damage recovery, say trade unions

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Government is reducing its contribution to the scheme, with employers having to pay a share

Ending the furlough scheme too early could damage the recovery and push unemployment higher, trade unions warned as official figures showed the number of workers on the scheme in May fell at a slower rate than expected to 2.4 million employees.

Without an extension of furlough or extra support for the hardest-hit industries, the bounce back on economic activity could be choked off, unions said.

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William and Harry unveil Diana statue at Kensington Palace

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Bronze artwork depicts princess flanked by children to represent ‘generational impact of her work’

The long-awaited statue of Diana, Princess of Wales was finally unveiled in a scaled-down ceremony on Thursday which saw the dukes of Cambridge and Sussex reunited in tribute to their mother, setting aside their recent differences.

On what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday, the brothers appeared together for the first time since the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, after Prince Harry flew in from California for the brief ceremony.

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‘Excited delirium’: term linked to police restraint in UK medical guide condemned

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Public health bodies and families say term carries racial bias and is used to justify lethal use of force by police

Public health bodies, charities and the families of men who died after being restrained by police have condemned the inclusion of a controversial medical term in one of the UK’s leading medical handbooks.

Acute behavioural disturbance (ABD), more commonly known as “excited delirium”, a contentious expression used in fatal cases of police violence, has recently been added to the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (MPG).

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Over 50,000 EU citizens scramble to beat UK settled status deadline

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Exclusive: Home Office receives fivefold daily rise in applications as people tell of fear and anger

There was a fivefold surge in applications by EU citizens for UK settled status on Wednesday, with more than 50,000 scrambling to beat the midnight deadline, it has emerged.

Such was the last-minute rush that the Home Office extended the time applications would be accepted to 9am on Thursday.

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New DUP leader targets end to Northern Ireland protocol

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Sir Jeffrey Donaldson seeks to draw line under party infighting and adopts hard line on Irish Sea border

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has demanded the removal of the Northern Ireland protocol, in his first speech as leader of the Democratic Unionist party.

The MP for Lagan Valley took a hard line over the Irish Sea border on Thursday, calling it the “greatest threat to the economic integrity of the United Kingdom in any of our lifetimes”.

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Pregnant women in England denied mental health help because of Covid

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In 2020-21, only 31,261 out of 47,000 managed to access perinatal mental health services

Thousands of pregnant women in England were denied vital help for their mental health because of the pandemic, analysis from leading psychiatrists shows.

In 2020-21, 47,000 were expected to access perinatal mental health services to help with conditions such as anxiety and depression during or after giving birth, but only 31,261 managed to get help in the most recent data for the 2020 calendar year only, according to analysis from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

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Man filmed accosting Chris Whitty loses job as estate agent

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Lewis Hughes, 24, apologises for ‘any upset caused’ after video of incident in London went viral

A man who was called a “thug” by Boris Johnson after being filmed accosting Prof Chris Whitty has apologised for “any upset I caused”.

Lewis Hughes, 24, said if he made England’s chief medical officer feel “uncomfortable”, then “I am sorry to him for that”. He said he had lost his job as a result of the video.

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Employers warned not to discriminate amid rush for EU settled status

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Citizens told to complain if rights have been breached, as number of applicants surges before deadline

Businesses and public bodies have been warned by the Brexit rights regulator not to discriminate against EU citizens as the new post-Brexit immigration regime enters into force at midnight.

The warnings come as Home Office helplines for EU citizens living in the UK were reported to be “jammed” by a last-minute surge in EU citizens applying to remain in the UK by the midnight deadline. Charity workers helping applicants said they were also struggling to get through to the specialist hotline reserved for advisers.

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Scientists urge UK to expand official list of Covid symptoms

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UK’s narrow clinical definition only includes high fever, continuous cough, or loss of smell and taste

Senior scientists have called for the UK to expand its official list of Covid symptoms to reduce the number of missed cases and ensure more people know they should self-isolate.

The researchers, who include Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Sage committee of experts, argue the UK’s narrow clinical definition of Covid leads to delays in identifying people with the disease and may miss them altogether, hampering efforts to disrupt the spread of the virus.

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Pauline Latham MP picks up bill to end child marriage in England and Wales

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MP to take over private member’s bill proposed by Sajid Javid to raise legal age to 18, after his promotion to health secretary

The MP Pauline Latham will step in to adopt Sajid Javid’s private member’s bill to end child marriage after his promotion to health secretary.

Javid presented a bill raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 in England and Wales to parliament earlier this month, but is not able to take it forward because he is no longer a backbencher.

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Belfast court dismisses legal challenge to Brexit Northern Ireland protocol

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Ruling is boost to UK and EU negotiators who are expected to announce new arrangements

The high court in Belfast has thrown out a legal challenge to the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol.

The ruling is a setback for the applicants including the Democratic Unionist Party and a relief for UK and EU negotiators who are planning to announce a package of new arrangements later on Wednesday aimed at taking the heat out of the current dispute over Brexit checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain to Ireland.

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Covid: Sage scientist fears England could repeat ‘mistakes of last summer’

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Prof Stephen Reicher says restrictions may have to be reimposed if reopening leads to surge in infections

A scientific adviser to the government’s Covid-19 response has expressed fears England could be in danger of repeating “the mistakes of last summer”.

Prof Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) subcommittee on behavioural science, said the government may have to reimpose restrictions if the reopening leads to a surge in infections.

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‘Jaw-dropping’ fall in life expectancy in poor areas of England, report finds

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Sir Michael Marmot’s report says Covid figures from Manchester reveal sharp decline in social conditions

Boris Johnson’s post-Covid “levelling up” agenda will fail unless it addresses declining life expectancy and deteriorating social conditions in England’s poorest areas, a leading authority on public health has warned, as he published figures showing the impact of the pandemic on Greater Manchester.

Sir Michael Marmot revealed the coronavirus death rate in Greater Manchester was 25% higher than the England average during the year to March, leading to “jaw-dropping” falls in life expectancy and widening social and health inequalities across the region over the past year.

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OpenStreetMap looks to relocate to EU due to Brexit limitations

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Open-source UK tech company cites copyright issues, rising costs and prospect of more influence in EU

OpenStreetMap, the Wikipedia-for-maps organisation that seeks to create a free and open-source map of the globe, is considering relocating to the EU, almost 20 years after it was founded in the UK by the British entrepreneur Steve Coast.

OpenStreetMap Foundation, which was formally registered in 2006, two years after the project began, is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Following Brexit, the organisation says the lack of agreement between the UK and EU could render its continued operation in Britain untenable.

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UK Covid recovery at risk as furlough scheme phased out, say economists

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Business leaders also warn of renewed threat to jobs and growth as Delta variant drives up infections

Britain’s economic recovery from Covid-19 is coming under pressure amid worker shortages and lengthier pandemic restrictions, as the Delta variant of coronavirus drives up infection rates.

As the government begins to wind down the furlough scheme on Thursday – despite delaying its roadmap out of lockdown by four weeks until 19 July – the Guardian’s monthly snapshot of economic developments suggests the pace of recovery has plateaued.

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UK road-building scheme breaches climate commitments, high court told

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Transport Action Network says £27bn programme does not take account of Paris climate agreement

The government’s plans for a multibillion pound road-building scheme would breach the UK’s legal commitments to tackle the climate crisis and critically undermine the country’s standing ahead of a key summit later this year, the high court has heard.

Lawyers acting for the Transport Action Network (TAN) argued that plans for the UK’s huge £27bn road building programme – set out in its Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2) last year – did not take into account the government’s obligations to reach net zero emissions by 2050 or its commitments under the Paris climate agreement.

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Business leaders arriving in England granted exemption from Covid quarantine

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Ministers facing criticism over new rules for visitors who bring ‘significant economic benefit’

Ministers have been accused of making a “mockery” of quarantine rules after it was announced some business executives travelling to England will be able to temporarily leave self-isolation.

Rules for those arriving from amber list countries have been changed to let visitors entering the country bringing “significant economic benefit” interrupt their up to 10-day stay at home for important business activities.

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