Category Archives: UK news

Eurostar vows to run direct trains from UK to Germany and Switzerland

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Cross-Channel rail operator, which is trying to fend off rivals for its London depot space, regards early 2030s as feasible

Eurostar has vowed to run direct trains from the UK to Germany and Switzerland, as it attempts to fend off potential competitors eyeing its London depot space.

The cross-Channel rail operator’s chief executive, Gwendoline Cazenave, said she had no doubt the direct services would run in the early 2030s despite the failure of previous ventures to connect London and Frankfurt.

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Public disorder breaks out in Northern Ireland town Ballymena after alleged sexual assault

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Police in Northern Ireland say a number of missiles had been thrown towards officers and damage to properties had been reported

Public disorder broke out in Ballymena in Northern Ireland, with police saying a number of missiles had been thrown towards officers after crowds gathered near the site of an alleged sexual assault in the town.

The unrest follows a protest in the area, about 30 minutes’s drive from the capital city of Belfast, earlier on Monday evening, the police statement said, adding damage had been reported to a number of properties.

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Children to have free bus travel in west of England during summer holidays

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About 150,000 under-16s will benefit across West of England combined authority and North Somerset

Children under the age of 16 will be able to travel for free on buses in the west of England during the school summer holidays in a move benefiting about 150,000 young people.

The West of England combined authority (Weca) – covering Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire – plus North Somerset will allow children aged from five to 15 to travel for free with no bus pass or registration required.

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Sizewell C power station to be built as part of UK’s £14bn nuclear investment

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Ed Miliband promises to ‘get Britain off the fossil fuel rollercoaster’ with new plant expected to create 10,000 jobs

The biggest nuclear programme in a generation will “get Britain off the fossil fuel rollercoaster”, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said, announcing £14.2bn to build a new nuclear power station and a drive to build small modular reactors.

The multibillion-pound investment at Sizewell C on the Suffolk coast, which has been long expected, will create 10,000 jobs and power the equivalent of 6m homes.

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Russia could be ready to attack Nato within five years, says secretary general

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In speech in London Mark Rutte says he expects alliance members to agree to raise military spending to 5% of GDP

Russia could be ready to attack Nato within five years and leaders of the western alliance are expected to agree to increase military spending to 5% of GDP this month to contain the threat, the alliance’s secretary general has said.

Mark Rutte said in a speech in London on Monday that Nato needed “a quantum leap in our collective defence”, which would include significant rearmament to deter an increasingly militarised Russia.

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France to use UK drama Adolescence to teach teenagers about toxic masculinity

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French education ministry follows Britain and Netherlands in incorporating Netflix hit into school curriculums

France has followed the UK and the Netherlands in allowing the Netflix drama Adolescence to be used in secondary schools as part of efforts to teach teenagers about toxic masculinity and online harms.

The French education ministry will offer schools five classes based on excerpts from the critically acclaimed mini-series, which has provoked a global debate about the impact on young boys of misogynistic content online and on social media.

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Winter fuel payments U-turn likely to lead to higher taxes or other welfare cuts, says IFS director – UK politics live

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Treasury says move to restore the funding for most pensioners will cost around £1.25bn

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are both trying to take credit for the winter fuel payments U-turn by the government.

This is from Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader.

Keir Starmer has scrambled to clear up a mess of his own making. I repeatedly challenged him to reverse his callous decision to withdraw winter fuel payments, and every time Starmer arrogantly dismissed my criticisms.

This humiliating U-turn will come as scant comfort to the pensioners forced to choose between heating and eating last winter. The prime minister should now apologise for his terrible judgement.

Finally the chancellor has listened to the Liberal Democrats and the tireless campaigners in realising how disastrous this policy was, but the misery it has caused cannot be overstated.

Countless pensioners were forced to choose between heating and eating all whilst the government buried its head in the sand for months on end, ignoring those who were really suffering.

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Lex Greensill says SoftBank managers ‘felt threatened’ by his links to founder

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Financier tells court he travelled to Tokyo ‘often weekly’ for mentoring sessions with Masayoshi Son

The financier Lex Greensill has told a court that senior managers at SoftBank “felt threatened” by his relationship with Masayoshi Son, the founder of the Japanese tech investor that pumped hundreds of millions of dollars in his specialist lender before its collapse.

Greensill said he travelled to Tokyo “often weekly” for in-person mentoring sessions with the billionaire founder, who he dined with and referred to by the Japanese honorific “Son-san”. Greensill made the comments in his first public courtroom appearance since the devastating demise in 2021 of his company, which counted former prime minister David Cameron as an adviser.

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Nigel Farage’s pitch for Welsh elections: bring back coalmining

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Reform leader says steel and coal industries can be revived but does not say how beyond ‘scrapping net zero’

Nigel Farage has demanded the reopening of domestic coalmines to provide fuel for new blast furnaces, arguing that Welsh people would happily return to mining if the pay was sufficiently high.

Speaking at an event in Port Talbot, the south Wales town traditionally associated with the steel industry, the Reform UK leader said it was in the “national interest” to have a guaranteed supply of steel, as well as UK-produced fuel for the furnaces, a close echo of Donald Trump’s repeated pledges to return heavy industry to the US.

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Rachel Reeves in standoff over policing and council budgets days before spending review

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Chancellor still at negotiating table on Sunday as Home Office demands more cas

Rachel Reeves has been locked in a standoff over the policing and council budgets just days before this week’s spending review, which is set to give billions to the NHS, defence and technology.

Yvette Cooper’s Home Office and Angela Rayner’s housing and local government ministry were the two departments still at the negotiating table on Sunday fighting for more cash, after weeks of trying to reach a settlement.

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Nottingham victim’s parent complains about ‘offensive’ IOPC meeting

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Father of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, killed by Valdo Calocane, said meeting with a director of police watchdog should not have begun with a prayer

The family of a student killed in the Nottingham attacks have formally complained to the police watchdog over an “offensive” meeting with one of its directors.

Valdo Calocane killed Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates in a spate of attacks in the city in June 2023. He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility as a result of paranoid schizophrenia and three counts of attempted murder.

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Cuts to UK’s global vaccination funding would risk avoidable child deaths, experts warn

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Exclusive: Scientists also say any reduction in Foreign Office funding for vaccine alliance Gavi would harm UK’s soft power

Any cut in UK funding to a global vaccination group would damage soft power and could make British less resilient to infectious diseases, as well as causing avoidable deaths among children, leading vaccine and aid experts have warned.

Scientists including Sir Andrew Pollard, who led the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, said a major cut in money for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) could also make the UK less able to respond to a future pandemic.

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Campaigners hail plan to ban bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas

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Environmental groups welcome government proposals to clamp down on destructive fishing practice

Environmental groups have welcomed government proposals to ban the destructive fishing practice known as bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas.

The plan, to be announced on Monday by the environment secretary, Steve Reed, came before a UN summit in Nice to tackle the ocean’s failing health. It follows pressure from conservationists and the release of a David Attenborough film featuring rare underwater footage of the devastation to the seabed caused by bottom trawling in British waters.

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Senior medics in England say more resident doctor strikes would be futile

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Exclusive: Letter from six top figures says more walkouts by junior colleagues would help those who oppose the NHS

Six senior figures in England’s medical profession have criticised potential strikes by resident doctors as “a futile gesture” that will harm patients and help those who oppose the NHS.

The move is the first public evidence of the significant unease many senior doctors feel about the possibility of their junior colleagues staging a new campaign of industrial action in England.

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Will the North Sea oil and gas industry be Labour’s next U-turn?

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With Nigel Farage targeting net zero, could government policy change to protect jobs, revenue and votes?

It was inevitable that Nigel Farage would take Reform UK’s campaign tour to Aberdeen. On a visit to the capital of the UK’s oil and gas industry on Monday he welcomed a defecting Aberdeen Conservative councillor, the 13th defection to his party’s ranks in Scotland to date.

Reform is hoping to make political hay from the discontent surrounding the government’s North Sea policies, the demise of the oil and gas basin and the vast workforce that depends on it. The populist party has vowed to reverse the government’s ban on fresh North Sea oil and gas drilling as a “day one” priority if elected to power in 2029.

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‘A momentous day’: families of Britons killed in 1980 oil rig disaster finally win compensation

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Norway will set up state payment scheme for families of 123 men killed in Kielland disaster, but some feel it comes too late

“I think we all feel like we’ve had a bit of a weight lifted off our shoulders,” said Laura Fleming after an important milestone in one of Europe’s longest-running industrial disaster sagas. “It is just 45 years too late.”

Fleming’s father, Michael, was one of 123 men who were killed when the Alexander L Kielland accommodation rig capsized during a fierce storm in the Norwegian North Sea oilfields on 27 March 1980.

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Andrew Malkinson says fight will continue for justice system reform

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After 17 years wrongfully jailed for rape, freed man wants to change Criminal Cases Review Commission and compensation scheme for others like him

Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, says his fight to reform the legal system’s handling of miscarriages of justice is far from over.

The 59-year-old had his conviction overturned in 2023 after years spent protesting his innocence.

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Tulip Siddiq requests meeting with Bangladeshi leader over corruption allegation

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Ex-minister wants to clear up ‘misunderstanding’ over accusation she benefitted from regime of her aunt, ousted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina

The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has asked to meet Bangladesh’s leader during his London visit to clear up a “misunderstanding” after corruption allegations made by his administration led her to resign from the UK government.

Siddiq, whose aunt Sheikh Hasina was put on trial in absentia last week over crimes against humanity during her 15 years as prime minister, has been accused of benefitting from the former regime by the authorities in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

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Ministers commit to £86bn for ‘breakthrough’ UK science and tech R&D

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Mayors welcome £500m set aside for regional authorities to target investment locally

New drug treatments, longer-lasting batteries and developing artificial intelligence are among research projects that will receive funding as part of an £86bn government investment into science and technology.

Ministers have announced a £22.5bn a year commitment in research and development (R&D) over the next four years, including up to £500m for regional authorities to target the investment locally.

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