Category Archives: UK news

Jamaicans who came to UK as children will be left off deportation flight

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Exclusive: Home Office quietly agrees deal with Jamaica amid outcry over charter plane

A deal has been quietly agreed between the Home Office and Jamaica not to remove people who came to the UK as children on a controversial charter flight to the Caribbean island this week, its high commissioner has said.

Seth Ramocan told the Guardian that following diplomatic overtures to the Home Office, officials agreed not to deport Jamaicans who came to Britain under the age of 12. The Home Office has declined to comment and there has been no public announcement.

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‘It’s impossible’: how Brexit has left British families unable to return to the UK

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Up to 40% of Britons in dual-national relationships likely to want to return fear they do not fulfil the income requirement

When Britain’s new immigration bill became law earlier this month, the home secretary, Priti Patel, tweeted her “delight, after many years of campaigning,” that free movement between the EU and Britain would at last end on 31 December.

But the bill does not just repeal EU citizens’ right to work and live in UK – a key Brexit ask – or British nationals’ right to do the same across the bloc. It will also make it very hard indeed for many Britons who have already moved to ever come home again.

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Culture secretary to ask Netflix to play ‘health warning’ that The Crown is fictional

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Oliver Dowden says younger viewers might take historical drama’s portrayal as fact

The culture secretary plans to write to Netflix and request a “health warning” is played before The Crown so viewers are aware that the historical drama is a work of fiction, he said in an intervention that prompted criticism.

Oliver Dowden said that without the caveat younger viewers who did not live through the events might “mistake fiction for fact” following complaints that the fourth series of the drama had abused its artistic licence and fabricated events.

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UK universities fine students £170,000 for Covid rule breaches

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Exclusive: 28 institutions issued fines, with Nottingham University students alone hit for £58,865

Universities fined students more than £170,000 for breaching coronavirus safety rules in the first weeks of the new academic year, a Guardian analysis has found, as students told of struggling to make friends without flouting restrictions.

Twenty-eight institutions fined students for breaking university, local and national Covid rules, including on household mixing, mandatory face coverings and social distancing, according to responses from 105 universities to freedom of information (FoI) requests.

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Dominic Raab warns UK at risk of third wave of coronavirus – video

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The UK is at risk of a third wave of Covid-19 in the new year if the right balance is not struck on restrictions, Dominic Raab has told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show. 

The foreign secretary also refused to rule out the prospect of a third nationwide lockdown next year. The Commons will vote on Tuesday on whether to approve the three-tier system replacing the national lockdown

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Working in the NHS, it doesn’t feel like any end to Covid is in sight

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The news about a vaccine doesn’t feel real to stressed and exhausted hospital staff, says a consultant

It turns out that a pandemic really is a marathon, not a sprint to a finish line. I guess that was obvious really.

It’s not all bad. We are no longer dealing with an unknown threat that we are having to discover as we go along. The disease is known, its presentation recognised, its complications understood.

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UK woman who has travelled Europe for six years goes missing in Pyrenees

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Urgent search under way for Esther Dingley, who was hiking alone in the mountains

A British woman who has spent six years travelling across Europe has gone missing while on a solo hiking tour in the French Pyrenees.

Esther Dingley, 37, had been travelling with her partner, Dan Colegate, since 2014, with the couple’s travel adventures well-documented in a blog and in the national press. She had embarked on a month-long solo trip when she went missing.

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Keir Starmer warned not to insist Labour MPs vote for Brexit deal

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Leader faces resignations from his front bench in a ‘dangerous moment’ for his authority

Keir Starmer, the Labour party leader, faces the threat of resignations from his frontbench team should he order MPs to vote in favour of a Brexit deal agreed by the government.

Labour sources said that there were shadow ministers willing to step down if ordered to vote for the deal that could be agreed this week, with one describing it as a “dangerous moment” for the Starmer’s authority.

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Among Us: the video game that has shot 100 million players into outer space

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A new hunger for social contact during lockdown has boosted participation in online multiplayer games

If “sus” and “vent” mean nothing to you, then you’ve somehow missed out on the smash-hit multiplayer game Among Us. But with numbers playing the online game heading towards 100 million, maybe you’ll find out before Christmas how good you are at being an “impostor” .

For the uninitiated, Among Us is the sleeper game hit of 2020. The premise is simple: it’s Cluedo or Wink Murder on a spaceship with four to 10 players of crewmates and impostors. The crewmates perform simple tasks for take-off, while impostors sabotage operations and kill other players. Impostors are the only players who can travel through vents – hence the significance of vent in Among Us. Gamers hold meetings to pick a suspect – which is where the word sus comes in – to jettison. The aim is to catch the impostors.

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Life after Covid: will our world ever be the same?

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From cities, to science, to politics, six Observer writers assess how a post-pandemic world will emerge into a new normal

Here are some things that the pandemic changed. It accustomed some people – those whose jobs allowed it – to remote working. It highlighted the importance of adequate living space and access to the outdoors. It renewed, through their absence, an appreciation of social contact and large gatherings. It showed up mass daily commuting for the dehumanising drain on energy and resources that it is.

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What really happened to Edson Da Costa?

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He was 25, a father and a car mechanic. Five minutes after being stopped by police on 15 June 2017, he was lying unresponsive on the ground. After an inquest and inquiry, family and friends are still fighting for justice

They were cruising at speed down Tollgate Road, the stereo turned high. They all knew they shouldn’t be there, not at this time, not after dark. If you’re from London’s Stratford, showing up in nearby Beckton carried its risks.

Jussara Gomes was driving, a fast-talking 23-year-old with an infectious laugh. Beside her, in the passenger seat of the black A-class Mercedes, was Edir Da Costa, known as Edson, a 25-year-old father and car mechanic, swaying exuberantly to hip-hop.

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Senior Tories fear £4bn cut to overseas aid will be made permanent

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MPs campaigning against chancellor’s plans believe they can ‘humiliate’ the government into U-turn

Senior Tories fear that the cut to Britain’s aid budget will become permanent, amid a growing campaign inside and outside parliament to reverse the decision.

Conservatives opposed to the move are already vowing to “humiliate” the government by forcing it to stand by its manifesto commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid – a vow chancellor Rishi Sunak said he would breach in his review of public spending last week. He announced that £4bn would effectively be cut from the aid budget by reducing it to 0.5%, despite pleas from Tories and the archbishop of Canterbury.

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UK and France sign deal to make Channel migrant crossings ‘unviable’

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Both countries agree to double police patrols on route already used by more than 8,000 people this year

Britain and France have signed a new agreement aimed at curbing the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, and her French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said they wanted to make the route used by more than 8,000 people this year unviable.

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Last-ditch Brexit trade talks resume amid growing EU scepticism

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Michel Barnier has told bloc he is prepared for four more days of make-or-break negotiations

Michel Barnier has told MEPs he is prepared for a further four days of make-or-break Brexit negotiations, with growing scepticism among EU member states about the utility of further talks.

Having spent a week in isolation after a member of the bloc’s team tested positive for coronavirus, Barnier and his staff resumed face-to-face negotiations in London on Saturday morning.

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UK supermarkets unite after Sainsbury’s advert prompts racist backlash

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Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose run ads back-to-back on Channel 4

A group of leading UK supermarkets have joined together to take a stand against a racist online backlash that followed Sainsbury’s Christmas advertisement featuring a black family.

Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose ran their adverts back-to-back during two primetime slots on Channel 4 on Friday evening, with the hashtag #StandAgainstRacism. Normally, competitors actively avoid airing their ads close together.

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Nadhim Zahawi appointed minister in charge of Covid-19 vaccine rollout

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UK business minister to take on additional role as NHS prepares for mass deployment

Nadhim Zahawi, a minister for business and industry, has been placed in charge of overseeing the deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine, Downing Street has announced.

No 10 said the Stratford-on-Avon MP would take on the role until at least next summer.

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‘Why did it take nine hours to go 130 miles in our new electric Porsche?’

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A Kent couple love their new car – but their experience suggests there are problems with the charging network

A couple from Kent have described how it took them more than nine hours to drive 130 miles home from Bournemouth as they struggled to find a working charger capable of producing enough power to their electric car.

Linda Barnes and her husband had to visit six charging stations as one after another they were either out of order, already had a queue or were the slow, older versions that would never be able to provide a fast enough charge in the time.

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‘Grain to glass’ distiller hopes to put Wales on world’s whisky map

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In The Welsh Wind distillery already taking orders for 30-litre casks of ultra-local spirit

The barley has been grown in fields with spectacular views over Cardigan Bay and malted on a local farm. The all-important water comes from springs deep beneath the Welsh countryside.

A small distillery in west Wales is at the centre of what it hopes may turn out to be a quiet whisky revolution.

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UK ski holiday firms in limbo as Covid restrictions and Brexit bite

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British tourists, chalet owners and resort staff wait for winter season decisions across Europe

British holidaymakers, chalet owners and resort staff are in limbo as countries across Europe decide whether or not this winter’s ski season will go ahead.

This week, Britain’s biggest ski operator Crystal Ski Holidays was forced to cancel all its French ski trips in December after President Macron ordered the nation’s resorts to stay shut until the new year.

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