James Cleverly asks Yvette Cooper if she intervened to ensure popstar’s London concerts went ahead
Ministers are facing questions over whether they intervened to grant Taylor Swift VIP police protection in order to stop her cancelling her London concerts.
James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, wrote to his opposite number, Yvette Cooper, on Wednesday to ask whether she had personally made representations.
Continue reading...Exclusive: London mayor boosts counter-hate funding as British Jewish group warns of danger of ‘reprisal’ attacks
Sadiq Khan has warned of a potential increase in hate crime in Britain triggered by the rise in Middle East violence, as a leading British Jewish group warned of the danger of “reprisal” attacks here.
The London mayor’s warning comes after a series of Israeli airstrikes against targets in Lebanon, which have killed Hezbollah’s top leaders as well as its followers, and it is feared, scores of civilians. Khan is pumping extra emergency funding into groups in London countering hate.
Continue reading...Mayor to be given power to overrule Westminster council, which blocked previous plan amid concerns over rerouting buses
Traffic will be banned from London’s Oxford Street under plans announced by the mayor, Sadiq Khan, using new powers from Labour to push through long-thwarted pedestrianisation of the capital’s famous shopping strip.
Khan said urgent action was needed so that the mile-long street could “once again become the leading retail destination in the world.”
Continue reading...Transport for London confirms 330 vehicles approved for donation to help country’s war effort
More than 200 vehicles that fell foul of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) have been sent to Ukraine to aid the country’s war effort, despite initial legal concerns over the plan.
Transport for London (TfL) said on Friday that 330 vehicles had been given the green light to be sent to Ukraine under the Ulez vehicle scrappage scheme. More than 200 are already in the eastern European country.
Continue reading...The monarch held calls with Keir Starmer and senior officers and paid tribute to the emergency services
King Charles has sent his “heartfelt thanks” to the police for restoring order after speaking to Keir Starmer and senior officers following the week of unrest across the UK.
The king and the prime minister held a phone call on Friday evening, Buckingham Palace said. Gavin Stephens, a chief constable and chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and the UK gold commander Ben Harrington, chief constable of Essex police, held a separate joint call with the king.
Continue reading...Exclusive: London mayor warns law must be revisited ‘very, very quickly’ due to falsehoods that contributed to unrest
Laws designed to counter misinformation are “not fit for purpose” and must be revisited after the spread of online falsehoods contributed to this month’s far-right riots, the mayor of London has said.
Sadiq Khan, one of the UK’s most senior Muslim politicians, said ministers should act “very, very quickly” to review the Online Safety Act after the violent unrest in England and Belfast over the past week. There have been calls to hasten the act’s implementation.
Continue reading...Almost 12,000 rough sleepers were seen by outreach workers in 2023-24, a 19% increase on the previous year
Rough sleeping in the capital has hit the highest level in a decade, with more than 1,100 people living on London’s streets for the first time because of evictions.
The number of new rough sleepers seen for the first time by outreach workers between April 2023 and March 2024, surged 25% to 7,974 people – the highest in at least four years. Almost one in 10 people living on the streets was aged 25 or under – including 13 children.
Continue reading...Labour has expressed concerns about the calibre of would-be Tory MPs after a some shared outlandish views online
The Conservative party has been accused of becoming a home for “cranks” after some of its candidates at the general election were revealed to have shared conspiracy theories on social media.
The posts seen by the Observer include the suggestion that positive tests for Covid-19 were “mass psychosis at work” and that the Black Lives Matter movement might be an attempt to “bring down British society”.
Continue reading...The results of mayoral elections in Greater Manchester, London and the West Midlands are among those expected on Saturday
Rishi Sunak is braced for the result of key mayoral elections in London and the West Midlands, after the Conservatives were trounced in the first day of local election results.
As Friday’s result declarations closed, the Conservatives had suffered a net loss of 371 seats, and lost control of 10 councils.
Cheshire
Dorset
Hertfordshire
Kent
Merseyside
Sussex
Thames Valley
Warwickshire
West Midlands
Wiltshire
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mayor says Conservative government has put obstacles in his way each day of his eight years in office
Sadiq Khan has called the Conservatives’ treatment of London “unpatriotic” as he accused the government of putting obstacles in his way every day of his eight years running the capital.
The London mayor accused the Tories of “trying to do us down” at every opportunity for political reasons in long-running battles over police funding, cuts to London’s transport budget and in planning decisions.
Continue reading...Investigation finds groups hosting Islamophobic attacks on London mayor Sadiq Khan, white supremacist slogans and antisemitic conspiracy theories
Conservative party staff and activists are secretly operating a network of Facebook groups that have become a hotbed of racism, misinformation and support for criminal damage.
An investigation has identified 36 groups that appear to be separate grassroots movements opposing the expansion of ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) schemes to reduce air pollution. They do not say they were set up by the Conservatives as part of a coordinated political campaign.
Continue reading...A separate police force will report on failures relating to sixth murder suspect, Matthew White, who was never prosecuted
An independent police force will review the Metropolitan police’s handling of new evidence relating to the murder of Stephen Lawrence 30 years after his death, the mayor of London has said.
It comes after the Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, apologised to Stephen’s mother, Doreen Lawrence, for not fulfilling a promise to answer questions stemming from a BBC investigation into the murder of the 18-year-old in 1993.
Continue reading...London mayor expected to criticise Susan Hall in speech launching panels on school roofs
Sadiq Khan will accuse his Conservative rival in the race to be London’s next mayor of being “Trumpian” over the climate crisis, as he announces plans for solar panels on schools.
Khan is expected to acknowledge resistance to his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in a speech on Friday but insist that he still intends to “go further”.
Continue reading...London mayor’s comments come as other senior Labour figures call for government to take action after killing of aid workers
Sadiq Khan has become the most senior Labour politician to call for an immediate end of UK arms sales to Israel, with a number of other prominent party figures also saying the government should take action after the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza.
The London mayor said Rishi Sunak must halt arms sales, saying: “It’s got to stop.”
Continue reading...Lib Dems also call for action to suspend arms exports to Israel after seven aid workers killed in Gaza
Ministers are under pressure from Tory MPs and peers to stop arming Israel after seven humanitarian workers were killed by an airstrike in Gaza.
Four Conservatives told the Guardian on Wednesday that the UK should stop exporting arms to Israel after its strike, which killed three British aid workers.
Continue reading...Exclusive: London mayor to launch plan on Wednesday alongside Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor
Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, is to launch a plan to create 150,000 “high-quality, well-paid jobs” by 2028.
The plan will be unveiled by Khan on Wednesday alongside the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who will declare that a Labour administration will “reset” the relationship between national government and London.
Continue reading...Analysis shows content is aimed at working-class over-50s, and plays on fears of crime, stirs anger and pushes conspiracy theories
Are you a cleaner or builder who likes Primark, the pub or reality TV – but doesn’t care about the environment? If yes, the Conservative party wants your vote.
These are some of the interest categories used by the campaign team for the Tories’ candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, to target audiences on social media.
Continue reading...City’s mayor outlines ‘internationalist’ vision in manifesto as he bids for third term in May
London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is to offer young people studying in the capital a new version of the EU’s Erasmus scheme of student exchanges as part of his bid for a third term.
He will unveil plans under which students would receive grants and other help to study and undertake work experience, not just in the EU but other major world cities, with reciprocal arrangements for students from overseas to do the same in London.
Continue reading...Footage of people panicking, designed to attack the London mayor’s record on crime, was filmed in a New York subway station
The Conservatives have deleted an online video that used scenes of a panicked crowd at a New York subway station to criticise Sadiq Khan’s record on crime in London.
The attack ad, posted on X in support of Susan Hall – Khan’s rival for the London mayoralty, showed people panicking and rushing through New York’s Penn station after false reports of gunfire in 2017.
Continue reading...In letter to TfL boss, Khan says plans ‘will not include new pay-per-mile road user charging scheme’
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has pledged not to expand the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scheme if he returns to the role after May’s election.
In a letter to London’s transport commissioner, Andy Lord, Khan wrote that he had “categorically” ruled out the introduction of a pay-per-mile scheme as well as any tightening of Ulez emissions standards.
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