Move follows reports overseas students face lower entry requirements, a claim universities reject
The Department for Education is to investigate allegations of bad practice by agents who recruit international students to study at British universities.
It follows reports over the weekend claiming that overseas students are being admitted to prestigious institutions while subject to lower entry requirements than domestic students.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Business secretary who has told party rebels to stop ‘stirring’ and back PM is in group along with Michael Gove
Kemi Badenoch is a member of a Conservative WhatsApp group called “Evil Plotters” despite telling party rebels to “stop messing around” and get behind Rishi Sunak, the Guardian can reveal.
The business secretary, who consistently comes out as the favourite cabinet minister in polls of Tory members, has criticised party colleagues for “stirring” up suggestions that she could replace the prime minister.
Continue reading...Committee calls on government to heed widespread concern and consider a more nuanced inspection system
The government should stop the use of single-word judgments such as “inadequate” or “outstanding” in Ofsted’s headline grades of schools in England, a committee of MPs has urged.
MPs on the education committee said relations between Ofsted and teachers had become “extremely strained”, with trust in the watchdog “worryingly low” in the wake of the headteacher Ruth Perry’s suicide last year after a traumatic inspection.
Continue reading...Draft of former speaker’s final speech said prime ministers should not give peerages to friends or people with ‘fat bank accounts’
Betty Boothroyd wanted to use her valedictory speech in the House of Lords to criticise prime ministers for giving too many peerages to friends and those with “fat bank accounts” who had bankrolled the party in power.
The former speaker of the House of Commons planned her final speech, in which she also said there was no longer a place for hereditary peers, but was too ill to deliver it.
Continue reading...Plans to make vaping less appealing also to include restricting fruity flavours and introducing plain packaging
Ministers are to ban disposable vapes as part of a UK-wide drive to curb youth vaping.
The government is also seeking to make vaping less appealing to children by restricting sweet and fruity flavours, introducing plain packaging and making displays less visible in shops, under newly announced powers. The changes are expected to come into effect towards the end of this year or early 2025.
Continue reading...British warship HMS Diamond targeted in Red Sea but no injuries or serious damage sustained
Grant Shapps said the UK remained “undaunted” after Iran-backed Houthis targeted HMS Diamond in the Red Sea during their latest round of strikes.
The defence secretary’s comments came after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the Royal Navy warship HMS Diamond “deployed its Sea Viper missile system” to destroy the drone deployed by the Yemen-based Houthi group on Saturday. It said there were no injuries to the crew and no damage to the ship.
Continue reading...Labour criticises government ‘dithering’, after Vishay deal last autumn to buy chip maker Newport Wafer Fab stalls, putting jobs at risk
Labour has criticised “dither and delay” from the government over a decision on a proposed takeover of the UK’s largest semiconductor facility by a US company, warning that it could lead to further job cuts at the Welsh factory.
The fate of Newport Wafer Fab in south Wales has been unclear for nearly two years since the UK government first indicated it had concerns over a 2021 takeover by the Chinese-owned Nexperia firm. The national security concerns related to the ownership of semiconductor technology by a company with links to China.
Continue reading...Move by several countries comes after allegations that UNRWA staff took part in attacks on Israel last year
The decision by the US, UK and other western nations to freeze funding for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees will significantly worsen the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have warned.
Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the United States, Australia and Canada in pausing funding after UNRWA, the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, revealed an investigation had been launched into 12 members of staff who allegedly took part in the 7 October attack led by Hamas that killed 1,140 people.
Continue reading...Jeremy Hunt targets further reduction in ‘jobs tax’ in March budget
The government is considering handing workers another tax cut with a further reduction in national insurance, amid desperate attempts to move on from a campaign to destabilise Rishi Sunak by the Tory right.
With frustration within the cabinet that the Conservative party has been unable to free itself from internal warring over Sunak’s immigration plans and leadership, the prime minister and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, are focusing on the tax cuts that will frame their election pitch.
Continue reading...Opposition would do better on issues including the economy, health, education, the environment, immigration and crime, public says
More than twice as many voters believe a Labour government would be better for housing than the Tories, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
The survey shows Labour is well ahead of the Conservatives on most issues including the economy, health, education, the environment, immigration and crime, and level pegging on ones it has traditionally lagged way behind on, including defence.
Continue reading...Individuals deemed unfit for office still walked away with payments from taxpayers, says shadow Cabinet Office minister
Labour has pledged to reform the rules surrounding ministerial redundancy payments after it emerged that the high turnover of cabinet ministers under the past three prime ministers generated a severance bill worth more than £930,000 in the last financial year.
Since 1991, sacked ministers under the age of 65 have been able to claim thousands of pounds in redundancy pay as long as they have been out of a ministerial post for at least three weeks. The receive the payments irrespective of how long they have stayed in their latest post, or the circumstances under which they left.
Continue reading...Regulators’ reports on public interest risk now due on 11 March after late change in consortium’s structure prompts further review
A second investigation has been launched into the Barclay family’s deal to transfer control of the Telegraph newspaper group, pushing the deadline for regulators’ reports on the public interest threat it poses by more than six weeks.
The UK government moved swiftly to order the second watchdog inquiry after the Barclays’ UAE-backed consortium partner revealed a last-minute corporate structure change.
Continue reading...National security concerns focus on arm of Vodafone that provides sensitive tech to government departments and agencies
Vodafone should be forced to spin off its most sensitive activities in order to quash national security concerns raised by a United Arab Emirates-backed telecoms group swooping on its shares, government officials have told the Guardian.
The deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, announced on Wednesday that the deal involving Emirates Telecommunications Group building a 14.6% stake in Vodafone presented a “national security risk” to the UK due to Vodafone’s role “as a strategic supplier of services” to government departments, including those “which are in support of national security”.
Continue reading...Donors close to Boris Johnson and hedge fund boss behind GB News say they had no involvement in polling
Conservative donors have been rushing to deny funding polling for a group working to oust Rishi Sunak, as David Frost was warned he could lose the whip if rival party backers were involved.
Senior Tory figures are scrambling to figure out the mystery donors behind the Conservative Britain Alliance, which funded a £40,000 poll, fronted by Lord Frost in the Telegraph, that predicted a Labour landslide.
Continue reading...Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as Canada says UK was unwilling to give access to agricultural products
Shares in US chipmaker Intel have slumped in pre-market trading after it revealed a weaker forecast of earnings.
Chipmakers have been flying in recent years as shortages followed by the huge hype over artificial intelligence – which is hungry for processing power – prompted investors to pile into the sector.
Although Intel beat estimates, investors’ disappointment in Intel’s datacentre GPU story’s growth can be primarily attributed to the slower-than-expected product delivery and ramp-up.
Continue reading...Statement from British foreign secretary comes just months after his predecessor confirmed resettlement was part of talks with Mauritius
Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has provoked fury by abruptly ruling out the resettlement of former inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, months after his predecessor revealed that the UK was discussing their potential return.
The former prime minister suggested that a return to the islands was now “not possible” for Chagossians who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s.
Continue reading...After the peer admitted to lying about her involvement in lucrative government PPE deals during the Covid crisis, the fate of her high-profile lingerie company raises further questions. David Conn reports
When Michelle Mone sat down for an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg last month it was against the backdrop of serious allegations that she had been facing since 2020. Mone and her husband, the Isle of Man-based businessman Doug Barrowman, are the subjects of a long-running National Crime Agency investigation into allegations of bribery and fraud in their securing of £200m in government contracts for a company, PPE Medpro.
She admitted to Kuenssberg that she had lied for years when denying her involvement in the lucrative PPE deals, emphasising in the interview that she was a ‘very successful individual businesswoman’.
Continue reading...New EU entry-exit system could lead to gridlocked roads if scheme goes ahead as planned, MPs hear
Tourists heading to Europe could face waits of up to 14 hours at border controls under a scheme to be launched in October, MPs have been told.
The Port of Dover and the surrounding area could face significant disruption when the EU entry/exit system is introduced unless measures are taken to prevent delays, parliament’s European scrutiny committee has heard.
Continue reading...Former Scotland first minister used expletives in private messages about former UK PM’s handling of pandemic
At the Covid inquiry hearing in Edinburgh Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff, was asked about her wanting a row with the UK government. (See 11.35am.)
Asked if she was looking for a spat, Lloyd replied:
I was looking for a spat with a purpose.
It had been shown in the past that they would sometimes change their mind if they felt that pressure and I wanted them to change their mind.
Sturgeon said his address was “fucking excruciating” and that the UK communications were “awful”. Sturgeon also told Lloyd: “His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere.”
Lloyd said she was “offended” on behalf of special advisers everywhere. Sturgeon replied: “He is a fucking clown.”
Continue reading...British Polling Council asks pollsters if there are documents showing who commissioned controversial surveys
The British Polling Council (BPC) is looking into controversial YouGov polling used by Conservative plotters to call for Rishi Sunak to be ousted.
The two polls, which YouGov said were commissioned by a mysterious group called the Conservative Britain Alliance with Tory peer David Frost acting as the intermediary, caused shock waves in Westminster when they were published in the Daily Telegraph last week.
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