Footage shows members of staff drinking alcohol and dancing at the gathering on 14 December 2020
New footage has emerged appearing to show a Christmas party at Conservative party headquarters during coronavirus restrictions in 2020.
The video, obtained by the Mirror newspaper, shows members of staff drinking alcohol at the gathering in London on 14 December 2020. At least 24 people were reportedly in attendance.
Continue reading...Michael Gove quoted as saying council-level sanctions undermine UK foreign policy and lead to antisemitic abuse
A government bill aimed at banning councils from imposing boycotts on Israeli goods is expected to be presented next week.
The proposed legislation will prevent public bodies from adopting their own approach to international relations, including through sanctions and divestment campaigns.
Continue reading...Plan to charge £43 per consignment could see some small businesses struggle to stay open
Many UK businesses which import food products from the European Union will have to pay a special “Brexit tax” that will further drive up prices, particularly in smaller shops such as delicatessens, under proposals set out by the government last week.
The planned charge of £43 per consignment, outlined in a consultation document issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), was described on Saturday by a leading industry figure as “the sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime” that was already fuelling inflation.
Continue reading...Husband, Chris Jagger, uses 1972 album cover to support settlement application for Moller, who has lived in UK for 74 years
As a result of Brexit, Norwegians living in the UK were required to apply to the EU settlement scheme – despite Norway not being a member state – to remain living in Britain.
But after former model turned yoga teacher Kari-Ann Moller was stopped by British immigration officials earlier this year and told she was not allowed to remain because of her Norwegian passport, her husband, Chris Jagger – brother of Rolling Stone Sir Mick – got involved.
Continue reading...Survey comes as government rhetoric on immigrants gets increasingly toxic, adopting far-right slogans
Britons have among the most positive attitudes towards refugees in the world, a new global poll has found, despite increased hostility from the UK government to asylum seekers.
An international survey of almost 22,000 adults across 29 countries found British people had the third-most enthusiastic outlook towards refugees, just behind Spain and New Zealand.
Continue reading...More than 2.4m deals are ending in 2024, raising fears of financial timebomb
More than a quarter of UK homeowners on a fixed-rate mortgage are heading for sharp increase in monthly payments before the next election, in a financial timebomb that will rock the Conservatives just as voters prepare to choose the next government.
With the Bank of England expected to increase its key interest rate next week for the 13th time, figures shared with the Guardian by UK Finance, the banking industry trade body, show more than 2.4m fixed-rate homeowner deals will expire between now and the end of 2024.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak says he is suspending anti-obesity measure to avoid restricting consumer options during cost of living crisis
The government is to delay its planned ban on two-for-one junk food deals – a key anti-obesity measure – for another two years amid the cost of living crisis.
Rishi Sunak will shelve the expected measure targeting multi-buy promotions on products high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) to avoid restricting consumer options while prices remain high.
Continue reading...Rhun ap Iorwerth says Welsh pro-independence party is at a ‘difficult junction’ as he takes over
Rhun ap Iorwerth has been announced as the new leader of Plaid Cymru and faces the tough job of getting the party back on track after a misogyny and harassment scandal.
Despite strong calls within the party for the new leader to be a woman, ap Iorwerth was the only candidate who put his name forward.
Continue reading...Sir Michael Wilshaw says he now thinks differently about use of one-word headline grades in England
The former chief inspector of schools in England Sir Michael Wilshaw has said Ofsted’s style of school inspections needs to change after the death of the headteacher Ruth Perry.
Wilshaw, who led Ofsted until 2016, said Perry’s death, following an inspection that downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”, had changed his mind over the use of one-word headline grades to rate schools in England.
Continue reading...Ken Murphy says higher costs of grocery imports because of Brexit are partly to blame for rising prices
The chief executive of Tesco has said food inflation has probably peaked but warns that prices are likely to stay high.
Ken Murphy, the head of the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, said the price of milk, bread, cooking oil and some vegetables such as broccoli had come down this month but inflation continued in other essentials, including rice and potatoes, as aweather issues and locked-in increases in the price of labour and energy continued to bite.
Continue reading...Report by cross-party MPs criticises previous ‘lack of urgency in addressing market failures’
MPs have urged the government to set out its plans to protect households from high energy bills this winter as they said about 1.7 million people, including some of the most vulnerable groups, had been left waiting too long to receive previous support.
The public accounts committee (PAC) said that although schemes were introduced quickly, the government “did not have the bandwidth” to make sure help reached all groups in a timely fashion.
Continue reading...Open letter says burden on victims to prove intent leaves door open for perpetrators to claim they were joking
Proposals to tackle sexual harassment in the street in England and Wales do not go far enough because the bar for offences has been set too high, charities have warned.
The Fawcett Society, Girl Guiding and Refuge are among organisations who say the requirement to prove perpetrators intended to cause alarm or distress undermines the provisions of two bills intended to protect women and girls going through parliament.
Continue reading...How Boris Johnson was found to have misled MPs and why report recommended a 90-day suspension from parliament
The House of Commons privileges committee has found that Boris Johnson repeatedly misled MPs when he told them he knew nothing about lockdown-breaking social gatherings in and around Downing Street. These are the main points of what is a highly damning and hugely detailed report.
Continue reading...Long-awaited privileges committee report finds former PM was ‘deliberately disingenuous’
Continue reading...Chief inspector of immigration says there is ‘real danger’ that inhumane and dangerous conditions will return at Kent facility
Suella Braverman is facing the “real danger” that conditions for asylum seekers held at Manston processing facility will once again become inhumane and dangerous, the immigration watchdog has found.
David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said the Kent asylum centre that became overcrowded and disease-ridden last year could again become overwhelmed because ministers and officials in the Home Office are unable to say where they plan to house at least 55,000 arrivals by small boats this year.
Continue reading...Cross-party committee says ex-PM would have faced 90-day suspension had he not quit in rage at findings last week
Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over Partygate and was part of a campaign to abuse and intimidate MPs investigating him, a long-awaited report by the privileges committee has found.
In an unprecedented move, the cross-party group said he would have faced a 90-day suspension from the Commons had he not quit in rage at its findings last week.
Continue reading...Health department and Cabinet Office make opening statements on second day of first module
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has admitted Covid testing was “a significant weakness” in the UK’s early pandemic response and stressed the need for proper funding to prepare the nation for the next emergency.
While the DHSC said it would not claim “it did everything right”, its opening statement to the UK Covid public inquiry highlighted wider government choices on funding in what will be seen as turning the focus on Downing Street and the Treasury.
Continue reading...No 10 says constituents in Mid Bedfordshire deserve certainty as it piles pressure on ex-minister to stand down
Downing Street is heaping pressure on Nadine Dorries to stand down as soon as possible, saying her constituents in Mid Bedfordshire deserve certainty.
The former culture secretary said last Friday she would “immediately” step down, after she was denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.
Continue reading...PM’s office says Mid Bedfordshire deserves ‘proper representation’ and delay to resignation ‘obviously unusual’
Fell put it to Braverman that customers were not learning to protect themselves from online fraud because, if they are cheated, they tend to get their money back from banks. He suggested that people were being “coddled”. It was as if they were leaving their front door open, leaving themselves vulnerable to burglary, he said.
Braverman said Fell had a point. She told him:
I think that’s a really important point and I’m passionate about increasing awareness - much like practice changed when it came to wearing a seatbelt …
I think we need a step change when it comes to online activity. We are far more vulnerable than we appreciate and I think people’s lives are lived so politically online that they forget that there are fraudsters operating in that online world.
Continue reading...Almost £150m to be spent on research labs to help future-proof industry and lift creative economy
Ministers are seeking to future-proof the UK’s multibillion-pound film and TV production industry by investing almost £150m in a network of research labs across the country tasked with developing the next generation of special effects using tech such as artificial intelligence.
The scheme aims to build on Britain’s reputation for producing hi-tech hits from Star Wars to Harry Potter, and is part of wide-ranging plans to drive the UK creative economy. The government has earmarked millions to support grassroots music venues hammered by the Covid pandemic, and is tripling a fund designed to find and support the next generation of homegrown superstars like Adele and Ed Sheeran.
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