Company will assess whether drop to 186mph from 224mph will save money and help bring forward launch
Ministers have told High Speed Two to consider running its trains at lower speeds, in an attempt to rein in the spiralling budget and begin operations as soon as possible.
HS2 Ltd will assess whether limiting the speed to 186mph (300km/h) instead of 224mph could save money – potentially billions of pounds – and bring the railway into being earlier in the 2030s.
Continue reading...After Tehran targeted the UK-US base on Diego Garcia, Israel’s military said European capitals were also at risk
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed at the weekend that Iran had weapons able to travel about 4,000km (2,500 miles), posing an immediate threat to European cities including London.
The comments came after it emerged Iran had targeted the joint UK–US military base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.
Continue reading...Handful of billionaires gave huge sums in particular to media organisations that boosted rightwing politicians, says Liam Byrne MP
More than £170m was given to MPs, political parties, media organisations and thinktanks aligned with the UK’s populist right over the past five years, new research from the Labour MP Liam Byrne has found.
Byrne, a former cabinet minister who chairs parliament’s business committee, said he had identified a “media-political complex” funded largely by a handful of billionaires.
Continue reading...Figures seen by the Guardian show the two peers each attended just 1.12% of sessions in past four years
Evgeny Lebedev’s longstanding commitment to being the most relaxed member of the House of Lords has come under threat from another peer, Ian Botham, with both recording identical attendance rates of 1.12% over the past four years.
According to Lords records seen by the Guardian, Lebedev and Botham – who were both appointed by Boris Johnson – each managed to make it to seven of the 625 sessions of the upper house that took place from the start of 2022 to the end of 2025.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rebecca Harris promotes latest Crewkerne Gazette skit, created by Joshua Bonehill-Paine who says he is Tory member
The Conservative party’s chief whip has been condemned for promoting AI-generated footage created by a notorious far-right figure who was jailed for hate crimes against Jewish people.
Rebecca Harris reposted the latest skit by the Crewkerne Gazette, which depicts Kemi Badenoch and her shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, as characters in the gangster film Scarface.
Continue reading...Videos of Labour’s Al Carns include him talking about his time as a marine and challenging a firefighter to pull-up contest
Labour minister Al Carns has claimed thousands of pounds on parliamentary expenses for promotional videos including one showing him doing pull-ups at a fire station in competition with a firefighter.
The veterans minister and former Royal Marine, who is tipped by some MPs as a leadership hopeful, claimed about £3,000, approved by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), for the production of 17 videos that show him interacting with local businesses.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tariq Ahmad says he has raised concerns with party leadership after shadow justice secretary’s remarks
The shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, has been accused by a Conservative peer and former counter-extremism minister of “instilling fear” among Muslims with his comments about public prayer.
British Muslims were openly talking about leaving the Conservative party, added Tariq Ahmad, who said he had raised his concerns with the party leadership and expected action to be taken.
Continue reading...Bypassing animal health certificate system by using cheaper pet passport issued abroad could backfire, experts say
British pet owners who want to take their furry friends elsewhere in Europe have been warned not to try to dodge expensive health certificates by using a pet passport issued abroad.
Before Brexit, taking a cat, dog or ferret to the EU was relatively simple: the Pet Travel Scheme meant an animal needed a microchip, vaccination against rabies, a pet passport and, for dogs, there were also requirements concerning tapeworm treatment.
Continue reading...Forces have been stripped back since the cold war but political stasis is dangerous in the face of growing global threats
• Middle East crisis – live updates
It will have been more than three weeks since the US and Israel first attacked Iran when the first British warship finally arrives off the coast of Cyprus, a belated defensive deployment that has highlighted the lack of military capacity available to the UK.
Nominally, HMS Dragon was one of three destroyers available out of six. In reality the warship has had to be hauled out of dry dock, prepared and then, after launch, tested for several days in the Channel. Its arrival date is still unconfirmed.
Continue reading...Some Holyrood candidates have been accused of spreading false rumours about asylum hotels, describing Humza Yousaf as ‘not British’, and backing Tommy Robinson
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, has doubled down on his defence of the party’s vetting by dismissing remarks by candidates backing Tommy Robinson or describing Humza Yousaf as an “Islamist moron” (see 10.12am) as “fruity language”.
It has taken a matter of hours for Reform Scotland’s big launch to fall apart and their true colours to show.
If Nigel Farage refuses to act and remove this candidate, Malcolm Offord must step up and show some leadership himself. This incident has confirmed once and for all how poisonous and chaotic Reform is and I have no doubt that Scots will send them packing.
Again, as I say, this was done in a former life before she became a member of Reform. We’ve all said things in the past that may be intemperate… I am saying that we have to grow up on this and not take offence at every moment in time.
I’ve been very clear that we have brought in a whole range of candidates, 80% of whom are not politicians. They’re real people with real lives who said real things in a past life. Okay, this was said before she was a candidate. She wasn’t even a member of the party at that time.
And what we got in the situation is that in all our lives in the past, we’ve made comments that might sometimes be intemperate. But the issue with this modern world we live in is everything is now written down and remembered. I just think we have to be more, more realistic about the fact that real people say real things, and now she’s a candidate, she will be held to a higher standard.
Liberal Democrats urge the government to ensure the NCA or new National Police Service takes over investigations into serious waste crime. We also need an independent review of the entire waste crime system to crack down on organised gangs once and for all. New powers for the Environmental Agency simply won’t cut it.
Continue reading...Kim Leadbeater joins protest against delaying of bill to allow assisted dying in the UK and says people are ‘extremely angry’
The House of Lords “signed its own death warrant” over its stalling of the UK assisted dying bill, the MP Kim Leadbeater said as she joined more than a dozen terminally ill and bereaved people in protest outside parliament.
Marking the second anniversary of the death at Dignitas of the prominent assisted dying campaigner Paola Marra, Leadbeater, whose private member’s bill for England and Wales looks set to run out of time, said many MPs, who had already voted by a majority to pass the bill, were “angry and upset” by the addition of about 1,200 amendments in the Lords, which will probably result in the bill falling without a vote.
Continue reading...UK’s bilateral aid to African countries, which funds areas such as schools and clinics, to be cut by almost £900m by 2028-29
Some of the world’s poorest countries will lose out on UK aid that funds programmes such as schools and clinics, due to budget cuts set out by the foreign secretary.
The UK’s bilateral aid to African countries will be reduced by almost £900m by 2028-29 – a 56% cut – as part of more than £6bn in cuts which are funding an increase in defence spending.
Continue reading...House of Lords decision welcomed as ‘landmark moment’ after attempt to strike out amendment is defeated
Women who have been convicted, and in some cases jailed, over illegal abortions are set to be pardoned after a historic vote in the House of Lords.
Last June, the House of Commons voted to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies outside of the legal framework, while keeping the existing framework in place. Doctors and others who act outside of the law could still face the threat of prosecution.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage echoed Nick Timothy’s comments after he said public prayer for Ramadan was an ‘act of domination’
Cleverly is trying to show a video, but it is not working. So he just invites Kemi Badenoch to start her speech.
The Conservatives are launching their local elections campaign. There is a live feed here.
Continue reading...Exclusive: At least four people have travelled back to the UK by lorry in the last two weeks
Asylum seekers who arrived in the UK in small boats and were forcibly returned to France under the controversial “one in, one out” deal have returned to the UK in lorries, the Guardian has learned.
When asked about the recent returnees, the Home Office said that people who came back to the UK after removal to France were detained and returned to France at the earliest opportunity. Amnesty International UK has called for “one in, one out” to be scrapped.
Continue reading...CenTax warns bill under debate in parliament has ‘easily exploitable’ loopholes and will not prevent foreign interference
Political donations by companies should be banned to protect UK elections from foreign interference, a thinktank has warned.
In the first big overhaul of election funding in 26 years, ministers have pledged to “keep British democracy safe” by closing a loophole that allows individuals not eligible to vote in Britain to donate to political parties through UK-registered companies.
Continue reading...Mayor of London says returning to EU now more desirable because of economic instability caused by Donald Trump
Labour should go into the next general election promising to rejoin the EU, Sadiq Khan has said.
The mayor of London has repeatedly made the case for joining the customs union and single market, but went much further on Wednesday night by suggesting the party should promise full membership at next ballot.
Continue reading...Officials say military planners liaising with US Central Command but situation remains too dangerous for anything to happen soon
Britain has said it remains involved in discussions with the US and European allies over escorting merchant shipping through the strait of Hormuz but the situation remains too dangerous for it to happen soon.
Iran is still considered to pose a threat and to have a wide range of weapons available – from cruise missiles to sea drones – despite 19 days of US-led bombing of its navy and coastal sites.
Continue reading...Steady UK opposition to the war and the US president’s insults mean MPs are finding it easier to point out the obvious
When is a U-turn definitely a U-turn? To the consternation of politicians through the ages, this is rarely something within their control, but decided instead by the herd. And thus it is with Kemi Badnoch over Iran and Donald Trump.
The Conservative leader would very much like it to be known that she had not changed her stance on the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, or on the US president.
Continue reading...PM to face opposition leader and MPs in the House of Commons
Polanski says the government should be doing more to improve home insulation, and on the drive towards renewable energy.
And he says the government should commit to ensuring energy bills do not rise above the April-June price cap.
The government should guarantee right now that it will not allow energy bills to rise beyond the April-June price cap – instead setting aside approximately £8.4bn to prevent a rise of up to £300 per household that could be coming down the track.
No, it’s not cheap. But the alternative is unacceptable: if the price cap rises, we will see interest rate rises. Mortgage rates up. Bond yields up. And inflation up – and we will be back into the doom loop that has done untold damage to our economy and caused misery for households across the UK for years now.
There are ways to pay. Instead of scrapping the windfall tax on energy companies, as this government is planning to do, we should be strengthening it instead. We need a real, loophole-free windfall tax with no exemptions for reinvesting in fossil fuels. A robust tax that claws back every single pound of reckless profiteering from this crisis and repurposes it immediately to protect every home in the country. And while taxing extreme wealth in the ways we need to will take time to implement, there are levers the government could pull right now – like equalising capital gains tax with income tax and reforming the base, to raise £12bn.
It’s time for the government to act decisively, eliminate the uncertainty that is plaguing people and the markets and insulate us from some of the worst economic effects of Trump’s war.
This was not a war of self-defence, there was no imminent threat. Negotiations were ongoing. It was, as the BBC’s international editor said, a war of choice.
People across the Middle East are terrified of what Trump and Netanyanhu’s war will mean for them and their loved ones. And the repercussions are echoing across the world as instability spreads and oil prices spike.
People are already struggling so hard just to make ends meet. People feel like they’re running every day just to stay in the same place. The idea that yet again – for the second time in just a few years – that we are going to have to deal with another enormous spike in the cost of the basics is unacceptable.
It’s unacceptable because we didn’t need to be here. It’s unforgivable that just four years after we last saw an energy price shock, that one triggered by Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, far too little has been done to protect this country, its people, and its economy – from the impact of yet another energy price shock.
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