Two weather warnings for wind and rain, with river levels already high and ground saturated in some places
England and Wales are braced for heavy rain and strong winds just days after homes and businesses were flooded.
Two fresh weather warnings came into force on Sunday for wind and rain that will hit areas already saturated by downpours earlier in the week.
Continue reading...Days after floods hit, further heavy rain likely to cause travel delays and flooding from late Sunday afternoon
Weather warnings have been issued as strong winds and heavy rain approach the UK, days after some areas were hit by flooding.
The Met Office issued a yellow rain warning – meaning further heavy rain is likely to cause some travel delays and flooding – covering much of southern England and south Wales between 4pm on Sunday and 9am on Monday.
Continue reading...Transport disrupted and more than 60 flood warnings still in place, with more downpours to come
The Met Office has issued a weather warning for strong winds on Sunday as parts of the country recovered from heavy rain and flooding. Flooding disrupted rail services in England and Wales on Friday morning and led to the closure of the M5 motorway in both directions in Gloucestershire.
The Environment Agency told drivers their cars could be swept away in as little as 30cm (12in) of water as more than 60 flood warnings were issued in England after heavy rain overnight, with further downpours to come.
Continue reading...The billionaire owner of X has reportedly not been invited to Labour’s international investment summit next month
Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a thinktank specialising in race and identity issues, says that it is “courageous” for Kemi Badenoch to endorse Elon Musk as enthusiastically as she has done. (See 9.55am.) As he explains, he is using “courageous” in the Yes Minister sense, as a synonym for rash or unwise.
But Katwala is citing polling about the views of Conservative party voters. It is hard to know what Conservative party members think, because they are harder to poll, and so less polling is available, and they are the group that will ultimately elect the next Tory leader. If their views align with the views of Reform UK voters, then her stance on Musk might help her.
Continue reading...Chancellor says £22bn gap in current spending budget and state pension rise meant she had to make decision on means-testing fuel payments
In interview this morning Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, defended her own decision to accept clothing donations worth £7,500 when she was in opposition.
Speaking on the Today programme, she said:
I can understand why people find it a little bit odd that politicians get support for things like buying clothes.
Now, when I was an opposition MP, when I was shadow chancellor of the exchequer, a friend of mine who I’ve known for years [Juliet Rosenfeld] – she’s a good personal friend – wanted to support me as shadow chancellor and the way she wanted to support me was to finance my office to be able to buy clothes for the campaign trail and for big events and speeches that I made as shadow chancellor.
It’s never something that I planned to do as a government minister, but it did help me in opposition.
It’s rightly the case that we don’t ask taxpayers to fund the bulk of the campaigning work and the research work that politicians do, but that does require, then, donations – from small donations, from party members and supporters, from larger contributions, from people who have been very successful in life and want to give something back.
We appreciate that support. It’s part of the reason why we are in government today, because we were able to do that research work, and we were able to do that campaigning.
Unite and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have put forward motions which were due to be debated on Monday afternoon, with strong support expected from other unions.
Sources said unions were told late on Sunday that the debate is being moved to Wednesday morning.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Welsh secretary will use conference speech to announce measure for elective treatment and outpatients
NHS patients in Wales will be allowed to travel to England to receive care for the first time ever under plans to be announced by the Welsh secretary on Monday.
Jo Stevens will tell the Labour conference in Liverpool that she is drawing up proposals to allow patients to travel between England and Wales to receive outpatient or elective treatment.
Continue reading...Council of Europe also calls for more support for Cornish, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Manx Gaelic
The UK is being urged by Europe’s leading human rights organisation to push ahead with strategies to promote the use of Irish and Ulster Scots languages in Northern Ireland despite continued tensions over the issue.
The Council of Europe experts also want to see the strengthening of teaching of all minority languages in the UK including Cornish, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Manx Gaelic in the Isle of Man.
Continue reading...Police association chief says criminals potentially being freed in England and Wales without proper rehabilitation plans
Police are at “the centre of a storm” caused by poor planning after 1,700 prisoners were released early across England and Wales to ease overcrowding, a senior officer has said.
Amid concerns that hundreds of inmates could end up homeless or return to crime, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, Nick Smart, said some inmates were being set free without a programme and that the police would be left to deal with the consequences.
Continue reading...‘Sizeable minority’ of survivors of crime have not been informed that perpetrators will be freed on Tuesday
Hundreds of survivors of crime are unaware that their perpetrators will be freed on Tuesday despite requests that this would not happen, the victims’ commissioner has claimed.
As the government prepares to release 1,700 offenders to ease overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales, Helen Newlove said some victims were “unaware of their offender’s release” and could not seek protective measures.
Continue reading...MS for Cardiff South and Penarth, who stood down after 140 days as first minister, will not seek re-election in 2026
Vaughan Gething, the Labour former first minister of Wales who stood down after a series of scandals, has announced he will not seek re-election for the Senedd.
Gething, the MS for Cardiff South and Penarth, said it had been “an immense honour” to serve his constituents, and in the Welsh government, as he made the announcement.
Continue reading...Met Office says new band of ‘heavy and thundery rain’ to sweep north through southern and central England and Wales
Heavy rain is due to sweep across large parts of the UK this weekend, with many at risk of flooding.
A new band of “heavy and thundery rain” will arrive on the south coast on Saturday and move northwards overnight, affecting central and southern England and Wales, the Met Office said.
Continue reading...Greenpeace urges Labour to ‘fulfil international obligations’ as critics question accuracy of official data
The UK’s worst methane hotspots include the last coalmine, livestock farm clusters, landfills, power plants and North Sea oil and gas wells, according to an analysis.
The process has also thrown up serious doubts over the UK’s ability to calculate its methane emissions.
Continue reading...Samaritans charity calls on government to invest in suicide prevention as it has with smoking reduction
Ministers have been urged to treat suicide as a public health crisis after the rate at which people killed themselves in England and Wales reached the highest level in more than two decades.
The official figures, described by the suicide prevention charity Samaritans as “worse than expected”, showed 6,069 suicides were registered in the two nations in 2023, up from 5,642 in 2022 and the highest rate since 1999.
Continue reading...Campaigners fear increase by £149 in energy price cap by Ofgem will put more pressure on households
Households will begin the run-up to winter with a sharp increase in their energy bills after the industry regulator increased its cap on energy prices by 9.5% from October.
Under the new price cap, the average annual energy bill will rise to £1,717 a year for gas and electricity, up £149 from its current level of £1,568, which has been in place since July.
Continue reading...Design with bees on reverse, part of collection inspired by plants and animals, was voted people’s favourite
The first £1 coin bearing the official portrait of King Charles III has entered general circulation as part of a collection inspired by plants and animals found across the four nations of the United Kingdom.
The latest design, featuring two bees, has been issued to Post Offices and banks, with nearly 3m coins making their way into tills and pockets.
Continue reading...Children’s commissioner finds wide disparity with white counterparts in year to June 2023, with 88% of searches aimed at finding drugs
Black children are four times more likely to be strip-searched by police officers across England and Wales than their white counterparts, according to the latest nationwide figures disclosed by a watchdog.
The children’s commissioner also found that children under the age of 15 are a bigger proportion of those subjected to intimate searches, official figures from the year to June 2023 showed. Fewer than half of all searches of children in that year (45%) were conducted in the presence of an appropriate adult.
Continue reading...Number of pupils accepted by ‘high tariff’ providers passes 100,000, after better than expected A-level results and fewer international students
Sixth-formers are rushing to take up places at the most selective universities, with figures showing a substantial increase in the numbers enrolling compared with last year after receiving their A-level results.
Experts said that “high tariff” universities, including those in the Russell Group of research intensive universities, were allocating more places to UK school-leavers this year after recruiting fewer international students.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read about this year’s A-level results here
Private schools which could close as a result of the government’s plans to impose 20% VAT are already facing “big budget shortfalls”, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.
She told Sky News:
Private schools are businesses that can make choices about how they manage their budgets, the level of fees that they charge, and ultimately, it’s about how attractive they are to families in terms of the numbers of students that are sent there.
We have seen private schools in recent years whack up their fees year on year, way beyond inflation, and that has priced out lots of people.
Overall, 425,680 applicants (all ages, all domiciles) have been accepted into university or college – an increase on 414,940 (+3%) in 2023.
In total, 376,470 students (all ages, all domiciles) have been accepted at their first (UCAS ‘firm’) choice, a 4% increase on last year. This represents 82% of those holding an offer who received their decision this morning up from 79% in 2023.
The overall number of accepted international students stands at 51,170, in line with 51,210 in 2023. However, accepted applicants from China are slightly down compared to last year – 10,950 (-6%).
The top three subjects with the largest increase in total placed applicants are engineering and technology (+11% on last year), architecture, building and planning (+9%) and law (+9%).
Acceptances for UK students (all ages) to nursing have risen slightly compared to 2023, with 18,450 applicants securing a place (up 1%). This still represents a decline from the peak seen during the pandemic.
I’m particularly thrilled to see free school meals students securing a place at university or college in record numbers. I know how important it is to everyone working in education that every student, no matter their background, has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Widening access and participation is not just about numbers; it’s about opening up doors and transforming the lives of students through higher education so they can pursue their passions and career aspirations.
Ucas is here to help all applicants take their next step, including students who received different results than expected, or those who are looking to change their mind.
Continue reading...Four firms including Northern and Greater Anglia unlawfully prosecuted more than 74,000 alleged fare dodgers
Tens of thousands of prosecutions for alleged fare dodging brought by train companies are to be quashed after a court ruling.
Four companies including Northern Trains and Greater Anglia unlawfully prosecuted more than 74,000 passengers in England and Wales using the single justice procedure (SJP), which allowed fast-track magistrates hearings on fare evasion cases to be held behind closed doors.
Continue reading...There are stark contrasts between north and south England, in Northern Ireland and Wales, and between private and state schools
Many students in England receiving their A-level grades on Thursday will be happy after overall results showed an increase in the number of As and A*s, exceeding not only last year’s results, but those recorded before the disruption caused by the pandemic. Nevertheless, disparities remain between northern and southern England, and in Northern Ireland and Wales where results fell compared with last year, as well as between private and state schools.
It is the second year in England that A-level and GCSE assessment has returned to pre-pandemic norms. Exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 after Covid closed schools for long periods, and A-level grades based on teachers’ predictions led to a sharp spike in top results.
Continue reading...