Northumbrian village was named as nation’s favourite, just ahead of Portmeirion and St Andrews
Bamburgh, the Northumbrian village known for its sprawling sand dunes and imposing castle, has retained its title as the UK’s best seaside destination for the fourth consecutive year.
A survey of 4,700 people by the consumer group Which? placed the Northumberland coastal village as the nation’s favourite, ahead of Portmeirion in Gwynedd and St Andrews in Fife.
Continue reading...Resignation comes after four Welsh ministers stepped down in apparent attempt to force his hand
Vaughan Gething has announced he is quitting as first minister of Wales following a brief and turbulent period in the job after his fate was sealed by the resignation of four of his ministers.
Gething has faced a series of controversies, including over donations and claims he sought to delete sensitive messages, since he took over from Mark Drakeford as first minister and the leader of Welsh Labour in March.
Continue reading...His resignation comes after four Welsh ministers stepped down from their posts in an apparently calculated move to force his hand
The JD Vance comment about Britain supposedly becoming an Islamist country under Labour (see 8.42am) is an example of the extreme political rhetoric that has coarsened politics on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years. Yesterday Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced that she will chair a meeting of the Defending Democracy taskforce to consider how election candidates are being exposed to more aggression and intimidation than in the past.
This morning Brendan Cox, whose wife, the Labour MP Jo Cox, was murdered by a far-right terrorist during the Brexit referendum in 2016, told the Today programme that he thought the problem was getting worse. He said:
There was a wide range of intimidation, but I do think it was another level.
Having spoken to lots of MPs about it, there was a sense that something had changed, that they felt hunted, that they felt unable to go about campaigning – that there were men in balaclavas, there were fireworks being thrown, there were tyres being slashed …
Continue reading...Shabana Mahmood says Tories left country threatened with total breakdown of law and order
Rishi Sunak and his former ministers are “the guilty men” who should be held responsible for “the most disgraceful dereliction of duty” by failing to address the prisons crisis, the justice secretary has said.
Speaking as she set out plans to release thousands of inmates early to ease pressure in overcrowded jails, Shabana Mahmood said the Conservatives “had left the country threatened with a total breakdown of law and order”.
Continue reading...Government to announce terms which could free more than 20,000 inmates in coming months to manage capacity
The “shocking” prisons crisis is even worse than feared, Keir Starmer has said as the government prepares to release tens of thousands of inmates early in a bid to prevent jails becoming full.
The prime minister suggested he was opposed to freeing violent criminals and sex offenders when ministers announce the terms of a new prisoner release scheme for England and Wales on Friday.
Continue reading...Labour leader said he wanted to restore service and respect in politics and ‘end the era of noisy performance’
Clive Myrie is opening the BBC’s election night coverage. He is co-presenting with Laura Kuenssberg.
No 10 has also announced knightoods for four Tories in the dissolution honours – Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM; Julian Smith, the former chief whip and Northern Ireland secretary; Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary; and Alister Jack, the outgoing Scottish secretary – and one damehood, for Thérèse Coffey, the former deputy PM.
Continue reading...First Labour prime minister since 2010 promises to serve whole country as he speaks outside No 10
Keir Starmer pitched himself as a leader for “stability and moderation” who will rebuild Britain, as he reached out to those who did not vote for Labour with a promise to serve the whole country.
The Labour leader gave a speech on the steps of Downing Street after going to Buckingham Palace to accept the king’s invitation to form a new government.
Continue reading...PM responds to comments by Reform activists, who were filmed by Channel 4 reporter while canvassing in Clacton
Here’s the latest in the Guardian’s series on The broken years: Tory Britain 2010-24:
Unless the polls are wildly inaccurate, the Conservative party is heading towards a catastrophic defeat in the coming election.
Continue reading...Party says it acted after being contacted by the regulator about the candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich
All along the course of the Thames, turning north, meandering south, passing through locks, historic landmarks, Richmond and Kew, swelling beneath the House of Commons with the turning tide, and on to Docklands and beyond – concern for the health of the Thames has led many other ordinary people, who live, work or play on the water, to take up the fight for the health of the river.
The last 15 years of decline in rivers suggests they have much to do. In 2009, a year before the Conservatives first took power in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, a quarter of English rivers were judged as being of good ecological standard, a marker which examines the flow, habitat and biological quality; by 2022 not one river was in a healthy state.
Continue reading...Company is looking for help from next government to upgrade to less polluting technology
Chinese-owned British Steel has reportedly submitted a request for a package of taxpayer support worth £600m as it looks for assistance from the next government to upgrade to less polluting technology.
Government officials are due to review plans that set out the costs of switching from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces at the company’s steelworks in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, the Sunday Times reported.
Continue reading...Exclusive: heads of prisons say they will no longer be able to accept new inmates ‘very soon’ after 4 July election
Prison governors have been warned that jails will be so overcrowded by the second week of July that they will struggle to accept any more inmates, plunging an incoming government into an immediate crisis.
The heads of jails in England and Wales were informed by HM Prison and Probation Service officials earlier this month that data pointed to an “operational capacity breaking point” only days after the 4 July general election.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rhianon Bragg, of north Wales, says judge’s refusal leaves her facing ‘ticking clock’
A woman who was stalked and held hostage at gunpoint by her ex-partner has warned that she and her family are in danger after a judge refused to strengthen a restraining order against her abuser, despite hearing evidence that her life was under threat.
Rhianon Bragg had asked for the restraining order on Gareth Wyn Jones, who was freed from prison earlier this year, to be extended to cover the whole of Gwynedd in north Wales rather than a limited area around her remote smallholding in the foothills of Eryri (Snowdonia).
Continue reading...The Greens’ spending commitments include £50bn for the NHS and £29bn to insulate homes
In an interview with ITV due to be broadcast on Wednesday evening, Rishi Sunak says he went without “lots of things” as a child, including Sky TV.
Sunak was pressed in the interview by the ITV journalist Paul Brand to give examples of things he didn’t have a child to which he replied: “There’ll be all sorts of things that I would’ve wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have. Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”
Continue reading...Campaigners say lower speeds reduce casualties but scheme has since been amended to give people more choice to rescind limits
Vehicle damage claims in Wales have fallen by 20% at one leading car insurer since the nationwide 20mph speed limit was introduced there last September.
Wales was one of the first countries in the world, and the first nation in the UK, to introduce legislation for a default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas last year.
Continue reading...Labour leader says PM’s tactics in Tuesday night TV debate show he is dishonest when put under pressure
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has been fined for speeding after being caught doing 73mph in a 60mph zone on the M1, PA Media reports. PA says:
Details of the case, dealt with under an administrative system called the single justice procedure, were revealed by the Evening Standard newspaper.
Davey wrote a letter of explanation in which he said he had tried to pay a speeding ticket issued by Bedfordshire police after he was caught speeding on the M1 near Caddington.
Continue reading...Labour leader says prime minister’s claim he would raise people’s taxes by £2,000 is ‘nonsense’
The Guardian’s visuals team has produced an interactive boundary map for the UK general election which shows you if your constituency has been altered because of boundary changes. You can check it out here:
Ed Davey has been speaking about his party’s plan to provide free personal care for adults. The Liberal Democrats leader said he wants carers to have a special, higher minimum wage.
Continue reading...Latest study shows Enhertu, rejected by Nice, can stall growth of tumours by a year, longer than standard chemotherapy
Thousands of women with advanced breast cancer in England and Wales are being denied a drug that cuts the risk of the disease spreading by more than a third.
Enhertu has been rolled out to patients with HER2-low breast cancer in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has rejected it for patients in England. Women in Wales are also being denied the drug.
Continue reading...Election campaigns kick off with policies on single market, climate crisis, NHS and clean seas
Plaid Cymru and the Green party have launched their election campaigns, focusing on issues ranging from offshore windfarms’ profits to initiatives for improving water and air quality.
The parties, which hope to win about four seats each, vowed to keep a Labour government in check and to push the party’s leader, Keir Starmer, to be bolder in areas such as health, housing and the environment.
Continue reading...Daniel Mihai Popescu given more than 17 years for stabbing Andreea Pintili as she left home in Aberfan
A man who stabbed his pregnant ex-girlfriend weeks before she was due to give birth to their baby has been jailed for 17 years and four months for attempted murder.
Daniel Mihai Popescu, 29, grabbed Andreea Pintili as she left home in Aberfan, south Wales, and told her: “I have a knife and I am going to kill you.”
Continue reading...Seventy-eight Tory MPs are quitting rather than standing, beating 1997’s record number
Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom have joined the now record-breaking exodus of Conservative MPs from the Commons, with the former saying it was time for a “new generation” to lead the party.
Gove’s announcement in a letter tweeted on Friday evening had been anticipated by some given the strong Liberal Democrat challenge he faces in his Surrey Heath constituency, but adds to the sense of Tories fleeing in the face of a likely general election loss.
Continue reading...