Category Archives: Leicester

A year on, how the Hamas attack has profoundly affected UK political life

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From general election upsets to protests on the streets, the shockwaves from the Middle East have resonated in Britain

When Shockat Adam, the newly elected independent MP for Leicester South, addressed his supporters at the July election count, he brought his speech to an end with a dedication – not to the constituents of the East Midlands city he now represents, but to people more than 2,000 miles away.

“This is for the people of Gaza”, he said, holding a Palestinian keffiyeh aloft.

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University of Leicester facing ‘major incident’ over crumbling buildings

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Teaching events being relocated while urgent repairs carried out on 1970s structures with degraded concrete

The University of Leicester is dealing with a “major incident” over crumbling buildings on campus that will be closed for years and require a major relocation of classes while they undergo repairs.

Two large buildings on the university’s main campus, where students attend hundreds of lectures and seminars each academic year, will be closed owing to concrete degradation and the corrosion of steel reinforcements that support the structures.

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Who are the pro-Gaza independents who unseated Labour MPs?

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All four capitalised on dissatisfaction over Labour’s stance on the Gaza war but said they had other priorities too

On a momentous night for Keir Starmer and the Labour party, nothing was going to detract from the celebrations. But the results weren’t all positive. Among the matters for Labour to ponder when the hangovers have cleared is the loss of four seats to pro-Palestinian candidates amid dissatisfaction over the party’s stance on the Gaza war. Here is more about the four independents who upset the odds.

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Independent Muslim who beat Labour in Leicester says victory was not ‘sectarian’

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Shockat Adam says he is not a single-issue MP, but will fight on NHS and housing as well as Gaza

The man who pulled off a shock victory at the general election by ousting shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth has criticised claims that the wave of strong showings by independent Muslim candidates represents the rise of “sectarian” voting.

Shockat Adam, an optometrist, caused a huge upset by beating Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general and a familiar face in Labour’s election campaign, to become the new MP for Leicester South.

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Disgraced Keith Vaz expelled from Labour as he stands for One Leicester party

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Exclusive: Vaz to run in Leicester East, infuriating Labour party candidates who have campaigned for his eviction for years

The disgraced former MP Keith Vaz has been belatedly kicked out of Labour after announcing he is standing in his old seat, Leicester East, for a new local party.

The former minister, who is running against an official Labour party candidate, was still a member of the party on Thursday when it emerged that he was standing in the constituency for the One Leicester party.

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Andrew Bridgen must pay Matt Hancock legal fees of £40,000 in libel claim

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High court strikes out part but not all of Bridgen’s case and orders him to pay Tory MP’s costs

The MP Andrew Bridgen has been ordered to pay Matt Hancock more than £40,000 in legal fees after an early stage of their libel battle.

The MP for North West Leicestershire is bringing a libel claim against the former health secretary regarding a January 2023 message on X that followed Bridgen posting a comment about Covid-19 vaccines.

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Actor drives 150 miles to star in Evita after lead and understudy fall ill

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Jessica Daley rushed to the rescue after Curve theatre in Leicester put out a call for someone who knew the role

An actor travelled more than 150 miles to ensure the show went on after both the lead and understudy became ill and could not perform in a musical.

Jessica Daley travelled from her home in Middlesbrough to the Curve theatre in Leicester to sing the starring role of Eva Perón in a 7.30pm performance of Evita on Saturday.

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Leicester woman given life term for 2012 murder of one-year-old baby

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Katie Tidmarsh found guilty of killing ‘defenceless young child’ she had been in the process of adopting

A woman has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 years for murdering the one-year-old baby she was in the process of adopting, after failing to disclose mental health problems to the adoption panel.

Katie Tidmarsh, 39, was convicted of murdering Ruby Thompson, who sustained catastrophic brain damage and died in hospital in August 2012.

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Ex-TikTok influencer and her mother guilty of murdering two men

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Mahek and Ansreen Bukhari convicted over killing of pair who died when car was rammed off road

A former TikTok influencer and her mother have been found guilty of murdering two men who died in a fireball when their car was rammed off the road during a late-night chase outside Leicester.

Mahek Bukhari, 24, and her mother, Ansreen Bukhari, 46, were convicted alongside two other defendants of killing Saqib Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, in February last year.

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‘Two different lives’: how TikTok fame swept up mother who killed lover

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Ansreen Bukhari and her daughter, Mahek, partied together and ended up plotting to murder two young men

When she gave evidence at Leicester crown court, 46-year-old Ansreen Bukhari described how her daughter’s fame on TikTok had completely transformed her life.

“When I got married I was like a housewife, but with this TikTok thing I was going out more. It was like two different lives,” she said. “It was more excitement. We were out and meeting people and stuff.”

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England local elections going smoothly under new voter ID rules, say officials

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‘No major issues’ reported so far, as most voters in Leicester say they were made well aware of change

Despite warnings that the introduction of new voter ID requirements might lead to disruption at polling stations across England on Thursday, by lunchtime there were few reports of problems.

In Leicester, the city council said things were “so far, running smoothly”.

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Captain of football team rescued from Thai cave in 2018 dies in UK

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Cause of death of Duangpetch Promthep, who moved to Leicester to attend a football academy, has not been confirmed

Duangpetch Promthep, one of the 12 boys from the Wild Boars football club who were rescued from a flooded Thai cave in 2018, has died in the UK.

Duangpetch, who had moved to the UK to attend a college’s football academy, died on Tuesday, the Zico Foundation, which had supported his scholarship abroad, said. His death was also confirmed by Brooke House college in Leicester.

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‘Diversity is a beautiful thing’: the view from Leicester and Birmingham

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Minority ethnic people make up 59% and 51% of respective populations in UK’s first ‘super-diverse’ cities

Leicester and Birmingham have become the first “super-diverse” cities in the UK, where most people are from black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, according to the 2021 census.

A total of 59% of people in Leicester are from minority ethnic backgrounds, while 51% of Birmingham’s population are people of colour, as are 54% in Luton, according to the data. Across England and Wales, 18% of people are BAME.

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Leicester unrest: Hindu groups to boycott review over fears of bias

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Letter to mayor says community has ‘little confidence’ in process after leader Chris Allen’s comments ruling out Islamist extremism

Hindu groups in Leicester have said they will boycott a review into recent disorder in the city as they believe the academic appointed to lead it is biased.

On Wednesday, the Leicester city mayor, Peter Soulsby, announced that the review would be conducted by Dr Chris Allen, an associate professor in hate studies at the University of Leicester.

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Leicester violence could spread beyond city, warns local MP Claudia Webbe

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Leicester East MP says ministers must clamp down on ‘extremist rightwing ideology’

Violent clashes between groups of mainly Hindu and Muslim young men will spread beyond Leicester to other towns and cities without central government and police intervention, a local MP has warned.

Claudia Webbe, whose Leicester East constituency has been at the centre of several incidents over the past month, said ministers needed to clamp down on “extremist rightwing ideology” and misinformation being spread through social media.

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Half of those arrested over clashes in Leicester from outside county

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Exclusive: Concerns outsiders have stirred up trouble between Hindu and Muslim groups heightened after discovery people travelled into the city

Almost half of the 18 people arrested after violence between Hindu and Muslim communities in Leicester over the weekend came from outside the county, the Guardian has learned.

Concerns that outsiders have stirred up trouble in the city have heightened as it was discovered eight of those arrested were not from Leicestershire. Of these, five came from Birmingham, while one came from Solihull, one from Luton and one gave an address in Hounslow.

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Fifteen arrested to ‘deter further disorder’ in Leicester, say police

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Police said groups of men were gathering in North Evington after incidents of violence and damage in the city’s east

Fifteen people have been arrested during a policing operation in east Leicester “to deter further disorder”.

It comes after two arrests were made when police said disturbances broke out at an unplanned protest on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

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Actor’s homophobia made her commercially toxic, tribunal told

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Seyi Omooba is suing Leicester theatre and talent agency after being sacked for Facebook post on homosexuality

A sacked actor who would have refused to play the role in which she had been cast as a lesbian because it was against her Christian beliefs made herself “commercially toxic” and her continued employment would have forced the show’s cancellation, a tribunal has heard.

Seyi Omooba was due to play Celie in a production of The Color Purple at the Curve theatre, Leicester, but was removed from the show in March 2019 after the emergence of a Facebook post from 2014 in which she said homosexuality was not “right”.

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Revealed: auditors raised minimum-wage red flags at Boohoo factories

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Exclusive: Third-party reports set out allegations at 18 Leicester suppliers

The fast-fashion retailer Boohoo has been selling clothes made by at least 18 factories in Leicester that audits say have failed to prove they pay the minimum wage to workers, a Guardian investigation has found.

Third-party audit reports produced over the past four years make claims of “critical” issues over record-keeping and working hours at the time they were written, suggesting that in parts of the supply chain workers may be paid as little as £3-£4 an hour.

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Outsourced firms miss 46% of Covid test contacts in England’s worst-hit areas

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Serco and Sitel paid more than £200m to test and trace but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts

Outsourcing companies running the government’s flagship test-and-trace system have failed to reach nearly half of potentially exposed people in areas with the highest Covid infections rates in England, official figures show.

In the country’s 20 worst-hit areas, Serco and Sitel – paid £200m between them – reached only 54% of people who had been in close proximity to an infected person, meaning more than 21,000 exposed people were not contacted.

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