Category Archives: London

Labour condemns Reform’s plan for £100bn in cuts as ‘half-baked’ and ‘incredibly reckless’ – UK politics live

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Labour chair says uch cuts ‘could mean vital public services like hospitals, schools and law enforcement are put at risk’

The Electoral Commission has released political donation figures for the second quarter of 2026. They show that Reform UK continues to rake in far more than other parties. Nigel Farage’’s party had declared donations worth £5.3m. Labour got £3.6m, and the Conservatives £2.8m.

Most of Reform UK’s money came from Ben Delo, who gave £4m. As Rowena Mason reported earlier this year, Delo is a British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business.

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Female film-makers still being squeezed out of industry, London film festival director says

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Over 40% of films in LFF programme are female-made, but only two of 21 gala films are directed by women

Female film-makers are still being squeezed out of the industry as they progress beyond their debut films, the director of the London film festival has said, adding that “the dial does not seem to be moving”.

Kristy Matheson’s comments came as LFF announced its full programme for this year’s event, which runs from 7 to 19 October. Of the 251 titles, 109 (43%) are made by female film-makers, but only two of the 21 gala films are directed by women.

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Sadiq Khan fined over untaxed car falsely registered in his name

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London mayor’s office says he is ‘victim of a scam’ after conviction under fast-track system where magistrates can decide outcomes in seconds

Sadiq Khan’s office has revealed he was the victim of a scam that led to him being fined for failing to tax a car that did not belong to him.

The London mayor was found guilty last month under a system of “conveyor-belt justice”, in which magistrates decide on hundreds of cases a day, sometimes spending less than a minute on each.

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Burnham promises to bring ‘substantial change’ as he gives first Commons address as prime minister – UK politics live

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PM says he has a ‘clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong’ with UK, and pays tribute to Keir Starmer after his predecessor quit parliament

My colleague Richard Partington, the Guardian’s senior economics correspondent, grew up, like Andy Burnham, in the Warrington suburb of Culcheth. He has been home to find out what people there are saying about the new PM.

Yesterday, Kemi Badenoch announced a reshuffle, replacing Mel Stride with Andrew Griffith as shadow chancellor and Priti Patel with Tom Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary.

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James Cleverly resigns from shadow cabinet to run for mayor of London

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Shadow minister for housing, communities and local government to resign with immediate effect

James Cleverly has resigned from the shadow cabinet to run for mayor of London.

The Tory heavyweight, who was once home and foreign secretary and is shadow minister for housing, communities and local government, told the Sunday Times he will resign with immediate effect.

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Large fire near Wembley Stadium disrupts tube and rail services

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About 125 firefighters tackle blaze at Neasden waste facility as nearby Amazon warehouse is evacuated

A large fire broke out at a waste facility close to Wembley Stadium in north-west London, disrupting tube and train lines in the area.

Twenty fire engines and about 125 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze at a mixed-waste facility on an industrial estate in Neasden, less than a mile from the venue.

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Woman found guilty of indecent assault against two pupils at London boys’ school in 1980s

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Sally-Anne Bowen, now 65, convicted of assaulting boys at Christ’s College, Finchley, where she was chemistry teacher

A chemistry teacher has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage pupils at an all-boys school in the late 1980s.

Sally-Anne Bowen, who taught at Christ’s College in Finchley, north London, assaulted the teenage boys when they were aged around 14 to 15 and she was in her mid-20s.

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London bus drivers resume strike over heatwave working amid fears over air con deal

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Drivers concerned that bus operator’s offer to retrofit cabs on 730 buses will not be complete by next summer

London bus drivers have resumed strike action over having to work in high temperatures, amid fears that proposed improvements to air conditioning will not be complete by next summer.

About 1,500 members of the Unite union working across north London and Essex are taking part in the four-day strike from Tuesday to Friday, after industrial action earlier this month. Further stoppages are planned for the coming weeks.

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London bus drivers resume strike over heatwave working amid fears over air con deal

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Drivers concerned that bus operator’s offer to retrofit cabs on 730 buses will not be complete by next summer

London bus drivers have resumed strike action over having to work in high temperatures, amid fears that proposed improvements to air conditioning will not be complete by next summer.

About 1,500 members of the Unite union working across north London and Essex are taking part in the four-day strike from Tuesday to Friday, after industrial action earlier this month. Further stoppages are planned for the coming weeks.

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Freddie Mercury’s ‘splendid things’ to go on display at V&A

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Eight costumes spanning Queen frontman’s career will feature in a free trail developed with his former fiancee

Eight famous costumes worn by Freddie Mercury, including the outfit featured on the cover of Queen’s debut album and the catsuit from the video for Bohemian Rhapsody, are to go on display at the V&A in London this autumn to mark what would have been the singer’s 80th birthday.

Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things, a free trail developed with Mercury’s former fiancee and close friend Mary Austin, will run from 24 October 2026 to 17 January 2027. Austin is lending seven of the looks, which span Mercury’s career from the 1970s to his final years.

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London flat where boy fell to death could have had more safeguards, inquest told

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Aalim Ahmed, five, fell from 15th-floor window at tower block family had asked to be moved out of, court hears

An inquest into the death of a five-year-old boy who fell from a 15th-floor window has heard that more measures could have been taken to make it safer.

Aalim Ahmed, who was autistic, died when he fell from a kitchen window at a residential block in Plaistow, east London. His father, Makail Ahmed, rushed from the top floor temporary social housing flat and discovered his body shortly before 6am on 16 May 2024.

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Asking prices for newly listed homes in UK’s richest borough fall by £100k in one month

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Fierce competition in some areas of London means landlord purchasers are making successful lowball offers

The average price of a home coming up for sale in Britain’s richest borough has dropped by almost £100,000 in a month as fierce competition among sellers in many areas prompts some to slash their price expectations, data shows.

The property website Rightmove said that for Britain as a whole, average newly listed asking prices for homes had fallen by 2% over the past month, the largest August price drop in eight years.

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Missed out on tickets to see the Bayeux tapestry in London? A £1,000 hotel stay will get you in

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British Museum’s £33 tickets sold out in a day but some slots have been reserved for guests at five-star One Aldwych

Those hoping to snare a glimpse of the Bayeux tapestry when it comes to the British Museum this September faced nine-hour online queues, with the £33 tickets sold out within a day.

But the monied guests of a five-star hotel in Covent Garden have not had to go to such arduous lengths to get a view of the nearly 1,000-year-old depiction of William the Conqueror’s victory over King Harold II of England at Hastings in 1066.

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UK heatwaves may have cost economy £4.4bn in lost output so far this year, analysis finds

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Verdant thinktank says cost could top £25bn a year by 2030 and calls for maximum temperature for working and urban redesign to cool down cities

Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows.

Green thinktank Verdant had suggested June’s unseasonally hot weather had an economic cost of £2.36bn. Updating its assessment to include last month’s high temperatures, it finds a £4.4bn hit to output.

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‘Abusive’ man found guilty of harassing Stella Creasy MP on tube train

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Clifford Wilby, 63, started talking to Walthamstow MP about knife crime and her ‘failings as a member of parliament’

A 63-year-old man has been found guilty of harassing the Labour MP Stella Creasy after he was “abusive and aggressive” to her on a tube train.

Clifford Wilby, of east London, saw the MP for Walthamstow in July 2025 on a Victoria Line train, Westminster magistrates’ court heard.

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Heathrow says need for expansion clear as it loses title of Europe’s busiest airport

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Air transport hub in west London reports 7.86m passengers in July, compared with 8.15m for Istanbul’s new airport away from the city

Istanbul airport has overtaken Heathrow as Europe’s busiest airport by passenger numbers, leading the London hub to say its “case for expansion has never been clearer”.

Figures published on Tuesday showed 7.9 million passengers passed through Heathrow’s terminals in July, compared with Istanbul’s 8.15 million.

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Woman assaulted after Travelodge staff gave room key to her abuser

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Woman had gone to London hotel for ‘night away from the fear’ in latest incident of chain giving keys to men without checking

Travelodge staff gave a room key to the domestic abuser of a woman, who then physically attacked her.

The woman, who is remaining anonymous, told the BBC she was staying in a branch of the hotel in London to escape the man, but he followed her and was given a key by the reception staff.

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UK temperatures could hit 36C as fifth heatwave of summer looms

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Met Office considers amber or red warning as forecasters say Thursday is likely to be hottest day of the week

Temperatures could reach 36C (97F) or higher this week, forecasters have said, with possible disruption to railway lines and power networks as the Met Office considers issuing rare amber or red extreme heat warnings.

Parts of the UK are forecast to experience the fifth heatwave of the summer as the country continues to bake in an unprecedented period of dry, hot weather.

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London mayor orders council to drop plan to ban new pubs and bars in Soho and West End

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Exclusive: Sadiq Khan urges Westminster council to adopt ‘positive vision of economic growth’ of nightlife

Sadiq Khan has ordered Westminster council to scrap a policy that would ban new pubs and bars from opening in Soho and the West End of London.

This comes after the Guardian revealed the council’s new licensing policy asks pubs to stop customers from standing up while consuming beverages, which it calls “vertical drinking”. The policy is under consultation and also asks pubs to have table service rather than allowing orders at the bar.

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Three Banksy artworks in London have cost taxpayers nearly £150,000

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Costs of security and removal efforts have reignited debate over whether work is vandalism or valuable public art

Three Banksy artworks have cost taxpayers almost £150,000 in removal efforts, security and other costs, with the bill expected to rise.

The largest bill relates to a mural painted on the Royal Courts of Justice in London in September 2025, where efforts to remove it and provide security have so far cost more than £85,000, according to the BBC.

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