Category Archives: England

Starmer outlines plan to shift NHS care from hospitals to new health centres

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Prime minister unveils 10-year health plan to ‘put care on people’s doorsteps’ and prevent illness in first place

The NHS will shift a huge amount of care from hospitals into new community health centres to bring treatment closer to people’s homes and cut waiting times, Keir Starmer will pledge on Thursday.

The prime minister will outline radical plans to give patients in England much easier access to GPs, scans and mental health support in facilities that are open 12 hours a day, six days a week.

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Will Labour’s 10-year health plan usher in a ‘new era’ for the NHS in England?

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Major health service reforms have had mixed results, and more emphasis on tech, community-based care and prevention has been tried before

Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting say the 10-year health plan will usher in a “new era for the NHS” in England. Their promised transformation will ensure it works in a more patient-friendly way and offers faster care, with health professionals providing a greater range of services in the same place and spotting illness earlier.

The “three big shifts” in the way the health service operates will involve it becoming more tech-based, moving significant amounts of care into community settings and giving greater priority to preventing illness rather than treating it.

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Man, 92, jailed for 1967 rape and murder of Louisa Dunne in Bristol

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Ryland Headley sentenced to minimum of 20 years after what is thought to be oldest cold case solved in modern English policing history

A 92-year-old man has been jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years after being convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in Bristol 58 years ago.

The sentencing judge, Mr Justice Sweeting, told Ryland Headley that he would spend the rest of his life in prison for killing Louisa Dunne at her home in 1967.

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Fewer pupils in less affluent English schools taking languages, survey finds

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Less than half taking foreign languages GCSEs compared with 69% in most prosperous state schools

Ministers must make access to language learning a national priority, experts have said, after research showed that children from more deprived areas of England are disproportionately denied the chance to learn a foreign tongue.

This year’s Language Trends report by the British Council surveyed 1,000 primary, secondary and independent schools and found that the proportion of pupils studying a modern language GCSE in less affluent English state schools was 38% lower than in the most affluent and 12% lower than the average.

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‘Smoke and confusion’: exhibition points out Jane Austen’s true thoughts on Bath

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Georgian city is not shy of milking its links with the author, but actually she was not happy during her time there

The city of Bath does not fight shy of promoting its Jane Austen connections, tempting in visitors from around the world by organising tours, balls, afternoon teas and writing and embroidery workshops inspired by the author. If you have the inclination, you can buy souvenirs ranging from Jane Austen Top Trumps to a Mr Darcy rubber duck.

But in this, the 250th anniversary year of her birth, an exhibition is being launched daring to point out that in truth Austen wasn’t terribly happy during the five years she lived in the city.

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Lindsey oil refinery owner Prax falls into administration as ministers urged to intervene

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Fears over fuel supplies and jobs as Lincolnshire facility handles nearly a tenth of total UK capacity

One of the UK’s largest oil refineries – and the only big one owned by a British company – has collapsed into administration, prompting calls for the government to intervene urgently to protect fuel supplies and jobs.

State Oil, which owns the Prax Lindsey refinery in north Lincolnshire, called in administrators on Monday, Sky News reported first, prompting concern from the trade union Unite.

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Wimbledon opening day hottest on record as temperatures soar

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Temperatures set to climb to 34C across much of England in one of hottest June days ever

This year’s Wimbledon tennis championships have begun with the hottest opening day on record, according to the Met Office.

Temperatures reached a provisional high of 29.7C (85.5F) at Kew Gardens in west London on Monday afternoon, surpassing the previous record of 29.3C set in June 2001.

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Extra cost of being disabled in UK to rise by almost 12% in five years, says Scope report

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Estimate by disability charity published on eve of MPs’ vote on restricting welfare payments for new claimants

The extra cost of being disabled is on course to rise by almost 12% to £14,688 in five years, according to a new estimate published on the eve of a controversial vote to restrict welfare payments for new claimants.

A threatened rebellion by more than 120 Labour MPs forced the government into a last-minute climbdown on its welfare bill, by exempting claimants to planned cuts in personal independence payments (Pip), England’s main disability payment.

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Kneecap to take to Glastonbury stage in what could be festival

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Music executives have condemned Irish rappers and Keir Starmer says appearance is not ‘appropriate’, but 100 musicians have signed letter in support

Kneecap will be taking to the Glastonbury stage on Saturday afternoon in front of a packed crowd eagerly anticipating what could be one of the most controversial sets in the festival’s history.

The Irish rap group are performing at 4pm on the West Holts stage, amid criticism from music industry executives and from the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, who said it was not “appropriate” for the band to perform.

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Man jailed for at least 40 years for sword murder of London boy Daniel Anjorin

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Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, sentenced for killing 14-year-old and attempted murder of three others in Hainault

A man has been jailed for at least 40 years for the “wicked” murder of the schoolboy Daniel Anjorin during a 20-minute rampage in east London.

Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, fatally slashed Daniel with a samurai sword minutes after the 14-year-old left his home in Hainault on 30 April last year.

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One in four young people in England have mental health condition, NHS survey finds

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Rates are higher in young women as in young men and mental ill health up across age groups, study shows

Sharp rises in rates of anxiety, depression and other disorders have led to one in four young people in England having a common mental health condition, an NHS survey shows, with young women more likely to report them than young men.

The study found that rates of such conditions in 16- to 24-year-olds have risen by more than a third in a decade, from 18.9% in 2014 to 25.8% in 2024.

More than a fifth (22.6%) of adults aged 16 to 64 have a common mental health condition, up from 18.9% in 2014.

More than one in four adults (25.2%) reported having had suicidal thoughts during their lifetime, including about a third of 16- 24-year-olds (31.5%) and 25- to 34-year-olds (32.9%).

Self-harm rates have quadrupled since 2000 and risen from 6.4% in 2014 to 10.3% in 2024, with the highest rates among 16- to 24-year-olds at 24.6%, especially young women at 31.7%.

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Met officers’ strip-search of black girl at school was gross misconduct, panel finds

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Disciplinary hearing finds two police officers’ search of Child Q, 15, was disproportionate and humiliating

Two police officers who were involved in the strip-search of a black teenager at her school have been found to have committed gross misconduct.

The search at a school in Hackney, east London, was “disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary” and made the girl, known as Child Q, feel degraded and humiliated, a panel concluded at the end of a four-week misconduct hearing.

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Man found guilty of murdering Daniel Anjorin, 14, with sword in London

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Marcus Arduini-Monzo convicted of killing schoolboy in Hainault, north-east London last year

A man has been found guilty of murdering a 14-year-old schoolboy with a samurai sword last year.

Marcus Arduini-Monzo, 37, carried out a marauding attack while in a state of cannabis-induced psychosis in Hainault, north-east London, on 30 April 2024, the Old Bailey heard.

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Hull teenager becomes second Briton ever to join professional sumo stable

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Nicholas Tarasenko, 15, gets rare chance to break into professional sumo ranks after winning amateur tournaments and learning Japanese

A teenager from Hull has arrived in Japan to pursue his dream of becoming a grand champion sumo wrestler, as only the second Briton to win a place at one of the ancient sport’s professional stables.

Nicholas Tarasenko, 15, left Yorkshire for Japan straight after finishing his GCSEs, to become the first British hopeful to join a stable since Nathan Strange – a Londoner who fought under the ring name Hidenokuni – in 1989.

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Wes Streeting questions affordability of setting up NHS assisted dying service

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‘There isn’t a budget for this,’ health secretary says after MPs vote to legalise procedure in England and Wales

Wes Streeting has voiced doubts over whether the NHS can afford to establish an assisted dying service, after MPs passed a bill to legalise the procedure last week.

The health secretary was previously a supporter of assisted dying but switched sides last year, expressing concerns about the ethics of offering such a service before significant improvements could be made to the NHS.

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UK government unveils £275m investment in training and apprenticeships in England

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Labour makes funding centrepiece of its industrial strategy in bid to counter Reform’s surge in so-called red wall

The government will present a £275m investment in technical training and apprenticeships as the centrepiece of its long-awaited industrial strategy, in a direct challenge to Nigel Farage’s growing influence in England’s manufacturing heartlands.

The package, announced by the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, on Sunday, includes funding for new technical excellence colleges, short courses in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital manufacturing, and major capital upgrades to training providers across England.

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Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou facing second trial as more women come forward

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Prosecutors weigh possibility that the Chinese student, who treated his victims as ‘sex toys’, could face further action

Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou is facing a second trial with police and prosecutors preparing to charge the Chinese student with a second round of offences.

Zou, 28, is already serving a minimum 24 years for attacking 10 young women in London and China.

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Palestine Action expected to be banned after vandalism of planes at RAF base

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Home secretary plans to proscribe group that broke into Brize Norton, effectively branding it a terrorist organisation

The pro-Palestine group that broke into RAF Brize Norton sparking a major security review is expected to be banned by the government next week in a move which will anger campaigners.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is planning to proscribe Palestine Action, effectively branding it a terrorist organisation.

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Assisted dying set to become law in England and Wales after MPs pass bill

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Terminally ill people with less than six months to live will have right to choose procedure after approval from doctors and panel

Terminally ill people in England and Wales are to be given the right to an assisted death in a historic societal shift that will transform end-of-life care.

After months of argument, MPs narrowly voted in favour of a private member’s bill introduced by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, which could become law within four years.

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Pioneering London playwright decried gentrification of ‘writer’s paradise’

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In 1992 letter, Mustapha Matura warned of risk to Ladbroke Grove, home to strong Caribbean creative community

A groundbreaking Trinidadian-British playwright who paved the way for modern Black British theatre makers warned about the dangers of gentrification in Ladbroke Grove, which he believed would ruin the “writer’s paradise”.

Mustapha Matura was the first British writer of colour to have work put on in the West End, and used the west London area as an inspiration for many of his plays, which were also staged at the Royal Court and National Theatre.

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