Donated clothes helped Starmer’s ‘look their best’, Lammy claims September 15, 2024 Donated clothes given to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria were to help them “look their best” to represent the UK, David Lammy has argued. Speaking to the BBC, the foreign secretary said in countries like the US, leaders “have a huge budget paid for by the taxpayer so that they look [...]
Lammy: West won’t be bullied by Putin over Ukraine missile talks September 15, 2024 The West will not be bullied by Vladimir Putin’s threat of all-out war with Nato if Ukraine is given permission to use Western weapons to strike inside Russia, David Lammy has said. The foreign secretary said talks were continuing with the US and allies about giving Kyiv permission to use UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to [...]
Government accused of trying to hide ‘horrific’ impact of winter fuel squeeze September 14, 2024 Sir Keir Starmer’s government faced accusations of trying to hide from the “horrific” impact of the decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners. More than 80 per cent of people aged 80 and over will lose out, as will more than 70 per cent of pensioners. Even among those who should still [...]
Lib Dems push for changes to Commons rules to boost their influence September 14, 2024 The Liberal Democrats will push for changes to Parliament’s procedures to give them more influence as the third biggest party. Lib Dem chief whip Wendy Chamberlain questioned the fairness of the current rules, which give a “special platform” to the Tories as the largest opposition party. The Conservatives have 121 MPs while the Liberal Democrats [...]
Plans for UK’s first coal mine in 30 years quashed by High Court September 13, 2024 The decision to grant planning permission for what would have been the UK’s first coal mine in 30 years at Whitehaven in Cumbria has been quashed by a High Court judge. The Government first granted permission for the new coal mine in December 2022. Then-levelling up secretary Michael Gove greenlit the Whitehaven mine, in line [...]
Analysts see ‘path to approval’ for Vodafone and Three deal September 13, 2024 Although Britain’s competition watchdog has raised fresh concerns over the proposed £15bn tie-up between Vodafone and Three’s UK operations, analysts have suggested the findings of the latest probe are more positive than expected. In its provisional findings, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) flagged potential price increases for millions of mobile customers and warned of [...]
National Grid agrees sale of Electricity System Operator to government September 13, 2024 National Grid has struck a deal to sell its Electricity System Operator (ESO) to the government for £630m, paving the way for the division to transition into public ownership. The FTSE 100 utility said on Friday that it expected the transaction to be completed on 1 October, when the government and regulator Ofgem aim to [...]
Government must ‘offer hope’ to attract investment, CBI chief to argue September 12, 2024 The government must “have and offer hope” in order to attract global investors to bet on and back Britain, the chief executive of the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) will argue. In a rejection of No10 and the Treasury’s gloomy economic language, Rain Newton-Smith will use the CBI’s annual dinner in Glasgow to call for [...]
UK government says data centres are now Critical National Infrastructure September 12, 2024 The UK government has officially designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), as it looks to further boost investment in the UK’s critical hubs of digital information. With this new status, data centres will receive extra government support to protect crucial data, including NHS records, financial information, and personal smartphone data against major incidents [...]
Major NHS reforms will ‘take a decade’, Keir Starmer warns September 12, 2024 A series of major reforms to the NHS will “take a decade” and won’t be “universally popular”, Sir Keir Starmer has warned in a speech about the future of the UK’s healthcare system. The Prime Minister pledged that his Labour government “will always make the investment in our NHS that is needed… even in difficult [...]