Aston Villa facing Premier League scrutiny over £55m Warehouse sale April 22, 2026 Aston Villa’s latest accounting manoeuvre – selling “The Warehouse” to the club’s owners for £55m – is yet to be signed off by the Premier League. Some top-flight clubs have avoided breaching spending rules in recent years by selling their stadiums and women’s teams to companies within the same ownership group. In a new twist, [...]
Robbins: Starmer’s team was ‘dismissive’ about Mandelson vetting April 21, 2026 Former Foreign Office permanent secretary Sir Olly Robbins has criticised Number 10’s “dismissive attitude” to security vetting for Lord Peter Mandelson, who accessed classified files before Robbins, who was recently sacked from his key civil service post, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that there was “constant pressure” on the Foreign Office to give Mandelson clearance [...]
The mysterious media moguls behind London’s pink slime propaganda machine April 21, 2026 Private jets, council estates and links to the Kremlin: Steve Dinneen goes looking for the owners of a pink slime propaganda machine Standing outside a squat, residential tower block on the outskirts of Harlow on a grey winter afternoon, it seems hard to believe this is the headquarters of a media organisation with links to [...]
Who is John Ternus? The man stepping into Tim Cook’s giant shoes at Apple April 21, 2026 Fifteen years ago, Tim Cook inherited a $350bn tech company that had just lost one of the most celebrated chief executives in corporate history. On Monday, he handed it on worth $4 trillion. Cook will step down as Apple’s chief executive on 1 September 2026, with John Ternus, the company’s hardware engineering chief and a [...]
Job vacancies fall to lowest level in five years April 21, 2026 The UK jobs market took a turn for the worst as job vacancies fell to their lowest level in nearly five years, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of vacancies fell by an estimate of 29,000 in the three months to March. It is the lowest level of [...]
‘It beggars belief’: Starmer insists he was not told about Mandelson’s vetting fail April 20, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he was not told that Lord Peter Mandelson failed a security vetting before telling MPs that “due process” around his appointment as US ambassador was followed. Starmer told MPs on Monday that he asked Whitehall officials to review whether due process was followed last September on whether the security vetting [...]
Top civil servant calls on lawyers advice over Mandelson vetting dismissal April 20, 2026 Sir Olly Robbins, who is set to answer MPs’ questions over Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment, is reportedly taking legal advice after he was ousted over the vetting scandal. Last week, Robbins, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary, was dismissed after it emerged that the disgraced Mandelson had been denied clearance in a security vetting process. Mandelson [...]
Starmer would have blocked Mandelson ambassador role, says Lammy April 19, 2026 Keir Starmer would have stopped Lord Mandelson becoming UK ambassador to the US if he had known about security concerns, deputy prime minister David Lammy has said, as the political fallout intensifies. Speaking to the Guardian, Lammy said the prime minister would “never, ever” have approved the appointment had he been aware Mandelson failed the [...]
Top Foreign Office civil servant ousted over latest Mandelson bombshell April 16, 2026 The top civil servant in the Foreign Office has been ousted after losing the confidence over Sir Keir Starmer and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper. Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Sir Olly Robbins has become the latest Westminster figure to lose their role to the Mandelson scandal after it had emerged the disgraced peer was denied clearance in [...]
Hoo Hing: London’s largest Chinese supermarket defies sterling slump to return to profit April 16, 2026 London’s biggest Chinese grocery group has returned to profit, despite being hit by a weaker pound and falling revenue. Dagenham-based Hoo Hing Holdings was founded in the 1970s and has superstores in Mitcham, Milton Keynes and Park Royal. It posted a small pre-tax profit of £167,559 for the 12 months to the end of June [...]