Tag: News Story

STORY

The Government has announced that the UK’s first Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner will be appointed as part of reforms to improve safety, accountability and consistency in care. The announcement followed Baroness Amos’ independent investigation into maternity and neonatal services.

The commissioner will provide independent leadership, co-chair the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce with the Health Secretary and help ensure that women, babies and families are heard in decisions about care. Ministers said a National Action Plan would be published in December to set out longer-term reform.

The Government also announced £41 million of additional investment to address urgent safety risks in maternity and neonatal facilities, including fire safety, ventilation and outdated infrastructure. The move comes after repeated warnings about failures in maternity care and inequalities faced by women and families.

STORY

New reporting has highlighted warnings from minority communities, unions and policy experts that increasingly hostile anti-migrant politics is contributing to a resurgence of racism in Britain. Reuters spoke to people of colour who said recent political rhetoric and high-profile crimes had made them feel less safe.

The issue has become politically sensitive after violent incidents and disorder in Southampton, Belfast and Edinburgh, with some activists and politicians using crime and immigration to frame wider arguments about national identity. Keir Starmer has rejected claims that British institutions are prejudiced against white people and has warned that racist language is returning to public life.

Unions told Reuters that members had reported more racist incidents at work, including in healthcare settings. The report adds to pressure on ministers and opposition parties to avoid language that inflames tension while still addressing public concern about immigration, crime and community safety.

STORY

Asylum seekers could be required to pay £10,000 before applying to settle in the UK under new Home Office plans reported as part of Shabana Mahmood’s wider asylum reforms. The charge would apply as ministers seek to toughen the settlement route and recover some costs linked to state support.

The proposals form part of a broader effort to present a stricter approach to immigration and asylum. The Government has also been looking at faster returns, tighter checks and safe legal routes, while trying to respond to pressure over small boat crossings and wider public concern about the asylum system.

Refugee campaigners and critics have condemned the proposed charge, arguing that it would penalise people who have already been recognised as needing protection. Ministers are likely to face further scrutiny over whether the plans are workable, lawful and compatible with the Government’s wider claim to offer a controlled but humane asylum system.

STORY

The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2026, the Office for National Statistics has confirmed, leaving its earlier estimate unchanged. Services were the main driver of growth, with computer programming, wholesale and advertising helping to offset weakness in rental and recruitment activity.

The figures also showed pressure on household finances, with real household disposable income per head falling by 0.8% in the first quarter. The savings ratio also declined, suggesting that households were putting less money aside even before the economic effects of the US-Iran conflict began to feed through.

The data gives the incoming Labour leadership a mixed inheritance. Growth at the start of the year was stronger than expected, but economists warned that tighter financial conditions, weaker household spending and uncertainty would continue to constrain the Government’s room for manoeuvre.

STORY

Andy Burnham has sought to reassure markets and Labour MPs by saying his plans for Government would remain within Labour’s existing fiscal rules. The Labour MP for Makerfield, widely expected to succeed Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, said his approach would be consistent with the party’s 2024 manifesto.

Burnham said his programme would be backed by sound public finances and the discipline of current fiscal rules, including balancing day-to-day spending with tax revenues and reducing debt as a share of national output. He also repeated Labour’s manifesto commitment not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT for working people.

The remarks were designed to answer concerns about whether a Burnham Government would move sharply away from the Treasury framework inherited from Starmer and Reeves. They came after his Manchester speech setting out a wider plan to shift power away from Whitehall and offer what he called more breathing space for the country.

STORY

Keir Starmer has used one of his final major policy interventions as Prime Minister to launch the Government’s long-delayed Defence Investment Plan, with Rachel Reeves confirming an additional £15 billion for defence. The announcement came ahead of the NATO summit and followed weeks of pressure over whether the Government was moving quickly enough to meet growing security threats.

The plan includes more than £5 billion for a major drone transformation across the Armed Forces, with investment in autonomous systems, uncrewed naval vessels, loitering munitions and new RAF capabilities. Ministers said the war in Ukraine and the recent Iran conflict had demonstrated how quickly warfare was changing, with drones reshaping the battlefield and requiring faster innovation cycles.

Opposition parties criticised the plan as late and underfunded, arguing that it still falls short of what defence chiefs had sought. The Government said the new investment would strengthen national security, support British jobs and help the UK move towards higher defence spending in the next Parliament.

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Vladimir Putin has acknowledged fuel shortages in Russia after Ukrainian drone attacks continued to strike oil refineries and energy infrastructure across the country.

The Russian President admitted that there were still queues at petrol stations and that drivers could not always obtain the grade of fuel they needed. His comments marked a rare public acceptance that Ukraine’s long-range campaign against Russian energy targets is having a direct impact inside Russia.

Putin told officials that Russia had begun using previously accumulated fuel reserves to support the domestic market. He said petrol reserves stood at around 1.7 million tonnes and insisted that the situation was being managed, but his remarks confirmed that the Kremlin is now having to respond openly to supply problems caused in part by Ukrainian attacks.

STORY

Michelle Mone is among the individuals being sued in an attempt to recover millions of pounds owed to the Government by the collapsed PPE company PPE Medpro.

The BBC reported that the legal action is part of an attempt to recover money following a court ruling against PPE Medpro, which was awarded major Government contracts during the Covid pandemic. The Government was awarded £122 million plus interest last year after a court ruled that the company had breached a contract to supply sterile surgical gowns.

The case is the latest stage in a long-running controversy over pandemic procurement and the use of politically connected routes for companies seeking Government contracts. PPE Medpro became one of the most high-profile names linked to the Covid procurement scandal, with Mone facing sustained scrutiny over her connection to the company and the way it secured public contracts.

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Donald Trump has launched a personal and politically inflammatory attack on Janeese Lewis George, describing Washington D.C.’s likely next mayor as a “Communist” and warning that he would block her agenda if she takes office.

The President made the comments on Truth Social after Lewis George’s Democratic primary victory placed her on course to become mayor of the capital. In the post, Trump claimed she would “empty the prisons”, make D.C. a sanctuary city, oppose ICE, defund the police and support other policies that he said would destroy Washington. He also said he would meet her, but warned that he would not allow the capital to be “destroyed”.

The tone of the intervention was seen as strikingly childish for a sitting President. Rather than setting out a serious federal position on crime, immigration or the limits of D.C. home rule, Trump reached for the familiar playground language of ideological name-calling.

STORY

Sheringham Town Council is facing questions over whether public money has been wasted after reversing its position on the future of the bus shelter at Otterndorf Green.

The council has now resolved to proceed with the demolition of the existing bus shelter to allow the transport hub scheme to move forward. The decision marks a reversal from the position taken in December, when councillors voted narrowly to save the shelter and revoke their support for the development of the land.

That earlier vote had immediate consequences. Norfolk County Council said works to deliver the Sheringham Travel Hub scheme stopped after the town council’s decision on 9 December 2025, with the county council beginning its withdrawal from the site the following day. Remaining funding allocated to Sheringham was then reallocated to other bus schemes in Norfolk to avoid the money being lost.

The result is that Sheringham has endured months of uncertainty, disruption and dispute, only for the council to arrive back at a version of the decision it had previously rejected. The Town Council is expected to make a statement about its conduct and professionalism to reassure local residents.