Tag: News Story

STORY

MPs will debate a petition calling for people convicted of terrorism offences to be barred from standing for elected office. The Westminster Hall debate is scheduled for Monday 6 July and will be opened by John Lamont on behalf of the Petitions Committee.

The petition calls for people convicted of terrorism offences in the UK or abroad to be disqualified from standing for election. It has attracted more than 200,000 signatures, ensuring parliamentary consideration of the issue.

The debate is expected to focus on the balance between democratic rights, public safety and public confidence in elected office. Ministers will be asked to set out whether the Government believes existing disqualification rules are sufficient or whether further restrictions should be introduced.

STORY

The House of Commons sat from 11.30am, with questions to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology before Prime Minister’s Questions at midday. The schedule also included Westminster Hall debates and other parliamentary business.

The sitting took place during a politically unsettled period, with Starmer preparing to leave office and Burnham expected to take over as Labour leader and prime minister. That placed routine parliamentary scrutiny against the backdrop of a wider transition in Government.

MPs used the day’s proceedings to press ministers on defence spending, public services and the Government’s legislative programme. The parliamentary timetable is likely to remain dominated by questions about the leadership transition and the policy priorities of the incoming administration.

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The Government has said it is seeking to boost services exports as part of trade discussions with China. The Department for Business and Trade highlighted the Joint Economic and Trade Commission and linked events involving Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.

Ministers said the talks were intended to support British exporters and improve commercial opportunities. The China-Britain Business Council welcomed the visit and said it had supported the Export to China event, which focused on areas where British firms could expand.

The discussions come within the wider political sensitivity of UK-China relations. Ministers are attempting to pursue trade opportunities while managing concerns about national security, human rights and China’s growing influence in strategic sectors.

STORY

Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd has been appointed to lead an independent review into prison safety and security. The Ministry of Justice said the review would examine violence, drugs and organised crime in prisons as part of wider work to reform the estate.

Justice Secretary David Lammy said the review would support efforts to make prisons safer and better at cutting crime. The announcement comes as ministers continue to face pressure over prison capacity, rehabilitation and safety across the prison system.

The review will be watched closely by prison governors, unions and campaigners, who have warned about overcrowding, staff shortages and rising violence. Its findings are expected to influence future decisions on security, rehabilitation and how ministers manage the long-running prisons crisis.

STORY

The UK is seeking to reschedule a summit with the European Union as ministers continue efforts to deepen post-Brexit cooperation. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the UK’s EU negotiator, said closer ties with the bloc were crucially important in the current global environment.

Talks are continuing on areas including agri-food arrangements, youth mobility and emissions trading. The Government has presented the reset as a practical attempt to improve trade and security cooperation while remaining outside the EU’s single market and customs union.

The expected change in prime minister has added a further political dimension to the talks. Ministers are seeking to reassure EU partners that the transition from Starmer to Burnham will not derail the reset, while opposition parties continue to scrutinise whether Labour is moving too close to Brussels.

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Ministers and MPs have raised concerns that transport projects are being cancelled or delayed to help fund the Government’s defence investment plans. The row has focused on road schemes including the A46 Newark bypass, with local figures arguing that the East Midlands is being asked to carry a disproportionate share of the burden.

The Government said defence investment was essential in the current security environment. Critics argued that the funding approach risked setting national defence commitments against local infrastructure schemes which had been promised or expected for years.

The dispute has increased pressure on ministers to explain the full funding settlement behind the defence plan. It also gives opposition parties an opportunity to argue that Labour’s national security commitments are coming at the cost of economic growth and regional transport improvements.

STORY

Andy Burnham is under pressure from Labour MPs to rule out welfare cuts as a way of filling the reported £4.7 billion defence funding shortfall. The issue has emerged before he has formally taken office, but it is already shaping debate about the fiscal choices likely to face his first Budget.

The defence plan includes a significant increase in spending, but questions remain about how part of the package will be funded. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that meeting longer-term NATO spending expectations would require much larger sums, raising the prospect of difficult trade-offs across Whitehall.

Labour MPs on the party’s left have warned against using welfare savings to fund defence commitments. The row highlights the challenge Burnham would face in balancing Labour’s social policy priorities with pressure from allies, military leaders and NATO partners for higher defence spending.

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Sir Keir Starmer faced renewed pressure over the Government’s Defence Investment Plan after Kemi Badenoch accused him of leaving a funding gap for his successor. The exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions focused on how the long-term spending commitments would be met and whether the next Labour leader would be forced into further borrowing, tax rises or cuts elsewhere.

The issue has become politically sensitive because Andy Burnham is expected to take over from Starmer later this month. Defence minister Luke Pollard said he had only seen the detailed funding breakdown the day before the plan was published, adding to questions about how far ministers and Burnham had been briefed before the announcement.

The Government said the plan was necessary to strengthen national security and meet future defence challenges. Opposition MPs argued that the package lacked a credible funding route, leaving Labour exposed to accusations that it was making strategic commitments without showing how they would be paid for.

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An illegal waste site in West Yorkshire has been cleared after court action brought by the Environment Agency.

Andrew Leadbeater, 57, pleaded guilty in April to two charges relating to waste offences at a site in Wyke Lane, Wyke, Bradford. West Yorkshire Magistrates’ Court ordered him to clear the land of rubbish by 17 June.

Complaints about fly-tipping and burning at the site were first made to the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in 2023. During a visit by the council in June that year, Leadbeater said some of the waste had been fly-tipped on his land and admitted burning material at the site. He said he would stop burning and arrange for the land to be cleared.

In June 2024, Leadbeater contacted the council to complain that fly-tipping had again taken place on his land. Council officers visited and found a significant amount of waste before referring the case to the Environment Agency.

Environment Agency officers later spoke to Leadbeater, who said he knew about the waste but did not know who had deposited it. He said he had tried to secure the site and agreed to remove the waste urgently.

Follow-up visits in November 2024 and March 2025 found the waste had not been removed. The Environment Agency then issued a notice requiring Leadbeater to clear all waste from the land by 22 September 2025, but he failed to comply. He also failed to attend an interview with the Environment Agency in October 2025.

Leadbeater was charged with operating a waste site without an environmental permit and failing to comply with an Environment Agency notice to clear the waste. The rubbish included fire-damaged trailers and mixed household waste.

He was given two months to clear the site, along with a 12-month conditional discharge and £6,067.50 in costs.

Ben Hocking, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency in Yorkshire, said illegal waste operations had a negative impact on residents’ lives and welcomed the full clearance of the site. He said the case showed the agency was taking action against waste crime and urged anyone with information about unlawful waste activity to report it.

The Environment Agency said it is stepping up action on waste crime through a new 10 Point Plan, which aims to strengthen prevention, improve detection and deliver more consistent enforcement.

STORY

A Wolverhampton company director has been given a suspended prison sentence after fraudulently claiming £30,000 through the Covid Bounce Back Loan scheme.

Sohail Cheema, of Richmond Road, Wolverhampton, falsely claimed that his company had a turnover of £60,000 when applying for two separate £15,000 Bounce Back Loans in 2020. Businesses were only entitled to one loan under the scheme, which was designed to support genuine companies during the pandemic.

The Insolvency Service said Cheema’s company, Sohail Cheema Limited, had been set up to allow him to gain agency employment as a self-employed bus driver and was not actually trading. None of the money obtained was used for the economic benefit of the business, as required by the scheme.

Cheema transferred the full proceeds of both loans out of his business accounts on the same day they were received. The money was moved to his personal accounts and to his wife’s account, before later forming part of a £90,000 payment to a third party in August 2021.

He pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering following an investigation by the Insolvency Service. At Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday 29 June, Cheema was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.

He was also disqualified from acting as a company director for 10 years, ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and required to carry out 20 days of rehabilitation activity.

David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said Cheema had deliberately made two fraudulent applications despite knowing he was not entitled to the money. He said Bounce Back Loans had been a lifeline for genuine businesses during the pandemic and warned that the Insolvency Service would continue to pursue those who exploited the scheme.

Sohail Cheema Limited went into liquidation in May 2021. The Insolvency Service said it is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained money under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.