6:55 am, August 9, 2022
No 10 ‘will assist’ inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs
Downing Street has signalled that it remains committed to assisting a parliamentary inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs over lockdown parties in No 10.
Leading allies of the Prime Minister have attacked the investigation by the Commons Privileges Committee denouncing it as a ‘witch hunt’.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said it represented the ‘most egregious abuse of power’ while environment minister Lord Goldsmith said the committee was ‘clearly rigged’ against Mr Johnson, despite having a Tory majority.
Van manufacturers have ‘mountain to climb’ on switch to electric
Just five per cent of new vans sold in the UK last month were fully electric, leading to fears that manufacturers have ‘a mountain to climb’ ahead of the ban on diesel models.
Figures from green motoring consultancy New AutoMotive show 93 per cent of the 17,140 new vans registered in July were diesel-powered.
Sales of new diesel and petrol vans and cars will be prohibited in the UK from 2030, with hybrids banned five years later.
Read the full story here.
Around half of English councils hand out cash from £1.5bn pandemic fund
Just over half of councils in England have started making payments to Covid-hit firms from a £1.5bn support package, almost 18 months after it was first launched.
Real estate experts have said it is ‘too little too late’ and could mean thousands of companies miss out on almost £700m of available funding.
In March 2021, the Government said that businesses affected by Covid-19 outside the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, and therefore ineligible for the pandemic business rates holiday, would not be able to appeal their payments for the property tax.
Grease star Dame Olivia Newton-John dies aged 73
Dame Olivia Newton-John has died at the age of 73, her widower has confirmed.
The British-born singer died ‘peacefully’ at her ranch in Southern California on Monday morning, surrounded by family and friends.
Dame Olivia is best known for her starring role in the 1978 film Grease, in which she starred opposite John Travolta as Sandy.
FTSE 100 reaches two-month high as US job confidence trumps UK recession fears
London’s FTSE 100 jumped to a two-month high on Monday as a strong US jobs report and Chinese trading figures got the week off to a positive start for traders.
The FTSE 100 briefly reached 7,500 and ended the day up 42.43 points, or 0.57 per cent, at 7,482.37.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX also had a positive session, jumping 0.84 per cent by the time markets closed. Meanwhile the French Cac 40 lifted by 0.8 per cent at close.
Monday’s Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- West London car dealership fined almost £60,000 for ‘deliberately misleading’ ULEZ adverts
- Snows snaps ups long-serving Vauxhall dealer Picador
- Volvo Cars Thames Ditton opens UK’s first ‘Volvo Fulfilment Centre’
- Why dealers need to be sending personalised videos with every customer enquiry, says Vehicles in Video
- Wellington Motors sees profits and turnover soar thanks to online car sales
- Criminal car dealer forfeits properties and cash worth £1.14m following money laundering investigation
- EV start-up Arrival puts electric car and bus projects on hold after announcing plan to axe 800 jobs
Rishi Sunak campaign video criticised as ‘pointless posturing’ and mocked online
Rishi Sunak has been accused of ‘pointless posturing’ in a campaign video focused on shredding EU regulations which has been likened to a parody.
The Tory leadership candidate vowed to use his first 100 days if elected prime minister to ‘review or repeal post-Brexit EU laws’.
Mr Sunak tweeted: ‘A new Brexit delivery unit. Reviewing every EU law on our statute book. Starting in my first 100 days. Let’s keep Brexit safe’.
A new Brexit delivery unit.
Reviewing every EU law on our statute book.
Starting in my first 100 days.
Let’s keep Brexit safe👇 #Ready4Rishi https://t.co/3cXn1rFhca pic.twitter.com/BjdRVJSvJz
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) August 8, 2022
‘Four-year-old girl’ killed in house collapse following gas explosion
A young girl died and three people are in hospital after a terraced home collapsed following a gas explosion and fire in south London.
The Metropolitan Police said officers believe the child was a four-year-old girl and that her next of kin have been informed.
London Ambulance Service confirmed the child had died after the incident in Galpin’s Road in Thornton Heath on Monday morning, which leader of Merton Council Ross Garrod described as a gas explosion.
Ryan Giggs’ private life ‘involved a litany of abuse’, court told
Football hero Ryan Giggs was an idol on the pitch but an abusive ‘gaslighter’ of his ex-girlfriend in his private life, a court heard.
Behind his public persona the former Manchester United and Wales international footballer, accused of headbutting his ex-girlfriend, had a ‘much uglier and more sinister side to his character’, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.
Jurors were told the 48-year-old’s private life involved a ‘litany of abuse, both physical and psychological, of a woman he professed to love’.
Gridserve gains £200m investment to deliver thousands of new chargers
Gridserve has secured an initial £200m investment from equity firm Infracapital, furthering its ambitions to ‘deliver sustainable energy on the scale needed to move the needle on climate change’.
Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc, joins existing partners TRG Rise and Mitsubishi HC Capital UK in support of Gridserve’s plans to decarbonise transport through the use of electric vehicles.
This new investment also boosts Gridserve’s plans to develop its sun-to-wheel model, which looks at generating energy via solar farms before distributing it to EV drivers via its network of Electric Forecourts and Electric Hubs.
Weather outlook
Today will be another warm, dry and sunny day for most areas. Scotland will be cloudier with outbreaks of rain in the northwest during the morning, which will become light and patchy by the afternoon, the BBC reports.
Tonight, cloud in Scotland will become confined to the very far north, with the odd spot of drizzle possible. Elsewhere it will be a dry, clear and calm night. Mist patches developing in N Ireland.
Tomorrow will be a dry and fine across much of the UK, with plenty of sunshine. The very far north and west of Scotland will see some variable cloud, however. Very warm for most, hot in the south.
