6:33 am, August 27, 2023
Rishi Sunak faces another crunch by-election after Nadine Dorries finally quits
Rishi Sunak faces another potentially damaging by-election after Nadine Dorries finally handed in her resignation 11 weeks after vowing to go.
The Tory former culture secretary is expected to leave her parliamentary seat on Tuesday after notifying the chancellor of her intention to do so on Saturday.
She had come under mounting pressure – including from fellow Tory MPs – to act on her June 9 pledge to step down with “immediate effect” in protest at not getting a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
Sunak announces mandatory whole-life orders for most heinous killers
Dangerous offenders who commit the most heinous murders will face life behind bars with no chance of being released under new plans announced by Rishi Sunak.
The government aims to change the law so that judges are required to impose whole-life orders on the most depraved killers, except in extremely limited circumstances.
Whole-life orders are the most severe penalty available in the country’s criminal justice system. The law change will also for the first time make this the default sentence for any sexually-motivated murders.
PM to skip UN world leader event
Rishi Sunak is to become the first UK prime minister in a decade to skip the UN General Assembly, despite calls from non-governmental organisations for him to attend an event to achieve sustainable development.
Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden and foreign secretary James Cleverly will lead the British delegation at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York in September, Downing Street said.
A No 10 spokesperson pointed to the prime minister’s busy schedule for the autumn, noting that he will meet counterparts at the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi on September 9 and 10 and the Cop28 UN climate summit in Dubai in November. It is unusual for a modern British premier to miss the UN’s so-called high-level general debate.
Business interest in Labour conference soars, party says
Labour has attracted a surge of interest from business at its annual conference in October, as shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves ruled out any version of a wealth tax under a Labour government.
The Opposition, which continues to ride high in the polls, said its latest figures show the number of attendees at its business forum has risen by 50 per cent in a year. It is described as the ‘flagship engagement event for business’ at the four-day gathering in Liverpool.
Labour said the increased corporate presence demonstrates it is now the ‘party of economic growth’.
Met IT breach could do ‘incalculable damage,’ police federation says
A Metropolitan Police IT system breach could do ‘incalculable damage’ in the wrong hands, the Metropolitan Police Federation has said.
Scotland Yard said it had been made aware of ‘unauthorised access to the IT system of one of its suppliers’.
The force is now working with the company to understand if there has been any security breach relating to its data. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Federation said any potential leak ‘will cause colleagues incredible concern and anger’.
British Museum has recovered some of 2,000 stolen artefacts, says George Osborne
Some of the estimated 2,000 artefacts stolen from the British Museum have already been recovered, George Osborne has said.
The former chancellor, who is now chairman of the museum’s trustees, said ‘groupthink’ may have prevented the institution’s leadership from believing that treasures had been taken.
Director Hartwig Fischer has resigned and his deputy Jonathan Williams has stepped back in the wake of the scandal, which Osborne conceded had damaged the British Museum’s reputation. Osborne told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday: ‘We have started to recover some of the stolen items, which is a silver lining to a dark cloud.’
Protesters call for rethink on expansion of Ulez scheme
Demonstrators in south London have demanded a delay or stoppage of the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez).
Car horns hooted in response to the Beep For Freedom banners that were held by members of a cheering and whistling crowd gathered at the junction outside Tooting Broadway station on Saturday. Chants of ‘Get Khan Out’ also rang out among a crowd largely drawn from parts of London and the south who are now set to be affected when the new clean air zone is introduced.
From Tuesday, the Ulez scheme will be expanded to include the whole of the capital, making it the world’s largest pollution charging area.
Four astronauts from four countries blast off for International Space Station
Four astronauts from four different countries have blasted off for the International Space Station.
They should reach the orbiting lab in their SpaceX capsule on Sunday, replacing four astronauts who have been living up there since March.
A US Nasa astronaut was joined on the pre-dawn lift-off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida by colleagues from Denmark, Japan and Russia. It is the first US launch where every spacecraft seat was occupied by a different country – until now, Nasa had always included two or three of its own on its SpaceX taxi flights. A fluke in timing led to the assignments, officials said.
‘Incredibly excited’ Nessie hunters step up search of Loch Ness
The biggest search for the Loch Ness Monster in 50 years is under way as ‘incredibly excited’ hunters hope to get closer to finding out what the mythical creature is.
The newly revamped Loch Ness Centre has teamed up with Loch Ness Exploration (LNE), an independent and voluntary research team, to carry out the hunt, which takes place over Saturday and Sunday.
The centre has called on those with a fixation on finding the Scottish creature to get involved, with boats running from 10am to 6pm on both days and 17 different spotting locations around the loch, where volunteers can come down to keep an eye on proceedings.
Hyundai’s new i20 hits the road from £20,770
Hyundai’s refreshed i20 has arrived in the UK, bringing with it a sharper design and more standard equipment.
Priced from £20,770, the i20 now features a new shape and pattern for the front bumper and grille, while newly designed 16- and 17-inch alloy wheels are available too. All cars get LED headlights as standard, while around the back you’ll find Z-shaped LED rear lights. Three new exterior colours – Lucid Lime, Lumen Grey and Meta Blue – have been added to the i20’s range of shades.
All versions now get USB-C charging ports as standard, as well as over-the-air map updates to ensure that those models with satellite navigation are kept up-to-date without the need to visit a dealership. All versions get an eight-inch touchscreen display with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard, fitted alongside a 10.25-inch digital instrument setup.
Just a single engine is offered with the i20 – a 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol with 99bhp.
Weather
Eastern areas will begin the day with bright conditions, before patchy cloud and showers move in, reports BBC Weather. Other areas will see thickening cloud building in from the west, with spells of rain. Highs of 22 degrees.
Areas cloud and rain will push eastwards tonight and gradually dissipate as they do so. Behind this there will be clear spells.
For the August bank holiday, it’ll be a day of variable cloud, the odd shower and plenty of sunshine arriving. Temperatures will remain steady at 22 degrees.
