6:36 am, December 10, 2023
Blow for Sunak’s Rwanda legislation from legal assessment for Tory right
Rishi Sunak has been dealt the fresh blow of a legal assessment for the Tory right concluding his Rwanda legislation is not fit for purpose, as the prime minister urged Labour not to oppose his plans.
Sir Bill Cash, who has chaired a legal examination being waited on by many in the party, has signalled that the Bill is not ‘sufficiently watertight’ despite Sunak hoping it will revive his flagship asylum plan.
Battling to keep his own Tory MPs on side, the PM urged Sir Keir Starmer to ‘rise above political games’ and ‘act in the national interest’ by supporting the emergency Bill. But Conservatives from both the right and the left of the party are considering whether to oppose it in a crunch vote on Tuesday, with neither camp totally satisfied by the offering.
Murder probe launched after newborn baby’s body found outside Ipswich premises
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of a baby was found outside a premises in Ipswich.
Police were called at 12.35pm on Saturday after reports that a newborn baby had been found on Norwich Road. Paramedics were also in attendance, but the baby was declared dead at the scene.
The death is being treated as unexplained and is under investigation, Suffolk Police said.
Relentless London protests creating Met Police funding gap, Sadiq Khan warns
The Mayor of London has outlined major concerns that a sustained cycle of protests and vigils held in the capital is creating a funding gap for the Metropolitan Police.
In a letter to home secretary James Cleverly, Sadiq Khan said the funding gap could now be as high as £240m, and appealed for more support.
Khan said London faces ‘unique pressures as a capital city’ because of the number of protests, sporting events, cultural festivals and ceremonial events it hosts. ‘These additional costs result in reduced resource available for frontline and neighbourhood teams… London’s communities directly suffer,’ the mayor said.
Lockdowns had ‘catastrophic effect’ on nation’s social fabric – report
Covid lockdowns had a ‘catastrophic effect’ on the nation’s social fabric and the most disadvantaged are no better off now than at the time of the financial crash, a new report says.
The UK is in danger of sliding back into the Two Nations of the Victorian era marked by a widening gap between mainstream society and a depressed and poverty-stricken underclass, according to an inquiry by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
The CSJ’s Social Justice Commission’s report, Two Nations: The State Of Poverty In The UK, argues that the most disadvantaged in Britain are no better off than 15 years ago, the time of the financial crash, and cites evidence that for them the jump from welfare into work is not worth it.
Yousaf says UK ‘complicit in killing children’ in Gaza
First minister Humza Yousaf said the UK was ‘complicit the killing of thousands of children’ after the UK voted against a ceasefire in Gaza, as activists protested in Glasgow.
Yousaf, who has Palestinian in-laws, said it was ‘incomprehensible’ that the UK abstained from a vote at the UN Security Council.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, he said: ‘I agree with @savechildrenuk. I find it incomprehensible that the UK did not vote for a ceasefire. How can you choose to be complicit in the killing of thousands of children? Shame on the UK Government & Keir Starmer’s Labour Party who refuse to back a #CeasefireNow’.
Passengers face hours of delays after Gatwick Airport system outage
Travellers faced hours of delays at Gatwick Airport on Saturday after a system outage grounded flights.
Passengers flying to and from the West Sussex airport reported planes being stuck on the tarmac after the problems hit at around 8am. The airport said the air traffic control outage had since been fixed, but apologised for ongoing delays.
Dozens of departures and arrivals appeared to be affected, with football fans travelling to Premier League matches among those experiencing issues.
This £3m Bugatti Chiron Super Sport was bought as a 70th birthday present
Bugatti has shown off its latest bespoke hypercar, which was a husband’s gift to his wife for her 70th birthday.
The Chiron Super Sport, costing more than £3m and produced in limited numbers, is already a rare car on its own. But one customer had a dream to create a bespoke version based on a highly rare and valuable Bugatti – a one-of-four Type 57 SC Atlantic – she had seen 20 years earlier at the Mullin Automotive Museum in California.
The unnamed customer – based in the US – invited his wife for her 70th birthday to visit Bugatti’s headquarters in Molsheim, France, where she would remember the first time she’d seen the classic car and sit down with Jascha Straub, lead designer at Bugatti’s special Sur Mesure division. Painted in the same silver-blue colour as the classic 1930s Bugatti, the modern-day Chiron also features a unique ‘horseshoe’ grille that harks back to the original.
Weather
A similar picture to yesterday with heavy rain and wind blowing into the west at dawn and spreading quickly eastwards across the country, reports BBC Weather. Sunny spells will develop in the south once the rain has cleared, although it’ll still be windy. Temperatures around 13 degrees, although it;ll be cooler in Scotland at around eight degrees.
Winds will continue across Wales tonight with rain extending across central England and the north-east. Clear in the south.
