6:24 am, June 11, 2023
Sunak urged to call snap election
Rishi Sunak has been urged to call a snap general election after three quick-fire MP resignations left the prime minister facing by-election battles on multiple fronts.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Sunak ‘must finally find a backbone’ and send the country to the polls after the PM found himself three MPs down in the space of 24 hours.
Nigel Adams yesterday became the latest to announce he would be quitting with ‘immediate effect’. The former minister without portfolio is a close ally of ex-PM Boris Johnson, who resigned on Friday. Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries also departed from the green benches on the same day.
DVLA workers launch two weeks of strike action
Workers at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency were launching a fortnight of strike action today in the long-running civil service dispute over pay, pensions, jobs and conditions.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union, who print material for the DVLA and other government departments, were taking fresh action at Ty Felin and Morriston in Swansea.
The union said the walkout was likely to lead to backlogs for driving licences and tachographs. The workers also went on strike in February.
‘Unabomber’ dies in prison
Theodore ‘Ted’ Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who ran a 17-year bombing campaign between 1978 and 1995 that killed three people and injured 23 others, has died aged 81.
Branded the ‘Unabomber’ by the FBI, Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical centre in Butner, North Carolina, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Kristie Breshears told The Associated Press.
He was found unresponsive in his cell early yesterday and pronounced dead about 8am (3am BST), she said. The cause of his death wasn’t immediately known.
Crispin Odey leaving hedge fund after misconduct allegations
Crispin Odey is to leave Odey Asset Management following a series of allegations of misconduct.
In a statement issued yesterday, the executive committee of OAM said Odey, who founded the hedge fund, will ‘no longer have any economic or personal involvement in the partnership’.
It follows a report in the Financial Times, together with Tortoise Media, which included several allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct from women who either worked at the firm or had social or professional dealings with Odey.
Manchester rain to ‘taste like champagne’ as City celebrate Champions League win
Champagne rather than rain will be falling from the skies of Manchester after Manchester City’s Champions League victory, according to celebrity fan Noel Gallagher.
The former Oasis guitarist watched the 1-0 win over Inter Milan with fellow fans in a bar in San Diego, where he was on tour – his brother Liam having previously tweeted that the volatile band would reform if City completed the third leg of their trophy treble.
‘Tonight, the Manchester rain will taste like champagne,’ he told BT Sport, predicting that this was far from the end of the club’s silverware collection.
Illegal Migration Bill breaches UK human rights obligations, MPs and peers warn
The Illegal Migration Bill breaches a ‘number of the UK’s human rights obligations’, MPs and peers have warned ministers.
Most asylum seekers arriving in the UK after the flagship legislation has been passed would have their claim ‘declared inadmissible’, according to a report published by Parliament’s joint committee on human rights.
Chairwoman Joanna Cherry, the SNP MP for Edinburgh South West, said children were ‘affected by every aspect’ of what Rishi Sunak has dubbed the Stop The Boats Bill and vulnerable groups, including victims of trafficking and modern slavery, would be disproportionately affected.
Devolution ‘becoming unworkable’, warns Yousaf in attack on ‘interfering’ Tories
Scotland’s First Minister has warned that devolution is ‘becoming unworkable’, as he blasted the actions of an ‘interfering’ Conservative government at Westminster.
Humza Yousaf said recent events had highlighted the ‘grim reality’ that ‘even the limited measure of self-government that devolution provides is no longer guaranteed’.
He hit out at the Tories for what he branded a series of ‘unprecedented assaults’ on the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
Home Office no longer considering asylum seeker barge site near Liverpool
The Home Office is understood to have rowed back on plans to base an asylum seeker accommodation barge near Liverpool after the port operator said such a proposal couldn’t be supported locally.
Peel Ports Group, operator of The Port of Liverpool, said it could ‘not see any conceivable scenario’ in which public services would be ‘able to provide the necessary support’ for refugee accommodation in the Birkenhead area.
The PA news agency understands the Home Office is no longer considering using the site as a potential location, following the response by Peel Ports and other agencies.
DS demonstrates ‘interior manifesto’ with screen-free cabins
DS has shown what the future of its car cabins could look like with a new ‘interior manifesto’.
The manifesto looks to ‘rethink the requirements of interiors’, allowing them to be more ‘immersive and comfortable’, said the manufacturer.
One of the biggest changes would be the removal of screens from the car’s interior, replacing them with projectors that would relay key information on to an ‘opaque’ material.
Yesterday’s headlines on Car Dealer you might have missed
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Weather outlook
Today will see sunny spells and scattered heavy showers, which will be thundery locally, especially in the afternoon in the west and south, says BBC Weather. It’ll stay drier in the far east and north-east of England, though.
Monday will be another very warm day in the south-east with sunny spells plus heavy and thundery showers. These are most likely to occur in the south and west during the afternoon.
