6:43 am, March 5, 2024
Sadiq Khan to pledge Met Police reforms to restore trust
Sadiq Khan will pledge to drive through cultural reforms in the Metropolitan Police to restore trust in the force after a damning report about missed chances to stop Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens.
The inquiry, led by Lady Elish Angiolini, branded Couzens a ‘predatory sex offender and murderer’ who should have never been a police officer, and laid bare a history of alleged sexual offending dating back nearly 20 years before he murdered the 33-year-old marketing executive.
After the third anniversary of Everard’s death, the mayor of London will open the latest London Policing Board on Tuesday by expressing his ‘deepest sympathies’ to her loved ones, and labelling Lady Elish’s report ‘one of the most shattering accounts of failure in British policing history’.
Rishi Sunak suffers heaviest defeats yet as peers square up over Rwanda Bill
The Archbishop of Canterbury and Tory former Cabinet ministers have helped inflict the heaviest defeats Rishi Sunak has suffered in the Lords over his proposed Rwanda asylum law.
The string of government setbacks, most passed by unusually large margins of more than 100 votes, set the stage for a Westminster showdown over the legislation that aims to clear the way to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to Kigali.
The prime minister has previously warned the unelected chamber against frustrating ‘the will of the people’ by hampering the passage of his Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which has already been approved by MPs.
Jeremy Hunt warned of £2bn real-term cuts to NHS funding
Jeremy Hunt is facing warnings of real-term cuts to NHS funding worth £bn in the coming financial year as he puts the finishing touches to this week’s Budget.
The already-strained health service could suffer a 1.2% cut in day-to-day spending in England – the largest reduction since the 1970s – according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), despite ministers’ promises not to squeeze healthcare.
Critics urged the chancellor to cancel the ‘scandalous’ spending cuts amid calls for public service funding to be prioritised over tax reductions in his financial statement on Wednesday. The IFS said the health budget would be 2.4% lower in 2024–25 without further funding of around £2.1bn.
Jeremy Corbyn to take legal action against Nigel Farage
Jeremy Corbyn has said he is taking the ‘first steps’ in legal action against Nigel Farage over a ‘highly defamatory statement’.
The former Labour leader, who now sits as an Independent, said he could not let ‘disgusting and malicious lies go unchallenged’.
A statement from Corbyn’s team alleged Farage had ‘accused Jeremy Corbyn of subscribing to an antisemitic conspiracy theory’.
Food labels should include environmental impact information, Tory MP says
Food labels should include information about the product’s environmental impact, so the public can make informed choices, a Conservative MP has said.
Steve Double said displaying food miles to show how far a product has travelled could encourage more people to consume locally sourced food.
The MP for St Austell and Newquay, a former minister, said he has heard ‘complete nonsense’ such as eating an avocado is better for the environment than buying a steak from a local farm.
Donald Trump wins North Dakota Republican caucuses as Super Tuesday approaches
Donald Trump won the North Dakota Republican presidential caucuses on Monday, adding to his string of victories heading into Super Tuesday.
The former president finished first in voting conducted at 12 caucus sites, ahead of former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
The results resume Trump’s winning streak, which was briefly interrupted on Sunday when Haley notched her first victory of the campaign in the District of Columbia’s primary. The White House hopefuls now turn their attention to Super Tuesday, when results will pour in from 16 states in contests that amount to the single biggest delegate haul of any day in the presidential primary.
Retailers suffer in wettest February on record
The wettest February on record led to a miserable month for retailers, with toy sales the only bright spot as parents tried to occupy children inside, figures show.
Total UK retail sales were up by just 1.1% year on year in February, against growth of 5.2% last February, according to the BRC (British Retail Consortium)-KPMG Retail sales monitor.
Food sales were up 6% year on year over the quarter, but even this was below the last February’s growth of 8.3%. Meanwhile, non-food sales were down 2.5% year-on-year over the three months, against growth of 3.2% last February – steeper than the 12-month average decline of 0.9%.
Monday Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- FCA now asks every Gap Insurance provider to pull product from market
- Used car prices back to normal levels, with second-hand cars more tempting than new – Vertu
- Pensioner denies causing nearly £50,000 of damage to luxury cars after dispute with garage owner
- Average retail used EV prices fall by 15% to new post-Covid low – Motors
- Cambridge Garage Havant is named top Volvo dealership in UK for 2023
- Slash VAT on public EV charging in Budget, car industry and energy firms tell chancellor
EU regulators slap £1.5bn fine on Apple after years-long spat with Spotify
Tech giant Apple has been fined 1.8bn euros (£1.5bn) by regulators in Europe for not allowing music streaming apps like Spotify to tell customers they can subscribe for cheaper if they do not use Apple’s App Store.
The European Commission said that Apple had abused its dominant position in the market for distributing music streaming apps, and had broken EU antitrust rules in the process. Apple said it would appeal the decision.
Swedish music giant Spotify filed a complaint to the EU in 2019 which claimed that Apple limits choice and competition by charging a 30% fee on purchases made through the App Store.
Ofcom says Laurence Fox’s comments about Ava Evans broke broadcasting rules
Laurence Fox’s ‘misogynistic’ comments about female journalist Ava Evans on GB News’ Dan Wootton Tonight broke broadcasting rules, media watchdog Ofcom has said.
The remarks about political correspondent Evans made by the actor turned politician during an episode of the programme on September 26 last year, in which he asked ‘Who would want to shag that?’, received 8,867 complaints.
Fox and presenter Wootton were suspended by GB News after the broadcast and Fox was later sacked from the channel. Neither apologised while on air, but did subsequently offer apologies.
Ferrari stolen from F1 driver 28 years ago recovered by police
A Ferrari stolen from former Formula One driver Gerhard Berger 28 years ago has been recovered by the Metropolitan Police.
The red Ferrari F512M was one of two of the Italian sports cars taken while their drivers were at the San Marino Grand Prix held at Imola in Italy in April 1995.
The Met said officers received a report from the car maker in January this year after the firm had carried out checks on a car being bought by a US buyer through a UK broker last year. The Organised Vehicle Crime Unit discovered the car had been shipped to Japan shortly after being stolen until it was brought to the UK in late 2023, and they swooped to take possession and prevent it from being exported
Weather
A mixed picture today, reports BBC Weather, with patchy rain clearing in eastern areas and a day of sunny spells is in store. Meanwhile showers will linger in the south-east and the north-east will see blustery showers. Milder with temperatures between 10 and 12 degrees.
Tonight, eastern areas will be damp while most areas will be dry and clear. Western England and Wales will have a frost.
