Boris Johnson will plead with the nation to make “one last heave” to freedom as he announces a delay of up to four weeks in lifting lockdown restrictions in England. A government source has told Sky News the prime minister will dash hopes that Freedom Day will come in two weeks’ time, on 21 June,
UK
A home video of a teenage Ed Sheeran singing in his school production of the musical Grease is going up for auction. The film, which is nearly two hours long, shows Sheeran as a 15-year-old playing the character Roger or ‘Rump’. Wearing a leather jacket and his hair slicked back, he gives the audience a
A teenager has been charged with murder after a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death outside a school in Luton. Humza Hussain, 16, was found with multiple knife wounds near Challney High School for Boys in Stoneygate Road at around 4pm on 8 June. He was taken to hospital but pronounced dead two hours later. A
A woman whose employment contract was not renewed after expressing views that sex cannot be changed and transgender women are “not women” has won an appeal against an employment tribunal. In 2018, Maya Forstater posted a number of tweets expressing her beliefs about sex and gender, including her opposition to proposed reform of the Gender
A 25-year-old woman has died after being struck by a police car responding to an emergency call. The fatal collision happened on Stockwell Road in Lambeth, south London, at around 11.20pm on Wednesday. The Metropolitan Police said the marked car was responding to a 999 call at the time of the incident. The pedestrian was
A healthcare assistant working on a COVID ward has been convicted of using a dead patient’s bank card to buy crisps, fizzy drinks and sweets from a hospital vending machine. Ayesha Basharat, 23, took the card from an 83-year-old woman who had recently passed away at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham. A doctor recorded her time
The number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment has topped five million – the highest number ever recorded. In total 5,122,017 million people were waiting to begin treatment at the end of April, 2021, NHS England figures show – the highest number since records began in August 2007. The figure has increased every month
Former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens has admitted to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard at the Old Bailey. Sarah, 33, vanished while walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, in March. Couzens, 48, appeared at the Old Bailey on Tuesday morning when he entered the guilty pleas. Appearing via video
A total of 16 candidates will stand in the Batley and Spen by-election next month, it has been confirmed. The full list of those nominated to contest the constituency has been published, in what is expected to be a straight two-way battle between Labour and the Conservatives. Tracy Brabin, who first won the seat for
Hospitalisations for COVID-19 remain “broadly flat” despite a rise in the Indian variant in parts of the UK, the health secretary has said. Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that the majority of people in hospital “appear to be those who haven’t had the vaccine at all”. He also said that only about 1%
The UK has reported another 5,683 coronavirus cases and one additional death within 28 days of a positive test. Yesterday, official figures showed there were 5,431 new cases of COVID-19 and four deaths. The number of cases recorded has risen by 2,300 in comparison to the same time last week, which saw 3,383 coronavirus cases
Boris Johnson has narrowly avoided a rebellion by some of his own Conservative Party MPs over cuts to the foreign aid budget. Thirty Tories, including former prime minister Theresa May and four other cabinet ministers, had backed a rebellion against the £4bn reduction and had hoped to force a vote on the matter. But Commons
People aged 25 to 29 in England will be able to book their coronavirus vaccination from tomorrow morning. Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the extension to the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme in a statement to MPs in the Commons. Will England’s ‘freedom day’ go ahead? Live updates on the COVID-19 pandemic A total of 40,333,231
A paedophile who exploited and blackmailed nearly 2,000 victims globally has admitted to 158 charges, in what has been described as “industrial-scale” offending. Abdul Elahi previously admitted a majority of the offences but pleaded guilty to the final allegations at Birmingham Crown Court last month. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Elahi admitted to what
Downing Street has urged football fans to be respectful of England players who choose to take the knee in a stand against racial injustice. Boris Johnson‘s official spokesperson called on football fans to “get behind” the team at the upcoming European Football Championships which kick off on Friday and to support “individuals’ rights to protest”.
A man who raped and killed two schoolgirls can be freed, the Parole Board has ruled. Colin Pitchfork, who was the first man convicted of murder on the basis of DNA evidence, was jailed in 1988 for life after strangling 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in Leicestershire in 1983 and 1986. A document detailing
A 34-year-old father who has spent nearly five months in hospital after he almost died with COVID has told of his “blind panic” after the virus left him “gasping for air” - and he is urging the government to be cautious over the lifting of all restrictions. Graham Horsfall has been a patient at Warrington Hospital since 16
Skygazers will be treated to a partial solar eclipse over the UK this week – as the moon passes between the earth and the sun. On Thursday morning, it will be possible too see nearly a third of the sun being blocked out by the moon in what is known as an annular eclipse. These
Six people, including a 13-year-old boy, have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 14-year-old was chased and stabbed to death in Birmingham. Police said a post-mortem examination confirmed the male victim died from a stab wound to the chest. A 33-year-old man was arrested from an address in Kingstanding, Birmingham, on Tuesday afternoon.