UK News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

George Galloway vows his party will take Angela Rayner's seat

1 hour ago

George Galloway has said he wants to oust Labour's deputy leader from Parliament, as he began work as an MP.

The Workers Party of Britain leader said his party could overturn Angela Rayner's majority in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency at the next election.

He was sworn in as an MP, following his by-election win last week.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, he listed more areas with large Muslim populations and vowed to "win or make sure that Keir Starmer doesn't win".

He named the Labour deputy leader's seat as a target, saying: "There's at least 15,000 supporters of my point of view in her constituency."

Mr Galloway was expelled from the Labour party in 2003 over his views on the Iraq war and said his Rochdale win was "for Gaza".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68467359

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/co ... r-BB1jiHrZ

Conservative support falls to lowest level on record, poll finds

[Time_Traveller]

Tesco latest supermarket to increase staff pay

1 hour ago

Tesco has become the latest supermarket to increase pay as retailers face up to the rising minimum wage and try to retain staff.

The hourly pay rate for store workers will rise from £11.02 to £12.02 in April, while pay for workers in London will rise to £13.15 an hour.

More than 200,000 staff will benefit from the increase, Tesco said.

All staff will get the voluntary Real Living Wage, which is higher than the compulsory National Living Wage.

The National Living Wage, often referred to as the minimum wage, is set to rise to £11.44 an hour in April 2024 - and for the first time will include 21 and 22-year-olds.

As a result, many of the major supermarkets have been announcing pay deals over the past few weeks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68477307

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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/five ... -m9j27z6b3

https://archive.is/R2KHj

Five SAS soldiers arrested over alleged Syria war crimes

[Time_Traveller]

Afghanistan: Judge hunted by Taliban wins court case against UK government

3 hours ago

An Afghan judge who has been forced to go into hiding from the Taliban was wrongly refused relocation to the UK, the High Court has ruled.

The anonymous claimant prosecuted Taliban and Islamic State group members, and has since avoided an assassination attempt, the court heard.

The UK government argued he had not worked closely enough with the UK in Afghanistan to qualify for relocation.

UK government spokesperson says officials are "considering" the ruling.

The Afghan judge is currently in hiding in an unspecified third country with his wife and children, two of whom are in poor health, it emerged in court.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68476681

[Time_Traveller]

Nationwide strikes deal to buy Virgin Money for £2.9bn.

6 minutes ago

Nationwide Building Society has reached an agreement to buy Virgin Money in a £2.9bn deal which would see the brand eventually disappear.

The deal would create one of the UK's largest mortgage and savings groups.

Nationwide said it would not make any material changes to Virgin Money's 7,300 employees "in the near term".

It said that it would keep using the Virgin Money brand initially but it would be phased out over six years once the proposed takeover is completed.

If the deal goes ahead it would be the biggest UK bank takeover since the 2008 financial crisis. It led to the nationalisation of Northern Rock bank, which was then bought by Virgin Money in 2012.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68499145

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UK to have first parliament in modern history with fall in living standards, says thinktank

Thu 7 Mar 2024 09.32 GMT

Household incomes are on course to fall for the first time over the course of a parliament despite Jeremy Hunt’s national insurance cuts, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has said in its assessment of the chancellor’s budget.

Amid almost two decades of falling real wages, the foundation said that after adjusting for inflation, household disposable incomes were poised to fall by 0.9% between 2019 and the end of 2024 – “the first parliament in modern history to see a fall in living standards”.

The foundation said Hunt’s likely last budget before the general election, delivered on Wednesday, showed that this has been “a parliament of flatlining growth, falling living standards, and notable redistribution from the old and the rich to the young and the poor”.

Analysis overnight by the foundation showed that a long period when tax policy was skewed to supporting older generations had come to an end, with Hunt targeting households headed by someone aged between 18 and 45 with the biggest gains.

The report said this group would benefit on average by £590, compared with an average loss of £770 for those aged 66 and over.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... -thinktank

[Time_Traveller]

Independent inquiry into 2005 murder of Emma Caldwell announced

Thu 7 Mar 2024 16.47 GMT



An independent judge-led public inquiry will be held into how police handled the investigation into Emma Caldwell’s murder, the Scottish government has announced. The announcement came as Scotland’s most senior law officer said she believes there was sufficient evidence in 2008 to prosecute Caldwell’s killer, who was convicted only last week.

Caldwell’s mother, Margaret, has campaigned tirelessly for nearly two decades to bring her daughter’s murderer to justice. She listened from the public gallery as Scotland’s justice secretary, Angela Constance, told MSPs on Thursday afternoon: “There can be no doubt of the serious failings that brought a grieving family to fight for justice.”

The inquiry is expected to examine the sustained police failings that emerged during the trial of killer and serial rapist Iain Packer. Packer was jailed last week for 36 years for the 2005 murder of Caldwell, as well as multiple other cases of sexual violence against 22 other women.

Caldwell was living in a hostel in Glasgow when she disappeared in April 2005, aged 27. Her mother told the trial that her daughter had started taking heroin to numb her grief after the death of her sister and was funding her drug habit through sex work. Caldwell’s naked body was found five weeks after she went missing, in Limefield Woods near Biggar, South Lanarkshire.

An emotional Constance told the Holyrood chamber: “Given … the gravity of this case, the length of time that it took for justice to be served for so many women and the horrific extent of the sexual violence suffered by the victims and survivors, the case for holding a public inquiry is overwhelming”.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... -announced

[Time_Traveller]

Tesco pay rise delay leaves many workers earning under minimum wage

Thu 7 Mar 2024 16.51 GMT

A month-long delay to a promised pay rise at Tesco has been condemned by some staff because it leaves them on less than the minimum wage, while saving the supermarket more than £17m.

Tesco, one of the UK’s biggest employers with more than 330,000 staff, has pledged to increase the minimum pay for its shop workers from £11.02 an hour to £12.02 next month, but the rise will not be implemented until 28 April, almost a month after the legal minimum wage for those aged 21 and over increases to £11.44 on 1 April.

One member of staff told the Guardian: “We are all extremely angry at this especially as this was approved by our union.”

The delay is allowed under HMRC rules, which say minimum pay rates can be applied from the start of the “pay reference period” starting on or after 1 April – which for Tesco begins on 28 April.

Based on the 220,000 workers affected by the pay rise missing out on £1 an hour compared with the promised new rate, Tesco saves more than £17m by introducing the pay rise at the end of April. It saves 42p an hour compared with if it paid the new legal minimum wage for those 21 and over, equivalent to more than £7m over the period in question.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... nimum-wage

[Time_Traveller]

Theresa May: Conservative ex-PM to stand down at next election

43 minutes ago

Former Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will stand down as an MP at the next general election.

She said it had been a "difficult decision" to vacate the Maidenhead seat in Berkshire after 27 years.

Mrs May, Conservative prime minister from 2016 to 2019, said causes such as tackling modern slavery were taking an "increasing amount" of her time.

She is one of 64 MPs elected as Conservatives who are quitting at the next Westminster election.

They include former ministers Matt Hancock, Dominic Raab, Chris Grayling, Ben Wallace, Sajid Javid and Kwasi Kwarteng.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68509239