General news

• Government accused of misusing taxpayers’ money with Facebook adverts

  01-11-2019 23:34
  The Facebook adverts appear to target key swing constituencies.
  
  Read more

• Labour would make all new homes zero carbon by 2022

  01-11-2019 23:30
  Goldsmith Street in Norwich is made up of almost 100 ultra low-energy homes. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianLabour would introduce tough new standards forcing housebuilders to make new properties zero carbon within three years, Jeremy Corbyn is to announce.The last Labour government introduced regulations to make all homes zero carbon by 2016, but the rules were scrapped by David Cameron less than a year before they were due to come into force.Now, Labour says it would create a new &ld
  
  Read more

• What do we know about the Essex lorry victims so far?

  01-11-2019 23:12
  Police investigating the deaths of 39 people found in a container lorry in Essex now believe they are all Vietnamese nationals.
  
  Read more

• Boris Johnson sends good luck message to England rugby team

  01-11-2019 23:02
  Number 10 said the Prime Minister would watch the match against South Africa with friends.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 39 migrants found dead in back of lorry ‘all Vietnamese’

  01-11-2019 21:42
  Essex Police is in contact with the Vietnamese Government over its work to identify the victims.
  
  Read more

• Date set for Corbyn and Johnson to go head to head in election TV debate

  01-11-2019 21:09
  The date has been set for the first televised election debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.
  
  Read more

• Heavy rain could put dampener on fireworks displays

  01-11-2019 21:07
  The Met Office has issued a number of weather warnings for the south of England on Saturday.
  
  Read more

• Corbyn tells Sturgeon new independence vote ‘not necessary or desirable’

  01-11-2019 20:51
  The Labour leader has responded to claims from his SNP counterpart that he would agree to hold another referendum on Scotland leaving the UK.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Essex lorry deaths: police say all victims thought to be Vietnamese

  01-11-2019 20:43
  Some who died have now been identified, say Essex police, as a second man is charged with manslaughter. Police believe they have now identified some of the 39 migrants found dead in a refrigerated lorry container near London, with all victims thought to be from Vietnam. Essex police said on Friday that the identities could not be announced until confirmatory evidence is gathered from a number of different countries and formally presented to the HM senior coroner for consideration. Tim Smith, the
  
  Read more

• Asda gives workers more time to sign new contracts before facing dismissal

  01-11-2019 20:31
  Asda on Friday gave shop floor workers more time to sign new employment contracts or face dismissal in a bitter dispute over changes intended by the British supermarket group to boost productivity.As the Saturday deadline for signing approached, Asda said the workers would have a seven-day "cooling off period" to change their minds before losing their jobs.Chief Executive Roger Burnley wrote to staff, saying almost 120,000 employees had signed up to the more flexible contract and fewer than 1,00
  
  Read more

• File handed to prosecutors over Vote Leave, Scotland Yard says

  01-11-2019 20:20
  The campaign group was fined £61,000 in July last year.
  
  Read more

• Ancient treasures go on display in London Tutankhamun exhibition

  01-11-2019 20:12
  Treasures from the tomb of boy-king Tutankhamun will go on show in London from Saturday as part of what organisers say will be their last world tour before they return to Egypt for good.More than 150 items - from statues and sculptures to a silver trumpet and a funerary bed - will be exhibited in "Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh", at the capital's Saatchi Gallery."The reason we are here, we are celebrating almost 100 years since the time of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun,"
  
  Read more

• Boris Johnson faces threat of Brexit party battle in every seat

  01-11-2019 19:42
  PM rejects Nigel Farage’s offer of electoral pact, saying it could allow Jeremy Corbyn into No 10. Boris Johnson faces the threat of battling against the Brexit party for leave votes in every seat across Britain, after Nigel Farage gave the prime minister a two-week deadline to drop his Brexit deal. After a rocky 48 hours, which saw Johnson booed during a hospital visit and urged by Donald Trump to join forces with Farage, the Brexit party leader urged him to strike a “leave alliance
  
  Read more

• Are the Brexit party's election targets realistic?

  01-11-2019 19:35
  Nigel Farage says the party can make significant inroads in Tory and Labour heartlands. The Brexit party has launched its general election campaign, threatening to take votes in both Tory and Labour heartlands. However, due to a heavily divided electorate, experts explain why their claims are far from straightforward. Can Nigel Farage’s Brexit party really dent the Conservative vote? Yes, it can. Experts say that in recent years the Conservative vote has been directly impacted by Farage, w
  
  Read more

• Johnson and Corbyn agree to head-to-head election debate on ITV

  01-11-2019 19:30
  Labour and Conservative party leaders to face off on 19 November. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have confirmed that they will take part in the first head-to-head debate of the election campaign on 19 November. The Labour and Conservative party leaders will face each other in the debate on ITV, chaired by presenter Julie Etchingham. Corbyn had challenged Johnson to a debate earlier in the week and on Friday said it was “welcome” that the offer had been accepted. “The choice co
  
  Read more

• Johnson rejects Trump’s advice to form General Election pact with Farage

  01-11-2019 19:24
  The US president has said the Prime Minister and Brexit Party leader together would make an 'unstoppable force'.
  
  Read more

• Police investigating threats against UUP staff

  01-11-2019 19:22
  The DUP has also condemned the alleged intimidation.
  
  Read more

• Harry Dunn death: police submit file to CPS after interviewing Anne Sacoolas

  01-11-2019 19:16
  Teenager’s family ‘pleased CPS can now make a charging decision’ over crash in August. Northamptonshire police have submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service on the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn in a crash in August following an interview with Anne Sacoolas, the American suspect in the case. Sacoolas fled the UK soon after the accident claiming diplomatic immunity on the basis that her husband worked as an intelligence officer based at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshir
  
  Read more

• Johnson, asked about Trump doubts on Brexit deal, says 'UK has full control'

  01-11-2019 19:04
  Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his Brexit deal would give Britain "full control" after it leaves the European Union, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said it might hinder a future trade agreement between the United States and Britain."On the technicalities of the deal, anybody who looks at it can see that the UK has full control," Johnson told BBC television on Friday when asked about Trump's comments.The United States has previously warned Britain that keeping close ties with the EU a
  
  Read more

• Staff bid to hit Roland Rudd 'in the wallet' in People's Vote dispute

  01-11-2019 18:55
  Roland Rudd recently fired People’s Vote chief executive, James McGrory, and director of communications, Tom Baldwin. Photograph: Aled Llywelyn/Athena Pictures/Rex/ShutterstockPeople’s Vote staff are writing to clients of the public relations company run by its chairman, Roland Rudd, to ask if they are comfortable with his involvement in an extraordinary row that has brought the campaign group to a grinding halt.The angry staff members, who are refusing to work under a new chief exec
  
  Read more

• Sajid Javid condemns Rod Liddle article over Muslim comments

  01-11-2019 18:55
  Rod Liddle claimed his article was an attempt to satirise the debate over the timing of an election. Photograph: Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty ImagesSajid Javid has denounced an article by the controversial journalist Rod Liddle that appeared to call for elections to be held on days when Muslims are forbidden by their religion to vote.The column in the Spectator magazine has also been condemned for ridiculing a Labour MP’s decision to speak out about her experience of domestic abuse.Fra
  
  Read more

• NHS drugs bill could soar if Johnson signs Trump trade deal – report

  01-11-2019 18:53
  NHS bosses fear hospitals and patients will pay billions more for drugs in post-Brexit US-UK deal. NHS bosses fear hospitals and patients will have to pay billions more for drugs as the price of Boris Johnson striking a post-Brexit trade deal with Donald Trump. A report by the NHS Confederation, which represents most hospital trusts in England, warns the NHS could be landed with a much larger bill for medication and denied the chance to use cheaper alternatives to expensive branded drugs. The vo
  
  Read more

• Rubble of postwar Leeds made the perfect playground

  01-11-2019 18:52
  We were like mountain goats running over tipper-truck mounds of cobblestones, dumped as streets were cleared, writes Janet Lail. Your article ( Who needs swings and roundabouts?, G2, 31 October) took me back to my 1950s childhood in inner-city Leeds. We hardly saw a blade of grass, but had a wonderful time scrambling among the general dereliction of postwar slum-clearance and building sites. We were like mountain goats running over tipper-truck mounds of cobblestones, dumped as streets were clea
  
  Read more

• Great council housing of the past and the future

  01-11-2019 18:52
  Readers respond to a piece about local authorities that are finding ways to build housing despite government cuts. In a time of pressing need for more social housing, it was heartening to read Oliver Wainwright’s article ( Home truths: The councils building a housing revolution against all the odds, 29 October). But while many local authorities are to be congratulated on how they are managing to deliver such well-designed and well-considered social housing developments, despite difficult f
  
  Read more

• Indecent behaviour in a civilised society

  01-11-2019 18:51
  Boris Johnson. ‘His behaviour, along with that of much of the Tory party, is deeply offensive,’ says Austen Lynch. Photograph: ReutersEmma Brockes (Opinion, 31 October) considers Boris Johnson’s behaviour “indecent in a way that calls for indecency in response”. This will not do. His behaviour, along with that of much of the Tory party, is indeed deeply offensive – beyond the point of indecency. Yet indecency is not a decent response to indecency. And Labour,
  
  Read more

• Disappearing cats and deadly ditches

  01-11-2019 18:51
  Wolf and Linda Gruellich wonder if Larry the cat has suffered Boris’s ‘dead in a ditch’ fate. Photograph: AFP/GettyCitizenship is thriving in schools across the land (Letters, 28 October). The headteacher in our local primary school uses one assembly a week to discuss British values as part of the citizenship curriculum – a Cameron government initiative. And the National Citizen Service – another Cameron initiative – is hugely popular, with increasing numbers
  
  Read more

• Assisted dying laws and protection for all

  01-11-2019 18:51
  A Dignitas clinic in Zurich, Switzerland. Photograph: David Levene/The GuardianCampaigners for assisted suicide – or assisted dying as they euphemistically refer to it – argue that “the only way to ensure the law is fit for purpose is to hear from those it affects most” (Letters, 31 October). The law as it stands does not only affect those relatives who have made the difficult decision to assist relatives with their journey to Dignitas but also those people in the UK who
  
  Read more

• Revealed: 47 pregnant women in prisons in England and Wales

  01-11-2019 18:44
  There had been ‘fewer than five’ cases of women having given birth in cells in 2018, said Richard Keen. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis via Getty ImagesThere are 47 pregnant women currently in prison across England and Wales, the government has revealed.The figures, thought to be the first official audit of pregnant prisoners, have been released following the death of a newborn baby whose mother gave birth alone at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, Britain’s largest female prison.
  
  Read more

• Date set for Corbyn and Johnson to go head to head in TV debate

  01-11-2019 18:42
  The date has been set for the first televised election debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.
  
  Read more

• Jo Swinson seen as the future by voters, Scottish Liberal Democrats claim

  01-11-2019 18:35
  Christine Jardine MP said people in pubs and on the streets are talking about the Lib Dem leader as someone who is 'going places'.
  
  Read more

• Johnson's first 100 days: broken promises and an unlawful prorogation

  01-11-2019 18:34
  Judged by votes, the PM is losing 8-15 after a century of days – and he hasn’t done much better elsewhere. Thursday was Boris Johnson’s 100th day in office – and when he took charge, he would have hoped that on Friday he would be spending the day celebrating Britain’s departure from the EU. Instead, it has been a rollercoaster ride of broken promises, false dawns and embarrassing defeats – and an election is looming. 24 July Johnson officially succeeds Theresa
  
  Read more

• Johnson's first 100 days: broken promises and an unlawful prorogation

  01-11-2019 18:34
  Boris Johnson appears on the Andrew Marr show at Media City in Salford. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PAThursday was Boris Johnson’s 100th day in office – and when he took charge, he would have hoped that on Friday he would be spending the day celebrating Britain’s departure from the EU. Instead, it has been a rollercoaster ride of broken promises, false dawns and embarrassing defeats – and an election is looming.Queen Elizabeth II welcomes newly elected leader of the Conse
  
  Read more

• Hidden cameras found in primary school’s toilets had been there for five years

  01-11-2019 18:31
  The Met police said a man in his 60s was interviewed in connection with the incident.
  
  Read more

• Brexit party's delusion makes even Boris Johnson's look normal

  01-11-2019 18:29
  The Great Nige only feels alive when there are cameras present. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PAIt wasn’t exactly the Oval Office. Or even the LBC studio. But the shadow of Donald Trump hung heavy over the half-full church hall in central London where the Brexit party had gathered to launch its general election campaign. Though the setting was low-key, the madness was off the scale, with levels of narcissism and delusion that made Boris Johnson look almost normal. It was in equal parts both
  
  Read more

• GCHQ director hails ‘brilliant minds’ keeping spy agency ahead of curve

  01-11-2019 18:15
  Jeremy Fleming spoke out as the organisation marks its centenary with a series of events, including an exhibition at the Science Museum in London.
  
  Read more

• Vehicle Abandoned On Vauxhall Bridge Deemed 'Non-Suspicious' By Police

  01-11-2019 18:13
  A vehicle abandoned on Vauxhall Bridge with its hazard lights on has beendeemed "non-suspicious" by police
  
  Read more

• Area Outside MI6 HQ On Lockdown Due To Abandoned Vehicle In Vauxhall

  01-11-2019 18:13
  Police have cordoned off streets around the headquarters of MI6 in Vauxhalldue to an abandoned vehicle
  
  Read more

• Toddler Dies After Falling From Building In Tottenham, North London

  01-11-2019 18:11
  A toddler has died after falling from a building in north London
  
  Read more

• Conor McGregor fined after admitting to punching pub-goer

  01-11-2019 17:47
  The UFC fighter pledged not to repeat his crime, and said he had paid compensation to his victim.
  
  Read more

• BBC justified in paying Jeremy Vine more than Samira Ahmed, executive says

  01-11-2019 17:34
  Ahmed is seeking nearly £700,000 in back pay and said that she and Vine did similar work.
  
  Read more

• Trump-Russia dossier author gave evidence to UK intrusion inquiry

  01-11-2019 17:28
  Christopher Steele’s investigation into Donald Trump’s links with Moscow sparked a political scandal. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PAA report on Russian interference in British politics allegedly being sat on by Downing Street includes evidence from Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk whose investigation into Donald Trump’s links with Moscow sparked a US political scandal.Steele made submissions in writing to parliament’s intelligence and security
  
  Read more

• Queen sends ‘very best’ to England team ahead of Rugby World Cup final

  01-11-2019 17:22
  Harry will present the message to the players and head coach Eddie Jones ahead of the game in Japan.
  
  Read more

• Bus driver killed in crash ‘spoke to daughter before’

  01-11-2019 17:12
  Kenneth Matcham, 60, died after a car and two single-decker buses collided in Orpington, south-east London, on Thursday night.
  
  Read more

• Charles surprised with gift of takeaway pizza in Scottish village

  01-11-2019 17:09
  Chef Erminio Di Meo wanted to give the royal visitor the traditional Italian dish to honour his time in St Boswells.
  
  Read more

• Thomas Cook brand name bought for £11m

  01-11-2019 16:55
  Fosun has snapped up the name and website to sell package holidays to Chinese tourists.
  
  Read more

• Huawei made to wait on 5G decision until after General Election

  01-11-2019 16:47
  Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan has confirmed the final ruling will come from the next Government.
  
  Read more

• Nigel Farage has handed Hartlepool to Labour, says Tory chair

  01-11-2019 16:37
  Hartlepool voted 69.3% for leave in the referendum – the highest in the region. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesNigel Farage has “effectively handed” seats such as Hartlepool to Labour with his pledge to contest every seat and potentially split the leave vote in December’s election, the chairman of the town’s Conservative party has said.Ray Martin-Wells said the two pro-Brexit parties would “take each other out” and relinquish a once in a generation
  
  Read more

• England v South Africa: Rugby-mad newlyweds on rival sides for World Cup final

  01-11-2019 16:35
  Rosie, from Birmingham, and Ken, from Johannesberg will be temporary enemies on Saturday morning.
  
  Read more

• Scottish government urged to declare drug addiction emergency

  01-11-2019 16:25
  ‘Substitution is not the same as treatment’ says charity as death toll rises across country. Scotland is a place where “the rich get rehab and the poor get methadone”, according to recovering drug addicts who are calling for a radical re-balancing of treatment services across the country. Favor (Faces and Voices of Recovery) UK set up their “You Keep Talking, We Keep Dying” campaign in response to what they consider chronic inaction from politicians and servic
  
  Read more

• Conor McGregor fined for Dublin pub assault

  01-11-2019 16:07
  The fighter has apologised to the victim and paid him compensation
  
  Read more

Follow @GeneralnewsUK on Twitter!