Author: James Carter

Motorists are being warned that petrol and diesel prices are on the way back up, just weeks after drivers enjoyed the biggest monthly fall in diesel costs on record. Fresh US strikes over the weekend, launched in response to an Iranian attack on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, look set to reverse the recent price relief at UK forecourts. Fuel prices had fallen sharply through June, with drivers benefiting from lower oil prices as ceasefire talks in the Middle East raised hopes of easing tensions. Diesel alone dropped by 17p a litre last month, the largest single-month…

Nigel Farage has resigned as MP for Clacton and triggered a by-election he intends to contest himself, but Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have all refused to field candidates, leaving the Reform UK leader facing a field dominated by fringe contenders including satirical candidate Count Binface. Nigel Farage formally stood down as MP for Clacton on Wednesday, resigning through the traditional mechanism of accepting the Crown office of Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, and is now expected to seek re-election in an August by-election. Reform UK has confirmed it will not field an alternative…

Kilchoan Estate, a 13,000-acre Highland property owned by German industrialist Christoph Henkel and his wife Katrin, has opened to guests as Dunton’s first European destination, offering fossil fuel-free luxury accommodation accessible only by boat or on foot in one of Scotland’s most remote wilderness areas. A remote Highland estate on the Knoydart Peninsula has opened its doors to guests for the first time, following a major restoration by German billionaire industrialist Christoph Henkel and his wife Katrin. Kilchoan Estate by Dunton spans 13,000 acres between Loch Nevis and Loch Hourn and marks the luxury hospitality brand’s first property in Europe,…

Volodymyr Zelensky joked he could not safely meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow due to Ukrainian drone strikes, during a strikingly warm exchange with Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Turkey that also saw the US president offer Kyiv a licence to manufacture Patriot air-defence missiles. Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky put on a display of warmth at Wednesday’s NATO summit in Turkey, a marked shift from their fractious history, as the US president floated giving Ukraine the right to manufacture its own Patriot interceptor missiles. Asked by Trump whether he would travel to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin, a…

Only 27 of Victoria’s 79 councils have adopted Daniel Andrews’ mandatory glass recycling scheme, with a growing coalition of local governments warning the multi-million-dollar rollout is unaffordable and unnecessary given the success of the state’s Container Deposit Scheme. A signature recycling policy introduced by former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has been described as “all but dead” nearly three years after he left office, as the majority of the state’s councils refuse to implement it. Andrews’ 2027 deadline requiring all Victorian councils to introduce purple-lidded glass recycling bins is facing widespread resistance, with government insiders telling the Herald Sun the target…

William Nieporte says he was forced out of the $8 billion asset manager he co-founded for breaching a return-to-office policy he himself signed off on, in a rare legal dispute now playing out on two separate fronts. The co-founder of an asset management firm now worth more than $8 billion has launched legal action claiming he was pushed out of the business for failing to comply with a return-to-office policy that he helped put in place. William Nieporte, 57, ran Bramshill Investments for nearly a decade alongside his high school friends Art DeGaetano and Stephen Selver before being fired in…

A Reform UK MP reduced the House of Commons to tears on Wednesday when she revealed for the first time that her mother had been pressured by the church into giving up a baby for adoption — a secret she carried to her grave — as Sir Keir Starmer issued a formal state apology for one of the most painful chapters in modern British history. Sarah Pochin, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, was visibly overcome as she told MPs that she only discovered her mother’s secret after her death, that she had been forced to pay privately to trace…

House prices edged down slightly in June but remain almost £6,000 higher than this time last year, according to Nationwide Building Society, as mortgage approvals slump and uncertainty surrounding the Middle East conflict and UK political turmoil continues to weigh on buyer confidence. The typical home fell by £540 compared to May to reach £277,484, though on an annual basis prices are up 2.2 per cent, a rise from 1.7 per cent recorded in May. Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society, said prices were essentially flat on a monthly basis once seasonal adjustments were applied. Anthony Codling of RBC Capital Markets…

A social housing company that acquires newly built affordable homes from developers before leasing them to registered providers has entered administration after failing to meet its financial liabilities, with administrators moving quickly to reassure tenants that their arrangements remain unaffected. RPA1 Limited, a subsidiary of Rentplus-UK Limited and registered at an address on North Fourth Street in Milton Keynes, confirmed it had entered administration following “financial challenges resulting in it being unable to meet its liabilities.” The company has been operating since 2014, according to business information provider Endole, initially registered in Devon before moving to its current Milton Keynes…

Sir Keir Starmer has unveiled a £15 billion defence investment plan he says will protect Britain in an increasingly “volatile” world, but the package falls billions of pounds short of what military chiefs say they need and will see the UK scrap older equipment including Storm Shadow cruise missiles and a range of military helicopters. The plan, delayed for months by Treasury wrangling over funding, follows the resignation of John Healey as defence secretary earlier this month in protest at insufficient cash being made available. The Treasury subsequently agreed to give the Ministry of Defence an extra £1.5 billion, pushing…