Author: James Carter

Yvette Cooper has publicly blamed Whitehall’s HR and legal processes for handing Peter Mandelson a £75,000 payout following his dismissal as US ambassador — insisting she personally sought to block the payment on multiple occasions but was overruled. The Foreign Secretary told The Sun she had asked for the payout to be reviewed “at different stages” during the process, but that legal and employment obligations within the Foreign Office ultimately prevailed. “As you can imagine, there’s been all sorts of legal processes and employment processes gone through, but at different stages I’ve asked for that to be reviewed,” she said.…

Sir Keir Starmer has issued a direct ultimatum to technology companies operating in the United Kingdom: introduce device controls to prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images — or face new legislation forcing them to do so. The Prime Minister made the warning in a speech focused on artificial intelligence and the digital economy, drawing a sharp line between the government’s enthusiasm for technological innovation and its willingness to act against companies that fail to protect children. “If they choose not to, then we will act, and we will change the law,” Starmer said. “Standing by is not…

Tate & Lyle, one of Britain’s most recognisable food and ingredients brands, has agreed to be sold to American rival Ingredion in a £2.7 billion deal — the latest in a growing wave of British companies falling into foreign hands that is fuelling alarm about the vulnerability of UK-listed firms to overseas predators. The FTSE 250 ingredients firm, founded in Liverpool in 1921 through the merger of two family-owned sugar businesses, confirmed on Monday that it had agreed to an all-cash takeover from Illinois-based Ingredion at 595p per share plus a 20p dividend, representing a total value of 615p per…

Business confidence in hiring has fallen to its lowest point in 15 years as the combined pressures of the Middle East conflict and political turmoil within the Labour government push employers toward temporary contracts and away from permanent recruitment, new figures show. Permanent staff hiring fell at its sharpest pace in ten months in May, according to a closely watched survey by accountants KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation — with employers responding to the uncertainty by turning to temporary workers instead, who saw a sharp rise in demand. KPMG boss Jon Holt said the figures reflected a growing…

Oil prices surged toward $100 a barrel on Monday after Israel defied Donald Trump’s calls for restraint and launched revenge strikes on Iranian military targets — including a petrochemical plant — in the most dangerous escalation of the Middle East conflict since a ceasefire was brokered in April. Brent crude futures jumped $3.20, or 3.39 per cent, to $96.24 a barrel just after 4.30am UK time on Monday 8 June, according to the Express, while US crude futures rose $2.87, or 3.17 per cent, to $93.41 per barrel. The price surge erased Friday’s losses, which had come on hopes of…

Labour left 98 per cent of victims in the dark when 179 criminals were mistakenly released from prison, new data has revealed — with only three people notified despite the Justice Secretary’s “unequivocal apology” over the scandal, which critics say was “not worth the paper it was written on.” The figures, obtained by the Conservatives under Freedom of Information laws, show that of the 179 cases of inmates freed in error between April last year and March, just three victims were told about the blunder. Of the 14 victims who were part of the Probation Service’s Victim Contact Scheme —…

Senior Democrats are standing by scandal-plagued US Senate candidate Graham Platner despite a string of allegations of emotional abuse, physical intimidation and sexting — with one ally claiming the behaviour “didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of the folks in Maine.” California Congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat who campaigned alongside Platner in Maine on Friday despite the mounting controversy, defended his decision to continue backing him in an appearance on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday. He acknowledged the allegations were serious while stopping short of withdrawing support. “His actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were…

Zack Polanski, the Jewish leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, has sparked fierce controversy after being photographed wearing a “Free Marwan Barghouti” T-shirt during celebrations of the party’s record-breaking local election results — with Jewish and pro-Israel voices condemning the move as glorifying terrorism while Polanski doubled down defiantly on social media. The photographs surfaced on Sunday evening as the Greens celebrated their most successful local election performance in the party’s history, having won hundreds of new council seats, taken control of several councils including Norwich, Hastings and parts of London, and secured the party’s first-ever elected…

The Bank of England decided to remove Winston Churchill, Alan Turing and Jane Austen from British banknotes after commissioned research told officials the figures were “elitist and divisive” — with one focus group participant even describing the celebrated Bletchley Park codebreaker as “imperialistic,” newly obtained documents reveal. A market research study conducted by Savanta in October 2025, reported by The Telegraph, gathered views from 119 focus group participants and concluded that depicting historical figures on currency was “potentially divisive, elitist and disconnected from their own experiences.” Researchers advised the Bank that such portraits presented “a backward-looking vision of the UK…

David Lammy has refused to take the knee for Henry Nowak, the teenager stabbed to death in Southampton after his killer falsely accused him of racism — in comments that have exposed a striking contradiction with his own passionate defence of the same gesture when it was adopted in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Asked directly on LBC’s Nick Ferrari programme on Thursday whether he would take the knee for Henry Nowak, the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary declined, saying the 18-year-old’s family wanted “genuine common sense policing and a reduction in knife crime” rather…