UK News

Two men have been found guilty over the theft of a £4.75 million gold toilet from Blenheim Palace. The fully-functioning 18-carat gold toilet, which had been installed as an artwork at the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born, was stolen in a raid in the early hours of September 14 2019. It was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and was a star attraction in an exhibition […]

Benefit reforms branded the biggest shake-up to the welfare system in a generation will create a “pro-work system”, the Government has said. But charities have argued the proposed changes are “immoral and devastating” for those they represent and could “push more disabled people into poverty”. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the current social security system is “failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our […]

All 18 British nationals killed in Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 have been named for the first time in a report commissioned by MPs and peers. Rotem Kalderon, a 66-year-old dual UK-Israeli national, had not previously been named in lists of British casualties. A teacher and lifelong resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, a settlement around three miles from the Gaza Strip, she lay unidentified for two weeks after an […]

The cost of bringing pothole-plagued local roads in England and Wales up to scratch has been estimated at a record high of nearly £17 billion. A report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) found one in six miles of the local road network has less than five years’ structural life remaining. But roads are only surfaced once every 93 years on average. David Giles, who chairs the AIA, said more […]

The King and Queen’s planned state visit to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis will go ahead despite the pontiff’s continuing hospital treatment for double pneumonia. The improving outlook for the Pope means the historic gathering is scheduled to take place in Rome in early April to celebrate the papal jubilee and the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. A Buckingham Palace source said they had […]

Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the new prime minister of Canada to Downing Street on his first foreign trip since being sworn in last week. Mark Carney also met the King at Buckingham Palace after he arrived in the UK from Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron. Sir Keir said it was “fantastic” to have Mr Carney in the UK so early in his tenure and that the […]

James Lee Williams, who won the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK under their drag name, was found dead at the age of 32 at their home in Cheshire on January 5. Their manager and friend Simon Jones said: “James’s family and I feel it is important to say how James tragically died. It was from the effects of ketamine use causing a cardiac arrest. “There will, of course, […]

A former scout leader and school housemaster has been found guilty of numerous sexual offences against young boys after spending 27 years on the run using a stolen identity. Richard Burrows, 80, was found guilty of 54 offences at Chester Crown Court on Monday, including indecent assault of boys, buggery, attempted buggery and indecency with a child, according to Cheshire Police. The court heard Burrows systematically abused 26 young boys […]

A surge in the number of failed asylum seekers appealing against their rejections has left the system struggling to cope, figures have revealed. The latest official statistics show a 485% rise in the number of asylum appeals waiting to be processed in the courts over the last two years – taking the total to 41,987. In the last three months alone, 12,183 appeals were lodged by people who had their asylum claims rejected following […]