UK News

The Government could close asylum hotels next year by allowing people from certain countries likely to be recognised as refugees temporary permission to stay under a “one-off scheme”, analysis by the Refugee Council has suggested. The refugee charity has set out a time-limited proposal that ministers could take to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by March 2026. It warned the Government’s commitment to close them by […]

Pollution from the “huge” pig and poultry farming sectors is harming rivers, the wider landscape and nature, a report from the Wildlife Trusts warns. The findings from the report into the environmental impact of the sectors reveal the waste from producing millions of pigs and billions of birds and eggs a year is about 10.4 million cubic metres annually – the equivalent to 4,160 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The high levels […]

More than 280,000 crimes went unrecorded by police last year, with “unacceptably low” numbers of anti-social behaviour offences being officially documented. Watchdog His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found 94.8% of crimes were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March 31, up from 80.5% in 2014. While it praised the increase, this still meant that more than 285,000 offences were […]

The Home Office’s bid to challenge the decision to temporarily block the owner of the Bell Hotel in Epping from housing asylum seekers is due to be heard at the Court of Appeal on Thursday. Last week, Mr Justice Eyre granted an interim injunction to Epping Forest District Council, stopping the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels, from using the Essex hotel to accommodate asylum seekers beyond September 12. The authority asked […]

Grimsby goalkeeper Christy Pym said it “had not sunk in” after his side knocked Manchester United out of the Carabao Cup by winning an epic penalty shootout 12-11. Bryan Mbeumo struck the crossbar with his second spot-kick in an epic 18-minute shootout to settle the second-round tie after it had ended 2-2 after 90 minutes at a breathless Blundell Park. Pym revealed he was a United fan, saying: “It’s not […]

Jack Draper’s arm injury has forced him to pull out of the US Open. The British number one arrived in New York without having played a match since Wimbledon after being diagnosed with bone bruising in his left arm. He struggled during his first-round match on Monday but had insisted the problem would not affect his chances in New York, where he reached the semi-finals last year. However, ahead of […]

A Scottish Conservative MSP has defected to Reform UK, Nigel Farage has announced at a press conference in Scotland. Graham Simpson has become Reform’s first MSP with his defection, and he joined Mr Farage on stage in West Lothian. The former Tory frontbencher was first elected to Holyrood in 2016. He said it had been a “wrench” to leave the party he joined at the age of 15. Speaking during […]

The fertility rate for England and Wales has fallen for the third year in a row to reach a new record low, figures show. The total fertility rate across both nations, defined as the average number of live children women would expect to have across their childbearing life, stood at 1.41 in 2024. This is down from 1.42 in 2023 and is the lowest since comparable data began in 1938, […]