British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has returned more than £6,000 for gifts and services received since taking office, his office said yesterday. This follows a wave of criticism since Sky News calculated that he had accepted gifts totalling £107,000 over the past five years.more

Since 7 October 2023, when the Palestinian organisation Hamas launched an attack on Israel, a record 5,583 anti-Semitic incidents have been reported in the UK up to 30 September this year, the Jewish Community Secutiry Trust (CST) reported yesterday.more

The four candidates for the leadership of the British Conservative Party yesterday set out visions for its renewal after the party's worst defeat to date in the last election. All the speeches were well received, but are more likely to strengthen the favourites in the race - Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick.more

British rock band Pink Floyd has decided to sell the rights to part of its output to Sony for $400 million, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing people involved in the deal.more

Ministers have been urged not to resurrect Conservative plans to tackle welfare fraud by launching mass algorithmic surveillance of bank accounts. Disability rights, poverty, pensioner and privacy groups fear the government is poised to deliver a “snooper’s charter” by using automation and possibly artificial intelligence to crack down on benefit cheats and mistakes which cost £10bn a year.more

Shortages of doctors mean the average GP in England has to care for 17% more patients than nine years ago, a BBC analysis shows. It means for every permanent GP there are more than 2,300 patients - a jump of nearly 350 since 2015, helping explain why access to general practice has been worsening and patient satisfaction declining.more

British troops assisted Israel in repelling an Iranian missile attack last night, Defence Minister John Healey confirmed. He did not specify the extent of the support, but aircraft were involved, according to the BBC.more

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated today ahead of a meeting in Brussels with European Union leaders that he wants a more pragmatic and mature relationship, but that there is no question of a return to the EU single market or a customs union with the EU.more

The ITAKA Foundation - Searching for Missing People Centre, at the request of the family and in cooperation with the police, is conducting a search for a missing person: Michał Sałek.more

The four candidates to replace former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party will deliver keynote speeches today on the final day of its annual conference in Birmingham. For two of them, this is the last chance to remain competitive.more

Queen Elizabeth II, Sir David Attenborough and James Bond have been named the most popular British cultural figures in a survey. The late monarch was voted the greatest “cultural icon” in the UK from the last 90 years, with 41% selecting her in a survey conducted to mark the 90th anniversary of the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations.more

Workers should receive all tips from customers under a new law which bans firms from withholding the payments - whether in cash or by card. More than three million service workers in England, Scotland, and Wales should benefit from the law which comes into force on Tuesday. more

Billpayers have been urged to give an accurate meter reading as gas and electricity price rises take effect. A household in England, Wales and Scotland using a typical amount of gas and electricity will now see their annual bill rise by about £149 to £1,717.more

Illegal immigrants seeking asylum in the UK will be housed in hotels rented by the state for up to three more years as the backlog of their claims takes much longer to clear than Labour had predicted, ‘The Times’ reported today.more

UK shop prices fell at their fastest rate since 2021 in September, driven by discounts on non-food items, but fresh food inflation ticked up as olive oil and cocoa prices continue to surge.more

Many British Jews, looking at the BBC's public service coverage of the Middle East conflict, have become convinced that it has become ‘institutionally hostile to Israel,’ - wrote three leading Jewish organisations in the UK yesterday.more

The UK is about to stop producing any electricity from burning coal - ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel. The country's last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, finishes operations on Monday after running since 1967.more

The UK's economy grew by less than previously estimated between April and June, according to official figures. It expanded by 0.5%, down from an initial reading of 0.6%, after output in the manufacturing and construction sectors fell by more than first thought. more

A 96-year-old woman has been spared an immediate prison sentence for killing a fellow member of her bridge club when her car mounted a kerb. June Mills struck Brenda Joyce, 76, after applying too much acceleration to her Vauxhall Corsa in Formby, Merseyside, on 2 August 2023.more

The minimum price at which alcohol can be sold in Scotland has risen by 30% in an attempt to keep up with inflation over the past six years. The minimum unit price (MUP) has not changed since it was set at 50p per unit of alcohol when it was first introduced in May 2018.more

Vodafone and Three UK have pledged to cap their lowest-cost mobile plans at £10 for two years, as the companies hope to convince the UK’s competition watchdog to approve their £15 billion merger.more

Eliminating Hezbollah's leadership and taking the lead in the conflict are incentives for Israel to go further and dismantle the organisation altogether, especially as Iran is unlikely to want to risk open war because of it, according to Matthew Savill of the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).more

The Conservative Party's annual conference - the first after its devastating defeat in July's House of Commons elections - began yesterday in Birmingham, where the four candidates for the new leadership will present their vision of where the party should go.more

We love London, but even born and bred Londoners have got to admit - being a city the size that it is, it's not the safest place in the country. So if you're wanting something a tad safer while being within reach of the capital, a particular study has got you covered.more

The DWP is introducing changes along with the Post Office, Ofgem and the banking regulator. A series of nine money and rule changes for Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claimants have been unveiled, set to impact UK households from October 2024. Among these changes is the opening of the Winter Fuel Payment phone lines.more