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Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group (TRG) has cheered “very encouraging” trading as it revealed plans to speed up its closure programme. Shares in the company, which also owns the Frankie & Benny’s brand, jumped on Tuesday morning after it hailed “good progress” on recent cost-cutting efforts. In March, the company said it would shut 35 of its loss-making casual dining restaurants, which include Frankie & Benny’s, in order to boost profits.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “confident” that partygate investigator Sue Gray has not broken any rules in her discussions with Labour about a senior party role. A Cabinet Office minister is due to issue a written statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday containing an “update into the circumstances leading to the resignation of a senior civil servant”, according to Parliament’s order paper. The PA news agency

Oil giant BP’s profit was more than half a billion pounds more than expected in the first three months of the year as the business continued to benefit from elevated energy prices. Bosses revealed on Tuesday that the company made just under five billion US dollars (£4 billion) in underlying replacement cost profit between January and March, citing a strong performance in its oil trading business. It is a reduction

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have said there is “seriousness” to the offer they broadcast on Twitter for footballer Gareth Bale to come out of retirement and play at the Hollywood stars’ club Wrexham. Former Wales captain Bale was offered the opportunity to play for the Welsh club following their promotion to the English Football League in April. The five-time Champions League winner announced his retirement at the age of

Two final evacuation flights from Sudan were expected to land in Cyprus overnight as the number of people repatriated from the war-torn nation neared 2,200. The Foreign Office said Sudanese doctors working for the NHS were among the flight passengers after ministers agreed to extend the evacuation criteria to include eligible non-British nationals working as clinicians in the NHS, as well as their dependents. It is not known what time

A relative of a woman who was fatally stabbed during the afternoon of Bank Holiday Monday has said “it’s still so raw”, while several people were seen praying at the scene of her death in south London. The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at around 4.04pm to reports of a stabbing on Stockwell Park Walk in Lambeth, and no arrests have yet been made. An air ambulance also attended,