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A siren-like emergency warning message will be sent by the Government to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new public alert system. Phone users will be unable to use other features on their devices unless they acknowledge the alert, due to be sent on Sunday April 23. The system – modelled after similar schemes in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan – is intended

Labour has stepped up pressure on Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to drop changes to pension allowances that fail to benefit the “vast majority” of Britons. The Opposition has said it will reverse the Chancellor’s Budget pensions tax break for high earners if it gains power at the next general election. Mr Hunt believes the abolition of the lifetime allowance, forecast to cost £2.75 billion over the next five years,

Members of Scotland’s largest NHS union, Unison, have voted to accept the Scottish Government’s pay offer. In a digital ballot where 54.0% of eligible members voted, 78.5% accepted the offer. Another union, GMB Scotland, accepted the pay offer earlier in the week. The pay offer – which was made to 160,000 NHS staff, including nurses, midwives and paramedics – equates to an average 6.5% increase in 2023/24. It also includes

The bible of the priest who smuggled King Charles II out of England during the Civil War is set to fetch thousands at auction. Father John Huddleston’s bible was bought for the modern equivalent of two and a half pence in the 1950s – but it now has an estimated sale price of at least £2,000. Auctioneer John Crane said the bible is a “very rare” item, and when he

An indefinite strike by thousands of bus drivers will go ahead from Monday after they voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay. More than 3,000 members of Unite employed by National Express in the West Midlands backed walkouts by 71%. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “National Express is an extremely wealthy company and makes considerable profits from the hard work of our members, who are

Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell has resigned as the SNP’s chief executive with immediate effect. Reports had suggested members of the SNP’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) threatened a vote of no confidence in him. It follows the departure of the SNP media chief Murray Foote, who left on Friday amid a row over the party’s membership numbers. Mr Murrell has been the party’s chief executive for more than 20

The Home Secretary has been given a tour of potential migrant housing in Rwanda as 209 people were confirmed to have made the journey across the Channel on Friday. Suella Braverman embarked on her first full day in the country as Home Secretary on Saturday as she set out to reaffirm her commitment to the Rwanda deportation policy. No migrants have been relocated to the country so far as the

More Passport Office workers have voted to go on strike in a bitter dispute over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions. The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) announced the results of new ballots for industrial action which all showed big votes in favour. PCS members at the Home Office in Northern Ireland, Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Northern Ireland, Heritage Lottery Fund in Northern Ireland and the British Library in