National News

Ministers saw off further changes being sought to the Illegal Migration Bill in the House of Lords.

Rishi Sunak has praised Ben Wallace for a “distinguished” career following the Defence Secretary’s announcement he will resign at the next Cabinet reshuffle. Mr Wallace, who has been Defence Secretary since 2019, will stand down as an MP at the next general election. The Prime Minister said he would be sad to see Mr Wallace go but “I completely understand and sympathise” with his decision. Mr Wallace played a key

A fresh overtime ban has been announced by train drivers, threatening disruption to services at the height of the summer holidays. Members of Aslef at 15 train operating companies will refuse to work overtime from Monday July 31 to Saturday August 5 in the long-running dispute over pay. Drivers launched a week-long overtime ban on Monday which the union warned will “seriously” affect services. Aslef said train companies did not employ enough drivers, which was why

They'll take industrial action on 24th and 25th August Hospital consultants have announced fresh strikes in the long-running dispute over pay in the NHS. The British Medical Association (BMA) said consultants in England, who will strike on Thursday and Friday this week, will also walk out on August 24 and 25. The BMA said its announcement was in response to the Government imposing “another real-terms pay cut” on doctors last week. BMA

The Prime Minister says 'too many young people are being sold a false dream' Rishi Sunak has announced plans to cap the number of students that can be accepted on to “poor quality” university degrees. Limits will be imposed on courses that have high dropout rates or a low proportion of graduates getting a professional job, the Government said. Critics argue the plans are a rehash of previous policy announcements and will

Carlos Alcaraz was crowned the new king of Wimbledon after dethroning Novak Djokovic on a packed Centre Court in one of the great grand slam finals. The young Spaniard looked to be on his way to victory when he recovered from a nervous start to take a two-sets-to-one lead only for Djokovic to show once again his remarkable powers of resilience. It was he who appeared in the ascendancy at

Jill Scott said she carries guilt for the sacrifices her family made during her football career – including when she missed the first dance at her sister’s wedding to travel to an FA Cup semi-final match. The former England midfielder, 36, who played for clubs including Manchester City and Everton, retired last summer after the team made history by winning the European Championship title. Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert

Hundreds of community mental health projects could miss out after just over half of applications for funding were granted by ministers, Scottish Labour has warned. The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by Third Sector Interface (TSI), authorised 1,461 projects set up to offer local support by March 2023. However, the scheme, which delivers funding to community initiatives across Scotland’s 32 local authority

The chances of the UK securing a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States are “very low”, according to the Business Secretary. Kemi Badenoch said the change of administration from Donald Trump to Joe Biden following the 2020 US election is the reason why the UK has not made progress on such a deal. Conservative MPs have described an FTA with the US as the “greatest prize of all”