National News

Tesco has announced another round of price cuts on its own-brand pasta and cooking oil as it sees deflation making its way through to cupboard essentials. The UK’s biggest supermarket is dropping the price of 30 products, with 15p off 500g and 1kg packs of own-brand pasta, 14p off its one litre vegetable oil and 15p off its one litre sunflower oil. It follows a number of supermarkets dropping the

Britain’s unemployment rate has risen again unexpectedly while vacancies have fallen to the lowest level for 18 months as economic uncertainty weighs on the UK’s jobs market, according to official figures. The rate of UK unemployment rose to 3.9% in the three months to March, up from 3.8% in the previous quarter and the highest level since the three months to January 2022, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Dracula Untold star Luke Evans has said Michael Sheen in his debut as a television director “knows what he needs from you” as an actor. The 44-year-old Welsh actor is starring in upcoming BBC drama series The Way alongside Frost/Nixon star Sheen and It’s A Sin actor Callum Scott Howells. The three-part “emotional and darkly humorous story” is set to focus on how a family, the Driscolls, contend with a

Farmers are to be given greater protections in future trade deals as part of a package of measures unveiled ahead of a No 10 food summit. Downing Street said the Government’s initiatives, as well as putting greater emphasis on farmers’ interests during international trade negotiations, include reviewing supply chains to ensure producers are getting a fair deal and making it easier to turn properties on their land into farm shops.

Curtis Jones’ double pushed Leicester to the brink of relegation as Liverpool cruised to a 3-0 win – two years to the day since the Foxes’ FA Cup triumph. The midfielder’s first-half brace and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s stunner eased the visitors to victory as the hosts capitulated to leave them staring at the drop. That it came on the anniversary of their first ever FA Cup win underlined the 2016 Premier

The reputational damage done to the UK by the high level of fraud involving Covid-19 support schemes was a “blip”, a senior civil servant has told MPs. A recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said the latest Transparency International survey of perceptions of corruption showed the UK had fallen from eighth out of 180 countries in 2017 to 18th in 2022. Cabinet Office permanent secretary Alex Chisholm told

The UK will provide Ukraine with air defence missiles and attack drones, Downing Street has announced, as Volodymyr Zelensky met Rishi Sunak at Chequers. In the latest leg of the Ukrainian president’s tour of western allies, Mr Zelensky said the two leaders would have “substantive negotiations” on the response to Russia’s invasion. Downing Street said the Prime Minister would welcome Mr Zelensky to the country retreat in Buckinghamshire as the

Nurses are “living in poverty” and many are leaving the profession because “they can no longer afford to stay in it”, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said as it called on the Government to reopen talks about pay. Pat Cullen, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, said the Government’s revised pay offer was rejected by nurses because it “isn’t sufficient to address those really critical issues”. She urged ministers

Overall immigration to the UK must come down, Suella Braverman is set to tell a Conservative conference later. The Home Secretary will use a speech in London to stress the need for the Tories to re-commit to the party’s 2019 manifesto commitment, which on immigration promised “fewer lower-skilled migrants and overall numbers will come down”. Ms Braverman will be among the star turns at the National Conservativism Conference on Monday,