Page 21 - Britain

UK workers' union to proceed with industrial action at Tata Steel plants

A steelworkers' union has announced plans to proceed with industrial action of around 1,500 Tata Steel employees based at Port Talbot and Newport Llanwern in Wales in protest against the Mumbai-headquartered company's job cuts associated with the closure of old blast furnaces. Unite the Union said on Thursday that its workers will begin working to rule as well as taking part in a continuous overtime ban from June 18 to severely disrupt and delay the company's operations and order book unless the company rows back on the closure. It is calling for the Indian steel major to halt its plans until the July 4 General Election, when it expects the UK's Conservative Party led government will make way for the Opposition Labour Party. Tata's disastrous deal with the current government would only see its other overseas operations take advantage of the coming boom in green steel at the expense of South Wales, said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. Now that we will have a new government in

Over 100 business leaders back UK's opposition Labour Party before polls

Rishi Sunak's governing Conservatives have typically been the party of big business but Labour's finance policy chief Rachel Reeves has spent years courting business owners

British govt moves to revive London's reputation as financial hub

The global competition for investors - among cities like New York, Hong Kong, Dubai and Singapore - is intense

Fewer top women earners in British finance since pandemic, shows report

The lack of progression of women to the most senior roles in financial and professional services is a major factor contributing to the gender pay gap

Rishi Sunak's national service plan faces enforcement, funding questions

Sunak is hoping that, if he can't beat Labour leader Keir Starmer, he can at least save the Conservatives from a historic wipeout, his allies have told Bloomberg

UK's July general election: It's impact on India FTA, Indo-Pacific tilt

As the campaign for the UK general election gathers momentum after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak surprised many this week with a snap summer poll on July 4, exactly a month after India's election results on June 4, the prospect of an India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) has been kicked into the long grass. While political analysts and strategic experts have expressed confidence that very little should change on the bilateral relationship front whatever the outcome in either election, the very small window that was open for a deal being clinched by the Sunak-led Tory government has now been swept away in the election wave of both countries. The Opposition Labour Party, in the lead in most pre-election surveys, has committed itself to finish the job but the timelines will remain uncertain for some time. Rishi Sunak's shock poll date announcement of July 4 has skewered any prospect of the finalisation of the long-awaited and much-anticipated FTA with India by a Conservative ...

Growth across UK biz dips in May, in early blow to Sunak, shows PMI survey

S&P Global UK Composite Purchasing Managers' Index for the services and manufacturing sectors fell to 52.8 in May from 54.1 in April

PM Sunak, Keir Starmer to hit campaign trail as UK election race begins

Both party leaders are expected to hit the campaign trail, seeking to seize the early initiative by meeting voters and delivering the messages they hope will earn them enough seats in parliament

British PM Rishi Sunak declares July 4 as UK general election date

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday ended frenzied speculation by announcing that the country's general election will be held on July 4. In an address from the lectern on the steps of 10 Downing Street on a rainy London evening, the country's first Prime Minister of Indian heritage confirmed a summer poll in six weeks' time and that the Parliament would soon be dissolved after he formally informed King Charles III of the election timeline. The 44-year-old leader laid out his record in office in his pitch to the British electorate, who will soon give their verdict at the ballot box. "I will do everything in my power to provide you with the strongest possible protection I can. That is my promise to you now is the moment for Britain to choose its future, he said. It comes as the governing Conservative Party is forecast for a general election drubbing by most opinion polls, with the Opposition Labour Party holding a firm lead after a series of recent byelection and local ..

UK inflation drops less than expected, dashing June rate cut hopes

Consumer prices rose by an annual 2.3 per cent last month, down sharply from a 3.2 per cent increase in March

UK govt borrows more than expected in April, posing challenge for PM Sunak

Net borrowing excluding state-controlled banks was 20.5 billion pounds

Hope India-UK FTA not far away, says incoming Ficci UK Council chair

The proposed India-UK free trade agreement is hopefully not far on the horizon as it will offer immense opportunity to be leveraged within the bilateral partnership, said the new chair of a trade council that has played a key role in shaping the ongoing negotiations. UK-based tech professional Priya Guha, who invests in women-led innovation as Venture Partner of Merian Ventures, took over as chair of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) UK Council from Baroness Usha Prashar at a hand-over ceremony at the High Commission of India in London on Monday evening. The India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations opened in January 2022 and are aimed at significantly enhancing bilateral trade currently worth around GBP 38.1 billion a year. The negotiations are now in their fourteenth round of talks, and likely to pick up pace following the Indian general election. Guha, the British Indian investor, expressed the hope that the bilateral partnership would ..

Victims of UK blood scandal to start receiving final compensation this year

Victims of the UK's infected blood scandal, in which tens of thousands of people were infected by contaminated blood or blood products provided by the public health service, will start receiving their final compensation payments this year, the government said Tuesday. Officials announced the compensation plans a day after the publication of a damning report that found civil servants and doctors exposed patients to unacceptable risks by giving them blood transfusions or blood products tainted with HIV or hepatitis from the 1970s to the early 1990s. The report said successive UK governments refused to admit wrongdoing and tried to cover up the scandal, in which an estimated 3,000 people died after receiving the contaminated blood or blood products. In total, the report said about 30,000 people were infected with HIV or hepatitis C, a kind of liver infection, over the period. The scandal is seen as the deadliest disaster in the history of Britain's state-run National Health Service sin

Britain's regulator seeks to rein in Mastercard and Visa fees on retailers

Cards are the most popular form of payment in Britain, with 27.1 billion transactions in 2022 worth 954 billion pounds

ICC arrest request for Israeli PM Netanyahu is unhelpful, says UK

President Joe Biden on Monday condemned as outrageous an attempt by the chief prosecutor of the world's top war crimes to seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders

Rishi Sunak apologises for Britain's historic infected blood scandal

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday apologised after Britain's state-funded National Health Service (NHS) was accused of cover up in an infected blood scandal dating back to the 1970s in a public inquiry report submitted to the government. Speaking in the House of Commons hours after inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff delivered his scathing verdict on the issue, the British Indian leader said it was a day of shame for the British state after a catalogue of failures and attitude of denial documented in the inquiry. The scandal involves over 30,000 people being infected with life-threatening viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C while they were under NHS care between the 1970s and 1990s, with over 3,000 having died. I find it almost impossible to comprehend how it would have felt...I want to make a whole-hearted and unequivocal apology, said Sunak, addressing the victims and their families, some of whom were in Parliament. "On behalf of this and every government stretching back

Britain's health service accused of cover up in infected blood scandal

Britain's state-funded National Health Service (NHS) was accused of cover up in an infected blood scandal dating back to the 1970s in a public inquiry report submitted to the government on Monday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to issue an apology on behalf of the government after inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff delivered his scathing verdict on the issue, which involves over 30,000 people being infected with life-threatening viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C while they were under NHS care between the 1970s and 1990s. It involves infected batches of Factor VIII, an essential blood clotting protein which haemophiliacs do not produce naturally, imported from the US and used widely to treat patients at the time. They were infected as donated blood was not tested for HIV/AIDS until 1986 and Hepatitis C until 1991 in the UK. The scale of what happened is horrifying. The most accurate estimate is that more than 3,000 deaths are attributable to infected blood, blood products an

Assange can appeal against extradition order to US, rules UK court

A British court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal against an order that he be extradited to the US on espionage charges. Two High Court judges on Monday said Assange has grounds to challenge the UK government's extradition order. The ruling sets the stage for an appeal process likely to further drag out a years-long legal saga. Assange faces 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website's publication of a trove of classified US documents almost 15 years ago. The Australian computer expert has spent the last five years in a British high-security prison after taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years.

Find out why the High Commissioner for India owes 8 mn pounds to the UK

London's embassies and international bodies owe more than GBP 143 million 'outstanding congestion charge' to the Transport for London

Europe, West being fed negative stories about India: British journalist

In a candid assessment of the perception of India in the Western world, Stevenson told ANI expanded on the prevalence of negative narratives fuelled by media coverage