Page 27 - Britain

UK PM Sunak battles to unite divided Conservative Party in pivotal week

For Sunak, struggling to revive a weak UK economy and heavily trailing the main opposition party in opinion polls, the Rwanda policy has become the defining issue

PM Rishi Sunak's officials in Delhi to discuss India-UK FTA: Report

Senior officials from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's team are in New Delhi this week to add momentum behind the ongoing round of negotiations for an India-UK free trade agreement (FTA), according to a UK media report on Saturday. The Guardian' newspaper reports that while there is no official comment from either side on such a visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is keen to finalise the FTA by the end of February before Sunak sets off on an expected general election campaign trail. Both countries are heading into an election year in 2024 and signing off on a trade agreement with India will bolster Sunak's electoral pitch to voters showing signs of anti-incumbency towards his governing Conservatives. The deal is still very much on and we think it is possible before both countries have their elections. Both sides are keen to get this done, an official close to the talks told the newspaper. The India-UK FTA talks began in January last year with Diwali 2022 set as t

Boris Johnson rejects notion he wanted to let Covid rip through population

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in sometimes angry testimony to Britain's inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic, on Thursday defended himself against suggestions that his indifference and failure to heed the advice of scientists led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. In a second day of sworn testimony, Johnson rejected claims that he was prepared to let older people die to protect the economy and that he was too slow to order a second national lockdown as infection rates began to rise in the autumn of 2020. Johnson, who left parliament after he was found to have misled lawmakers about lockdown-breaking parties during his premiership, said he learned about the horrors of COVID-19 firsthand when he was hospitalised with the disease in March 2020. In the intensive care unit, Johnson said he was surrounded not by elderly people but by middle-aged men like himself. I knew from that experience what an appalling disease this is. I had absolutely no personal doubt about that from March .

British hedge fund trader Sanjay Shah detained in Denmark before trial

Shah is due to face trial in Denmark early next year on charges related to so-called "cum-ex" trading schemes in which the Danish state says it lost more than 12.7 billion crowns ($1.84 billion)

UK PM Sunak fights back amid leadership turmoil over deportation policy

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday launched a fight-back in favour of what he dubbed as the toughest anti-immigration law ever amid turmoil within the governing Conservative Party after a bruising Cabinet resignation and open attacks by backbenchers over his government's controversial policy to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda. Addressing a hurriedly organised press conference from Downing Street, the 43-year-old British Indian leader referred to his heritage as a child of immigrants to highlight how his family used the legal route before becoming proud British nationals. Illegal immigration undermines not just our border control, it undermines the very sense of fairness that is so central to our national character, said Sunak. We play by the rules, we put in our fair share, we wait our turn. That some people can just cut all of that out, you've not just lost control of your borders, you've fatally undermined the very fairness and trust on which our system is based, he

India-born media veteran Dr Samir Shah selected as new BBC chairman

An India-born media executive who has worked in UK broadcasting for over 40 years, Dr Samir Shah, has been announced as the UK government's preferred candidate to take over as the new BBC chairman. The 71-year-old, who was honoured with a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019 for services to television and heritage, will replace Richard Sharp, who had been forced to resign after his communication with former prime minister Boris Johnson came under scrutiny. Shah will now be quizzed by cross-party MPs of the House of Commons Media Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee for pre-appointment scrutiny before formally taking charge. "With a career spanning more than 40 years in TV production and journalism, Dr Shah has a wealth of experience to bring to the position of BBC Chair," UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said on Wednesday, confirming the selection as per the appointment process. "He has a clear ambition to see the BBC succeed in a rapidly changing media landscape, and I have no .

UK's latest Family Visa crackdown to impact many Indian family plans

The UK government's latest set of visa crackdowns to cut immigration figures includes a major hike in the minimum salary threshold for British nationals and permanent residents applying to bring family members to join them in the UK, a move expected to impact several Indian families. The Family Visa category, under which long-term UK residents are able to bring their spouses and partners to join them, until now required the applicant to be earning at least GBP 18,600 annually. From March/April next year, this threshold will jump to GBP 38,700, inevitably set to have a significant impact on applicants from the Indian subcontinent with Indians making up the second-highest cohort under the Family Visa in the past year (5,870) after Pakistanis (15,038), as per official Home Office statistics. We will ensure that people bring only dependants whom they can support financially, by raising the minimum income for Family Visas to the same threshold as the minimum salary threshold for skilled

Ex-UK PM Boris Johnson admits mistakes but defends Covid record at inquiry

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his handling of COVID-19 on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the pandemic, saying the government got some things wrong but did its best. Johnson began two days of being grilled under oath by lawyers for the judge-led inquiry about his initial reluctance to impose a national lockdown in early 2020 and other fateful decisions. Johnson opened his testimony with an apology for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the COVID victims, though not for any of his own actions. Four people stood up in court as he spoke, holding signs saying: The Dead can't hear your apologies," before being escorted out by security staff. Inevitably, in the course of trying to handle a very, very difficult pandemic in which we had to balance appalling harms on either side of the decision, we may have made mistakes, Johnson said. Inevitably, we got some things wrong. I think we were doing our best at the time. Johnson had arrived at the inquiry venue

COP28 spotlights global warnings about the pain of climate change

In the day's opening address, Britain's King Charles is expected to warn that repeated signs of climate impact are being ignored, with devastating consequences

Britain's antitrust regulator wins appeal to probe Apple's mobile browser

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened a full investigation last year into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc's Google in mobile browsers

A century after debut, UK music store HMV makes Oxford Street return

The 363 Oxford Street address hosted the very first HMV store in 1921, opened by composer Edward Elgar, and was central to the development of British popular music and culture

Rioters clash with police in Dublin city center after knife attack

The unrest began after a stabbing incident close to a school in the city's north side

HSBC India, UK Export Finance tie up for 100 mn pound financing programme

HSBC India and UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK's export credit agency, have intended to establish a financing programme of up to 100 million pound to support Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and corporates for financing their imports from Britain. This partnership will enhance the availability of credit for Indian MSMEs and boost trade ties between the two countries, HSBC India said in a statement on Thursday. HSBC India and UKEF on Thursday signed a Letter of Intent (LoI), which enables them to work together on opportunities relating to UKEF's guarantee-backed structures. India was the UK's 12th largest trading partner in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2023, accounting for 2.1 per cent of total UK trade. In 2021, around 7,500 UK SMEs, with around 3,17,300 employees, exported goods worth 1.2 billion pound to India, accounting for 85 per cent of all UK businesses exporting goods to India. Providing enhanced financial access and developing an ecosystem that ..

UK businesses grow for first time in three months, but high rates weigh

Britain's economy has suffered from the highest inflation rate among big, rich countries and gross domestic product failed to grow in the third quarter

UK govt cuts taxes to jam labour ahead of general elections next year

Hunt's most eye-catching announcement was a two percentage point reduction to the headline 12% rate of national insurance

Britain set to start cutting taxes ahead of likely election next year

Britain's Conservative government will try to win favour with voters by cutting taxes but avoiding worsening inflation in a budget statement on Wednesday, coming ahead of a likely national election next year that opinion polls suggest it will lose. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has hinted that tax cuts are back on the agenda now that his self-imposed pledge to halve inflation this year has been met and government revenue is higher than anticipated. In a speech Monday, Sunak raised expectations that Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement will begin reducing the tax burden in the UK, which is the highest in 70 years in the wake of COVID-19 and the energy price spike triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sunak said on Monday that his government would cut tax and reward hard work but would avoid doing anything that puts at risk our progress in controlling inflation". Inflation eased to 4.6 per cent in October from a year earlier after hitting a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in

Sony faces $7.9 billion mass lawsuit over PlayStation Store prices in UK

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) was sued last year on behalf of nearly nine million people in the United Kingdom who had bought digital games or add-on content through Sony's PlayStation Store

Britain proposes antitrust overhaul after Microsoft-Activision case

Following Brexit, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has a bigger say over mega-mergers such as Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of the "Call of Duty" maker

UK-India trade body bats for FTA before general elections in both nations

UK-India Business Council (UKIBC), a trade body with a mission to grow trade and investments between the two countries, on Monday said the negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) should conclude before the general elections due in both nations next year. Thirteen rounds of negotiations have been already completed between India and the UK on the FTA. "Because of the general elections in India and the UK going to polls next year, it is important that the negotiations for the proposed FTA are concluded early. Otherwise, there will be a pause in the negotiations while the general elections are on," UKIBC Managing Director Kevin McCole said. He said though the election date in the UK has not yet been fixed, the polls may be held between May and November next year. There is a risk that negotiations may have to pause till the elections in India and the UK are over, he said. McCole also said that the bilateral investment treaty between the two countries will help investments from t

Ex-UK PM Boris Johnson 'bamboozled' by science, ex-adviser tells inquiry

Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, struggled to come to grips with much of the science during the coronavirus pandemic, his chief scientific advisor said Monday. In keenly awaited testimony to the country's public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick Vallance said he and others faced repeated problems getting Johnson to understand the science. I think I'm right in saying that the prime minister gave up science at 15," he said. I think he'd be the first to admit it wasn't his forte and that he struggled with the concepts and we did need to repeat them often. In extracts from his diary that were relayed to the inquiry, Vallance said Johnson was bamboozled by the graphs and data and that watching him get his head round stats is awful." Vallance said Johnson's struggles were not unique and said many leaders around Europe had problems in understanding the scientific evidence and advice, especially in the first stages of the pandemic in early 2020. I would also sa