UK

Here are all the main announcements from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement to MPs: • Energy bill aid for households extended beyond April for a further year through energy price guarantee, but average annual bill will be £3,000 from current £2,500. Amounts to around £500 support for households. • Additional cost of living payments next

Jeremy Hunt will promise to weather an economic “storm” by raising taxes, cutting public spending and scaling back energy support to fill a £54bn black hole in the nation’s finances. The chancellor will insist to MPs on Thursday that his autumn statement puts the UK on a “balanced path to stability” as he tackles the

There has been a higher than expected leap in the rate of inflation, to a 41-year high of 11.1% last month, led by the latest rise in energy bills. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the increase, from 10.1% in September, as the cost of light and heating for homes rose further despite help

A two-year-old boy’s death was caused by “extensive” mould in his family’s flat, a coroner has concluded in a case that should be “a defining moment” for the housing sector. Awaab Ishak died shortly after his second birthday in December 2020. Joanne Kearsley, the coroner, found that he “died as a result of a severe

Rishi Sunak will meet the Chinese president on Wednesday after declaring that his country poses a “systemic challenge” to the values and interests of the UK. Mr Sunak will become the first prime minister to meet Xi Jinping face to face in almost five years when he meets him at the G20 summit in Indonesia.

Rishi Sunak has avoided sticking to his predecessor’s pledge to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP ahead of the autumn budget, set to be unveiled on Thursday. During her campaign for Number 10, Liz Truss said the figure would be reached by the end of the decade. But asked if he would standby her

Members of a gang of armed robbers have been jailed for more than 100 years after a wave of violent attacks on security guards refilling cash machines. They used guns, knives, hammers and crowbars to terrorise staff before fleeing in a fleet of stolen vehicles and leaving few clues behind them. When banknotes got stained

Home Secretary Suella Braverman will travel to Paris to sign a new joint declaration with French officials to ramp up efforts to stop migrant crossings in the Channel. The home secretary will sign the agreement with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin on Monday morning. According to the Financial Times, the agreement will significantly increase the

The nation will fall silent today as the King for the first time as monarch leads a moving Remembrance Day service. King Charles will lay a new poppy wreath incorporating a ribbon of his racing colours, with the design paying tribute to the ones used by both his late mother and his grandfather George VI.

Five days after being smuggled into the UK in a lorry, Albanian Iva Memaj dialled the Home Office’s freephone number to claim asylum. “I feel very excited for my future,” she told us. “I feel safe here.” Iva said she ran from the lorry when it got to England, hid and was then picked up

A court has ruled for the first time that a man arrested on a COVID ward in Scotland is an American rape suspect who faked his own death. The court sheriff decided that the man calling himself Arthur Knight is in fact Nicholas Rossi. Sheriff Norman McFadyen said: “I am ultimately satisfied on the balance

The children of a woman who died 21 years after being doused in petrol and set ablaze by her partner have said they are “thankful” for every extra day they spent together. Stephen Craig, 58, spent more than 18 years in prison for the “sadistic” petrol attack on Jacqueline Kirk in a car park in

The UK economy contracted by 0.2% in the third quarter, early official figures show, marking the first step towards recession. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a dip in output for September, leaving gross domestic product (GDP) – a measure of the health of the economy – in negative territory for the July-September period

Boy George has revealed his mother was in hospital during the pandemic and said if she had not survived he would have quit I’m A Celebrity when Matt Hancock entered the jungle. The Culture Club singer was in tears after the former health secretary, who was booted out of the Conservative Party over his decision

A nursing union representing hundreds of thousands of nurses has voted to hold the first nationwide strike in its 106-year history. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the strike will affect the majority of NHS employers in the UK as nurses take action against pay levels and patient safety concerns. The union said that

The Royal College of Nursing is expected to announce today that nurses have voted to take strike action in many parts of the country. Some hospitals, not all, will take action, it is believed. The strike ballot among more than 300,000 members of the RCN was the biggest in the union’s 106-year history and marks

Labour has called on Rishi Sunak to block Boris Johnson’s “conveyer belt of cronies” resignation peerages. Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, former minister Nigel Adams and the outgoing COP26 President Alok Sharma are among those expected to be nominated by the former prime minister to be elevated to the House of

A contentious plan to build a new royal yacht has been scrapped, the defence secretary has confirmed. The successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was expected to cost around £200m, was announced by Boris Johnson in May 2021. Mr Johnson, the prime minister at the time, said it would reflect “the UK’s burgeoning status

Millions of Britons on low incomes will start receiving £324 into their bank accounts today to help them through the cost of living crisis. The payments are the second part of a £650 sum being paid out to people receiving benefits such as Universal Credit, income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), income-related employment and support allowance (ESA),

Rishi Sunak will call for a “global mission for new jobs and clean growth” as he joins world leaders for the first day of COP27 in Egypt. The PM, who only announced he would be attending the climate change talks in a U-turn last week, will tell attendees today it is essential countries stick to