Nigel Farage’s party promised to revive local authority finances by slashing wasteful spending

Actress Dame Patricia Routledge, best known for TV show Keeping Up Appearances, has died aged 96, her agent has said.

Police say they are responding to an incident in Crumpsall, Greater Manchester Greater Manchester Police said a suspect has been shot and four people have suffered injuries caused by a vehicle and stabbings at a synagogue in Crumpsall north of the city. The force said: Police were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, on Middleton Road, Crumpsall, at 9.31am by a member of the public, stating he had witnessed a car being driven towards members of the public, and one man had been stabbed. GMP declared PLATO and a major incident at 9.37am. Shots were fired by Greater Manchester Police firearms officers at 9.38am. One man has been shot, believed to be the offender. Continue reading...

Trial heard 25m surgical gowns supplied by PPE Medpro to protect NHS staff were unusable and could ‘seriously harm or kill patients’ * VIP lanes and 25m faulty gowns: what PPE Medro trial reveals about Tory response to Covid The government has won its legal claim against a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone for the return of millions of pounds paid for personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic. The Department of Health and Social Care sued the company, PPE Medpro, in December 2022, arguing that it had not complied with PPE laws to ensure that 25m surgical gowns it provided under a June 2020 government contract were sterile. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Officials exploring options to change rule that affected 1.7 million children in Great Britain last year * UK politics live – latest updates Rachel Reeves is to lift the two-child benefit limit in the budget, a key demand of Labour MPs and child poverty campaigners, with officials exploring options of a new tapered system. The chancellor and Keir Starmer have both said they expect to respond to recommendations of the child poverty taskforce at the budget, which is expected to say that lifting the two-child limit for universal credit and child tax credit would be one of the most effective ways to lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. Continue reading...