Lead News

A senior BBC figure wants more shows similar to Songs of Praise which would include coverage that would appeal to people of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths. Aaqil Ahmed, commissioning editor of religion and head of religion and ethics at the BBC, told MPs he has written a report answering criticism that non-Christian faiths were under-represented on the programme. The Sunday Times reported Mr Ahmed told MPs ...

16 May 2016 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached London yesterday afternoon for a three-day private visit on her way to another three-day official trip to Bulgaria. During her stay in London on May 15-17, she is scheduled to meet her niece Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, highly placed sources said. Also a granddaughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tulip gave birth ...

Labour MPs have warned Jeremy Corbyn he must make more effort to mobilise Labour supporters in order to prevent Britain voting to leave the EU in next month’s referendum. Pro-EU Labour figures fear that Mr Corbyn will not throw his full weight behind the Remain campaign and that it could lose the referendum as a result. Some Labour MPs have ...

The new mayor of London Sadiq Khan has made his first major policy announcement, unveiling plans to substantially increase the size of London’s clean air charging zone to tackle the capital’s illegal air pollution levels. The Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) – which could also now come into force earlier than planned – will require drivers of the 2.5m oldest and dirtiest ...

The High Court has ruled that a father who took his daughter out of school for a family trip to Florida did not break the law, paving the way for more parents to take pupils on term-time holidays. Jon Platt refused to pay the charge for taking his family on the holiday after her Isle of Wight school refused permission ...

The European Union is a “force for social injustice” which backs “the haves rather than the have-nots”, Iain Duncan Smith has said. The ex-work and pensions secretary said “uncontrolled migration” drove down wages and increased the cost of living. He appealed to people “who may have done OK from the EU” to “think about the people that haven’t”. But Labour’s ...

Ansar Ahmed Ullah : The Bake off champion 2015 Nadiya Hussain, who recently made the Queen’s 90th birthday cake, was at the opening of the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival, London. She was in conversation with journalist and author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on 4 May at the opening of Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival, Cavendish Conference Centre. Bake off ...

Sadiq Khan will bring in a one-hour “Hopper” bus ticket which will allow passengers two journeys within a 60-minute window from September. The first policy of his mayoralty should make it cheaper and more convenient for Londoners to travel around the capital, with those on lower incomes benefiting most. The Labour Mayor said the ticket, which would cost a single ...

Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London – boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotland’s elections. Mr Khan is the city’s first Muslim mayor, after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1, 310,143 votes to 994, 614. The result bolsters leader Jeremy Corbyn after Labour were beaten into third in Scotland by the Tories and lost English councillors. ...

Bangla Mirror Desk : The future of the government’s biggest public sector reform programme, universal credit, rests “on a knife edge” because Treasury cuts have reduced it to an exercise in cost-cutting, potentially leaving millions of working families worse off, experts have warned. The original aim of universal credit (UC) – to encourage people to work more hours by letting them keep ...