Lead News

The education secretary has said she is “confident” free childcare for two-year-olds in England will be ready in time for its April rollout. Gillian Keegan told the BBC she would “deliver” the pledge for 15 hours per week free childcare to working parents. She initially said she was “pretty confident” of delivering the hours, but later said she was “very ...

A woman killed in an attack by dogs was visiting her grandson for the weekend, her family have said. Esther Martin, 68, died at the scene of the attack in Jaywick, near Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, on Saturday afternoon. A 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous dog offences and the animals have been destroyed. Ms Martin’s daughter told the ...

A former Tory minister has announced he will stand down as an MP at the next election to spend more time with his wife, who has suffered a stroke. Sir Bob Neill, 71, was first elected in 2006, and served as a junior minister in the coalition government. The Bromley and Chislehurst MP chairs the Commons justice committee. In a ...

Jeremy Hunt has said there is likely to be less scope for tax cuts in the March Budget than there was last autumn. The chancellor told the BBC he wanted to “lighten the tax burden” to help grow the economy. But he said this had to be done in a “responsible” way. In last year’s Autumn Statement, when the government ...

Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Thursday said Britain wants to support Bangladesh in different areas as it has been working with the country for a long time and understand its situation well. “Britain wants to help us in many ways as it has long advantage for a lot of centuries. They (Britain) have been working with us and ...

Details of a deal between the UK government and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to restore devolution in Northern Ireland have been published. The DUP has been boycotting Stormont’s power-sharing government for two years in protest at post-Brexit trade rules. The deal will reduce checks and paperwork on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The changes apply to ...

Britain is ready to bring forward the moment when it formally recognises a Palestinian state, the country’s foreign secretary has suggested. David Cameron said Palestinians had to be given a political horizon to encourage peace in the Middle East. He is beginning his fourth visit to the region since being appointed foreign secretary in November, BBC reports. The UK has ...

Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda bill is facing its first test as debate gets under way in the House of Lords. Peers including the Archbishop of Canterbury have criticised the principles of the bill, while the Lib Dems are pushing to kill it entirely. The move is expected to fail, but peers have indicated they will try to strip out key ...

King Charles has left hospital after treatment for an enlarged prostate. The King walked out of the London Clinic private hospital, having spent three nights there following his procedure. Earlier, Catherine, the Princess of Wales, left the same central London hospital, almost two weeks after undergoing “abdominal surgery”. The princess was driven to her home in Windsor, without any public ...

The bi-annual elections of the London-Bangla Press Club, the largest organization of Bengali-speaking media workers in the uk, were held on Sunday with great enthusiasm. In the election, Muhammad Jubair was elected as President, Taysir Mahmud as Secretary and Saleh Ahmad as Treasurer. In this election held at the Impression Banqueting Hall in East London, Jubair-Taysir-Murad won a total of ...