Lead News

Watchdog demands meeting with education department over ‘potentially misleading’ claims about school funding The education secretary, Damian Hinds, has been publicly reprimanded by the UK statistics watchdog over his department’s repeated misuse of data, in particular its “potentially misleading” claims over schools funding. The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) complained it had had reason to write to the Department for Education ...

  LONDON : Screenwriter Ray Galton, who co-wrote the landmark British comedy series “Hancock’s Half Hour” and “Steptoe and Son,” has died at 88. Galton’s family said Saturday that he died Friday evening after a “long and heart-breaking battle with dementia.” The London-born Galton was diagnosed with life-threatening tuberculosis as a teenager. In a sanatorium, he met another sick teen, ...

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have rejected the possibility of Stormont having a say over what kind of backstop may emerge if there is a ‘no deal’ Brexit Proposals being worked on by the British government are said to include some kind of role for MLAs. Sinn Féin and the SDLP said they oppose this. Earlier the parties, along with ...

Theresa May’s claim that austerity is coming to an end is as likely as her winning Strictly Come Dancing, Labour has said. The prime minister told the Conservative Party conference that, after a decade of economic sacrifices, the end was in sight. But shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the words “lacked credibility”. He said children’s services faced a £2bn budget ...

EU negotiator reportedly believes speech could signal room for Brexit compromise Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, has taken Theresa May’s failure to namecheck Chequers in her Tory conference speech as a sign that she may be ready to dump the plan and get realistic, according to sources in Brussels. In her speech in Birmingham, May spelled out her vision ...

Six-month programme aims to increase diversity and follows calls for greater involvement Britain’s leading Muslim organisation has launched a scheme to train women for leadership positions in mosques and community bodies. Twenty women have embarked on the six-month intensive programme run by the Muslim Council of Britain, aimed at equipping them for leadership positions. As well as one-to-one mentoring, the ...

speech is Theresa May’s third as Conservative leader Theresa May is closing the Conservative conference with a promise that Britain’s post-Brexit future is “full of promise” and that her party remains “on the side” of hard-pressed families. The PM will tell the Tory faithful the country’s “best days lie ahead of us”. She will also announce that fuel duty will ...

MEPs attack adoption of skills-based policy and end to freedom of movement Senior EU figures have attacked Theresa May’s post-Brexit immigration planwith the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, signalling that he expects a row with the British prime minister at an upcoming “moment of truth” summit. As May sketched out her plans to end freedom of movement and ...

Chancellor also says UK may soon have to tax internet firms such as Amazon and Google Philip Hammond has warned the Treasury’s austerity programme will come under attack from what he called “populists and demagogues” among Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters, but claimed it would retain the backing of the British people. The chancellor said he would withhold funds to protect the ...

Birmingham, Oct 1 : Britain’s chief Brexit minister is warning the European Union, and his divided party, that the country will leave the bloc without a deal rather than accept close adherence to its rules and obligations. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will tell Conservative Party members on Monday that if the EU tries to “lock us in via the back ...