NHS reform will give ministers more power; China bans BBC ‘fake news’

Matt Hancock’s blueprint to reform the NHS, better integrate social care and “do away with irksome bureaucracy” will also hand greater power over the NHS to ministers. Conservatives have broadly welcomed Hancock’s shakeup to the health service, laid out today, while Labour has been questioning the health secretary’s priorities and timing given the UK is […]

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Government ‘betrayal of millions’ in cladding scandal; BoE governor warns households of higher costs

The government has been accused of “a betrayal of millions’” over their £3.5 billion fund to fix the cladding scandal that has left leaseholders in debt and limbo since the Grenfell fire, more than three and a half years ago. Politicians from all parties joined homeowners and campaigners to condemn the government’s £3.5 billion fund […]

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PM to publish roadmap out of lockdown as R rate falls – but death toll rises past 111,000

The coronavirus rate of infection in the UK is back below 1, figures released today reveal, confirming the epidemic is finally shrinking, a month into England’s third lockdown. Boris Johnson is set to publish the government’s roadmap for lifting the lockdown restrictions in England on February 22, as data confirmed a decrease in positive coronavirus […]

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UK must ‘come down hard’ on SA Covid variant says Hancock, while Isle of Mann ends all restrictions

Matt Hancock has said the UK must “come down hard” on the South African coronavirus variant after community cases were found in eight areas across England. “Surge testing” will be carried out in the eight postcodes where a total of 105 cases of the SA variant – called 501Y.V2 – have been identified. Worryingly, 11 […]

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Journalist arrested for photographing barrack’s protest while barrister is fined at Euston tunnel demo

A press photographer has been arrested and held for seven hours by police for taking pictures of a protest outside a former barracks that houses asylum seekers in Kent. Andy Aitchison, 46, took photos of a demonstration outside Napier barracks on Thursday morning as protestors threw buckets of water mixed with food dye at the […]

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Sturgeon accused of jeopardising UK’s vaccine supply in row with EU; PM calls Scottish indy-ref ‘completely irrelevant’

Nicola Sturgeon is being accused of undermining the UK in its escalating battle with the EU over vaccine doses. The Scottish first minister is “threatening to publish details of confidential supplies” that the “UK government wants to keep secret”, the Times is reporting today (Thursday). The other pro-Conservative broadsheet, the Telegraph has also piled in, […]

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