United Kingdom

    This supermarket will now accept your old £1 coins until New Year's Eve If you still find yourself coming across old £1 coins at home, then fear not, because Iceland has just announced that it will accept the old round pound coins until 31st December. The old coins ceased to be legal tender on 15 October 2017, but supermarket chain Iceland had already joined a handful of retailers including Poundland and Tesco in making the decision to continue accepting the coins, despite it going out of circulation. Initially, Iceland told customers they would be able to spend their old one pound coins until 31st October. And now that time has passed, the supermarket chain has issued a new statement, announcing that it will now accept the old coins for a further two months until the end ...

    The Government has lost an opposition vote calling on it to publish impact assessments of Brexit on over 50 key industries. There was no official division as only Labour MPs backed it and no Tory MPs objected. Speaker John Bercow said he expects the Government to respect the decision - despite confusion over whether the result is binding. Opposition day debate motions are traditionally non-binding, but Labour had tabled a special 'Humble Address' motion. It is a centuries-old and infrequently used procedure that asks the Queen directly to request documents from the Government. Mr Bercow had only advised: "Motions of this kind have in the past been seen as effective or binding. But he warned ministers could be in contempt of Parliament if they ignore the call. SNP MP Peter ...

    British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to appoint a new defence minister on Thursday after her loyal ally  quit in a sexual harassment scandal that has prompted calls for an end to the locker room culture in parliament. Just hours after Fallon resigned over past behaviour he said had fallen ‘below the high standards we require of the armed forces’, May appointed Gavin Williamson, 41, a rising star in her ruling Conservative Party. Weakened after losing her party’s parliamentary majority in a June election, May had to move swiftly to plug the hole in her divided cabinet. Fallon’s departure was another blow for her as she has struggled to hold the cabinet together since the vote, which many Conservative Party members blamed on her. The growing harassment scandal could...

    Joel Goodman More than 170 children were in the foyer of the Manchester Arena when the bomb was detonated, police have revealed. Senior officers released new information about the May 22 attack, including the horrific nature of the injuries, as part of an update on their investigation. They said 512 people were directly impacted by the blast that night, either through ‘injury or profound trauma’. Police are confident the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber will be brought to the UK from Libya to face charges Two people remain in hospital more than five months on from the attack, with dozens more coming to terms with life-changing injuries. GMP’s Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said that some of the most seriously hurt suffered paralysis, loss of limbs, internal i...

    House builders are using a legal loophole to wriggle out of developing thousands of affordable homes in order to maximise profits, a housing charity has claimed. Shelter has released a dossier it claims shows the number of affordable homes in new-builds drops drastically after developers submit a viability assessment when applying for permission to build. These assessments allow developers to put in planning applications which do not hit council targets for affordable homes – claiming if they were to build those houses it would mean profits would be severely reduced. One council told HuffPost UK it feels it has no choice but to accept the lower affordable housing figure, or risk no development happening at all. According to Shelter, at least 2,500 affordable homes across E...

    Damian Green is being investigated by the Cabinet Secretary over claims he made inappropriate advances to a female activist Theresa May has ordered an investigation into allegations that her effective deputy, Damian Green, made inappropriate advances to a female activist. Kate Maltby, who is three decades younger than the First Secretary of State, told The Times that Green had touched her knee during a meeting in a Waterloo pub in 2015 and a year later sent her a suggestive text message after she was pictured wearing a corset in the newspaper. Green said any allegation that he made sexual advances to Maltby was untrue (and) deeply hurtful. Labour activist claims she was warned not to report rape at party event Maltby wrote that the encounters left her feeling awkward embar...

    A Labour activist has claimed she was raped at a party event and then advised by a senior official not to report the attack because it could damage her career. Bex Bailey, 25, has alleged she was attacked by a senior party figure, who was not an MP, at an event in 2011 when she was 19-years-old. She said she approached someone at the Labour Party headquarters to ask about reporting the attack but was discouraged from going to the police. Labour said it would launch an independent investigation into the claims. Ms Bailey decided to speak out about the event to BBC Radio 4, waiving her automatic right to anonymity granted to victims or alleged victims of sexual offences. She told Carolyn Quinn she was doing so in order to urge senior politicians to make it easier for people ...

    In the British parlament, 36 Tory MPs have been identified on a spreadsheet detailing inappropriate behaviour towards colleagues, including allegations of sexual misconduct. The dossier, revealed by Guido Fawkes, is believed to have been put together by Conservative aides and staffers. The explosive claims include one minister who is accused of being “handsy with women at parties” and another who was said to be perpetually intoxicated and very inappropriate with women. It comes just days after it was revealed aides shared claims about high profile political figures on a Whatsapp group. The allegations include harassment of both male and female staff and claims one minister paid women to keep quiet and accused another of having sexual relations with a researcher. On Sunday,...

    Britain is set for its coldest winter for the past five years with freezing air from the North Pole sending the thermometer plummeting to -11C. And it is feared the cold snap will bring widespread snow and ice and cause travel chaos. Monday will bring the first big Autumn freeze with motorists waking to find frozen windscreens after temperatures fell to -4C overnight. And the forecasters say parts of the north could have snow on the hills within days. But Arctic winds later this year are expected to deliver Britain’s coldest winter since the bitter 2012-13 freeze. December and January are both forecast to be colder than normal, with all areas of the UK, including the south, being affected. Five years ago temperatures plunged as low as -14C in the same two months. Snow and ...

    International Trade minister Mark Garnier will be investigated over a possible breach of ministerial rules after he admitted asking a former aide to buy sex toys. The Cabinet Office will probe whether the Wyre Forest MP broke the Ministerial Code after he confirmed allegations made by his former secretary, including that he called her sugar t***. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed the investigation on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show. The Prime Minister will also write to House of Commons Speaker John Bercow to ask how a sexual harassment scandal engulfing Westminster can best be addressed. It comes as Theresa May was reported to get weekly updates about indiscretions by her MPs from Conservative Party whips, leading to calls for allegations to be reported to police. Meanwhi...