United Kingdom

    The Queen's security could be at risk from serial squatters who invaded a building just metres away from Buckingham Palace, the property's owners claimed. Around a dozen activists moved into the seven-storey property on Buckingham Gate, in the shadow of the monarch's residence, rebranding it the Rogue Embassy. Court documents shown to the Press Association by the squatters cited a Metropolitan Police royal specialist protection officer who flagged a potential security risk  posed by the group. Concerns were raised that, if the occupiers accessed the adjoining roof, they could directly peer into the gardens of the royal grounds. But one of the protesters insisted they were not going to do anything. A witness statement filed by Archie Riby-Williams, a director of 18-19 Bucki...

    Drivers can be spared a ban by courts in 'exceptional' circumstances A man with 62 points on his licence is still on the roads driving legally, it has been reported. The motorist, from West Yorkshire, was last given points for a speeding offence. But he kept his licence and is still able to drive, according to the BBC. Normally, reaching 12 points leads to an automatic ban. But magistrates have the power to give drivers a reprieve in exceptional circumstances. A Freedom of Information request by BBC South East revealed there are around 10,000 motorists on Britain's roads who have 12 points or more on their licence. The majority have between 12 and 18 points, but 203 have more. In Essex a driver has 42 points, in Oxfordshire 51 and in Norfolk 39. David Nichols, of road saf...

    Border Force officer The level of immigration from Romania and Bulgaria to the UK has risen to the highest level on record in the months following the Brexit referendum result, according to the Office for National Statistics. Inward migration from the the so-called EU2 countries was up 19,000 to 74,000, which the ONS described as the highest estimate recorded. The period measured by the statistics includes three months of data following the European Union referendum. Net migration overall was slightly down but broadly flat in the figures at 273,000 a year, down 49,000. The ONS said this change was not statistically significant. The rise in immigration from Bulgaria and Romania was partially offset by a fall in the number of migrants from the Ascension 8 countries like Pola...

    Housebuyers backed into a corner by Britain's property bubble should head to County Durham - where the average home will set you back less than the cost of a family car. Durham is home to seven of the UK's cheapest streets - head to Peterlee and you can expect to spend as little as £14,600 for your place on the property ladder. But it gets cheaper. Port of Sunderland: A street in Washington, Sunderland could be a bargain for housebuyers The least expensive street in England and Wales for the third year in a row has been named as Waterloo Walk in Sunderland, where flats sold for an average of £14,500 in 2015, down from £16,500 in 2015. In contrast, a Mirror investigation has revealed the most expensive streets in England and Wales in 2016, with Lansdowne Crescent in Notting...

    The EU fears millions of its nationals living in the UK will be left stranded in a legal no man’s land after the country leaves the EU because of the weaknesses of the British immigration system, a document obtained by the Observer reveals. MEPs and senior European diplomats fear that chaos will ensue as the Home Office does not have the information or systems in place to select who can stay, once the UK restricts access to nationals from the other 27 EU member states. It is widely assumed that, at an early stage of the article 50 negotiations, Britain and the EU will agree a cut-off date after which foreigners who have settled in the country will not have an automatic right to remain. But a leaked document, drawn up by MEPs on the European parliament’s employment committe...

    Hoarders with stashes of £1 coins are being warned to cash them in as they will soon be useless. The familiar round Pound will start disappearing next month when the new 12-sided version is rolled out. And the old one will cease to be legal tender from October 15 , meaning it can no longer be spent. The switch has raised fears that millions of children with piggy banks, elderly people with jars of savings and householders who keep loose change for odd purchases will be out of pocket. The speedy handover is designed to keep a step ahead of forgers who have mastered how to replicate the original with an estimated £45 million worth of fake £1 coins in circulation. New £1 coins ALREADY selling for hundreds on eBay and they're not even out in the UK yet The speedy roll out is t...

    More than 600,000 patients a year could be denied access to potentially life-saving clinical trials after Brexit, medical research organisations have warned. New regulations are set to make it significantly easier for drug companies to test pioneering new treatments in EU countries sparking concerns the UK will be bypassed altogether when it leaves the bloc. Many patients, including those with cancer, diabetes and rare diseases, benefit greatly from access to drugs in late stages of testing that are not yet available on the NHS. But Beth Thompson, senior policy adviser at the Wellcome Trust, which funds medical research, told The Independent: There is a real risk that patients will miss out when the new EU rules come into operation late next year. It’s going to become more...

    A murder investigation has been launched after a young man was killed during a mass fight on a suburban street in north London. Police rushed to Heathfield Gardens, where houses cost around £1 million, at around 7.15pm on Friday following reports of a number of males fighting. They found a man in his early 20s with a serious gash on his neck. He was taken to hospital in an ambulance but later died. Police said they do not know exactly what caused the wound at this stage. Enquiries are underway to trace and inform the victim’s family, while formal identification and a post-mortem examination will take place in due course. Two men were arrested on suspicion of affray and remain in custody at a north London police station. Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command ...

    Theresa May is attempting to woo the French government with a pledge that Britain will not seek to cherry-pick parts of EU membership after Brexit. The Prime Minister is hosting French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve for talks at Downing Street and will promise to respect the EU's desire to keep freedom of movement. Her pledge came after the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in December regarding the UK's Brexit negotiations: We will not allow any cherry picking. The four basic freedoms must be safeguarded - freedom of movement for people, goods, services and financial market products. Only then can there be access to the single market. Then, on the day of the Prime Minister's Lancaster House speech on Brexit on 17 January, the European Parliament's chief Brexit negoti...

    Tony Blair will declare his mission to persuade the UK to stay in the EU today, calling for remain supporters to rise up in defence of what we believe. The former prime minister will make the statement at his first big speech since the EU referendum, arguing that people were misinformed when they voted for Brexit. The people voted without knowledge of the true terms of Brexit. As these terms become clear, it is their right to change their mind, he is expected to say. Our mission is to persuade them to do so. His intervention is likely to be highly controversial at a time when Theresa May has criticised those seeking to deny the will of the people as reflected by the EU referendum vote on 23 June 2016, and when Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has pledged not to block the tr...