United Kingdom

    Nicola Sturgeon has warned time is running out for the Prime Minister to heed the voice of Scotland ahead of key Brexit talks. Scotland's First Minister urged Theresa May to take proposals from the devolved administrations seriously when she chairs a crucial meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) in Cardiff on Monday. On the agenda will be a Scottish Government paper setting out options to keep Scotland in the European single market even if the UK leaves, reflecting the majority Remain vote north of the border. Proposals to remain in the single market have also been put forward by Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones and Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood. A UK Government spokesman insisted that the proposals from the devolved administrations were being studied carefull...

    Diana, Princess of Wales is to be commemorated with a statue commissioned by her sons to mark the 20th anniversary of her death. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry said, with the passing of the years, the time was now appropriate to recognise her positive impact both at home and abroad with the monument. It will be erected in a place she knew well, the public gardens of Diana's former home Kensington Palace. The royal brothers said: "It has been 20 years since our mother's death and the time is right to recognise her positive impact in the UK and around the world with a permanent statue. Our mother touched so many lives. We hope the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on her life and her legacy. William was 15 years old and Harry just 12 w...

    Britain's big freeze will give way to a barrage of storms set to unleash heavy downpours and gales from next week. Cold conditions from the Continent will finally lift allowing milder but much more unsettled weather to swing in from the Atlantic. A dramatic u-turn in the weather at the end of this month with trigger storms through into February, experts warn. The Met Office said a change to more unsettled conditions will arrive this weekend with heavy rain and gales on the way for some. It follows a bitter, foggy, and icy fortnight which has brought chaos on the roads and transport networks to parts of Britain. Thermometers plunged below freezing across the south this week while temperatures in the north hit 13C on Thursday. Much of the UK will start to feel milder in the ...

    Speculation surrounding the seriousness of Prince Harry's relationship with Suits actress Meghan Markle just turned up a notch thanks to a revealing Q&A on Reddit. 35-year-old Markle's co-star in the US paralegal drama, Patrick J Adams, shed light on the seriousness of the new royal romance after hinting she may be joining the British Royal Family. The Canadian actor, also 35, plays Markle's on-screen lover and now fiancé on the NBC series which premiered its Season 6 Episode 11 last night. But despite sharing a lot of steamy moments with his co-star, viewers were more interested in Prince Harry details. One cheeky Reddit user called swaminator201 asked the star: What's it like making out on-screen with the potentially future princess of England? Divulging the potentia...

    One line in the Article 50 bill is infuriating people Theresa May finally published the Brexit bill, the piece of legislation that's going to take us out of the European Union and it’s a scant six lines worth of legislation. Reports even suggest that the government is looking at a one-line bill in order to minimise debate and possible amendment. It’s a bit all over the place really. As if the current state of affairs isn't strange enough, it now appears that Brexit will cost the UK precisely nothing. The Financial Times' Brussels bureau chief, Alex Barker, tweeted a section of Article 50's explanatory notes which read: The Bill is not expected to have any financial implications. People are so bewildered they're calling #fakenews! on the entire operation: Is the government ...

    The European parliament is to investigate the British government’s treatment of EU nationals living in the UK who have applied for citizenship or permanent residency since the Brexit referendum. Sophie in ‘t Veld, a deputy leader of the liberal group in the parliament, told the Guardian that she intends to form a cross-party taskforce to examine cases where EU nationals have faced a bureaucratic wall when seeking to secure their future in the UK. The Dutch MEP said she had taken up the cause in response to concerns EU nationals had raised with her and after learning about the plight of Monique Hawkins, a Dutch national. Late last year the Guardian revealed that Hawkins, who has lived in the UK for 24 years, had received a letter from the Home Office advising her to “prepar...

    A Roman Catholic School has found itself at the centre of a social media storm after telling parents of a four-year-old Muslim girl she should not wear the hijab to school. St Clare’s School in Robert Road, Handsworth, has a strict uniform policy, including no headwear or scarf and asked parents of the girl to respect it. The row has now divided senior councillors and women’s rights activists who have been locked in a row over Facebook and Twitter. But her father called on Birmingham City Council’s Labour cabinet member for equalities Waseem Zaffar to intervene causing the row to erupt. Coun Zaffar (Lozells and East Handsworth) wrote that he had met with the head teacher and told her the ban on the scarf was against the equalities act. He added: I’m insisting this matter i...

    Theresa May needs the approval of Parliament to trigger the Brexit process, Britain's most senior judges have ruled. The Supreme Court has decided that MPs must be given a vote on triggering Article 50, the formal mechanism for leaving the European Union. The Prime Minister has said she intends to do this by the end of March, and the Government is now expected to quickly publish a bill in an effort to stick to that timetable. Theresa May Although it is thought to be unlikely that the Government will lose a vote in Parliament, the Supreme Court's decision, by an 8-3 majority, could hold up the Brexit process. Labour has said it will table a number of amendments and seek more details on the Government's negotiation strategy, the SNP has vowed to vote against the plans and th...

    Sir Michael Fallon is to be quizzed by MPs today over claims that Downing Street covered up a Trident missile test failure just weeks before a crucial Commons vote. The Defence Secretary will be forced to make a Commons statement or answer an urgent question after Theresa May refused four times in a TV interview to say whether she knew about the malfunction. The Sunday Times has revealed that a Trident II D5 missile veered off course after being launched from the British submarine HMS Vengeance off the coast of Florida in June last year. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon speaks to media in front of HMS Audacious at BAE Systems, Burrow-in-Furness, where he will attend a steel-cutting ceremony to formally commence production of the UK's next generation of nuclear… It happened...

    A family from West Yorkshire is believed to be the first in Britain to have six generations alive at the same time. The Hanson family from Bradford has 44 living members ranging from the oldest, aged 103, to the most recent arrival, born on Christmas Day. Baby Finley is the great-great-great-grandson of the matriarch of the tribe, Hilda Hanson, known affectionately as little gran. Talking to BBC Radio 5 Live on Saturday, Finley’s great-grandmother Sue Godward, 62, said: When Finley was born, my daughter Nikki and Melissa, my other daughter, started researching big generation families and they could not find anybody else in Britain with six generations living. Nobody else has come forward with six generations. They located one in Alberta, Canada, who last month celebrated t...