United Kingdom

    While the Queen seemed impressed with Hussain’s effort, many viewers took to Twitter to brand the three-tiered cake wonky. Speaking on Loose Women on Friday, the Great British Bake Off winner insisted that she ‘couldn’t care less’ about the criticism. If I cared about what people said, I would never leave my house, she told the panel. So you know what? Actually I couldn’t care less. Talking about what it was like to meet the monarch, Hussain admitted that she ‘freaked out’ a little bit. “It went really, really well…. I did say, ‘good morning, Your Majesty,’ then I said, 'happy birthday, Your Majesty, it’s afternoon!’” I did freak out a little bit. I only got two minutes with her but I thought in those two minutes she’s really nice. Hussain’s cake, which was presented to Th...

    The Bank of Mum and Dad will help finance 25% of UK mortgage transactions this year, according to research. Parents are set to lend their children £5 billion in order to help their children on to the property ladder. If the lending power was of all these parents was combined, it would be a top 10 mortgage provider, the BBC said. Nigel Wilson, chief executive of financial services firm Legal & General, which carried out the research, said the data showed a number of issues, including house prices being "out of sync with wages". The research estimated that the Bank of Mum and Dad will provide deposits for more than 300,000 mortgages. The homes purchased will be worth £77 billion and the average contribution is £17,500 or 7% of the average purchase price, the BBC said. But...

    Traffic on a busy motorway can be frustrating at the best of times - but it proved particularly stressful for one mother who went into labour. Baby Tommy was born on the hard shoulder of the M42 after a collision and a fuel spillage caused massive delays between Junction 7A and 7 on Saturday afternoon. The Central Motorway Police Group was called to help with the special delivery. Tommy's grandfather, Terry Kemp, has thanked officers who "came to the rescue" - and released a photo of his grandson sleeping soundly in hospital. "Mom and baby are doing well," he said. "Once again, big thank you to the police." Hundreds of people have congratulated the police for their speedy response on Facebook. It was a busy day for the specialist police squad. Earlier, officers managed to ...

    A tense vote on the Immigration Bill in the House of Commons this week saw plans to let the youngsters into Britain defeated by just 18 votes. MPs cried shame as the Government scuppered a plan that would see the youngsters rescued from European refugee camps. Home Secretary Theresa May had satisfied Tory rebels by agreeing to take 3,000 children from camps near Syria instead, but the move was defeated in the House of Lords. And Conservative sources say the Government is planning a U-Turn. One Tory source told the Sunday Mirror: “They are definitely willing to come to the table to avoid any potential problems. “There’s no way they want to do this before the local elections . “They don’t want to look weak and they are worried it might do damage in areas where immigration is...

    British tourists heading to Ibiza this summer could face large fines for drinking in the streets - even if it's just water. The bylaw is being considered by San Antonio to make it easier for police to control drinking. Aida Alcaraz, a town councillor in San Antonio told The Local: Given how difficult it is for police to differentiate between whether it is alcohol or a softdrink being consumed it is necessary to adopt an outright ban. Obviously people will be allowed to consume drinks on the terraces of bars, but they won't be able to take the drinks off the premises. However, some people have pointed out that this could lead to members of the public suffering from dehydration as temperatures can get searingly hot in the summer. According to RT News, Popular Party councillo...

    British actress Emilia Clarke, who was named the Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire magazine in November 2015, has talked about the time when she was just like any other 18-year-old, concerned about being fat and the way she appeared. In a video for Teen Vogue, the Game Of Thrones star read out a heartfelt letter to her 18-year-old self, filled with important lessons on life and advices from the now 29-year-old's point of view. You are not as fat as you think you are, Clarke advised, reiterating confidence in the age where the current body standards are practically unattainable. There are some women who look some way and there are other women who look another way, like a whole other way. And the way that the other women look, people love because they look like women, the Briti...

    A couple's dream trip to Las Vegas came to an abrupt end before it had even started - when the pair realised they had booked to fly from the wrong Birmingham airport. Richella Heekin and Ben Marlow spent £1,200 on their break, but only realised the mistake when they were actually at the airport. They were told their flights were booked for Birmingham, Alabama, instead of the West Midlands. To make matters worse, they were told that a refund wasn't possible. Richella, from Sutton Coldfield, had booked the trip on lastminute.com for her boyfriend's 30th as a surprise, and had kept it secret for a whole year before revealing the present at a party in front of their friend and family. But she had unwittingly booked the airport code BHM, which is Birmingham Alabama, instead of ...

    Border Force check the passports of passengers arriving at Gatwick Airport Britain's borders were left exposed to terrorists last year after a Home Office computer system which screens passengers crashed twice in 48 hours, The Telegraph can reveal. The eBorders system, which was put in place after the 9/11 terror attacks to protect the country from jihadists, ground to a halt in June last year. The incident, which this newspaper has seen details of, was deemed so serious that Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was alerted by officials close to midnight. The Home Office refused to reveal how often the system has crashed or whether there have been any outages since the incident. Technicians worked through the night to fix the system amid fears from border officials that hundre...

    Labour MP Naz Shah admits to the Guido Fawkes blog she wrote a Facebook post arguing for Israel’s population to be “transported” out of the Middle East to America. Shah is currently a member of the House of Commons home affairs select committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the rise of antisemitism. The post, shared nine months before she beat George Galloway to win the seat in Bradford West, showed a picture of Israel superimposed over the United States, with the approving comment: “Problem solved and save you bank charges for the £3bn you transfer yearly.” In comments below, Shah said she would tweet Barack Obama and David Cameron with the suggestion and said it would “save them some pocket money”. Shah, parliamentary private secretary to the shadow chancellor, Jo...

    More than a million people in the UK are so poor they cannot afford to eat properly, keep clean or stay warm and dry, according to a groundbreaking attempt to measure the scale of destitution in Britain. A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that 184,500 households experienced a level of poverty in a typical week last year that left them reliant on charities for essentials such as food, clothes, shelter and toiletries. More than three-quarters of destitute people reported going without meals, while more than half were unable to heat their home. Destitution affected their mental health, left them socially isolated and prone to acute feelings of shame and humiliation. Although the study could not demonstrate that destitution had increased in recent years, it ...