United Kingdom

    George Osborne, the Chancellor, has been dealt an embarrassing blow as official figures revealed that he has failed to meet his deficit reduction targets. The Government borrowed £4.8bn last month, excluding costs related to stakes in bailed-out banks, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This put the public sector’s total borrowing in the 2015-16 financial year at £74bn. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which produces official forecasts for the Government, updated its forecasts for the deficit only last month . Revealing the OBR's forecast at the Budget in March, the Chancellor announced that the Government expected to borrow £72.2bn in the fiscal year - a projection £1.8bn wide of the mark. It quickly became apparent that the UK would have to...

    She may be one of the most famous faces in the world, but the Queen can sometimes get away without being recognised. Her former protection officer Richard Griffin has revealed how the monarch once encountered a group of Americans while dressed in a headscarf and tweeds while out walking near Balmoral, according to the diary section of The Times. When the tourists asked: "Do you live round here?", the incognito Queen simply replied that she had a house nearby. "Have you ever met the Queen?" they asked. "No," she replied, then pointed at her policeman and quipped: "But he has." The Queen traditionally spends her summer break at her Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire - her private home which was handed down to her through generations of royals. She is apparently never happier t...

    Quitting the European Union would leave households £4,300 a year worse off, George Osborne warned as he prepared to release in-depth Treasury analysis on the cost of Brexit. Britain's economy would shrink by 6% by 2030 if the country replicated Canada's trading agreements as advocated by Boris Johnson, according to the Chancellor. The 200-page Government report assessing the long-term costs and benefits of EU membership as well as life outside shows the country would be left "permanently poorer". In an article for The Times, Mr Osborne said: "The conclusion is clear: for Britain's economy and for families, leaving the EU would be the most extraordinary self-inflicted wound." The study will say none of the alternative options to full EU membership would leave Britain with a...

    Next month Luton will become the sole European airport to serve St Helena - the British possession in the South Atlantic. The island’s new airport is due to be officially opened by Prince Edward on 21 May, and within 48 hours the first charter from Luton is scheduled to touch down. A new start-up carrier called Atlantic Star Airlines will fly the route, which includes a refuelling stop at Banjul in Gambia. The airline’s co-founder, Richard Brown, told The Independent: “We chose Luton because the team there were keen to support the service and add St Helena to their route portfolio.” The Bedfordshire airport, owned by Luton Borough Council, has had a chequered history. The former RAF fighter base grew rapidly in the 1960s and early 70s as package-holiday charter flights exp...

    For thousands of years the kings and queens of almost every civilization have relied on ‘volunteer’ food tasters to protect them from culinary harm. Vladimir Putin is thought to employ one – though it did little for Emperor Claudius in 54AD (whether it really was poison or the bad breath of his food taster, Halotus, which did for the Roman ruler, history does not record). All the more remarkable, then, to learn that Queen Elizabeth, who in her 63 years on the throne has probably eaten more royal meals than most of us have had…well…hot dinners, should not only have revived the ancient practice but to have enjoyed turning the tables. Speaking ahead of this week's 90th birthday celebrations, warrant officer John Ross has revealed that the monarch was in the habit of checking ...

    A national alert was triggered by Public Health England last September after the rare strain of the sexually transmitted superbug was detected in 15 people. The number of confirmed cases has now risen to 34 and, according to reports, there is "huge concern" among doctors that it is spreading across the UK. And experts said it is risk of becoming untreatable if the only fully effective antibiotic remaining fails. There have been efforts to track down the sexual partners of those infected with the disease, which can cause infertility. “Failure to respond appropriately will jeopardise our ability to treat gonorrhoea effectively and will lead to poorer health outcomes for individuals and society as a whole” Dr Elizabeth Carlin. However, Public Health England (PHE) is understoo...

    Up to 100,000 financial service jobs could be scrapped by the end of the decade if the UK broke away from the EU, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The accountancy firm's findings, part a report commissioned by lobbying group TheCityUK, mean a Brexit could reduce the sector's contribution to the economy by up to £12bn ($16.9bn). "Major firms from across the world come to London to access Europe's Single Market, bringing with them jobs and investment," said Chris Cummings, chief executive of the TheCityUK. "While Brexit may not be ruinous for the UK economy, it does risk damaging the UK-based financial services sector, particularly over the short-term, delaying investment decisions and reducing activity. It also threatens the overall competitiveness of the UK as a ...

    David Cameron David Cameron would be overthrown as prime minister within 30 seconds of a vote to leave the EU in the June referendum, Kenneth Clarke has said. In a direct challenge to Cameron, who told MPs this week that he would remain in office to negotiate Britain’s exit in the event of a vote to leave the EU, the veteran pro-European said it would be “farcical” for him to continue. The former chancellor told the Week in Westminster on BBC Radio 4: “The prime minister wouldn’t last 30 seconds if he lost the referendum and we’d be plunged into a Conservative leadership crisis which is never a very edifying sight.” The intervention by Clarke, whose frontbench career was revived by Cameron a year before the 2010 general election, will be seen by No 10 as particularly unhel...

    Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain is up for a real royal treat! Appearing on local show, Loose Women, the 31-year-old Bangladeshi baker from Luton, UK announced that she will be baking the Queen's 90th birthday cake, reports International Business Times. "I'm making the Queen's 90th birthday cake," she said. "'How often can you say that you are baking the Queen's birthday cake in one sentence?" She initially thought the request to bake for the Queen was a joke, but her agent confirmed the royal invitation. And while it is clearly an honour to be invited to bake the cake to mark the Queen's milestone birthday, Hussain, who was the first ever Muslim winner of GBBO, admitted she was so nervous that she couldn't even 'look at the oven'. "I have to give it to her on ...

tu     Five people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences – including one man who was detained at Gatwick airport – after an investigation involving MI5, Belgian and French authorities. West Midlands Police said three men and a 29-year-old woman were arrested in Birmingham on Thursday night and a 26-year-old man was held at the airport in the early hours of Friday. Officers were searching a number of properties in Birmingham as part of the ongoing investigation. Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who leads on counter terrorism for the West Midlands, said: “This action forms part of an extensive investigation by West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, together with the wider counter terrorism network, MI5 and international partners including Belgian and French ...