United Kingdom

    As he took questions from workers at the Teesside factory, one worker asked: "You just said low tax. Do you mean low tax for people like you or low tax for people like us." In response, Mr Johnson appeared to confirm reports he plans to increase the threshold for paying National Insurance from £8,632 to more than £12,000. He said: "I mean low tax for people of the working people." He added: "And if you look at what we're doing and what I've said in the last few days, we're going to be cutting national insurance up to £12,000, we're going to be making sure that we cut business rates for small businesses, we are cutting tax for working people." The Institute for Fiscal studies estimates the policy move would cost £10bn. The Tory leader went on to make an unfounded cl...

    Social media has changed the way businesses work, allowing for direct engagement with users, real-time news updates and a gorgeous curation of images in one place to help establish brand identity 95% of 18-34-year-olds follow a brand via social media (according to Marketing Sherpa). However, like any skill, using social media to build and grow your brand takes practice and savvy which is why we’ve spoken to designers and marketeers for their top tips on how to nail your social presence. One key factor you’ll definitely need? The right software. Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams lets you organise your assets so they’re accessible from any device (you’ll also get 100GB cloud storage per license), plus a library of royalty-free Adobe Stock images at your fingertips. You c...

    Support for the Tories has hit 45 per cent, increasing the party's lead over Labour, according to a new poll. The Conservative Party has seen a steady climb from 42 to 45 per cent from last week, the YouGov survey suggests. This brings the party 17 per cent ahead of Labour, who remain unchanged at 28 per cent. The data is based on the voting intentions of 1,670 adults Brits. Support for the Liberal Democrats remains at 15 per cent and the Brexit party remains at four per cent. The Green Party has dipped one per cent, losing some of their support. Figures come just before the election campaign strides into its fourth week. Prime Minister Boris Johnson began his rally for voters this week by visiting some of the areas in the north of England and knocking on doors i...

    Advanced plans for another centrist political party to be launched after Brexit were developed by MPs earlier this year, it has emerged. Dozens of figures from inside and outside Westminster were involved in the project, designed to go public once a second Brexit referendum was no longer possible. Nick Boles, the former Conservative minister who quit the party over Brexit in April, said he had been constantly in talks about a possible new party and had at one point been confident it would happen. An earlier failed attempt to launch a new party, Brexit delays and the tantalising prospect of a second referendum had stopped it. It’s almost all I’ve been doing, Boles said. I can’t mention names, but it involved some very seriously good people, both MPs and not MPs, bu...

    Home secretary Priti Patel intervened to block a recent rescue operation to bring British orphans and unaccompanied minors home from Syria, sources have revealed. During National Security Council meetings last month and internal discussions, Patel, backed by several other ministers including defence secretary Ben Wallace, objected to the extraction of British children from the war-ravaged country, sources say. Their opposition meant that a discussed late October rescue operation was abandoned at the last minute because Patel, Wallace and chancellor Sajid Javid felt the children posed security concerns. More than 60 British minors, including at least three orphans, had been identified, and a quick and safe route identified to take them out of north-east Syria and th...

    A man accused of murdering his pregnant ex-wife with a crossbow has claimed he only intended to get her attention when he fired the bolt. Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo is accused of murdering Devi Unmathallegadoo, 35, after their marriage broke down and she left him for another man. The 51-year-old armed himself with two crossbows and hid in a shed at the home Ms Unmathallegadoo shared with her new partner Imtiaz Muhammad on the morning of November 12 last year. Unmathallegadoo claimed he only had the loaded weapons to prevent himself being intimidated by Mr Muhammad when he came to confront them. But the jury were told on Friday that Unmathallegadoo had been stockpiling weapons and equipment for more than a year before the killing. He had acquired two crossbows and ...

    If you’re the type of person who snoozes your alarm every morning or can’t function before (or even after) your morning coffee, there might be a genetic reason for that. New research by DNA testing company, 23andMe, has discovered that genetic programming plays a part in our wake up time. The research studied over 1,500 British people to determine that 7.55am was the UK’s average genetic wake up time. This means that the average Brit will wake up naturally just before 8am each day. Many people set their alarms for much earlier than that, hence our feelings of tiredness and lack of productivity. Interrupting your body’s circadian rhythm (which is the official term for our body clock) can leave us feeling out of sorts at the beginning of the day. If you don’t feel...

    Brussels has launched legal action against the UK over Boris Johnson's failure to nominate a new EU commissioner to send to Brussels. In a statement the European Commission said it had issued a formal letter of notice to the British government for breaching its EU treaty obligations and would be starting infringement proceedings. Mr Johnson has so far refused to nominate a candidate for the incoming EU executive, stating that it is convention that such senior appointments cannot be made by the government during an election period. On Thursday evening EU rejected the explanation given by the UK, stating that a member state may not invoke provisions prevailing in its domestic legal system to justify failure to observe obligations arising under Union law. The move by...

    Nigel Farage has turned down an 11th-hour electoral pact offer from the Conservatives, according to reports. Boris Johnson suggested the Tories could put up paper candidates in Labour held seats and do minimal campaigning. This would give the Brexit Party a stronger chance of winning in Leave-supporting areas. But the deal was reportedly rejected by Mr Farage who wanted the Tories to step aside entirely in the constituencies. He also feared it would leave the Brexit Party with just 40 target seats. The talks broke down on Tuesday and the deadline to nominate candidates arrives at 4pm today. Mr Johnson's final offer came after after the Brexit Party withdrew its own candidates from all 317 seats currently held by Conservatives, the Telegraph reports. Mr Farage des...

    Electric car pioneer Elon Musk has picked Germany for his new factory because of Brexit, embarrassing Boris Johnson as he prepares to pledge a “clean energy revolution”. The prime minister is due to make a televised speech at an electric car plant in the West Midlands but the visit risks being overshadowed by the Mr Musk’s change of heart. At an award ceremony in Germany, the entrepreneur announced: “We've decided to put the Tesla Giga factory Europe in the Berlin area.” And, speaking to Auto Express, he blamed Brexit uncertainty for his decision to drop plans to build a research and development base in the UK, which will now also go to Germany. “Brexit made it too risky to put a Gigafactory in the UK,” Mr Musk said, referring to Tesla’s new battery and electric v...