United Kingdom

    Japan’s foreign minister has pleaded with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt not to lead the UK out of the EU without a deal when one of them becomes prime minister. In an unusually blunt warning, Tarō Kōno suggested Japanese companies operating in the UK would relocate to other countries in Europe in the event of a no-deal Brexit. There are over 1,000 Japanese companies operating in the United Kingdom, so we are very concerned with this no-deal Brexit, Kōno told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday. Both Johnson and Hunt have said they would be prepared to take the UK out of the EU without an agreement if they become prime minister. Kōno said he had asked both of them to avoid a no-deal Brexit. Whenever we had a meeting that was one of the major issue[s], please ...

    Boris Johnson has categorically ruled out extending Article 50 and delaying Brexit should he become prime minister. In an interview with TalkRadio on Tuesday morning, the frontrunner in the Conservative Party leadership contest said he would take the UK out of the EU on October 31 “come what may” and “do or die”. Johnson had appeared to avoid a firm commitment to that date in recent comments including during the first hustings with Tory members on Sunday. Jeremy Hunt has said while he would be willing to take the UK out of the EU without an agreement on October 31 - it would be a mistake to do so if a deal was close to being reached. Johnson said today he would use “positive energy” to deliver a Brexit deal. Asked if he could “categorically rule out an extension” ...

    A relative of the man who founded the NHS died after a "life-threatening mistake" made by two NHS trusts, an inquest has heard. Roderick Bevan, the great-nephew of Nye Bevan, died last year after doctors at two hospitals failed to notify him about a lung tumour, the family's solicitor said. The tumour was identified during a PET scan at Boston Pilgrim Hospital in October 2016. Despite further appointments at that hospital, as well as the University Hospitals of Leicester Trust, Mr Bevan was not told he had lung cancer until January 2018. By that time, the 66-year-old's condition had deteriorated such that he was no longer a candidate for active treatment, according to the narrative verdict recorded at his inquest. The verdict added that Mr Bevan could have been t...

    The televised Tory leadership debate has been cancelled because Boris Johnson refuses to take part, Sky News has announced. In a development that could represent a fresh blow to the frontrunner’s hopes of becoming prime minister, the broadcaster said he had so far declined the invitation to go head to head with rival Jeremy Hunt who has accused his opponent of bottling it. A spokesman said: Sky News has been planning to hold a debate tomorrow between the two remaining candidates in the Conservative leadership election. Jeremy Hunt has agreed to take part but Boris Johnson has so far declined the invitation. We stand ready to host a debate tomorrow evening if both candidates make themselves available. Without both candidates, tomorrow's debate will not take place. B...

    Boris Johnson’s poll ratings have suffered a major slump following the loud altercation with his girlfriend, as voters say his private life does matter in the race for No 10. The favourite’s lead among Conservative voters has more than halved since the incident on Thursday night and rival Jeremy Hunt has snatched the lead among the wider public. More than half of voters said Mr Johnson's private life was relevant to his ability to be prime minister and three-quarters said a candidate's character was relevant to the contest. It is unusual to see a politician's private life having this level of salience among voters, said Damian Lyons Lowe, chief executive of pollsters Survation. Mr Johnson has refused to give an explanation for the banging and screaming heard at th...

    Hospitals are having to treat patients on makeshift wards in places such as corridors because they are so relentlessly busy, research shows. They are using temporary wards created to ease winter pressures throughout the year to cope with the rising demand for care, and patients are having their surgery cancelled at the last minute because hospital managers have commandeered their bed for an emergency admittance. Hospitals have begun routinely deploying thousands of escalation beds, which are meant to help ease a temporary spike in demand, because they so often run out of normal beds, official NHS figures show. On 3 March, NHS hospitals in England were using 3,428 escalation beds for patients, even though winter pressures had eased by then, according to data obtaine...

    Jeremy Hunt has questioned whether Boris Johnson can be trusted, claiming his rival will fail to deliver Brexit - as both prepare to face questions at a hustings today. The Foreign Secretary, 52, was speaking at a Conservative Progress Conference in central London this morning, ahead of the pair's first hustings in Birmingham. He slammed Mr Johnson as the wrong person to deliver Brexit, as he told party activists there would be 'no trust' during negotiations. It comes as both are due to be grilled at the first of 16 national hustings this afternoon where the pair will face questions from broadcaster Iain Dale. Mr Hunt said: 'If we send the wrong person out as our PM there will be no trust, no negotiation, no deal and if Parliament forces a general election no Brex...

    NHS staff have been subjected to sexual harassment, groping, upskirting and even rape by bosses, fellow workers and patients while at work, a report reveals. Nurses, care assistants, cleaners and administrative staff have ended up suffering serious mental trauma, and even quitting their jobs after becoming the victims of sexual misbehaviour and crime. The findings are contained in research published on Thursday by Unison. The union is urging ministers to overhaul the Equality Act 2010 so that employers would once again be held liable if they were aware that incidents of sexual harassment had occurred but did not then take action. In one incident a member of a healthcare team upskirted a colleague and then accidentally shared the images with another worker. In anoth...

    Boris Johnson finally emerged from his bunker to face Tory rivals in a bad-tempered TV debate tonight - after Rory Stewart's surge in the latest vote by MPs set the battle on fire. The former foreign secretary came under fire from all sides as he lined up alongside Mr Stewart, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Sajid Javid for the hour-long session at the BBC studios in London. He immediately set out his stall on Brexit, insisting the UK must leave the EU by Halloween. Asked whether he could guarantee the country will be out by the deadline, he said: 'We must come out in the 31st October because otherwise I am afraid we face a catastrophic loss of confidence in politics. 'We have already kicked the can down the road twice and I think the British people are getting thoro...

  A Spanish woman who murdered a child went on to work at a British primary school it has been revealed after a whistleblower raised the alarm to authorities. Iria Suárez González, 35, was employed for just under a year at West Oxford Community Primary School as a teaching assistant after she was hired in September 2016. Unbeknownst to the school, she was regarded as one of Spain's most notorious killers after she and a friend murdered a teenage schoolgirl in 2000. Clara Garcia was lured to a patch of wasteland in Cadiz where she was stabbed up to 32 times and had her throat sliced amid reports her killers had sought fame for the murder. González, then 17, was sentenced to eight years in youth custody. She was released in 2006 and moved to the UK where she applied to work i...