United Kingdom

    Brace yourselves for an icy blast – bookies have cut the odds on it being the coldest ever November. Parts of the UK were covered in snow over the weekend and the Met Office said more is on the way. Daytime temperatures will rise this week to around normal for the time of year, 10 to 12C (50-54F) in the South and 8 to 10C in the North. But, the new month will see the nation start to shiver. Bookies have cut the odds on it being the coldest November on record to just 6/4. Met Office meteorologist John West said: “Our current guidance is that temperatures are looking like they are going to be below average by mid-November. There is a greater likelihood of some overnight frosts as well as some snow over higher ground in the North.” Mid to late November usually brin...

    Philip Hammond will announce a £2bn real-terms increase in mental health funding on Monday as he unveils his first budget since Theresa May told the Conservative party conference that voters needed to know austerity was over. The commitment should lead to comprehensive mental health support being available in every large A&E department. It suggests that mental health, long seen as a neglected area within the NHS, will benefit disproportionately from the £20bn-a-year funding increase for health announced by the prime minister in June. In pre-budget interviews on Sunday, Hammond refused to comment on reports that better-than-expected tax returns have given him a £13bn windfall, reducing the need for the substantial tax increases that had been anticipated when May ...

    Parts of the country are seeing property prices slow but for market towns, prices are rising by almost £1,000 a month. House prices in market towns are £41,633 (17%) higher on average than the price of houses in the rest of their county, according to research by Halifax. And houses in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire are at the top of the table, carrying a typical price tag of more than £1m 158% more than the county's average of £408,980. With the beautiful Chilterns on the doorstep and London a commutable distance away, Beaconsfield was the most expensive market town the researchers looked at. Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, has an average house price of £838,206 and Alresford, Hampshire, is on £542,614. But for those who do not want to spend quite as much on a ho...

    Britain got its first taste of winter yesterday after Arctic air swept down and deposited a blanket of snow over higher ground. The Pennines and hillier parts of County Durham woke to a wintry blanket, and a centimetre of snow fell on Aviemore in the Cairngorms. Drivers in some areas faced treacherous conditions on the roads. Met Office forecasters warned that more snow showers are expected today. As clocks went back and summertime officially ended, many families were expected to wake to white streets and rooftops. The snow is falling on one of the coldest October weekends in ten years. Temperatures are struggling to hit double figures, said the Met Office. John West at the Met Office told the Press Association flurries could continue throughout the weekend. He...

    A hard Brexit could kill up to 5,600 people a year because people won't be able to afford as many fruit and vegetables, researchers claim. Scientists say the rising price of importing food will worsen people's diets and lead to more cases of cancer, heart disease and stroke within 10 years. More than 90 per cent of the UK's fruit and vegetables are imported, meaning the prices will likely go up when it leaves the EU. And pricier fresh foods could put people off, experts say, putting them more at risk of developing deadly diseases. This rise in disease could also cost the NHS an extra £600million a year, according to the Oxford University scientists. But Julian Jessop, chief economist at the Institute of Economic Affairs, told MailOnline the claim Brexit could lea...

    Asda is consulting staff on changes to its business that could result in 2,500 job losses next year when the UK leaves the EU. The chain, which is currently planning on merging with Sainsbury's, is the latest major supermarket to announce a shake-up of the way it works aimed at saving costs. Asda said: In a competitive retail market, where customers rightly expect great value and ease of service we must always look at how we can work more quickly and efficiently for them and inevitably, that means we need to consider changing the roles we need our colleagues to do or the hours needed in particular parts of our stores. We believe the proposed changes we are consulting on would allow us to do a better job for our customers. We also recognise that discussions about po...

    Theresa May has emerged unscathed from a packed meeting of the party’s backbench 1922 Committee after an emotional and personal speech reportedly won over MPs, despite doubts over her Brexit negotiating strategy. The prime minister faced a handful of awkward questions from Brexiters including Nadine Dorries, Sir Edward Leigh and Philip Davies, but loyalists said she won over the room and there appeared little sign that a leadership challenge looked more likely. Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, said that May had made an emotional and personal speech and won over colleagues, many of whom were angry with lurid anonymous briefings in the Sunday newspapers. MPs present said Dorries demanded to know if May’s chief Brexit negotiator, Oliver Robbins, was freelancing ...

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have touched down in Tonga to a  royal welcome, complete with music and dancing. They were greeted at Fua’-amotu Airport by Princess Angelika Latufuipeka, the only daughter and eldest child of King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u Tuku’aho. She became Tonga’s High Commissioner to Australia when her father became king. The Duchess wore a red Self Portrait dress, mirroring the colour of the Tongan flag. The royal couple walked the red carpet, accompanied by traditional entertainment from Pelehake villagers. Before entering the airport’s royal suite, the Duchess received flowers from the Hon. Melenaite Tuipelehake, a great-niece of the King. Their route out of the airport saw school children line the roads for miles, spaced evenly apart to ...

    The crowds turning out in Australia to greet Meghan and Harry this week, where the couple are on a 16-day tour, are unprecedented. At one event in Sydney it was estimated by local media that a crowd of 15,000 people turned out to see the couple who announced on the first day of their Australian trip that Meghan was pregnant. On a trip to Victoria on Thursday well-wishers started assembling as early as 5am to get a glimpse of the couple. Crowds of that size have not appeared for Queen Elizabeth on any of her trips to Australia (which date back as far as the 1950s), and Harry and Megmania easily eclipses the enthusiasm with which William and Kate’s 2104 trip to Australia even with crowd-pulling Prince George in tow were received. But with great popularity comes great...

    During a state banquet for the King of the Netherlands and his wife Queen Maxima, she said that as we look toward a new partnership with Europe, the values shared by the UK and Holland are our greatest assets. The Queen, who is impartial in political matters, chose to emphasise the qualities needed by the UK and one of its closet European neighbours going forward as UK politicians continue to be bitterly divided by Brexit. Earlier, in a speech to both Houses of Parliament, King Willem-Alexander urged the government to lift the shadow of uncertainty hanging over Dutch nationals living in Britain after Brexit. And in his address at the Palace dinner, with Ms May seated nearby, the foreign head of state continued: At present, a lot of attention is focused on the tec...