Budget 2021: Corporation tax rise and threshold freeze as Sunak vows to build 'fairer' UK in COVID victims' memory

The chancellor has vowed to build a "fairer" country in the memory of those who have died during the coronavirus pandemic.

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  • Prince Philip funeral: Service to pay tribute to duke’s ‘unwavering loyalty’ to Queen

    There will be no sermon at duke’s request during 50-minute service

  • ‘It’s going very well’: Hope rises for Oxford’s malaria vaccine after success of Covid jab from same team

    Exclusive: Professor Adrian Hill says his team at the Jenner Institute are ‘very excited’ by the prospects of their vaccine, which enters into large-scale testing in Africa this month

  • Ghislaine Maxwell lawyers reveal more than 2,000 ‘highly confidential’ photos in the evidence against her

    The trial is set to begin 12 July

  • Puberty blockers for under-16s reviewed by NHS

    Puberty-blocker prescriptions for transgender children under 16 are set to be reviewed, NHS England has announced. The drugs are prescribed to some young people experiencing gender dysphoria - a "mismatch" between their biological sex and gender identity. NHS England said that it will establish a new independent review group to assess the prescription of the drugs for children under 16. The announcement comes following a High Court ruling in March, which concluded that parents can consent to the treatment on behalf of their child - although the judge added it may be that "additional safeguards" should be built into the decision-making process. Last month's case was brought after three high court judges had previously ruled that children under 16 were unlikely to be able to give informed consent for the treatment. That ruling, in December, followed a case brought against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust which provides England's only NHS specialist gender clinic for children. NHS England said its new processes and review group were being introduced on an "interim basis" while it awaits the outcome of a review into gender identity services led by Dr Hilary Cass OBE, former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. In a statement on its website, NHS England said: "This [new] group will be comprised of health and care professionals with expertise in child development, neurodevelopment and mental health, assessing capacity and consent, and safeguarding processes." It added the review group would be a temporary measure as it awaits the outcome of Dr Cass's report to ensure any decision-making follows a "robust" process. Until the group is operational a requirement for a best interests court order, for new patients, will remain.

  • ‘Not what we’d hoped for’: UK military chief disappointed over US withdrawal from Afghanistan

    Taliban ‘is not the organisation it once was’, says General Sir Nick Carter

  • Kate and Camilla arrive at Duke of Edinburgh's funeral

    The Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall arrive for the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle.

  • How Meghan ensured she had a part in Prince Philip's funeral – with a handwritten note on wreath

    The Duchess of Sussex wrote the card attached to the wreath sent by her and Prince Harry to ensure that, in a small way, she played a part in the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral service. Meghan, who is heavily pregnant with the couple's second child, had hoped to attend the ceremony but was advised against travelling by her doctor. The 39-year-old was watching the funeral on television at home in Montecito, California. The Sussexes' tribute was among nine family wreaths laid in the Quire of St George's Chapel, propped against the stalls on each side of the Duke's coffin. Buckingham Palace aides declined to provide details of the other wreaths, saying they were private. But a source close to the Sussexes confirmed that theirs had been designed and handmade by Willow Crossley, a Cotswold florist known for her natural, rustic arrangements. The variety of locally sourced flowers, some of which were picked from the designer's garden, were chosen due to their particular significance.

  • Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory dies aged 52 from cancer

    Tributes have been paid to Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory who has died aged 52 from cancer. In a message posted on social media, Lewis said: “I’m heartbroken to announce that after an heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family.” McCrory, who was awarded the OBE for services to drama in 2017, was probably best known for playing the fearsome matriarch Polly in crime drama Peaky Blinders but also had a critically acclaimed stage career winning plaudits for National Theatre roles in productions of Medea and Terence Rattigan’s post war drama The Deep Blue Sea.

  • Epstein's accusers can't challenge plea agreement shielding accomplices -ruling

    (Reuters) -A federal appeals court rejected a challenge by a Jeffrey Epstein accuser to an agreement not to prosecute the financier, and to shield his associates from criminal liability for aiding his sexual abuses. By a 7-4 vote, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled on Thursday that Courtney Wild and other accusers lacked standing under the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act to disturb Epstein's 2007 nonprosecution agreement, though they had been kept in the dark while it was being negotiated. Judges in the majority said they were "constrained" to rule against Wild, despite having "the profoundest sympathy for Ms. Wild and others like her, who suffered unspeakable horror at Epstein's hands, only to be left in the dark - and, so it seems, affirmatively misled - by government attorneys."

  • An independent Scotland could turn to Denmark for inspiration

    An independent Scotland could turn to Denmark for inspiration. Instead of looking south, campaigners are looking north, to the egalitarian models of small Nordic nations

  • Prince Philip’s funeral in pictures: Queen bids farewell to her husband of 73 years

    The Queen will say a final goodbye to Prince Philip, her husband of more than seven decades, at a funeral on Saturday.

  • Latina grandmother assaulted on LA bus in anti-Asian attack

    A 70-year-old woman was getting off a bus in LA when another passenger dragged her to the other end of the vehicle and beat her, her son says

  • Prince Philip's great niece Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg: 'He was an idol to us'

    The historic family ties that prompted The Queen to invite German royalty Follow live updates from Prince Philip's funeral The Duke of Edinburgh's great niece, whose brother is in Windsor for his funeral on Saturday, has remembered Prince Philip as an "idol" for the younger generation of their family. Speaking from Munich, Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg said the Duke was a powerful role model to her and his "selflessness, lack of ego and sense of humour" will never be forgotten. Her tribute comes as the Queen prepares to say farewell to her husband of 73 years at Windsor Castle. "To all of us, he was an idol, he was somebody to look up to, we had enormous respect for him and it was always very exciting when he came to visit, and he came often," said Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. "And this has become clear to me in the week since he's died - the way he lived his life, his motto, which was an unwritten motto for us, this discipline, this selflessness, this lack of ego, but also his sense of humour always underlying all of that.

  • Helen McCrory championed charity with Damian Lewis in one of last public appearances, weeks before her death

    ‘Very few people had any idea what she was clearly going through,’ tweets GB News presenter Dan Wootton

  • 'Don't feel sorry for us', says Villa's Mings after online racial abuse

    Mings, 28, posted a screenshot on his Twitter account of a racist message sent to him on Instagram. "Another day in the life of social media with no filter," Mings wrote. Villa said they were "disgusted" by the "abhorrent" message.

  • Witnesses to deaths in detention ‘deliberately’ deported from the UK

    Witnesses to deaths in detention ‘deliberately’ deported from the UK. Home Office accused of undermining investigations into the deaths of migrants awaiting deportation

  • Indonesian trolls flood Thai grooms’ adorable wedding photos with death threats

    A same-sex Thai couple who shared their heartwarming wedding photos on social media have been flooded with vicious homophobic hate from Indonesian trolls.

  • Nation falls silent in memory of Duke of Edinburgh

    Philip’s coffin was carried on a custom-built Land Rover Defender hearse designed by the duke and modified over 16 years.

  • Helen McCrory: 10 of her best roles, from Harry Potter to Peaky Blinders

    Actor won praise for her work across film, TV and the stage

  • Hollyoaks' Martine misleads Felix over cancer scan

    She tells a lie in a fit of anger.