UK inflation up to 0.7% on back of rising food prices

UK inflation rose last month pushed by higher food prices and less discounting on household goods, official figures show.

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  • Nicola Sturgeon made untrue statements and must resign, says Salmond committee member

    Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code by making "untrue" statements and should step down, a member of the inquiry investigating the Alex Salmond scandal has said the day after her marathon eight-hour appearance. Murdo Fraser, a Tory member of the committee, said he believed some of the First Minister's account was not truthful and that she previously misled the Scottish Parliament. While Ms Sturgeon had denied a litany of claims made by Mr Salmond, Mr Fraser pointed out that he had provided witness statements corroborating key parts of his testimony while she did not. He said the evidence was "clear" that some of her statements had been untrue and predicted that a separate inquiry, being conducted by James Hamilton QC, would conclude that she had broken the ministerial code. Mr Fraser said motions of no confidence in Ms Sturgeon and John Swinney, her deputy, remained on the table but the Tories would see what additional legal advice the Scottish Government hands over before deciding whether to move them. The First Minister is expected to face a further scrutiny at Thursday's First Minister's Questions. However, Mike Russell, a senior SNP minister, said Ms Sturgeon has "demolished the scare stories, the conspiracy theories and lies" during her testimony to the inquiry.

  • EU parliament shelves vote on Brexit deal after Boris Johnson ‘violates’ agreement

    Group leaders have paused the ratification process amid the latest row

  • Capitol rioter who put feet on Pelosi’s desk yells in court over pre-trial jailing: ‘It’s not fair!’

    Richard Barnett, 60, of Arkansas faces federal charges including disorderly conduct in a capitol building

  • Cyprus to welcome vaccinated British tourists from May 1

    Tourists would be required to have had their second dose at the latest seven days before travel.

  • Car crashes into Chelmsford Aldi store

    Cameras have captured the moment a car crashed through a supermarket window and knocked over shoppers. It happened at an Aldi store in Chelmsford, Essex, just before 12:00 GMT on Wednesday.

  • Meghan and Harry are the victims here – but the royal family refuse to see it

    The Duchess of Sussex is a woman who fell in love with a man. That’s it. Unfortunately for her, this man happened to be a British prince

  • SNP ministers refuse to follow Rishi Sunak by extending property sales tax holiday

    Homebuyers in Scotland have been dealt a huge blow after SNP's Finance Secretary refused to follow the Chancellor in England by extending Scotland's property sales tax holiday. Rishi Sunak announced in Wednesday's Budget the stamp duty holiday south of the Border, which had been due to end on March 31, would be extended for a further six months. The current nil-rate band for purchases in England up to £500,000 will continue until the end of June, with a "tapered" period running until September. Mr Sunak also handed the SNP government an additional £1.2 billion- more than double the £500 million that the Scottish Government had assumed that they would get when the draft Scottish Budget was published. But Kate Forbes, the SNP's Finance Secretary, said yesterday the equivalent Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) holiday in Scotland will still finish at the end of March. She said there was no need to extend the holiday as it has "achieved its purpose", with "record" levels of home purchases being recorded despite the Covid pandemic.

  • Trump issues lengthy rant about veteran Republican Karl Rove after strategist criticises him

    The former president lashed out and called on Fox to fire ‘pompous fool’ Rove

  • Brexit: EU ‘simply can’t trust’ Boris Johnson’s government as negotiating partner, says Simon Coveney

    ‘It’s the British government essentially breaking the protocol – breaking their own commitments again’

  • Dawn French’s funniest joke in The Vicar Of Dibley revealed

    Each episode of the comedy, which originally ran between 1994 and 1998, closed with a joke.

  • Meghan and Harry could’ve been Britain’s greatest asset, but we screwed it up. Royally

    This was a golden opportunity for the royal family and everyone in the UK, as demonstrated by the Oprah interview everyone is talking about. It was squandered terribly

  • Scottish voters ‘could face an independence referendum in late 2021’

    Mr Blackford said that the first priority of the Scottish Government would be to tackle the coronavirus crisis.

  • Why the ICC war crimes probe into the Gaza war has rattled Israel and what will happen next

    The International Criminal Court this week announced it will begin an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by Israel and Palestinian militants since 2014, which could theoretically put senior figures on both sides in the dock at the Hague. Fatou Bensouda, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, has described the process as “daunting and complex” because it will be launched during a global pandemic, signalling that the investigation and any trial which follows could drag on for many years. Israel has condemned the ICC’s decision as “pure anti-semitism,” while Palestinian leaders and human rights groups say that a war crimes probe is long overdue. Here we look at the key allegations over war crimes, the possible timeline for the ICC process and what penalties could be imposed in the event of a guilty verdict. How did we get here? The ICC has powers to prosecute those accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes in the territories of the court's members. Back in December 2019, the ICC said that after a “thorough” investigation it had sufficient grounds to investigate both Israel and Palestinian militants over allegations of war crimes. Ms Bensouda, the ICC chief prosecutor, then asked senior judges at the court to make a ruling on whether it had jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank.

  • COVID-19: Nearly 21 million people have had first vaccine dose as UK reports another 242 deaths

    The UK has reported 242 more coronavirus-related deaths and 6,573 new cases in the latest 24-hour period, government data shows. It comes as the number of people in the UK who have now had a first coronavirus vaccine dose nears 21 million after a further 278,956 had the jab on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Downing Street has urged people to continue to respect the lockdown after a survey suggested more than four in 10 over-80s who received a vaccine appear to have since broken the rules by meeting up with someone indoors.

  • Europe's volte-face on Oxford Covid vaccine

    The European Union began blocking exports of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine on Thursday as Europe's leaders finally admitted they were wrong about the jab and that it worked. EU countries now recognise that the vaccine is vital to ramping up the slow pace of their vaccine programmes – which lag far behind those in Britain, the US, Serbia and Israel – after attacking AstraZeneca for delivery failures and branding its vaccine ineffective. Germany made the vaccine available to over-65s after Angela Merkel, the chancellor, called for age restrictions to be lifted. New data proved the jab was "highly effective". Jens Spahn, the country's health minister, said: "This is good news for any elderly person waiting to be vaccinated. They can now be vaccinated faster." Jean Castex, the French prime minister, said the AstraZeneca vaccine was "very efficient" and as good as the other EU-approved jabs. In January, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, sparked fury when he said the vaccine was only "quasi-effective" in older people – comments thought to have slowed French vaccinations further. Greece and Sweden announced they would lift age restrictions on the jab following Belgium, with Spain considering following suit as realisation dawns that countries were wrong not to follow Britain's lead in approving it for all ages.

  • UK the most likely place in the world for mutant Covid-19 variant says health minister

    Britain is the most likely place in the world where a mutant strain of the coronavirus will occur due to the prevailing conditions, a health minister has said. Giving the stark assessment at Westminster, Tory frontbencher Lord Bethell said the nation "must be on the balls of its feet" to be ready for such "unhelpful news". The Conservative peer made his comments as a top scientist warned the risk of a dangerous new variant against which there was no defence was "eventually likely to be inevitable". It came amid criticism of the foreign travel red list for quarantining international arrivals, amid claims it was not effective or extensive enough. Responding to a statement on Covid-19 in the Lords, the renowned broadcaster and leading fertility expert Lord Winston said: "Within six hours of entering a cell, this virus will have replicated leading to millions of copies. "Some copies will be imperfect, the so-called variants, and time is of the essence. "The risk of dangerous new variants to which we have no defence is actually eventually likely to be inevitable."

  • Newly published legal advice appears to contradict Salmond claim

    The documents related to the botched investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by the former First Minister.

  • Trump tries to shift blame for Georgia defeat to other Republicans and lashes out at WSJ in new statement

    Former president blames Mitch McConnell stimulus check promises for loss of Senate seats

  • Latest weekly Covid-19 rates for local authority areas in England

    Just 13 out of 315 local areas are currently recording a week-on-week rise in rates.

  • US intelligence investigating links between Capitol rioters and members of Congress

    FBI looking at whether lawmakers knowingly or unknowingly helped pro-Trump mob