UK news

UK news

Creating a modern, fair and dynamic labour market is central to this Government's plan for growth. We want to make it easier for employers to find the people they need, while ensuring that work pays and feels secure. Through clear guidance, we are giving businesses the practical support they need to understand these changes and get things right first time.

Students entering the workforce have ranked a good salary as their highest priority when looking for a job, according to new research. Leading fintech firm CompareNI.com carried out a survey of 100 students to find out their expectations of the workplace and what they value most when job hunting. Over a third (39%) placed money as the primary factor when looking at a prospective employer, with career progression ranking a close second (35%).

Under the new approach, officers will investigate cases where a bicycle can be identified on CCTV or where there is a witness to the theft. Campaigners argued the policy meant station cycle facilities were not secure and deterred victims from reporting thefts. The change follows an open letter from Cycling UK. Sarah McMonagle, the charity's head of campaigns, said most commuters left their bikes for more than two hours and that the old policy explicitly ruled out investigations in many cases.

The seaside city of Southend-on-Sea, on England's east coast, looks grey on a winter afternoon in term-time. Its cobbled high street, bordering the university campus, is sparsely populated with market stalls, vape shops and discount retailers, and feels unusually quiet. There used to be lots of shops, restaurants and youth clubs around here, says 23-year-old Nathan Doucette-Chiddicks. Now, the city is about to lose something else that it can scarcely do without.

The concept is familiar to anyone who has watched the surge of US "event contracts" over the last year, contracts priced like probabilities rather than traditional odds. What is new is the attempt to package that format within the UK's established gambling framework, and to do so within a business that already uses exchange-style pricing. The timing also lands amid a tightening tax backdrop for remote gambling and a regulatory debate in the US about where trading ends and wagering begins.

Just nine days after the thwarted raid on Ms Taylor-Joy, Holdrick struck again in a second home invasion. Alongside accomplice Ashley Fulton, he disguised himself as a police officer for a raid in Sandbanks, overlooking Poole harbour. During this incident, a woman and her daughter were held at gunpoint, tied up, and threatened with extreme violence, including being burned with an iron and shot dead, if they did not open the family safe.

Officers were called to the Islamic Centre of England just after midnight on Tuesday alongside London Fire Brigade following reports of a fire. Police believe two flammable objects were thrown into the ground which caused fire damage to a cabin and a parked vehicle. The suspect fled left the scene in a car. The centre itself was not damaged and the fires went out by themselves before first responders arrived, police said. Nobody was injured in the fire, the force added.

A teenage Army cadet accused of possessing bombmaking guides and extremist content threatened to "ruin prom" after a girl rejected him, jurors have heard. The Old Bailey was told that Dihan Rahman, now 19, had an interest in violence linked to extreme rightwing ideology, misogyny and Islamic extremism. He has admitted stalking two girls and a female teacher who discovered concerning images on his mobile phone.

In the last 12 months, the business delivered site EBITDA of £23m and EBITDA after central costs of £17m, cementing its position as the capital's leading independent pub operator. This is an increase of £5m versus reported EBITDA of £12.3m for the financial year ended 27 April 2025 - an uplift of almost 50%. The Group, which operates 66 high-quality sites across London, delivered its strongest-ever Christmas 2025 trading performance, capping an exceptional 2025.

HMRC said 27,456 taxpayers filed in the final hour before the midnight cut-off at the end of Saturday, after the tax authority kept helplines open and extended webchat services over the weekend in a bid to help late filers. The busiest period for online submissions was between 5pm and 6pm on Saturday. In total, 475,722 people filed on the final day, bringing the overall number of submissions for the 2024-25 tax year to around 11.5 million.

A railway station manager who claims he ended up losing a leg after being infected with Covid by his boss at work is suing his employers for 1m. David Gibson was a station manager working for Southeastern, based at Herne Hill Station, in July 2021 when he came down with a severe case of Covid which saw him hospitalised with pneumonia, put in a coma and ultimately have his leg amputated below the knee due to a blood clot.

The worker is one of eight employees at the privately run St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton,who were arrested on suspicion of wilful neglect and ill treatment in relation to allegations of assault against a patient made in July 2025. Now, Northamptonshire Police have confirmed toThe Independent that one suspect was also arrested on suspicion of rape. They have been released on bail, and the investigation into all eight workers is ongoing.

A teenage boy has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run e-bike crash with a pregnant woman whose baby was born afterwards in hospital and remains in a serious condition. The collision, which involved an e-bike and a pedestrian in Herbert Avenue, occurred near to the junction with Manor Avenue in Poole at around 3.50pm on 26 January, 2026. The mother, who is in her thirties, went to hospital for treatment. Her baby, who has since been born, remains in hospital in a serious condition.

The Bank of England is widely expected to keep interest rates on hold this week after inflation rose for the first time in five months, although markets believe the door remains open to a cut later in the spring. Analysts expect the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to vote to maintain the base rate at 3.75 per cent when it announces its decision on Thursday.

The billionaire brothers behind Betfred have topped the Sunday Times 2026 Tax List, after paying an estimated £400.1 million to the UK Treasury, making them the country's biggest individual taxpayers. Fred and Peter Done, founders of the betting empire, took the top spot in the annual rankings, with around half of their contribution linked to gambling duties generated by Betfred's nationwide chain of betting shops.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

A sea captain has been found guilty of killing a crew member when his ship crashed into an oil tanker off the coast of Yorkshire. Russian Vladimir Motin had been on sole watch duty when the Solong collided with the Stena Immaculate anchored near the Humber Estuary at 9.47am last March 10. Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, who was working on the Solong's bow, died instantly in the fire, although his body was never recovered.

Google The meeting heard from Richard Smith, representing members of the church, said they did not want to stop the business trading. "Trading from a pizza van at the gates of the church in such a location is demonstrably unsuitable even, some say, disrespectful," he said. Smith also said the location of the van caused "disturbance and inconvenience" for churchgoers, particularly disabled and elderly people.

Mark Hehir, 62, was driving the 206 bus between Wembley and Maida Vale in north-west London in June 2024 when the incident unfolded. Metroline told a tribunal the driver's use of force was "excessive" after the thief, who was shown on CCTV to have thrown the first punch, was knocked unconscious. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition supporting the reinstatement of Hehir, whose dismissal was upheld in November following a tribunal.

The public outcry was swift and furious-this was, after all, by some reports, the most photographed tree in the country, the so-called Sycamore Gap Tree. "The senseless destruction of what is undoubtedly a world-renowned landmark-and a local treasure," was how one law enforcement official described it in the pages of the New York Times, before the culprits had even been apprehended.

was arrested while carrying a placard that read: Globalise the intifada: Non-violent resistance. End Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. In a statement released by the Peter Tatchell Foundation, the 74-year-old said the arrest was "an attack on free speech". He said: "The police claimed the word intifada is unlawful. The word intifada is not a crime in law. Thousands marched through the streets of central London for a pro-Palestine rally "The police are engaged in over-reach by making it an arrestable offence.

Emergency services, including police and fire, were called to the scene at Summerfield Road, Boythorpe, Chesterfield at 2.50pm on Friday, where officers discovered the growth of suspected cannabis plants. Derbyshire Constabulary said the explosion had damaged the detached house as well as a nearby property, and a man had suffered burns that were believed to be life-changing. The force told The Independent that no arrests had been made as of yet.