Justice select committee calls Action Fraud ‘unfit for purpose’ as number of victims rises 25% in two years The UK’s justice system is “ill-equipped” to tackle a spiralling fraud epidemic and needs a rapid overhaul, a cross-party committee of MPs has concluded. The justice select committee found that traditional crimes were being wrongly prioritised by police and prosecutors in a report released on Tuesday, and described Action Fraud, the UK’s centre for collating allegations of

Former and serving pilots told not to disclose sensitive information, in attempt to ‘mitigate risk’ of schemes British defence intelligence is to issue a rare “threat alert”, warning that China’s military is trying to recruit serving and former RAF jet pilots to help train its own air force with generous recruitment packages. Officials expressed “concern and disapproval” of these schemes because they posed “a threat to UK and western interests”. Although they are not explicitly

Exclusive: Mark Fullbrook said to have acted as Fathi Bashagha’s ‘PR adviser’, as officials were lobbied on foreign policy Mark Fullbrook, the No 10 chief of staff, accompanied a controversial Libyan politician involved in an attempted military coup to a meeting in the Foreign Office to lobby officials on foreign policy, raising further questions over his influence. Labour has said Fullbrook’s position as Liz Truss’s most senior official is “untenable” after it emerged he facilitated

New chancellor tells Commons there will be tax rises and spending cuts, as PM dodges urgent question The new chancellor Jeremy Hunt has shredded Liz Truss’s economic plans in one of the most astonishing U-turns in modern political history, including slashing the energy price freeze which the prime minister had repeatedly championed. Hunt dismantled almost all of the platform that Truss’s leadership victory had been built on, including the majority of her tax cuts, and

Court hears evidence about nurse’s first two alleged victims, twins who suffered sudden collapses A tearful mother begged medics: “Please don’t let my baby die” as they tried to resuscitate the infant, the trial of the nurse Lucy Letby has heard. Letby, 32, is accused of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 more while working in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital. Continue reading… ​Court hears evidence

Business secretary makes contact with Tata Steel and Jingye Group over Port Talbot and Scunthorpe sites The business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has opened talks with Britain’s steelmakers amid concerns that thousands of jobs could be lost from the struggling industry. The government confirmed on Monday it had entered discussions with Tata Steel, owner of the UK’s largest steelworks in Port Talbot, south Wales, and Jingye Group, which bought British Steel out of insolvency in 2020.

Move to reduce duration of help from two years to six months could mean financial cliff edge for millions in April, charities warn The average annual energy bill will rise to more than £4,000 from April after Liz Truss’s U-turn over her policy to ease the cost of living crisis, according to the sector’s leading forecaster. The price cap for a typical dual-fuel tariff will now be £4,347 in six months’ time if the government