News 23/10/25

Sir Keir Starmer has backed his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to continue leading the government’s inquiry into grooming gangs, despite calls for her resignation from survivors.

Four members of the inquiry’s survivor panel quit this week, demanding Ms Phillips step down, saying they’d consider returning only if she resigned. But five other survivors have written to the Prime Minister saying they’ll only stay if she remains.

Sir Keir said Ms Phillips has “devoted vast parts of her life and career” to tackling violence against women and girls, and that he has full confidence in her.

The rapper Ghetts has been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving after a fatal crash in north-east London.

Sir Keir Starmer has backed his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to continue leading the government’s inquiry into grooming gangs, despite calls for her resignation from survivors.
Four members of the inquiry’s survivor panel quit this week, demanding Ms Phillips step down, saying they’d consider returning only if she resigned.
But five other survivors have written to the Prime Minister saying they’ll only stay if she remains.
Sir Keir said Ms Phillips has “devoted vast parts of her life and career” to tackling violence against women and girls, and that he has full confidence in her.

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The rapper Ghetts has been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving after a fatal crash in north-east London.
The artist, whose real name is Justin Clarke-Samuel, allegedly failed to stop after hitting a 20-year-old man in Ilford on October 18th.
The victim later died in hospital.
The 41-year-old musician appeared at Stratford Magistrates’ Court on Monday and was remanded in custody.
Prosecutors are expected to upgrade the charge to causing death by dangerous driving at his next hearing later this month.

The artist, whose real name is Justin Clarke-Samuel, allegedly failed to stop after hitting a 20-year-old man in Ilford on October 18th. The victim later died in hospital. The 41-year-old musician appeared at Stratford Magistrates’ Court on Monday and was remanded in custody.

Prosecutors are expected to upgrade the charge to causing death by dangerous driving at his next hearing later this month.

An autistic man who was told he could no longer stack shelves at Waitrose after asking to be paid has been offered a job by Asda.

28-year-old Tom Boyd began volunteering at the Waitrose in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester, in 2021 to develop workplace skills as part of a further education course. His mother says the role gave him a sense of purpose and belonging, but when she asked if he could be paid for a few hours a week, the supermarket’s head office told him he could not return.

Asda has since stepped in to offer him a paid position.

The ringleader behind an arson attack and a plot to kidnap a Russian billionaire dissident had been groomed by a chatbot operated by Wagner mercenaries, a court has heard.

The Old Bailey was told Dylan Earl, from Leicestershire, recruited others to carry out a firebombing in Leyton, East London, which caused around £1 million in damage, including to Starlink satellite equipment bound for Ukraine. Earl also planned attacks on a Mayfair restaurant and the kidnapping of businessman Evgeny Chichvarkin.

Two men have been jailed for stealing a £10,000 watch from a man’s wrist in broad daylight.

The pair followed their victim from a train at Maidenhead Station to a nearby car park in July last year, where they grabbed the luxury Panerai timepiece, breaking the strap and leaving him with minor injuries. Police say the thieves were swiftly tracked down after CCTV footage identified them on the train.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has commented on the outcome of his meeting with Donald Trump in Washington last week.

When asked if he expected the situation to change “so dramatically” since the encounter, Mr. Zelenskyy highlighted key developments, stating: “The result of this meeting (is) we have sanctions on Russian energy, we don’t have (a) meeting in Hungary without Ukraine, and we have not yet Tomahawks. That’s it. This is the result, I think, not bad.” His comments suggest a mixed, but overall acceptable, set of outcomes following the high-level talks.

England’s water companies have been ordered to refund over £260 million to their customers due to poor performance.

The economic regulator, Ofwat, confirmed that some of the money has already been deducted from this year’s bills, with the remainder due to be taken off next year. This news comes on a day when the Environment Agency gave England’s water companies their worst ever combined rating for environmental performance in 2024, citing a spike in serious pollution incidents. Industry body Water UK admitted that “the performance of some companies is not good enough” but noted new investment.

A former paratrooper known only as Soldier F has been found not guilty of murdering two men during the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland more than fifty years ago.

He was accused of killing James Wray and William McKinney during unrest that followed a civil rights march in Londonderry in January 1972. The 75-year-old veteran was also cleared of five counts of attempted murder.

The prosecution alleged he had opened fire without justification, but the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed. Soldier F had denied all the charges.

Three men have been arrested in London under the National Security Act on suspicion of assisting Russian intelligence services.

The Metropolitan Police say the men, aged between 44 and 48, were detained at separate addresses in west and central London.

Officers are continuing searches at those locations, as well as a further address in west London. All three are being questioned on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence agency, contrary to section three of the 2023 Act.

A major part of Slough’s town centre is set for demolition as developers confirm the Queensmere Shopping Centre will close for good in January 2026.

The site, along with the neighbouring Observatory Centre, was sold earlier this year to Berkeley Homes – the company behind the Horlicks Factory redevelopment.

Plans are now moving forward to replace the retail complex with up to 1,600 new homes. Only around a third of the shops at Queensmere remain open.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says the Home Office is “not yet fit for purpose” after an internal review described the department as dysfunctional and detached from its main responsibilities.

Mahmood, who took office last month, told reporters the department had been “set up to fail” but insisted she was determined to rebuild it so it “delivers for this country.” Her remarks follow the publication of a report uncovered by The Times, which highlighted a culture of defeatism on immigration and failures in tackling crime and small boat crossings.

The review was written in 2022 by Nick Timothy, a former Home Office adviser and now Conservative MP, for the then home secretary Suella Braverman.

A British man has died after getting into difficulty while surfing off the coast of Melbourne.

Authorities say his surfboard snapped in rough conditions, with winds of up to 80 miles an hour reported in the area. A 43-year-old friend tried to rescue him, but both men were pulled under.

They were winched from the water by a police helicopter, but neither could be revived.

Slough councillors have approved a new strategy to tackle the borough’s long-running problem with physical inactivity.

A council report found that 30% of adults in Slough are inactive — higher than the national average of 22%. Only 40% of local children are getting enough exercise for their age, compared to 47% nationally.

The report links this to a “very low” healthy life expectancy in the borough — 58 for men and 60 for women.

An Australian politician has named a key person of interest in the disappearance of a British toddler more than fifty years ago.

Using parliamentary privilege, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council identified the man previously known only as “Mercury.” Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer was abducted from a beach in Wollongong in 1970. Despite major searches, no trace of her was ever found. In 2017, Mercury was charged after a historic confession was discovered, but the case was later dropped when a judge ruled the evidence inadmissible.

He maintains his innocence.