Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a make-or-break week for his premiership with his future in No 10 hanging in the balance.
The Prime Minister is braced for the delivery of the Sue Gray report into Downing Street drinking parties during lockdown which could determine his fate. Many Tory MPs have said they will wait to see the findings before deciding whether to push for a vote of confidence which could see him forced out.
Ms Gray’s report is expected later this week.
Meanwhile, unions have warned that health workers need an inflation-busting pay rise to stop the growing exodus of "exhausted" staff.
Fourteen unions representing 1.2 million staff in England have united to urge the Government to take action on pay, or risk losing staff at "alarming" rates. The unions, representing staff including nurses, midwives, porters and ambulance crews, issued the warning in evidence to the independent NHS pay review body.
Elsewhere, the US Department of State has ordered the families of all American personnel at the US Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid the heightened fears of an imminent Russian invasion.
The department told the dependents of staffers at the US Embassy in Kyiv that they must leave the country. Non-essential embassy staff have also been told they can leave Ukraine at the government's expense.
These are just some of the national and international news stories making headlines this morning after breaking overnight.
Others include:
Liverpool hospital bomber’s asylum claim rejected by court six years before attack
HS2 Bill is ‘landmark moment’ for North West’s rail connections
Travelodge to recruit 600 staff across its hotels
Read on to find out more.
Johnson faces crunch week with lockdown parties report
Boris Johnson is facing a make-or-break week for his premiership with his future at No 10 hanging in the balance.
The Prime Minister is braced for the delivery of the Sue Gray report into Downing Street drinking parties during lockdown which could determine his fate. Many Tory MPs have said they will wait to see the findings before deciding whether to push for a vote of confidence which could see him forced out.
At the same time he is battling new allegations of Islamophobia after one MP claimed she was told she had been sacked as a junior minister because of concerns about her “Muslimness”. Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi have backed calls by Nusrat Ghani for an inquiry into her treatment.
However, it is Ms Gray’s report, expected later this week, which poses the gravest and most immediate threat to Mr Johnson’s survival in No 10.
The Prime Minister is reported to be determined to hang on to his position believing that he has done nothing wrong. However, he may be left with little choice depending on exactly what Ms Gray, a senior civil servant, finds.
Health unions call for ‘inflation-busting’ pay rise for NHS workers
Health workers need an inflation-busting pay rise to stop the growing exodus of "exhausted" staff, unions have warned.
Fourteen unions representing 1.2 million staff in England have united to urge the Government to take action on pay, or risk losing staff at "alarming" rates. The unions, representing staff including nurses, midwives, porters and ambulance crews, issued the warning in evidence to the independent NHS pay review body.
The Government clashed with unions last year over NHS pay amid huge strains on the service because of the Covid-19 pandemic, eventually awarding a 3% rise in England.
The unions' submission calls on the Government to make sure this year’s pay rise cushions health workers from increased living costs and helps the NHS to retain and attract staff.
Liverpool hospital bomber’s asylum claim rejected by court six years before attack
The Liverpool bomber’s asylum claim was dismissed more than six years before he tried to carry out the attack, newly obtained court documents confirm.
Emad Al Swealmeen died from the blast and subsequent fire after his homemade bomb detonated in a taxi outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital shortly before 11am on November 14.
The Iraqi-born 32-year-old falsely claimed to be of Syrian heritage in asylum applications. He came to the UK in May 2014 legally, with a Jordanian passport and UK visa but his asylum claim was rejected, a coroner’s court heard last month.
He challenged the Home Office decision by lodging an appeal with the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) but this was dismissed in 2015, a copy of the ruling obtained following requests from the BBC – supported by the PA news agency – and The Times show.
The decision dated April 16 of that year, after a hearing in Manchester three days earlier, detailed how Al Swealmeen had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Home Office officials decided he had not established a “well-founded fear of persecution so that he did not qualify for asylum", the court papers said.
HS2 Bill is ‘landmark moment’ for North West’s rail connections
A “landmark moment” in improving the North West’s rail connections will happen on Monday when the Bill to extend HS2 to Manchester is laid in Parliament, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.
Phase 2b of the high-speed railway will cut travel times by around 55 minutes for journeys between London and Manchester, and up to 45 minutes for trips between Birmingham and Manchester, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).
Extending HS2 from Crewe to Manchester was included in the Government’s £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) published in November, although it has been part of the high-speed rail project since it was given the go-ahead by the coalition government in January 2012.
The IRP caused outrage among many northern leaders because it included the scrapping of HS2’s eastern leg between the East Midlands and Leeds. But the Government insists the IRP will result in similar benefits from previous plans, and they will be delivered quicker and with better value for taxpayers’ money.
Mr Shapps said: “We are determined to improve transport connections and level up communities across the country, and this Bill marks a landmark moment as we bring HS2 to Manchester and lay the foundations for Northern Powerhouse Rail."
US orders diplomats' families to leave embassy in Ukraine as war fears mount
The United States' Department of State has ordered the families of all American personnel at the US Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid the heightened fears of an imminent Russian invasion.
The department told the dependents of staffers at the US Embassy in Kyiv that they must leave the country. Non-essential embassy staff have also been told they can leave Ukraine at the government's expense.
The move comes amid rising tensions about Russia’s military build-up on the Ukraine border, which were not eased during talks on Friday between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva.
Travelodge to recruit 600 staff across its hotels
Hotel chain Travelodge has launched a recruitment drive to fill 600 jobs ranging from managers to receptionists.
The roles are spread across its 582 UK hotels as well as at its headquarters in Thame, Oxfordshire.
Travelodge said it believes the trend for more “staycation” holidays in the UK will continue, giving a boost to the hospitality sector.
The 600 jobs are full and part-time, including managers, bar staff, cleaners and receptionists, and head office roles in finance, marketing, computing and sales. The company is also recruiting more maintenance engineers to join its field team.
Breakdown assistance firm becomes UK’s first to use all-electric patrol van
A major breakdown assistance company has announced it will be the first in the UK to use a pure electric patrol vehicle.
The RAC said it will trial a zero-emission Renault Zoe van, which cannot tow vehicles but can carry the parts needed to fix four out of five breakdowns on the spot.
It will mostly be used for the two most common breakdowns, which are caused by problems with batteries and tyres.
The van, which has a range of 245 miles, will be deployed in urban and rural locations to assess its efficiency as a patrol vehicle.
Spelling mistakes in CVs causing jobseekers to fall at first hurdle
Almost two in three CVs for job applications contain at least one spelling mistake, according to new research.
Jobs site Adzuna said its study of almost 150,000 CVs revealed that one in three had five or more errors. More than 5,000 of those looked at contained 20 or more spelling slip-ups.
The three most commonly misspelt words on CVs were “organisation”, “modelling” and “behaviour”, said the report.
The top 10 was completed by “judgement”, “transferable”, “labour”, “equipment”, “practised”, “demeanour” and “liaising”. Jobseekers also used American spellings such as “analyze” in applications for work, said Adzuna.
Other mistakes included leaving gaps in employment history, invalid email addresses, or CVs which were either too brief or too long.
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