England’s cricket bosses have rejected calls for the team to boycott an upcoming match against Afghanistan over the ruling Taliban regime’s assault on women’s rights.
Urged to pull out of next month’s Champions Trophy match in Lahore by more than 160 politicians, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Monday it would prefer to take unified rather than unilateral action.
MPs and peers from across parliament, including Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbyn, and Lord Kinnock, have signed a strongly-worded letter written by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi that condemns the “insidious dystopia” unfolding in Afghanistan.
Image: An illegal protest by Afghan girls demanding the right to education in Kabul. File pic: AP
Women have been effectively prevented from taking part in organised sport since the Islamic extremist group returned to power in 2021, leaving the Afghanistan Cricket Board out of step with International Cricket Council rules.
The ECB should refuse the 50-over group game on 26 February, the letter said, “to send a clear signal that such grotesque abuses will not be tolerated.
“We must stand against sex apartheid and we implore the ECB to deliver a firm message of solidarity and hope to Afghan women and girls that their suffering has not been overlooked.”
But the ECB’s chief executive, Richard Gould, said that the body favoured a uniform approach from all member nations rather than acting alone.
Mr Gould said the ECB “strongly condemns” the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls and has not arranged any matches against Afghanistan.
It promised to “actively advocate” for further international action by the International Cricket Council (ICC), as a “coordinated, ICC-wide approach would be significantly more impactful” than acting alone.
Mr Gould said the ECB “understand the concerns raised by those who believe that a boycott of men’s cricket could inadvertently support the Taliban’s efforts to suppress freedoms and isolate Afghan society”.
“It’s crucial to recognise the importance of cricket as a source of hope and positivity for many Afghans, including those displaced from the country.
“The ECB is committed to finding a solution that upholds the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan while also considering the broader impact on the Afghan people.”
“We will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with the UK government, other stakeholders, the ICC, and other international cricket boards to explore all possible avenues for meaningful change,” he said.
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: “We are deeply concerned by the appalling erosion of women and girls rights in Afghanistan.
Read more: Police officer charged with child sex offences Six-month old dies in car park crash Rugby international flees UK after rape charge
“While participation in the ICC Champions Trophy is a matter for the International Cricket Council and England and Wales Cricket Board, we are in contact with the ECB on the wider issue of the Afghanistan women’s cricket team.
“We welcome the fact that the ECB are making representations to the ICC on this wider issue and what support can be given.”
In 2003, Nasser Hussain’s England side forfeited a World Cup game against Zimbabwe in protest at Robert Mugabe’s regime, with politicians advocating for the move without stepping in to make the decision on the squad’s behalf.
Bereaved families and MPs are urging the government to take tougher steps to protect younger teenagers from “horrific” content on social media.
The Australian government’s decision to legislate for a smartphone ban for under 16s has reignited the debate in the UK about further restrictions, and a Labour MP is hoping to get government support for curbs on social media.
Stuart Stephens is among those campaigning for the government to go further and spoke to Sky News.
Image: Olly Stephens, 13, was murdered in 2021
Image: Olly with his father Stuart
His son Olly was just 13 when he was murdered by other teenagers following a row which began on social media.
Mr Stephens said his son had been trying to stand up for another child who was a victim of “patterning” – humiliating someone and circulating it on video to blackmail them. Three 14-year-olds were jailed for Olly’s murder in 2021 – following an investigation involving 11 social media platforms.
“We are angry,” Mr Stephens said. “Without a doubt, without all that interaction he would still be here.
“There’s no accountability. These platforms are put out; kids use them, people get hurt, and we need to shine a light on that.
“I firmly believe that I lost my son because of weak governance and poor legislation, full stop, which is why we are doing what we are doing.
“I can’t show you any of the stuff that we saw on his phone, but it’s horrific. And a lot of that stuff you can’t unsee. And especially as a child, you’ve got a developing brain and you bombard them with horrific stuff that’s going to change them as an adult, and that’s not beneficial for society.”
Mr Stephens added: “You think this is never going to happen to you.
“He went into his world with the mobile phone. We need to bolster the legislation that’s already there, not weaken it.”
Image: Olly’s parents Stuart and Amanda Stephens outside Reading Crown Court in September 2021. Pic: PA
Image: Police searching an alleyway near to where Olly was killed in July 2021. Pic: PA
Mr Stephens supports a private members’ bill being drafted by Labour MP Josh MacAlister which would raise the age of internet “adulthood” in which a child can give data to social media apps from 13 to 16 – in order to stop them being bombarded with unsolicited content via algorithms.
This would go further than the measures in the Online Safety Act, passed a year ago, which the regulator Ofcom will be implementing in phases from next year.
Ministers have promised sanctions for tech companies who fail to clamp down on harmful material, such as violence, explicit material and disinformation, and do not implement rigorous age verification for their platforms.
The Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, is not minded to enact a full smartphone ban for under-16s but has said that nothing is “off the table”.
Image: Labour MP Josh MacAlister is calling for a change in the law
Mr MacAlister, a former teacher and now MP for Whitehaven and Workington, believes parents need to be empowered to stop their children “doom-scrolling” on social media and is hoping to get government support.
The MP, who has held meetings with parents, health professionals and tech experts, told Sky News he was concerned by figures showing the average 12-year-old is spending 21 hours a week online.
“We’ve reached a point where this is a topic of discussion at almost every family dinner table in the country. Parents, teachers, children themselves recognise the scale of this problem,” Mr McAllister said.
“We’ve got the Online Safety Act here in the UK, which is a great landmark initial piece of legislation, focused on obviously harmful content – violent images, pornography, those sorts of things.
“But in places like Australia, states in the US and France, governments are saying actually there is a wider effect of addictive social media smartphones and that’s taking children away from other activities.
“My bill is about trying to put that debate here into parliament and to persuade the government to act, to do really one simple thing through a number of measures.
“That is to make the version of smartphones that children use under 16 different to those above 16 – safer, less addictive; kick children off of them after they’ve spent a fair bit of time on their mobile.
“I don’t think that this is an issue where the genie is out of the bottle. We can absolutely set some new rules around this.”
Read more: Nothing ‘off table’ in smartphone ban debate Plan to ban phones from schools dropped
Image: Susie Husemeyer is trying to restrict phone access to her daughter, Amelia, 12
Sky News spoke to parents who feel that even legal content is taking over their children’s lives. The group Smartphone Free Childhood, set up by parents, now has 150,000 members promoting the use of “brick” mobile phones without apps.
One of its members, Susie Husemeyer, is trying to restrict smartphone use for her daughter Amelia, who is 12 years old.
After giving her a smartphone in her last year of primary school and trying to impose a time limit, she had second thoughts and has now disabled the internet on the device.
Amelia said: “I have messages, music to listen to on the bus, and calls. There’s a lot of peer pressure that’s like, how come you don’t have WhatsApp? I get a lot of my friends saying, ‘Your parents are so boring. How come your parents don’t let you do this?'”
But while her friends are often glued to their phones, she supports her parents’ decision.
“It’s not good for your mental health, especially without any restrictions.
“Sometimes I think I wish I had WhatsApp, as people will have a birthday party and set up a group chat about it and I’ll be completely left out.
“But usually I don’t. It would be easier if everyone was banned.”
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Susie said: “There is no doubt about it, she is left out. I think that parents like me are just in such a hard place because we’re trying to do the right thing by our children.
“But at the same time, our children’s peers are all using phones that have all these things enabled. And these devices are just so addictive.
“My message to government would be we are in desperate need of preserving our children’s childhoods because childhood lasts a lifetime, a good childhood lasts a lifetime, and a distracted childhood lasts a lifetime too, in terms of how the brain develops.”
Some children’s charities say a total ban on smartphones or social media punishes teenagers and ignores the benefits of phones when used safely.
Concerns about children being physically punished have more than tripled in a year, according to the NSPCC.
The charity said its helpline had heard about children being slapped, hit and shaken as punishment.
It’s urging the new government to close the legal defence of “reasonable chastisement” in England.
It said contacts where physical punishment was mentioned had increased from 447 in the 12 months to March 2023 to 1,451 in the year to March 2024.
Wales banned any kind of physical punishment, including smacking, in 2022 and Scotland introduced a similar law two years before.
A UK-wide ban on smacking should be brought in due to current “grey” areas in the law, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
More than half of the NSPCC’s contacts about physical punishment were from members of the public concerned about a parent’s behaviour. Only one in 10 were from a child.
Some 45% of the 1,451 contacts were serious enough to refer to social services or the police, the charity added.
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In 2022, Sir Keir Starmer also called for other UK nations to follow Wales’s lead.
“What it (the ban) does is give children the protection that adults already have, and that is the right thing,” he said at the time.
Studies have linked physical punishment to depression and anxiety and it’s also been known to increase aggression and antisocial behaviour, said the NSPCC.
The charity cited several potential reasons for the increase in contacts.
These include renewed campaigning to ban smacking, more helpline capacity, and a lack of understanding from the public about what’s deemed acceptable when punishing a child.
Read more from Sky News: Murder probe after woman and three children die in fire Hero mum ‘slept with baby on deck when storm sank yacht’
Sir Peter Wanless, the NSPCC’s chief executive, said the rise in people contacting them about the issue was “hugely concerning”.
“Mounting evidence shows that physically disciplining children can be damaging and counterproductive,” he said.
“A long overdue change in the law to prevent physical punishment of children must be delivered by our political leaders.
Sir Peter said the new government must act to “end the use of physical punishment across the UK once and for all”.
People opposed to a law change have said previously the status quo still prohibits violence against children while also protecting parents from prosecution for “innocent and harmless parenting decisions”.
The police search for the remains of murdered Muriel McKay has been called off.
In a letter to her family, Katherine Godwin, Detective Superintendent in the Met Police, said: “We have now completed the search of the area set out in the agreed parameters, along with an additional strip which we identified was not covered by the 2022 search or the 2024 parameters.
“I am so sorry to say that the search has not been successful in finding Muriel’s remains or any evidence relating to her kidnap and murder.”
Her family has been calling for Ms McKay’s convicted killer Nizamodeen Hosein to be brought to the excavation site from his Caribbean home to show detectives where he buried her body in 1970.
They believe the search cannot be completed without his presence at the farm in Hertfordshire.
According to the family, police have admitted they forgot to dig part of an agreed excavation site at the farm in 2022, when they found nothing.
That was the area that has now been searched.
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Some roads in Wales are set to go back to 30mph after nearly half a million people called for an end to the national 20mph speed limit.
Ken Skates, the Welsh government’s new transport minister, said “there will be a change” to legislation introduced in September which changed the speed limit on nearly all roads from 30mph to 20mph.
Introduced under former first minister Mark Drakeford, the Welsh government said the reduced speed limit would save lives and help build “safer communities” by reducing the number of collisions.
A petition calling for the removal of the 20mph limit reached 469,571 signatures by 13 March – hundreds of thousands more than the 10,000 required for a petition to be considered for a debate.
Speaking to North Wales Live, the Labour MP said there is “generally universal support” for the speed limit being in place outside of schools, housing estates and hospitals, but acknowledged that many have said “routes that shouldn’t have been included were”.
Read more: Why did the default speed limit change? Over half of journeys break limit – report Goats made famous in lockdown killed in crash
“We’ve put our hands up to say, ‘the guidance has to be corrected’,” he added.
“This will enable councils to revert back those routes that are not appropriate. Whether the change will be radical will largely depend on what people want.”
Image: Transport minister Ken Skates said ‘we’ve put our hands up to say, ‘the guidance has to be corrected”. Pic: Tomos Evans
He added he will share more details in the Senedd on Tuesday, saying “we are working to do this as swiftly as we possibly can,” and acknowledged adjusting the speed limits will be costly but not “anywhere near the cost of the rollout”.
Mr Skates then said: “It is about making sure the application is consistent and we bring back a good degree of unity, whereas currently there is discord.”
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It comes after a road sign showing a 20mph limit was among seven “removed illegally” in a Welsh village, which has led to “serious road safety concerns”.
Lee Waters, the minister behind the rollout, also said he would be stepping down and would delete his profile on social media platform X due to abuse in March.
The grandmother of the teenager missing for six years has recalled overhearing the boy’s mum say they’re “getting rid of the phones now” in their last phone call.
Alex Batty, now 17, did not return from a trip to Spain when he was 11 and is said to have lived an “alternative” lifestyle abroad before deciding to return home.
The teenager – now under the legal guardianship of his grandmother Susan Caruana, 68, in Oldham – said his mother was “anti-government, anti-vax” whose catchphrase was “becoming a slave to the system”.
Speaking to the Sun newspaper, Ms Caruana said she had allowed the boy’s mother, Melanie Batty, and his grandfather, David Batty, to take him on holiday in September 2017.
But when Alex called to tell his grandmother they won’t be coming back, she feared she’d seen the last of him.
“They completely and utterly betrayed me and left me heartbroken,” she told the Sun.
“I knew as soon as I heard her say, ‘we’re getting rid of the phones now’. I thought ‘I’ll never see him again’.”
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2:41
Alex Batty: Police launch investigation
She added she didn’t know “if they were alive or dead” during the entire six years.
“Every time there was some sort of disaster I feared that he could be a victim,” she said.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed on Friday that a criminal investigation has been launched into Alex’s alleged abduction.
Alex landed in the UK on Saturday having been found by chiropody student Fabien Accidini near the French city of Toulouse last week after walking across the Pyrenees.
Officers in the UK interviewed Alex after his return from France, GMP said.
Last week, French prosecutors said the teenager’s mother, Melanie Batty, who does not have legal parental guardianship, may be in Finland.
Image: Alex at a younger age. Pic: GMP
Alex – who said he gave his grandmother a “massive hug” when they were reunited – said he didn’t go to school at all during his time abroad.
He said he must have read the Harry Potter books “at least 20 times” and his main pastime was reading as he could rarely access Wi-Fi.
Read more: Alex Batty says it feels ‘surreal’ to be home after being missing for six years Alex Batty’s mother ‘spent summer living in French caravan using fake identity’
“During all my time away, I never attended school for a single day,” he said.
“The only qualifications I have are my SATs test results from primary school when I lived back in Oldham.
“That’s one of the worst things that’s happened to me throughout all this – not having a proper education.”
A woman has told Sky News that Russell Brand made her feel “vulnerable and intimidated” – and alleges he refused to call her a taxi until she performed a sex act.
It comes as new allegations continue to emerge about the comedian’s behaviour, as another organisation cut ties with him.
Sarah, whose name has been changed, claims she met Russell Brand on an aeroplane where he “seemed friendly and charming”.
He invited her for breakfast and a walk after the flight and she agreed to travel in his limousine.
“He changed,” she says, “like he wasn’t friendly and charming in the limo. He was aggressive and I felt very vulnerable and intimidated.”
She describes Brand “jumping” on her.
Image: Russell Brand in 2012. File pic
“The limo driver was turning around a few times because I was saying no, but he ripped a hole – more than one hole – in the tights that I was wearing,” she says.
Sarah says they drove straight to Brand’s house where they had consensual sex.
“I mean, it was consensual. I didn’t say no,” she said, “but I feel like there’s a fine line between being forced and being coerced, you know, like being in a situation where the only way out is just to get it over and done with and leave.”
She claims Brand then refused to call her a taxi until she performed oral sex on him.
“I wanted to leave and I said, ‘I need to get a taxi’. And he said, ‘I’m not going to get you a taxi until you do this’, which was a sex act.”
She describes feeling “really trapped” and wanting to “scale that house.”
Sky News has reached out to Russell Brand’s representatives for comment.
Read more: The allegations in full Stars’ past warnings resurface From drug addict to controversial comedy star
‘No, no, no’
The BBC, meanwhile, has said it is looking into new allegations by another woman who claimed he exposed himself to her.
The woman, whom the BBC is naming ‘Olivia’, said she was working in the same building as Brand 15 years ago in Los Angeles when the incident happened.
She claims she answered the door to Brand and his team, and when she went into the bathroom she noticed he was behind her.
Speaking to the BBC, she claims Brand said he was going to have sex with her, to which she replied “no, you’re not”.
Olivia then alleges Brand showed her his genitals to which she responded with “no, no, no”.
She says she returned to her desk afterwards and texted a BBC employee in the office about what had happened.
The employee told her that he knew because Brand was talking about it in the studio, on Radio 2.
Image: Russell Brand in 2008
In the broadcast, which aired on 21 June 2008, Brand is heard speaking to his co-presenter Matt Morgan about it.
Morgan said: “[It’s been] 25 minutes since he showed his w**** to a lady,” and referred to “the receptionist”.
Brand is apparently heard laughing in the background.
According to the BBC report, Olivia never made a complaint, but management was informed in 2019 and no formal action was taken.
The BBC said it was sorry to hear the allegations and would investigate them as part of a review into Brand’s time at the BBC.
In a statement reported on BBC News, Matt Morgan said: “I was not aware until now of the nature of this encounter.
“I’ve expressed my regrets now looking back at the impact of the show and this is a further example.
“The recent coverage has been very distressing to read and I reiterate my absolute condemnation of any form of the mistreatment of women.”
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8:28
Dispatches programme makers speak
‘Open secret’
Comedian Nish Kumar has also spoken out, on his Pod Save The UK podcast, describing the presence of alleged sexual predators as an “open secret” on the comedy scene.
Brand, 48, has previously been accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse by four other women between 2006 and 2013.
He has denied all the claims – saying that his relationships have always been consensual.
The accusations were first reported by the Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4’s Dispatches earlier this month.
The Metropolitan Police subsequently said it had received a sexual assault allegation against Brand dating back to 2003.
As a result, a number of organisations have now cut ties with the presenter.
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1:51
C4 boss: Brand allegations ‘disgusting’
The latest to end its association with Brand is the Treasures Foundation, which said it had been “extremely saddened” by the allegations.
In a statement, the charity said it was “founded on Christian principles” and is “totally committed to advocating for the voices of women”.
It continues: “As a result of the recent media investigation into Russell Brand, we have made the decision to no longer receive any support from Mr Brand, and the Stay Free Foundation.
“Moving forward our focus remains on the women under our care.”
The parents of a man who was shot dead by police last year have led a protest in London as they continue to wait for answers a year after his death.
The march to mark the one-year anniversary of Chris Kaba’s death began at New Scotland Yard and ended in Parliament Square on Saturday.
The 23-year-old was killed after the car he was driving was followed through south London by an unmarked police car with no lights or sirens.
He then turned into Kirkstall Gardens, a narrow residential street in Streatham Hill, where there was a collision between the vehicle he was in and an unmarked police car that was waiting for him at the scene.
A police officer who was in that marked vehicle is now referred to as NX121 for legal reasons.
The marksman fired one shot through the windscreen, hitting Mr Kaba in the head.
With the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) yet to make a decision to charge the officer involved in the case, the message from the protesters was clear – they want answers now.
At the forefront of the protest was Mr Kaba’s father Prosper Kaba and mother Helen Kaba, who both spoke at the event.
“Chris’s matter is our matter,” said Ms Kaba.
“I know I am vulnerable, but I’ve got strength. God has given me the strength to fight till we’ve got justice. We need accountability, we need an answer for what happened to Chris.”
Image: Chris Kaba
Ms Kaba also criticised the length of the legal process, which began with an Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation in the aftermath of Mr Kaba’s shooting on 5 September last year, before a file was passed to the CPS this March.
“The CPS have got everything, they’ve got evidence to decide to charge the officer who killed Chris,” she said in front of the crowd.
“Why in the 21st century should this happen to Chris? No matter what, we need an answer and we need a charging decision without delay.”
The incident last year sparked protests across the country, taking place on two consecutive weekends in September.
Read more: Chris Kaba’s family say ‘life became meaningless’ after killing Family criticise ‘unacceptable’ delay in charging decision
Image: Chris Kaba’s mother speaks at the protest
Image: Helen Kaba wants answer after her son’s death
On Saturday the crowd was smaller, a fact some of the speakers alluded to, urging people to continue to support the campaign.
Those who turned out were in full voice, chanting and carrying placards that include the words “justice for Chris Kaba” and “no justice, no peace”.
Mr Kaba’s father has asked why the officer involved was not jailed.
Image: Prosper Kaba has asked why the officer who killed his son is not in jail
He said: “This officer broke trust between our community and them. To build up this trust they [the police] need to change.”
Speaking before the event, the team campaigning around the family said they want to see the case spark a wider change.
The CPS said it did not provide timescales for charging decisions and prosecutors were “carefully considering the file of evidence”.
A CPS spokesperson said: “As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.”
A “household name” BBC presenter accused of paying a teenager for explicit photos is facing fresh allegations that he stripped to his underpants during a video call with the youth.
The young person’s mother said she was “shocked” after her offspring showed her a screenshot of the video chat, in which the unnamed star was sitting in his boxer shorts on a sofa at his home.
She told The Sun that the man appeared to be “leaning forward, getting ready for my child to perform for him.”
“My child told me, ‘I have shown things’ and this was a picture from some kind of video call,” she added.
The newspaper did not say when the alleged incident happened.
The mother also alleged that earlier this year she was shocked after overhearing the presenter “on the phone saying to my child: ‘I told you not to f***ing ring me’.”
It comes after The Sun previously claimed that the well-known presenter had paid a total of more than £35,000 to the youth in return for “sexual pictures”.
The man is said to have first requested images when the teenager was 17 back in 2020, and has made a series of payments since then.
No one involved has been named, but The Sun said the presenter has not been suspended and is thought to still being paid his six-figure salary in full.
It said the family made a complaint on 19 May but came forward to the media after becoming frustrated that the man was still on air a month later.
The mother said her offspring told her they had also received a payment of £1,000 in June over PayPal which suggested that the “BBC hadn’t spoken to this man” in the weeks after the initial complaint.
Going public ‘the only way to stop it’
The presenter is now off-air and the BBC has reportedly launched an investigation, although the corporation has not confirmed this.
The youth, who is now aged 20, used the money to fund a crack cocaine habit which “destroyed” their life, the mother has also claimed.
She told the newspaper: “If it goes on then my child is going to wind up dead. Putting this out to the public is the only way to stop it.”
The claims have prompted frenzied speculation on social media over the identity of the presenter and led to a string of BBC stars, including Jeremy Vine and Gary Lineker, to public speak out to deny they are the mystery figure.
Read more: Everything we know about claims a BBC presenter paid teen for explicit photos Wealthier should pay more for BBC, says ex-chairman BBC objects to Twitter’s ‘government-funded media’ label
Earlier on the BBC’s News at Ten programme, the broadcaster’s special correspondent Lucy Manning described the situation as “very serious for the BBC” and warned it could “severely dent the BBC’s reputation”.
She added: “The understanding is the presenter isn’t due on air in the near future, but we haven’t been told – and we have asked…. whether there has or hasn’t been a formal suspension.
“The BBC will need to answer if the investigation should have happened sooner, if it should have been more thorough, and if it’s fair to other presenters, unconnected to this, that their names are now sort of in the headlines.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We treat any allegations very seriously and we have processes in place to proactively deal with them.
“As part of that, if we receive information that requires further investigation or examination we will take steps to do this. That includes actively attempting to speak to those who have contacted us in order to seek further detail and understanding of the situation.”
They added: “If we get no reply to our attempts or receive no further contact that can limit our ability to progress things but it does not mean our enquiries stop.
“If, at any point, new information comes to light or is provided – including via newspapers – this will be acted upon appropriately, in line with internal processes.”
An army veteran who hoped to set a world record for the number of days living on a remote North Atlantic islet says he owes rescuers his life after issuing an emergency mayday call.
Christopher “Cam” Cameron VR FRGS planned to remain on Rockall for 60 days and managed to make it to the halfway point before his charity challenge was scuppered by treacherous weather.
Much of his equipment was destroyed by wind and waves throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, and he was almost swept away at several points overnight.
After issuing the distress call to HM Coastguard on Wednesday evening, the crew of nearby ship MV Nassauborg kept in visual contact from the water as waves continued to crash over the islet.
Mr Cameron told Sky News: “I was reassured at all times that I was in safe hands and that I would return to see my family despite being in pain, exhausted and hypothermic.
“I’ll need a moment or two to take stock, decompress, and get home to see my family.”
Image: Pic: Rockall Expedition/MPV HIRTA
Image: Pic: Rockall Expedition/MPV HIRTA
Stornoway Coastguard responded to the alert. Mr Cameron was winched to safety via helicopter and then flown back to the Scottish town – the largest in the Outer Hebrides.
Mr Cameron said: “I’m safe and well after a good night’s sleep, courtesy of the hospitality and kindness from the people of Stornoway.
“I owe this all to the courageous and speedy extraction from Rockall by the professionalism of HM Coastguard.”
Rockall is an uninhabitable granite islet around 230 miles west of North Uist.
Mr Cameron had hoped to beat the world record of a 45-day stay on Rockall, set by Nick Hancock in 2014.
Image: Pic: Rockall Expedition
Mr Cameron, who is usually based in Wiltshire, took on the challenge for The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity and ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.
He has raised more than £12,000 for the causes so far.
He said: “I did it for the charities and we have raised some much needed money for them.”
Mr Cameron thanked all those who have sent kind words.
Image: Pic: Stornoway Coastguard
Paying tribute to his rescuers, he said: “I would not be here were it not for the courageous efforts of HM Coastguard – in particular, Stornoway Coastguard and the pilots and crew of Rescue 22, and SAR Stornoway.
“A big thank you also to the captain and crew of MV Nassauborg, who maintained a sector screen around Rockall whilst I waited for the [helicopter]. I owe them all my life.”
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Mr Cameron’s family said: “We are hugely proud of all his achievements, but also that he had the courage to make what must have been a very difficult decision in the face of such dreadful weather.
“We are looking forward to welcoming him home and hope that any future adventures will be a little less risky.”
They joked: “Why couldn’t he just have bought a sports car in the first place?”
Image: Pic: Rockall Expedition
A documentary about Mr Cameron’s challenge, titled Rockall – The Edge of Existence, is currently being produced.
Aaron Wheeler, director of the documentary, said: “We’re glad Cam is safely back on dry land and look forward to watching through the footage that Cam recorded during his occupation to tell the story of his adventure.”
