Rishi Sunak is set to battle it out with Sir Keir Starmer over the economy after a bruising day for the Conservative leader which saw two senior party figures quit as MPs.
Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom both announced on Friday they would not stand in the 4 July general election, bringing the total number of sitting Tories quitting to 78.
This beats the previous record of 72 MPs stepping down before Tony Blair‘s landslide in the 1997 election.
General election latest: Reaction as Gove and Leadsom standing down
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves feature in Saturday’s editions of The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail respectively touting their economic promises if their party wins the election.
Mr Hunt hinted at tax breaks for high earners and branded inheritance tax as “profoundly anti-Conservative”.
Meanwhile, Ms Reeves vowed to deliver financial stability with a Thatcher-style commitment to “sound money”.
She will meet with supermarket workers in London later to talk about the cost-of-living crisis, seeking to attack the Conservative record on the economy as she pitches Labour as the party of “stability and tough spending”.
Their comments come as Mr Gove quit his almost two-decade career in politics, saying it was time to let “a new generation lead”.
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PM admits to ‘difficult days’
He was quickly followed by Ms Leadsom who unsuccessfully stood against Theresa May to lead the Conservatives after the Brexit referendum.
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In her resignation letter, Ms Leadsom said it had been “the greatest honour to serve the people of South Northamptonshire as their MP for the last 14 years”.
Ms Leadsom, who is currently a junior health minister, was business secretary under Mrs May.
William Wragg, who shared other politicians’ personal numbers as part of a honeytrap sexting scam, has “voluntarily” given up the Conservative whip – meaning he will now sit as an independent MP in the Commons.
Mr Wragg, the MP for Hazel Grove, Greater Manchester, yesterday resigned as vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers and also stepped down from his role heading the Commons’ Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
A spokesperson for the Tory whips said today: “Following Will Wragg’s decision to step back from his roles on the Public Accounts and 1922 committees, he has also notified the chief whip that he is voluntarily relinquishing the Conservative whip.”
The move means that Mr Wragg is no longer a member of the Conservative parliamentary party and will sit as an independent MP, rather than a Tory MP, in parliament.
His decision to voluntarily give up the party whip came after he apologised last week after admitting to the Times that he had given his colleagues’ phone numbers to someone he met on a dating app.
Scotland Yard has said it is investigating reports of the so-called “honeytrap” scam after it was suggested at least 12 men in political circles received unsolicited messages, raising security concerns.
Mr Wragg, who has already announced he is standing down at the next election,told the newspaper: “They had compromising things on me. They wouldn’t leave me alone.
“They would ask for people. I gave them some numbers, not all of them. I told him to stop. He’s manipulated me and now I’ve hurt other people.
“I got chatting to a guy on an app and we exchanged pictures. We were meant to meet up for drinks, but then didn’t.
“Then he started asking for numbers of people. I was worried because he had stuff on me. He gave me a WhatsApp number, which doesn’t work now. I’ve hurt people by being weak.
“I was scared. I’m mortified. I’m so sorry that my weakness has caused other people hurt.”
While some MPs have praised Mr Wragg for his apology, others had been less sympathetic and called on Rishi Sunak to remove the whip.
Following Mr Wragg’s decision, a senior Tory told Sky News: “Rishi is so weak Wragg decided he’d have to fire himself instead.”
Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, agreed, saying: “The fact it was left to William Wragg to resign is another indictment of Rishi Sunak’s weakness.
“His MPs were left yet again being sent out to defend a position that has collapsed.
“Rishi Sunak puts party management first every time – and he can’t even do that properly. It is no way to run a country.”
Speaking to the Politics Hub on Sky News Conservative Party chair Richard Holden said Mr Wragg had done “the right thing” by giving up the whip of his own accord.
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“He’s already issued a fulsome apology, he’s resigned from the 1922 committee executive… and he’s also given up the Conservative whip,” Mr Holden told host Adam Parsons.
“I think we already knew he wouldn’t be standing at the next election, he’s already announced he’s standing down, so yes I think that was the right thing to have done.”
Asked whether Mr Wragg’s decision to give up the whip suggested the prime minister was too “weak” to do it himself, Mr Holden said: “I think it’s pretty clear what’s happened here.
“William Wragg has made his decision and I think that’s the right thing.”
He pointed to the ongoing police investigation and said: “I think it’s important that we allow those investigations to continue.”
A woman has died after being stabbed in Bradford city centre.
West Yorkshire Police said the “shocking incident” happened in “broad daylight in a busy area” on Saturday and was witnessed by a number of people.
Officers were called to Westgate in Bradford at 3.21pm after reports a woman had been stabbed by a man who then fled the scene.
She was taken to hospital where she subsequently died of her injuries.
The victim is yet to be formally identified but is understood to be 27 years old.
Image: Forensic officers at the scene of the stabbing. Pic: YappApp
Detective Chief Inspector Stacey Atkinson said the suspect is believed to have been known by the victim.
She added: “We know that this incident will understandably cause concern in the local community and I would like to reassure the wider public that we are working tirelessly to investigate this horrendous crime and bring the person responsible to justice.”
Police have launched an appeal for information, asking anyone in the area with dashcam footage or who witnessed the incident to come forward.
A wartime hero has been honoured on his 100th birthday.
Ronald Brignall was 16 years old when he saved Cardiff City Hall from destruction during World War Two.
He carried a sandbag between his teeth, with another under his arm, while he scaled a drainpipe to douse the flames.
Image: Ronald Brignall. Pic: PA
Mr Brignall climbed back up the pipe with a fire hose, also gripped between his teeth, to finish the job.
At the time, he was studying a plumbing qualification at college.
He was walking home when he saw an incendiary bomb land on the roof of City Hall.
He told his local paper at the time that his jaw was sore from carrying the sandbag and that he had ruined his suit.
Speaking ahead of his honour, Mr Brignall said he “didn’t have any fear” and that he “just wanted to make sure the bomb didn’t do any damage to City Hall”.
He later became an official fire-watcher to help keep Cardiff safe during the war, and then joined the RAF in 1944.
Image: Cardiff City Hall. File pic: PA
Cardiff mayor Bablin Molik visited Mr Brignall in the Sussex care home where he now lives to present him with a special certificate.
Mr Brignall’s son Ian said his father was “thrilled to have this recognition”.
“It’s a perfect present on his birthday,” he added.
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Ms Molik said the “best part” of her work was to meet “remarkable people”.
“I know this is a rather belated honour but it is no less heartfelt and I assured Mr Brignall and his family that the whole of Cardiff expresses its gratitude for the heroics he performed on that day in 1941,” she added.
A teenage boy has died after being found stabbed in Birmingham city centre’s Victoria Square.
The 17-year-old victim was discovered with serious knife wounds by police at about 3.30pm on Saturday.
He later died in hospital and his family have been informed, West Midlands Police said.
The cordon in the square, which is home to Birmingham’s city council building, has since been lifted, but there will be a heightened police presence in the area, the force added.
Officers want to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time, including tourists who may have been taking pictures by The River statue or near the Council House.
Chief Inspector James Spencer said: “The life of a 17-year-old boy has tragically been taken away and all our thoughts are with his family and friends at this awful time.
“It’s very early stages in the investigation but we have a team of skilled detectives who are working to identify, and arrest, whoever did this.”
Google has started construction on a new $1bn (£789m) data centre in the UK, it has been revealed.
The announcement was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been meeting company bosses as part of a bid to “champion British excellence in tech”.
The new facility is to be located on a 33-acre site at Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, purchased by Google in October 2020.
The Alphabet-owned company said the centre would boost the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and “help ensure reliable digital services to Google Cloud customers and Google users in the UK”.
It also revealed that heat generated from the facility would be saved to benefit homes and other businesses in the local community.
Google employs 7,000 people in the UK and said the data centre would add to that figure, initially due to the construction process.
Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer, said: “The Waltham Cross data centre represents our latest investment in the UK and the wider digital economy at large.
“This investment builds upon our Saint Giles and Kings Cross office developments, our multi-year research collaboration agreement with the University of Cambridge, and the Grace Hopper subsea cable that connects the UK with the United States and Spain.
“This new data centre will help meet growing demand for our AI and cloud services and bring crucial compute capacity to businesses across the UK while creating construction and technical jobs for the local community.
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“Together with the UK government, we are working to make AI more helpful and accessible for people and organisations across the country.”
Mr Hunt said of the investment: “From business conducted online to advancements in healthcare, every growing economy relies on data centres.
“Our country is no different and this major $1bn investment from Google is a huge vote of confidence in Britain as the largest tech economy in Europe, bringing with it good jobs and the infrastructure we need to support the industries of the future.”
The announcement was made just a day after Google boss Sundar Pichai told employees in an internal memo to expect more job cuts during 2024.
A year ago, plans for 12,000 global job losses were revealed, amounting to 6% of its workforce.
According to The Verge, which first reported on the communication, the company’s 182,000 staff were told the lay-offs would not be as severe.
The new data centre builds on other recent tech wins for the UK.
Image: Microsoft and Google are the investment leaders in the AI sphere
Microsoft confirmed plans for a £2.5bn data centre in late November after overcoming UK regulatory hurdles in its £55bn takeover of Activision Blizzard.
Commenting on the latest deal, Ben Barringer, technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said there were signs the government’s message that the UK was open for business, particularly in the AI sphere, was getting through.
But he added: “Relations between the government and big tech have been rocky in recent years with the protracted approval of Microsoft’s merger with Activision and Meta downsizing its UK footprint souring relations.
“Looking at the bigger picture for Google, this investment is somewhat a drop in the ocean and simply represents prudent business.
“The cost of this data centre is around a thirtieth of their annual capital expenditure and with approximately 30 data centres already constructed globally, it isn’t exactly going to move the needle for them by adding another.
“Furthermore, it is unlikely that post-construction many jobs will be created. Data centres do not require scores of employees to run them, and given Google is a very lean business, it will be looking to make its operation as efficient as possible.”
“It was an all consuming fear that I would just stop breathing in my sleep, but still, all I wanted was to take more.”
“I approached my own son in the street asking for drugs, that’s how low I was, benzos just destroyed my life.”
These are the stories of two separate people with the same catastrophic addiction to a prescription drug.
Thirty years apart in age and 200 miles apart in distance, their stories are scarily similar.
I meet Rory Maslen (they/them), 21, at their university flat in Leeds. As Rory sank into the sofa, they look at me with a timid smile.
They’re about to talk me through haunted years. The ones filled with an undying desperation to guzzle more of the drug that was killing them.
Image: Rory Maslen would ‘eat pills by the handful’
Inside the four walls of Rory’s university room once lived anxiety, depression and what they thought was the remedy – benzos.
“There were weeks at a time when the only reason I would leave my accommodation was to go and pick up a few boxes of pills.
“I was literally eating pills by the handful just to get through the day.”
Across the border in Edinburgh, William Anderson, 53, sits in his temporary accommodation generously recounting his painful tale, as I hang on his every word.
“After my daughter died when I was 19, I turned to benzos to cope with the grief.
“I got them prescribed by the doctor – seven pills a day – but when that wasn’t enough I started getting them on the street too.”
Image: William Anderson turned to benzos following the death of his daughter
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What are benzos?
Benzodiazepines are anti-anxiety prescription drugs that have flooded the illicit market.
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What are Benzos?
The drug is supposed to be prescribed, but thousands of vulnerable people across the UK are buying dangerous street benzos to self-medicate according to charities like Turning Point and UKAT.
And now testing services are raising the alarm after finding street benzos sold for as little as 10p are being cut with a synthetic opioid 10 times stronger than Fentanyl.
‘Stripped of any free will’
What began as self-medication for Rory turned into self destruction.
“Before I knew it, I was completely stripped of any free will, any major thought in my head all the time was focused on getting more benzos.”
Rory told me they were taking 30 benzo pills per day when they started experiencing life threatening seizures and side effects.
Image: Rory’s excessive drug consumption led to life threatening seizures and other side effects
“Your muscles hurt, your bones hurt, you have constant tremors and if you go outside in the sun it feels like your eyes are burning. You’re hot and cold, more so than I’ve ever felt ever before.”
‘Approached my own son for drugs’
For Will, a lifetime of trauma, grief and isolation drove him to dive head first into what he calls “benzo oblivion”.
Taking 100 pills a day and selling benzos to fuel his addiction, Will was on the edge of death.
After a 20 year battle with benzos, Will tells me he tried to take his own life. The amount of benzos he took knocked him out for four days, but still he continued using.
“The lowest moment of my life was approaching a group of guys in the street and asking for drugs.
“When I looked up I realised it was my own son – the only son that was still in contact with me.
“The look of shame he had was the worst feeling in the world.
“The next morning I woke up and screamed in the mirror, you either live or you die.”
Will has been sober ever since that day.
Image: William is now sober and created a support group to help others
He created his own support group called “Oor Willie”, which now has over 1,700 members, and he trained with the Scottish Drugs Forum qualifying as an addiction support worker in August.
It was Rory’s passion for music and their drive to get back to playing with their band Kiosk that gave them the courage to bear through and taper off the benzos with the support of their family.
When I asked Rory and Will what they would say to young people considering self-medicating with benzos now, their response was the same.
A 15-year-old boy has been charged with murder following the death of a teenager in Bath city centre.
Ben Moncrieff, 18, died in the Southgate Street area of the cityin the early hours of Saturday 6 May following reports of a man suffering serious injuries.
Paramedics attended the incident and found the teenager critically injured. He died at the scene.
Image: Ben Moncrieff. Pic: GoFundMe page set up by friends
Policesay a 15-year-old boy, from south London, has been charged with murder.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, due to his age, has also been charged with possession of a bladed article.
He is due to appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court today.
Following news of Mr Moncrieff’s death, friends set up a GoFundMe page to raise £5,000 to “give him the funeral and send off he deserves”.
The friends described Mr Moncrieff as a “hard-working lad” who “brought endless smiles to everyone who was lucky enough to meet him”.
The Princess of Wales beat her husband at an endurance spin class during a visit to an Aberavon leisure centre – while donning her high-heeled boots.
The royal couple joined gym goers at the endurance cycling session in south Wales, and were challenged to see who could cycle the furthest in 45 seconds while riding a virtual race in the Italian mountains.
As they entered the room, the prince apologised to the class saying: “Sorry for ruining your spin class.”
He then pointed out to Kate that she was still wearing her high-heeled boots.
“Not sure I am dressed for this,” she responded.
Once under way, and clearly teasing her husband, Kate said: “Can I make it harder?”
At the conclusion, William said, while breathing heavily: “Talk to you in a minute.”
Image: The princess was given a trophy for her victory over William
The event was part of a series of visits in south Wales to mark St David’s Day.
Away from their race, the pair toured the centre’s sports hall and swimming pool, and met children from the local Tywyn Primary School, who were taking part in various indoor sports.
Seven-year-old Rafael Vazquez, from Swansea, presented the couple with a set of Welsh leotards for their children.
His mother Jo Vazquez said: “It was wonderful to meet them. They are so genuine people and have a real interest in the community, children and sport.
“They said how interested they were in keeping leisure centres open, especially swimming, as it is such a key skill for life.”
William and Kate also visited a therapy garden in Pontyclun, where the princess planted a Sweet William – prompting a laugh from her husband.
Image: The prince and princess met a great dane on their visit to a therapy garden in Pontyclun
They also met a therapy dog, seven-year-old Great Dane, Ragnar, with William commenting on the dog’s “big ears”, while Kate said: “He must be very popular.”
Kate was presented with a bunch of daffodils by two-year-old Cora Phillips, with her mother Michelle Phillips, from Llanharan, saying: “Oh my goodness, I did not expect that in a million years.”
Turning to her daughter, she said: “We just met a princess. We’re never going to forget that.”
Police are investigating the sudden death of a well-known drag queen who was found dead in a city centre alleyway in Cardiff.
Darren Moore, a 39-year-old from Newport, was last seen at about 5am on Sunday while wearing full face make-up, a luminous green dress, blonde wig, heels and carrying a clutch bag.
Detectives are appealing for anyone who may have seen Mr Moore in the city centre during the early hours of Sunday to get in touch.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Raikes, who is leading the investigation, said: “Extensive enquiries are being carried out to establish the cause and circumstances of Mr Moore’s death.
“Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. A Home Office post-mortem has been conducted and further examinations are currently ongoing to establish cause of death.
“I would like to thank the community for the excellent support they have provided to this investigation so far this week, which has helped enormously and I would appeal for anyone with information to please come forward.
“I would also like to respectfully ask people to refrain from speculating on social media about what has occurred and please let the police investigation take its course.”
Superintendent Michelle Conquer said: “We understand there is shock and upset in the local and wider community following the death of Darren Moore who was a well-known drag artist in Cardiff.
“While an investigation is ongoing, our neighbourhood policing team as always will continue to provide a visible police presence in the city centre.
“A police cordon is in place while enquiries continue at the scene, and we thank the community for their support at this time.
“South Wales Police is proud to represent and protect all communities that it serves.
“Cardiff has a long and proud tradition of recognising, celebrating and protecting equality and diversity.
“Anyone who has concerns is asked to please contact South Wales Police in confidence.”
In a statement issued by police, Mr Moore’s family said: “Darren Moore was a loving husband, son, brother, uncle and friend.
“He was always the life and soul wherever he went, he was Our social butterfly. He made sure he had a lot of time for people, and never judged others.
“Darren’s husband and family want to thank everyone for their support but now need time to grieve and respectfully request privacy at this time.”
A GoFundMe fundraising page has been set up to raise money for Mr Moore’s family.
It said: “Anyone who knew Darren would know how he was never understated in his appearance and costume. His larger-than-life character and charisma were something that you’ll never forget.
“We’d like to support Darren and the family and give Darren the biggest send off. If you’re able too and can afford a few quid, please donate what you can to ensure we do him proud.”
Tributes have been paid from across Cardiff’s gay community.
The Golden Cross, Wales’s oldest LGBT+ venue, posted on Twitter: “We are deeply saddened to learn of Darren Moore’s passing.
“Many of you will know of his long-standing support of the Golden.
“He was the life and soul of the party and would always be entertaining the masses, usually accompanied with a round of shots.”
