British defence minister John Healey quits over defence spending

UK’s Defence Secretary, John Healey, has resigned. In his resignation letter, which he published today on X, he cited a lack of funding for defence as the reason for his decision. He stressed that these funds are needed to “protect the country in the face of growing threats”.more

New powers should be used to seize control of empty homes in London and allow councils to use them for social housing, say MPs. They stressed that there are between 542,000 and 1.2 million empty homes in England, many of them in the capital.more

Transport chiefs in London were plunged into a “cover-up” storm over a sharp rise in cycling casualties. The number of fatalities and serious injuries among cyclists in 2025 was 1,196, a jump of 20.3% on the 994 in 2024, and a record high since at least 2017.more

Londoners can immerse themselves in a plush purple paradise this summer as a 110-acre lavender farm prepares to open its gates this month.more

The general meeting of the Polish Social and Cultural Center (POSK) will be held on Saturday, July 4, 2026. Pursuant to the POSK Statute and Bylaws, members meet once a year to adopt a report for the past year and elect officers for the new term: the Chairperson, the Council, and the Audit Committee. This year's elections are stirring strong emotions among the Polish community in London.more

Billions of pounds are owed to water, broadband, and energy companies by customers - the majority of whom are unaware that support is available. More than £7bn in bills and charges was owed by March last year, the UK's spending watchdog said, but estimates suggest that total has grown since.more

Middle-aged Londoners are at the same risk of dying in a heatwave than pensioners, the London Mayor’s office is warning. Women may also be more vulnerable than men to high temperatures.more

Britons are no longer just moving abroad to escape the weather – many are looking for higher wages and a lower cost of living. A report found two-thirds of people in the UK who moved abroad did so to offset high prices, while one in five moved to save money. more

Two police officers were mistakenly identified by internet users as the officers responsible for arresting Henry Nowak, who was bleeding profusely. The false information was confirmed by the Grok chatbot, and Elon Musk called for them to be held to account. NASK has issued a warning about the potential for disinformation on Grok and the X platform.more

The British government wishes to cooperate with its European partners, Downing Street stated on Tuesday in a statement sent to PAP in response to the Polish Prime Minister’s remarks. Donald Tusk had earlier commented on Poland’s absence from Sunday’s meeting in London with the President of Ukraine.more

London is suffering from an exodus of young families which has caused a remarkable drop in the number of primary school pupils, new figures show. They are being particularly driven out of Inner London by sky-high property prices, exorbitant rents, and limits on housing benefit.more

A 30-year-old man was charged yesterday with a knife attack in north Belfast, local police said. Protests broke out in the city, and demonstrations took place. Participants in one of the demonstrations set a bus on fire.more

Co-op will extend its online delivery hours across 180 stores across England and Scotland in June to cater to World Cup fans. Online orders, which usually close at 10pm, will stay open for around an hour after the final whistle for six group-stage matches with late kick offs.more

UK companies are increasingly hiring temporary workers instead of permanent staff because of low confidence in the economy and higher cost pressures, according to a report. Recruiters reported a strong increase in offers of temporary roles in May, according to new research from KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).more

The Ilford Park Polish Home, colloquially referred to by residents and the British media as "Little Poland," is facing closure due to a drastic decline in the number of residents. The Polish government and Polish diaspora organizations have conducted extensive public consultations on the matter, and a petition to the British government was recently submitted.more

A man believed to be Somali has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a "brutal" knife attack in Belfast, police have said. The man, in his 30s, remains in custody after the incident in north Belfast at about 22:30 BST on Monday.more

Green Party leader calls for tighter regulation of supermarkets and proposes £15 minimum wage. Zack Polanski has said food is too cheap and called for new rules to force supermarkets to pay suppliers more.more

British police made fundamental mistakes in the Henry Nowak case; there needs to be discussion about changing anti-racism guidelines within the police force, said Ian Acheson, an expert on the British penal and prison system, commenting on the high-profile case of the teenager's death in Southampton.more

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced yesterday that Big Tech companies must install software by September to prevent children from sharing sexually explicit videos and images. Otherwise, the government will enforce this through legal means.more

The UK's second biggest supermarket chain's own-brand ranges will only sell white eggs to help customers make more sustainable choices. It said white eggs have 12.7% lower carbon footprints than brown eggs, largely due to better feeding efficiency and the longer productive lifespan of white hens.more

Britain's King Charles III received an audience in Windsor on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who the day before met in London with the leaders of Great Britain, France and Germany to end the Russian invasion of their country.more

An 8-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero after helping to calm a disruptive passenger down and preventing a plane from being diverted mid-flight. On Friday, May 1, Phoenix was returning home to Salford, England from Turkey when a woman began shouting during a Jet2 flight, according to the BBC, Manchester Evening News and the Metro.more

The UK’s food imports are at risk because farmers producing supermarket staples abroad face intense pressure from a “super” El Nino, experts have warned.more

Wet weather is set to remain the norm in London this week but temperatures should return to the mid-20s by the weekend. Though there will be spells of sunshine, showers and heavy rain are forecast in the capital throughout the week by the Met Office.more

By delaying the publication of its defence investment plan, the British government is squandering an opportunity to modernise the armed forces, undermining its credibility with allies and weakening its ability to deter enemies, the influential Parliamentary Public Expenditure Committee warned yesterday in a report.more

City Hall has been criticised for blaming the previous Conservative government's funding of policing in London for the current shortfall of officers. The Met has recently announced that it needs 38,000 officers and 19,000 staff based on London's population and a comparison to other police forces internationally.more

Artificial intelligence has been used to develop a ‘fundamentally new’ type of vaccine that could protect against a wide range of viruses and prevent pandemics, the BBC reported on Friday, citing information obtained from a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge.more

It has also emerged that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received undisclosed income from renting out three properties on his Royal Lodge estate.more

According to a recent study by outdoor play equipment specialists Outdoortoys, the best city in England to raise a family is Sheffield, in Yorkshire. more

The intervention of Elon Musk and US Vice President JD Vance in the death of Henry Nowak transformed a local British tragedy into an international diplomatic crisis between Washington, London, and Silicon Valley. The two Americans exploited the brutal murder of an 18-year-old student to attack British authorities, which was met with an immediate and sharp reaction.more

Too many people face a "cliff-edge drop in income" when they retire, with more than three-quarters not on course to save enough for a "moderate" lifestyle, a pensions trade body has warned. A new report by Pensions UK suggested what it termed a moderate lifestyle cost £32,700 a year for one person and £45,400 for two - but estimated just 23% of the working population would reach such a level.more

Amazon customers in parts of London can now add fresh groceries to same-day delivery orders as the retail giant expands its food offering. The move, which allows shoppers to include perishable items like vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, bread, eggs and frozen foods alongside electronics and household essentials, is part of Amazon's latest investment in online grocery.more

The risks and threats to the UK are greater now than at any time since the Cold War, the head of the military has said. "This is the most dangerous period that I have known," Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.more

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has backed MP Jess Asato's lawsuit against Elon Musk's company xAI for generating bikini photos of her. The Labour MP accuses xAI of failing to take steps to "prevent the creation of fake sexual images" when creating the chatbot Grok.more

The unsolved mystery of how the altar stone of Stonehenge arrived in Wiltshire could finally be partly explained by new research. The monolith is believed to have originated in the Orcadian Basin of north-east Scotland, but how it ended up in Salisbury remained unknown.more

Millions of private renters across the UK are regularly subjected to unfair or unlawful behaviour by letting agents, a new report from Citizens Advice has warned.more

One in three employers are likely to implement staff redundancies by early next year, according to new research. A survey of 1,000 businesses, conducted by the conciliation service Acas, found that larger companies are more inclined to lay off staff than smaller firms.more

The NHS is taking action to tackle antisemitism after a government-ordered report found that Jewish patients and staff face “routine ostracism” in the service. Anti-Jewish hatred in the NHS means some patients hide their identity and staff “suffer in silence”, a review by Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, has found.more