The mayor of London has cautiously welcomed reports that he is to impose a tourist levy on visitors staying overnight in the capital. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to give Sir Sadiq Khan and other civic chiefs the authority to do so through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.more

Londoners are set to be faced with more bad weather after a recent drop in temperatures has left us feeling frozen. Right after London and other parts of the UK felt the wrath of Storm Claudia, the elements aren’t going to improve any time soon.more

Rachel Reeves will launch a fresh crackdown on benefit fraud at the same time as lifting the two-child limit for universal credit at a cost of £3bn, as ministers seek to head off criticism over rising welfare spending in the budget.more

Changes to the driving test come into place on Monday (24 November), including requiring candidates to spend longer on faster roads. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) said it is making the change to better represent the conditions many motorists experience after passing their test, such as driving on rural roads.more

Two Russian warships were intercepted in the English Channel by the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. In the latest incident involving Russia's ships entering waters around the UK, HMS Severn headed off the RFN Stoikiy, a corvette and Yelnya, a tanker, as they sailed west through the Dover Strait into the English Channel in the past fortnight. more

Rail fares in England are to be frozen next year for the first time in 30 years, the government has announced. The freeze until March 2027 will apply to regulated fares, which includes season tickets and off-peak returns.more

New Critical Minerals Strategy sets out the ambition to produce 10% of UK’s mineral needs domestically and 20% through recycling by 2035. At least 50,000 tonnes of lithium to be produced in the UK by 2035 – more than the weight of the Titanic. more

The Government has announced plans to create thousands of new jobs through artificial intelligence-linked investment. Areas including Wales, Bristol and London will benefit, with ministers promising new opportunities for AI firms to grow.more

Zoopla said Scotland and the North East of England dominate the most affordable towns list, highlighting “a significant geographical divide in housing value for home buyers”.more

The BBC is now losing more than £1bn a year from households either evading the licence fee or deciding they do not need one, according to a cross-party group of MPs who warned the corporation is under “severe pressure”.more

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has demanded an investigation into Reform UK's links to Russia after a court on Friday sentenced the party's former Welsh leader to 10.5 years in prison for accepting bribes and pro-Russian activities. Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski addressed the matter yesterday.more

A billion-dollar money laundering network operating across the UK purchased a bank in Kyrgyzstan to channel funds towards the Ukraine war, British police have said. The network used criminal cash earned in the UK to help Russia evade Western sanctions.more

Przemysław Kozłowski, creator of extraordinary structures made of matches from Słupowo in the municipality of Sicienko, has prepared another impressive work. His latest nativity scene, made of over 142,000 matches, was presented to Queen Camilla on Thursday during an audience at Buckingham Palace.more

The Liberal Democrats are forcing a vote in parliament on creating a new customs union to put pressure on Labour MPs to take a more pro-EU stance. Ed Davey’s party is writing to all Labour MPs urging them to back a new bill in favour of a customs union with the EU, believing this is the best way to boost growth and raise revenue, rather than tax rises.more

Defence Secretary John Healey announced that the United Kingdom has updated its plans to send troops to Ukraine following the ceasefire agreement reached by the so-called coalition of the willing. The command has decided which personnel will be sent and where the headquarters will be located.more

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is likely to approve the establishment of a new Chinese embassy in London, as the British Foreign Office and Home Office will not raise any formal objections to the matter, according to “The Times.” The decision is to be announced on December 10.more

Proposed new traffic routes and public transport changes to accommodate the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street have been released as part of a consultation by the mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL).more

Energy bills will rise for millions of households in Great Britain from January, after the industry regulator announced a surprise increase in gas and electricity costs.more

Reform UK’s former leader in Wales Nathan Gill has been jailed for 10 and a half years for taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia when he was an MEP. Gill, a key member of the Ukip and Brexit party groups led by Nigel Farage in the European parliament, had pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.more

A 13-year-old girl accused of murdering a woman in a pre-planned stabbing inflicted more than 140 wounds on the victim, a jury has heard.more

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she is willing to consider "a big increase" in payments to failed asylum seekers to persuade them to leave the UK voluntarily. She told the BBC this was often "better value for money for the taxpayer" than the cost of people remaining in the country.more

A damning report published on Thursday claimed there was "a toxic and chaotic culture at the centre of the UK government during the pandemic", affecting decision-making.more

Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests.more

The Royal Navy will receive new DragonFire laser systems for combating drones, the British Ministry of Defence announced yesterday. The contract is estimated to be worth £316 million.more

Royal Mail, Amazon, DPD, Evri and Yodel have been ranked in light of a report from Citizens Advice, which finds millions of people are experiencing problems with their parcel deliveries.more