Customers of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland will be able to use the branches of any brand for in-person banking as the group continues to shake up its branch network, raising concerns among unions over potential further closures. more

A pizzeria is asking its customers to put their dough where their mouth is if they want to eat a Hawaiian – charging £100 for a ham and pineapple-topped pizza. The owners and staff of Lupa pizza in Norwich are so revolted by the Hawaiian that they have reluctantly added the topping to their delivery menu but only with the eye-watering price tag.more

Business leaders plan to cut costs and rein in hiring in response to government tax increases set out in the autumn budget, with employment expectations taking the sharpest tumble since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.more

The prisons watchdog has warned that drones delivering weapons to two of England's highest security prisons have become a national security risk. The chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, said drops of contraband to inmates at HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin, in Worcestershire, were now so regular that guns could be smuggled in.more

The UK has introduced a ban on pigs, sheep and cattle imports from Germany after a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in the country. The government said on Tuesday it will no longer approve health certificates for animals, fresh meat and animal products susceptible to the disease to prevent its spread to the UK where there are currently no confirmed cases.more

Millions of UK drivers who passed their tests before 2016 need to take action soon - or risk being fined £1,000. Once you receive your licence it is valid for 10 years before it will need to be renewed.more

Heathrow airport said 2024 was its busiest year for passenger numbers. Some 83.9 million passengers travelled through the west London airport’s terminals last year.more

King Charles III received a Holocaust survivor yesterday. Buckingham Palace, which broke the news, also confirmed that the British monarch would be coming to Poland at the end of the month to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the former German concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.more

Scottish police, who have been searching for sisters Eliza and Henrietta Huszti in Aberdeen since Friday, have extended their search to the coast, SkyNews TV reported yesterday. So far, the action has focused on the city itself.more

The government will "mainline AI into the veins" of the UK, with plans being unveiled today by Sir Keir Starmer. The prime minister is set to promise investment, jobs and economic growth due to a boom in the sector.more

He was a writer concerned with poverty, class and power; we will never know how George Orwell would feel about being commemorated on a coin.more

There are fewer than three weeks to go before the deadline to file self-assessment tax returns for the 2023-24 tax year, but millions of people still haven’t knuckled down and done theirs. This week HM Revenue & Customs said 5.4 million people had yet to file.more

Victims are being “let down time and time again” by police, a minister has said, as almost every violent or sexual offence went unsolved in hundreds of crime hotspots last year.more

Buckingham Palace confirmed today that King Charles III will attend commemorations on 27 January to mark the 80th anniversary of the Red Army's entry into the Nazi German concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. British media had unofficially reported the visit in mid-December.more

Experts fear the decision by Meta to drop professional factcheckers from Facebook will exacerbate so-called boomer radicalisation in the UK. Even before what Keir Starmer described as “far-right riots” in England last summer, alarm bells were ringing amid fears older people were even more susceptible to misinformation and radicalisation than younger “digital natives”.more

Dozens of British women have reported their breasts ballooning in size after receiving a Covid vaccine, MailOnline revealed. The revelation comes days after shocking images showed how a 19-year-old Canadian woman's breast quadrupled in size in what experts believe is a rare reaction to Pfizer's Covid jab dubbed the 'Pfizer boob job'.more

UK travellers holding onto their pre-Brexit burgundy passports are being warned to urgently check their passport's expiry date before locking in any holiday plans. Despite no longer being issued after Brexit, the old-style passports remain valid until 2025 as long as they haven't expired.more

If you’re thinking about retiring this year, a south London borough with riverside walks and a “strong” sense of belonging was ranked as one of England’s best. Richmond was named by Telegraph Money as one of England’s best places to live, based on data created in collaboration with Savills Research.more

Crowded accident and emergency wards mean only 15% of department heads are confident they could deal with a major incident such as a terror attack or rail disaster, new research has revealed. In a survey of clinical directors and consultants at 71 emergency departments in England, all said their A&E was crowded, with more than 70% saying patients had to wait in corridors or ambulances.more

An impression - or possibly a fear - that 20-somethings are still hanging about in the family home is based on fact, an influential think-tank has concluded. The proportion of 25 to 34-year-olds still living with their parents has increased by more than a third in nearly two decades, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).more

A 19-year-old Syrian national died in the English Channel when a boat carrying a group of migrants trying to cross from Calais in France to Britain capsized, prosecutors in Boulogne-sur-Mer said yesterday.more

A push by HMRC to uncover details of how much people are earning from selling goods and services online in “side hustles” could cause confusion because of the way the UK’s tax system operates, a charity has warned.more

Nearly 400,000 fewer people from abroad have applied for UK work or study visas since strict new immigration rules came into force, Home Office figures revealed on Thursday. Provisional data shows 547,000 visa applications were received between April and December 2024, down from 942,500 in the same period in 2023.more

Sainsbury's has said it will raise hourly pay though it is cautious about recruiting new staff this year due to rising costs. The supermarket chain said wages would rise 5% to £12.60 but it will be introduced in two phases "to help manage a particularly tough cost inflation environment".more

A south London borough, known for hosting one of the world’s biggest tennis tournaments, has been named as one of the best places to live in the UK. The Times has named Merton as number four on a list of the UK’s best places to live, with Richmond and Sutton as number one and number eight respectively.more