Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Darren Jones as chief secretary to the Prime Minister, a new ministerial role that will see him attend Cabinet. Jones, who was previously chief secretary to the Treasury, will be based at No 10 and oversee work across Government to support the Prime Minister’s priorities. James Murray will replace him as Treasury chief secretary, effectively acting as deputy to Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Chipping Barnet MP […]

Rob Carden has been named the new chief constable of Merseyside Police and will take up the post on Monday. He said technology, including facial recognition and redaction tools, could free up officers to spend more time on patrol. He stressed forces must keep pace with rapid technological change and be more agile in sharing information to keep up with social media. Carden spent most of his policing career with […]

A clay sculpture by Johnny Vegas, titled Just Be There, is to be unveiled at the British Ceramics Biennial. Created with sculptor Emma Rodgers, the piece will go on display at Spode Works in Stoke‑on‑Trent, Staffordshire, when the festival opens on 6 September. The work forms an avenue of hugs along a wall and was produced with input from people living in Stoke. Vegas, who is 54, trained in art […]

Protesters gathered again outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, which houses asylum seekers. They stood behind metal barriers across the road, waved Union Flags and saluted passing drivers as horns sounded. Police were stationed nearby, with more officers on patrol in vans in surrounding streets. An asylum seeker housed at the hotel has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl last month and has denied the allegations. Essex Police […]

Police are pursuing a man after two stabbings at Oxford Circus Tube station within 24 hours. Emergency crews were called to the first incident at 03:40 on Saturday and to the second just after 01:30 on Sunday. A 23-year-old man injured on Saturday and a 43-year-old man injured on Sunday were treated in hospital. Police say the assaults are connected and a CCTV image has been released of a man […]

Scottish Labour says long NHS waits are more than 800 times as common in Scotland as in England, based on its analysis of publicly available figures. It states Scotland has nearly 15,000 ongoing waits of two years or more, about one case for every 367 people, while NHS England reports 182 waits of more than two years. The figures include patients waiting over two years on outpatient, inpatient or day-case […]

Scottish drug policy minister Maree Todd used a visit to Springburn Ambulance Station in Glasgow, marking International Overdose Awareness Day, to urge Scots who carry naloxone to have extra life-saving kits on hand as nitazenes threaten the drug supply. Scotland's take-home naloxone programme run by the Scottish Ambulance Service has distributed more than 4,000 kits to people who might need to administer the drug to a friend or family member […]

The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has urged parents, schools and families to play their part in improving attendance and behaviour as the Government rolls out measures to support schools. The Department for Education said around 600,000 pupils in about 800 schools will have access to help from headteachers who have already acted to improve attendance and behaviour. An initial group of 21 attendance and behaviour hub schools will share strategies […]

Labour leader Keir Starmer has said migrants arriving on small boats will be detained and sent back, as he faces pressure to show progress on Channel crossings and to end the use of asylum hotels. The latest figures indicate crossings by small boats remain at a record level for this point in the year, and protests over hotel housing for asylum seekers continued. Former Labour lord chancellor Lord Falconer warned […]