News

A damning study has today revealed one in five Brits are now trapped in working poverty as inflation continues to outpace wage growth. Ahead of Living Wage week (6-12 November), KPMG’s annual Living Wage report reveals 21 per cent of people in the UK are still earning below the real Living Wage, meaning that an estimated 5.5 million employees are struggling to get out of in-work poverty. Around 59 percent of those earning below the real Living Wage indicated a sharp...

Disgraced MP Michael Fallon has made his first public appearance since his resignation as Defence Secretary, amid allegations of sexual misconduct among MPs. He earlier admitted touching a female journalist’s knee and has since denied making lewd comments to colleague Andrea Leadsom. The former Defence Secretary quit his job earlier this week, admitting his behaviour had "fallen below the high standards that we require of the armed forces". Announcing he was standing down earlier this week, he said that there...

Forget Article 50, forget Trump's inauguration, the most important political event of 2017 was last month's Party Congress in China. The National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is held twice a decade to decide the line up of the Party leadership and to set the tone of the CCP's future governance of China. This October's Party Congress was the 19th in the Party's history, and it marked the beginning of a “New Era” for China, and for the...

A monster fatberg weighing more than ten double-decker buses has been cleared – following a nine-week battle. The 130-tonne congealed mass of fat, oil, wet-wipes and other sanitary products was lodged in an egg-shaped sewer four metres underground. But it now clear after workmen were forced to ditch machinery for hand shovels to battle Britain's biggest fatberg - in the final stretch beneath Whitechapel, in east London. Thames Water staff worked in disgusting, cramped conditions in their battle to clear...

Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke has been suspended by the Conservatives following ‘serious allegations’ that have been referred to the police. Mr Elphicke, has been the MP for Dover since 2010, and is also a former party whip. Mr Elphiche has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Tory party of tipping off the police before they informing him of his suspension. The married 46-year-old MP released a statement on Twitter saying: ‘The party tipped off the press before telling me of...

The British Council, whose patron is the Queen, were within their rights to sack a senior worker who described Prince George as the "face of white privilege" on a Facebook post, a tribunal has ruled. Angela Gibbins, 53, was given her marching orders after the "distasteful and personal attack" on the future King went viral last July. Her republican views were well known by colleagues. She refused to meet Prince Charles, the registered charity's vice patron, when he toured their...

This shocking photograph shows patients waiting on trolleys in a cramped hospital corridor - just months after three people died after delays in treatment. The snap shows three trolleys stacked up against the wall at scandal-hit Worcestershire Royal Hospital which visitors claim is "bursting at the seams". The picture, taken on Wednesday (1/11), suggests the hospital is already under strain with the worst of winter still to come. The photo taken by a member of the public which shows at...

A document on the Labour Party’s democracy review has been leaked outlining how the party plans to involve its hugely expanded membership to become a mass movement which can transform society. As of June 2017, Labour had 552,000 members, far out-performing the Tories 149,800 members and Lib Dems 102,000 members. And now the party plans to seize on its rapidly growing supporter base in order to transform society by working closely with its member-base and affiliated organisations. Included in the plans are three phases...

A third species of orangutan has been recognised - but less than a thousand are still alive, warns new research. Previously only two species of orangutans were identified – the Bornean and the Sumatran orangutan. Now, researchers have described a new great ape species, the Tapanuli orangutan. But it is the great ape species at greatest risk of extinction, with only around 800 remaining individuals in upland forest regions of North Sumatra. Two species of Indonesian orangutans had previously been...