Oct 4: Sunak promises change in conference speech; Tube strikes …
Rishi Sunak will rail against post-Thatcher politics and attempt to portray himself as a radical reformer as he faced a backlash for abandoning the northern leg of HS2.
The prime minister will use his Conservative conference speech in Manchester on Wednesday to criticise 30 years of a ‘broken’ system incentivising ‘the easy decision, not the right one’.
He is widely expected to bring the axe down on the high-speed rail project that was due to connect Manchester with Birmingham, and on to central London. Instead he is expected to pledge to reinvest around £36bnn of savings into road and rail schemes in the north and midlands.
Suella Braverman warned that a ‘hurricane’ of mass migration is coming as a fellow minister stressed the need to be ‘careful’ in the language used on the issue.
The home secretary used her Conservative conference speech in Manchester to warn about the scale of the movement of people around the world, and said ‘millions’ could seek to enter the UK.
‘The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming,’ she said. ‘Because today, the option of moving from a poorer country to a richer one is not just a dream for billions of people. It’s an entirely realistic prospect.’
A bus carrying foreign tourists including Ukrainians has crashed off an elevated street near the Italian city of Venice, killing at least 21 people and injuring 18 others, authorities said.
Four of the injured were in serious condition after the accident in the Mestre borough, on the mainland opposite the historic old city of Venice, said Renato Boraso, a Venice city official.
Two of the dead were children, Venice prefect Michele Di Bari said.
Planned strikes on the London Underground have been called off following ‘significant progress’ in talks over jobs and conditions.
Around 3,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) were due to walk out on Wednesday and Friday.
The RMT said that following talks at the conciliation service Acas it has managed to save jobs, prevent detrimental changes to rosters and secure protection of earnings around grading changes.
Doctors have vowed to strike ‘until the next general election and beyond’ in their dispute with the government over pay.
The call was made as thousands of medics travelled to a protest rally in the centre of Manchester, organised by the British Medical Association (BMA) to coincide with the Conservative Party conference also taking place in the city. It comes amid the longest-ever joint strike by junior doctors and consultants in England.
In his speech, BMA council chairman Professor Philip Banfield said: ‘We will strike until the next general election and beyond if that is what it takes.’
A new robot created by the University of Bristol could potentially help diagnose breast cancer earlier and ‘revolutionise’ checks for women.
The Bristol Robotics Laboratory team has developed a hand-like device with sensors that uses human-like force to examine breasts and detect lumps at greater depths. The university said the robot could improve breast health monitoring for women by providing safe and accurate electronic examinations in easily accessible locations, such as pharmacies and health centres.
The team said the ‘ultimate goal’ was for the device to be able to detect lumps more accurately and at a deeper level than is possible from a human touch and be combined with existing techniques such as ultrasound.
Drivers were hit by an 8p per litre surge in the price of diesel last month, new figures show.
The RAC said the average price of the fuel at UK forecourts rose from 154.8p at the start of September to 163.1p by the end of the month. It was the fifth largest monthly rise since 2000.
The RAC attributed the price rises to oil producer group OPEC+ restricting global supply, combined with a fall in the value of sterling compared with the US dollar, which is used for fuel trading.
Poundland has offered jobs to more than 200 former Wilko workers as it continues to open stores bought by administrators for the collapsed retailer.
Last month, Poundland bought up to 71 Wilko stores from administrator PwC following the collapse of the high street chain.
All of the stores will be relaunched under the Poundland brand, with the first 10 shops reopening their doors last weekend. No workers were directly transferred to Poundland as part of the rescue deal, but the discount chain encouraged former Wilko staff to apply for roles and said it would ‘prioritise’ them for positions at the stores.
Nissan has revealed the first in a number of new concept car reveals that are being shown ahead of this month’s Tokyo Motor Show.
The first (pictured) is targeted at ‘urban-based professionals’ and puts a particular focus on environmental sustainability. Equipped with technologies such as vehicle-to-home (V2H), which allows the car’s electricity to be used to power a home and take the pressure off the grid.
The futuristic concept car is designed to be kept by its owner for a long period of time, and thanks to regular updates, allows for a ‘fresh ownership experience over many years’. Nissan says its interior can be refreshed with the latest technologies, while a new instrument panel can be fitted.
The north will see spells of heavy rain that’ll move southwards later on, leaving brighter spells behind, reports BBC Weather. The south, however, will be dry with sunny spells. A breezy day with highs of 19 degrees.
Long clear spells tonight but rain will build in northern England and Northern Ireland. It’ll get cloudier for most later on with rain moving across northern parts.