Portrait of the week: Liverpool parade crash, Starmer sacrifices Chagos Islands and an octopus invasion

Home

Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, announced that ‘more pensioners’ would qualify for winter fuel payments, but did not say how many or when. Nigel Farage of Reform said he would scrap net zero to fund things like abolishing the two-child benefit cap and reversing the winter fuel cut in full. Millions of public-sector workers such as doctors and teachers were offered rises of between 3.6 and 4.5 per cent. From July, typical household energy costs will fall by £129 a year, still higher than a year earlier. South Western Railway was renationalised. Thames Water was fined £122.7 million by Ofwat for breaching rules on sewage and shareholder dividends. Devon fishermen complained of Mediterranean octopuses eating crabs in their pots.

Twenty-seven people were taken to hospital after a car ploughed into crowds at the Liverpool FC parade. A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and driving while unfit through drugs; police announced he was ‘a 53-year-old white British man’. Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, called for possession of cannabis to be decriminalised. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, 27, who performs as Mo Chara with the group Kneecap, was charged under the name Liam O’Hanna with a terror offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a London gig.

Some 431,000 more people arrived in Britain than left last year, compared with 860,000 in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. In the seven days to 26 May, 918 people arrived in England in small boats. Sir Keir Starmer agreed to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius along with £101 million a year to lease for 99 years the Diego Garcia base on the islands, which is shared with the United States. ‘Chemical castration’ for some sex offenders will be mandatory at 20 prisons after the Independent Sentencing Review chaired by David Gauke said a voluntary trial should continue.