Starmer hails ‘seismic’ Scotland by-election win as pressure mounts on SNP October 6, 2023 Sir Keir Starmer has hailed a “seismic result” for Labour after his party overwhelmingly won Scotland’s first recall by-election. Labour candidate Michael Shanks won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat after securing more than twice the votes of his SNP rival Katy Loudon. The result will pile more pressure on SNP leader and Scottish First [...]
HS2 will not reach Euston without private investment October 5, 2023 HS2 will not be extended to Euston unless enough private investment is secured.
Cancelling HS2 contracts to cost hundreds of millions of pounds October 5, 2023 Paying off contracts previously awarded for cancelled HS2 sections will cost hundreds of millions of pounds, Transport Secretary Mark Harper has indicated. He told BBC Breakfast that the cost of pulling out of the agreements will “broadly balance out” with money recovered from selling land and property acquired for the high-speed railway. HS2 Ltd figures [...]
London’s Millennium Bridge near St Paul’s to shut for three weeks for urgent repair work October 5, 2023 The Millennium Bridge across the River Thames is to shut for three weeks for urgent maintenance work. The footbridge, dubbed the “wobbly bridge” when it opened in 2001, is not dangerous but a separation layer under the bridge deck has started to degrade and it needs a deep clean, its City Bridge Foundation (CBF) owners [...]
The Square Mile and Me: Asif Aziz on turning London’s neglected spaces into eclectic landmarks October 5, 2023 Entrepreneur Asif Aziz – CEO of Criterion Capital and the operator of the London Trocadero and a host of London landmarks – has made the capital his playground What was your first job?When I was still in school, I was intrigued by the London property market. My first ‘real’ job was at Morgan Grenfell Laurie [...]
Mark Harper: Transport secretary ‘proud’ of decision to axe Manchester leg of HS2 October 5, 2023 Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he was “proud” of the decision to cut HS2 north of Birmingham as he shrugged off criticism from Tory former premier David Cameron and ex-chancellor George Osborne. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used his speech at the Conservative Party conference on Wednesday to confirm he has axed Phases 2a and 2b [...]
Russia may attack civilian ships with sea mines and blame Ukraine, Cleverly warns October 5, 2023 Russia may use sea mines to target non-military ships and blame Ukraine for any attacks, the UK Government has said. Declassified intelligence warned last month that the Russian military had attempted a missile strike against a cargo ship in the Black Sea. The UK believes Russia could continue targeting civilian shipping, including by laying explosive [...]
Sam Bankman-Fried: Founder of Crypto platform FTX on trial accused of ‘massive fraud’ October 5, 2023 A US prosecutor has told jurors that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was on top of the world a year ago before his historic fraud was exposed, leaving customers and investors without at least 10 billion dollars (£8.23bn) they thought was secure. Assistant US attorney Nathan Rehn repeatedly pointed at Bankman-Fried, sitting with his lawyers in [...]
Carillion: Former boss banned from UK boards for eight years October 5, 2023 The former boss of failed outsourcer Carillion has been banned by the Insolvency Service from leading a business for the next eight years. Richard Howson will not be able to be a director of a UK company after the authority said he ought to have known that the way some contracts were reported “concealed the [...]
Sunak faces backlash from Johnson and Cameron over HS2 axing – as he’s reported to the police in Scotland October 5, 2023 Rishi Sunak has faced criticism from his predecessors in Number 10 for losing a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” by cancelling the northern leg of HS2. The Prime Minister defied senior Tories and business leaders to scrap HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester saying “the facts have changed” and the cost of the high-speed rail scheme had “more than [...]
