The boss of British Airways has slammed the UK government’s rescue deal for the regional airline FlyBe with an official complaint filed to the European Commission against the plan.
Ministers announced a rescue package for the country’s biggest domestic airline carrier on Tuesday night that includes a £100 million tax deferral to keep Flybe flying.
Willie Walsh, the chief of executive...
Civil Servants set for seismic shake-up
Civil servants are “woefully unprepared” for a seismic transformation of Whitehall under new plans the prime minister wants to implement.
The sweeping reforms - which include merging, abolishing and creating new government departments – are just a “tiny fraction” of wide-scale plans to shake-up the civil service.
Downing Street is set to embark on the project this spring, following the UK’s...
Whitehall
‘Lives endangered’ by Cabinet Office’s New Year Honours data breach
Anti-terrorism officers, high profile politicians and famous celebrities have had their home addresses published online along with more than 1,000 recipients of the New Year Honours. The Cabinet Office has...
Whitehall
Brexit, NHS and terrorism dominate ‘radical’ Queen’s Speech
The monarch returned to parliament for the second time in nine weeks to deliver what Boris Johnson claims is the “most radical” Queen’s Speech “in a generation”. Brexit, the NHS...
Whitehall
MPs return to parliament with BBC, Ministry of Defence and DfID in firing line
MPs return to the Commons today (Monday) following the Conservative’s seismic election victory with a number of the country’s key institutions in the new government’s firing line for reform...Labour will scrap primary school tests, says Corbyn
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says his party would axe formal tests for English primary schools, known as Sats.
He claimed they left many children in tears or made them vomit with stress and said scrapping the tests would be one of the first acts of any Labour government.
The pledge was met with cheers from teachers being addressed by Corbyn at...
NHS to offer patients DNA tests to predict illnesses
The NHS is to offer patients in England a ‘gene testing’ service that will predict their chances of developing a range of illnesses.
They will be charged for the gene sequencing service and be expected to share their data anonymously with scientists afterwards.
The gene health report will forecast their chances of developing conditions such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
Health Secretary Matt...
Unions to blame for rail fare rises, says Transport Secretary
Rail unions are to blame for spiralling fares due to their excessive pay demands, the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said today.
As commuters were hit by a 3.1 per cent rise on their return to work today, Mr Grayling said unions demanded ‘higher pay rises than anyone else’ and went on strike to get them.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today...
Review of UK railways will look at nationalisation
The future re-nationalisation of Britain’s railways cannot be ruled out, says the man leading a review into the future of the industry.
Former British Airways chief executive Keith Williams says that ‘all options are on the table’ as part of his year-long review.
Williams, who was also deputy chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, will publish his recommendations in a White...
Stop the cuts or we face collapse, council leaders warn
Council leaders from across the country have called for an emergency injection of cash to avoid a financial crisis caused by years of austerity cuts.
Almost 80 Labour council leaders have written to Communities Secretary James Brokenshire warning of a ‘catastrophic’ collapse if the cuts continue.
They are demanding that additional planned funding cuts of £1.3 billion due to be announced...
