By-elections after the death of Labour MP Jo Cox and the resignation of former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron will be held on 20 October. Mrs Cox was killed in her Batley and Spen constituency in June. Voters in Witney will also elect a new MP to replace Mr Cameron, who stepped down from Parliament after resigning as PM in the wake of the Brexit vote.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has revealed that work permits are among the post-Brexit migration curbs being considered but any changes must be good for the UK economy. She said that the proposal “certainly has value” but nothing was being ruled out. And she accepted EU nations could choose to impose new restrictions, including requiring Britons having to apply for visas to travel.
Aseven-day NHS is “impossible” to achieve with the current funding and staffing levels, according to the chief executive of NHS Providers. Chris Hopson said that “something has to give” and there should be a debate about which services to sacrifice “rather than pretend the gap doesn’t exist”. Figures show waiting times and delayed hospital discharges at record levels.
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne has returned to the Conservative Party 21 years after she defected to the Liberal Democrats. She cited Theresa May’s decision to bring back grammar schools as evidence that the prime minister “leads a party with a real commitment to delivering for the next generation and building a country that works for everyone”.
The government has finally green-lighted a new £18bn nuclear power station in the UK after imposing “significant new safeguards” to protect national security. The new plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset is being financed by the French and the Chinese.In exchange, China wants to use its design for new UK nuclear stations. Jean-Bernard Lévy, group chief executive of French firm EDF, which is building the plant, said: “The decision of the British Government to approve the construction of Hinkley Point C marks the relaunch of nuclear in Europe.” The government said it would now “impose a new legal framework for future foreign investment in Britain’s critical infrastructure”.
The Palace of Westminster risks “crisis” and a growing risk of a “catastrophic event” without a £4bn restoration, MPs and peers have warned. Both Houses of Parliament should be vacated for six years for urgent repairs, the Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster recommended. It wants the Department of Health’s headquarters to host MPs, with Lords moving to the QEII conference centre, and warned the decision on how to repair Parliament must not be further delayed and suggest work should start in 2023. Parts of the Palace are riddled with asbestos, frail stonework and ageing electrics and wiring.
In its second estimate of gross domestic product, the Office for National Statistics said the economy increased by 0.6% in the April-June quarter on the previous quarter. The figure is unrevised on the preliminary estimate published at the end of July. Output increased in two of four main industrial groupings within the economy in the second quarter. Services increased by 0.5% and production output increased by 2.1%. Manufacturing, the largest component of production, saw output up by 1.8% in the second quarter compared with the first.
The second quarter of 2016 saw notable declines in the number and value of successful mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving UK companies when compared the first quarter of the year. Domestic acquisitions during the second quarter saw 47 completed acquisitions worth £5.9 billion in the second quarter, down 50% from the number reported in the first quarter when there were 95 acquisitions worth £11.8 billion. The one high-profile acquisition which accounted for the majority of the total value of domestic acquisitions was the £3.5 billion takeover of Cable and Wireless Communications by TV and cable company Liberty Global.
Manufacturing output staged a small recovery in the last quarter. In the three months to April 2016, factory output was up by just 0.1% on the previous three months. The rise may be small, but it followed falls in the previous three quarterly periods.
About one in six children did not get their first choice of secondary school, according to official admissions figures for England’s schools. But these figures were similar to last year – with 84.1% getting their top choice, compared with 84.2% last year. A higher proportion of parents got their first pick of primary schools, at 88.4%, up from 87.8% last year.