Politics News

The UK government plans to extend Palantir's £330m NHS health contract while ministers draw up a British alternative, the FT reported. A review concluded that triggering a break clause to remove Palantir from NHS data systems would be too disruptive, so ministers plan a procurement process for a UK tech replacement, with Palantir potentially replaced in two years. Palantir's UK and Europe chief executive, Louis Mosley, said ending the contract would mean putting politics above patients.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced a legal requirement for employers to publish salaries on job adverts. Campaigners say it will help young people and women win fairer pay, while officials say it lets staff compare their wages. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development research found fewer than half of employers always published salary ranges. The government says 93% of businesses responded positively to its consultation.

Susan Lawrence, a Reform UK councillor in Wolverhampton, helped promote the HyperVerse crypto scheme in the UK. US court documents call it an alleged pyramid and Ponzi scheme that cheated investors out of $1.89bn (£1.41bn). She kept promoting it, and later variants, after the FCA's 2021 consumer warning. A Reform spokesperson said she lost her pension and tens of thousands of pounds in the scam; Lawrence did not reply to the Guardian.

Bomb threats on Friday disrupted at least 18 flights to or from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and the UK, but every aircraft landed safely and searches found no explosives. Danish police probed a threat against Copenhagen airport, whose management said it was operating normally. Hungary's defence minister, Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, said jets were scrambled three times, and Eurocontrol put the affected flights at just 0.0674% of 26,709 scheduled across Europe that day.

Mayors across England have pushed back against Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, after he called on Friday for the 43 forces in England and Wales to be merged into eight to 10 super forces. Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool city region, said the plan amounted to centralisation and would weaken local accountability. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood commissioned an official review by Bernard Hogan-Howe, which is understood to model between nine and 18 larger forces and has not yet been published.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the BBC on Friday he had been unaware of the full extent of Russell Brand's conduct when he posted a supportive message about him in 2014. Brand was convicted on Thursday of one rape and three sexual assault counts, and cleared of two other rape charges and an attempted indecent assault. Ed Miliband's spokesman said the former Labour leader regretted his 2015 interview with Brand and sympathised with the victims.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has granted care workers who qualify a five-year route to settlement after pressure from Labour MPs and unions. Under the revised plans, those who entered before May 2025 and earn at least £25,000 a year can qualify after five years, rather than the 15 originally proposed. Partners of British citizens still face uncertainty under the changes.