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London Mayoral hopeful Laurence Fox today vowed to ban Covid passports in the capital and promised a no “mask mandate” as he launched his manifesto ahead of next month’s election. The outspoken actor said he wanted to “stop the child abuse” and remove compulsory face coverings for pupils in schools, despite the Mayor not having the power to overturn national Covid laws. The candidate has also this week promised six months of free rides on buses and tubes in a bid to boost the capital’s economy after more than a year in lockdown. The plans would cost Transport for London...

A rare black fox has been caught on camera prowling around a garden in west London. It was spotted by Faroz and his daughter Sophia, from Isleworth, who first thought it was a wolf, or a wild dog. The animals are a type of North American red fox with a trait that makes their fur silvery-black. They make up about 0.1% of the UK fox population.

ROME (AP) — A British judge has blasted Vatican prosecutors for making “appalling” misrepresentations to the court about their investigation into the Holy See’s investment in a London real estate deal, determining they don’t have much of a case against their key suspect. In a remarkable ruling made public this week, Judge Tony Baumgartner of Southwark Crown Court reversed another judge’s decision to seize the British-based bank accounts of broker Gianluigi Torzi and awarded Torzi legal fees. The Vatican had requested the seizure as part of its corruption investigation into Torzi and other suspects whom prosecutors accuse of fleecing the...

London has seen zero coronavirus deaths for the first time in six months, according to data released by Public Health England (PHE). Government figures showed that on March 28th, there were no deaths from the Chinese coronavirus in London for people who have received a positive coronavirus test over the previous 28 days.

Sadiq Khan’s “Housing Design Advocate” has denounced traditional architecture as “offensive” and said it “harks back to oppression”. Dinah Bornat made the remarks on social media in response to a post featuring a new house in the Georgian style shared by the Create Streets social enterprise. “The fortress style/display of wealth resonates through time. I wonder is it starting to resonate just a little too much for a lot of us? Imperialism starting to look, well, offensive? Just a thought,” she declared in a now-deleted Twitter tirade. She went on to complain that the alleged “replica approach” taken by the...

Home Secretary Priti Patel urges people not to attend any more Sarah Everard protests due to lockdown - as protesters gather outside parliament Ms Patel orders police inspectorate to review policing of Saturday's vigil in Clapham Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick says she will not step down - and is backed by the PM Protesters block Westminster Bridge and stage sit-in outside Scotland Yard as criticism of police grows protesters trying to out-manoeuvre policePolice have moved in on protesters who are campaigning following the death of Sarah Everard. Hundreds of campaigners have marched from Parliament Square and through the...

We must not allow the tragic murder of a young woman turn into attacks on men and attacks on the police. Video...

Women's rights activists in the UK are reeling from the Metropolitan Police's heavy-handed approach at a Saturday night vigil for Sarah Everard, a 33-year old who was murdered while walking home in South London earlier this month. Throughout the day, mourners had flocked to the bandstand of Clapham Common, an area where Everard was last seen, in a tribute to her life. But they also came in an act of solidarity, as an acknowledgement of the shared, omnipresent experience of intimidation, violence and harassment that women constantly face in public spaces. A series of evening vigils from organizers "Reclaim These...

The Cabinet Office will set up a secondary base in Scotland as thousands of civil servants are moved out of London under Boris Johnson’s plans. Staff received an email yesterday revealing 500 officials will be moved to the new Glasgow office by 2024. The announcement comes only days after it was revealed other departments, including the Treasury, will move staff to cities around the country.... ...The Cabinet Office said: ‘Decision- makers should be close to the people they serve. ‘That’s why we’ve committed to relocating civil service roles out of central London...'

Sadiq Khan has conceded that, under his now almost five-year-long mayoralty, the streets of London are “not safe” for women and girls. Mayor Khan, who under the terms of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 fulfils the role of Police and Crime Commissioner in the British capital — excluding, somewhat confusingly for outsiders, the City of London, or Square Mile, which has its own police force — made the comments in an appearance on LBC radio. “London’s streets are not safe for women, are they?” the presenter asked the Labour politician, following news that a serving Metropolitan Police...

London's streets are not safe 'for women or for girls', Mayor Sadiq Khan has told LBC. Video...

Details of a summer season will be announced later this month.The Globe is preparing to open again. Provided the conditions are met for Step 2 of the Government's roadmap for cultural reopening the Globe's guided tour of the theatre will return from 13 April and include welcoming schools back onsite with tours and workshops. The open-air theatre is preparing exciting plans for full reopening in preparation for Step 3 of the roadmap, sharing details of a summer season later this month. Last summer, the site was open to the public for a new guided tour of the theatre, with over...

London's Piccadilly Circus has long been famed for the constant streams of cars, buses, cyclists and pedestrians which navigate it every day. Now a stunning photochrom image shows how, even in the 19th century, the interchange was extremely busy - but was thronged with horses and carriages and smartly dressed men and women instead of what we see today. The colour photo - produced using a method invented in the 1880s - is among a collection showing Victorian London in all its splendour which has been released by the US Library of Congress.

At least half of London’s boroughs have bought and deployed China-made surveillance systems linked to the abuse of Uyghurs, according to data exclusively given to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, raising alarm among privacy advocates and lawmakers. Freedom of information requests filed in late 2020 with all 32 London councils and the next 20 largest UK city councils found about two-thirds owned technology made by two Chinese companies accused of links to the repression of Uyghurs. At least 28 councils owned technology made by Hikvision, the world’s largest purveyor of video surveillance systems and vendor to Xinjiang police agencies, revealed data...

Sadiq Khan was today accused of 'reducing London's history to politics' after unveiling his diversity taskforce to review landmarks in the capital. The 15-strong team includes an academic who implied that all international examples of white supremacy can be traced back to Britain, and a campaigner who once confronted the Queen to demand she apologise for historical injustices. The project has come under fire from politicians concerned that figures of our national past could be erased by 'unelected activists'.

Some London buses are being converted into ambulances as the city grapples with a devastating COVID-19 outbreak. Seats were removed on at least two single-decker buses to enable them to carry four patients, the Guardian reported. Bus company Go-Ahead loaned the vehicles to the National Health Service (NHS) and will provide four drivers, who have been vaccinated against the virus, the outlet reported.

FEATURE — Anyone wanting a dose of authentic European architecture and ambiance does not have to hop on a plane and “cross the pond” but drive just over four hours south of St. George to what one writer called “The largest antique ever sold.” That large antique is the London Bridge, which is now located in Lake Havasu City in northwestern Arizona. It’s not the original London Bridge, nor is it one that inspired the nursery rhyme or song. Even so, it is an impressive sight in the United States. A series of bridges have spanned the River Thames in...

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has declared a "major incident" in the capital due to rising coronavirus cases threatening to overwhelm hospitals. More than 800 patients a day are being admitted to London hospitals with COVID-19, the chief executive of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens, warned at a Downing Street briefing on Thursday. "That's the equivalent of a new St Thomas' hospital, full of COVID patients every day."

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s National Health Service will from next week employ a little-used field hospital specially built at a huge exhibition center in east London in the early days of the pandemic last spring. NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens said Thursday that the pressures facing hospitals in London and the southeast of England are so acute that the Nightingale hospital at the ExCel London will be opened next week to inpatients. A few hundred beds for non-COVID patients are expected to be available at first.

LondonAssembly members have blasted Sadiq Khan's £1.5million BBC-backed 'woke' pro-EU, NHS and BLM firework and drone display over the Thames. Viewers were quick to criticise the taxpayer-funded New Year's Eve event, claiming it was 'ruined by politics' after Thames bridges were turned blue and yellow in a tribute to the EU as the UK finally left the bloc. The display - which the London Mayor cooked up in secret with Scotland Yard to avoid crowds gathering in Greenwich - also saw 300 drones make the shape of a BLM fist and a turtle with Africa on its shell during a...