Britain exited a shallow recession with better-than-expected growth in the first quarter, in a boost to embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The UK ended the tax-free shopping incentive for tourists in 2021 and has resisted strong lobbying from retailers and other companies linked to the tourism sector.

In a stunning move, Natalie Elphicke, who has been critical of the opposition in the past, crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the ranks of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

Rishi Sunak is facing calls to consider policies including an immigration cap and a withdrawal from the European Court of Human Rights, even though the prime minister has urged the party to ‘stick to the plan’ ahead of a general election expected in the second half of the year.

A drubbing in mayoral and council elections on May 2 could persuade Sunak that an earlier polling day is a better solution.

The British prime minister’s pledge comes as he promised to end the parliamentary deadlock over a key policy promise before an election expected later this year.

UK PM Rishi Sunak will meet Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill and Democratic Unionist party leader Emma Little-Pengelly at Stormont on Monday, his Downing Street office said.

Sadiq Khan said Britain’s departure from the EU reduced the size of its economy by 6 per cent, basing his statement on a report he commissioned from consultants Cambridge Econometrics.

Sunak, whose Conservative Party has been in power since 2010, has until the end of January 2025 to call a much-anticipated general election.

Reform UK – formerly Brexit Party and whose leader admires Donald Trump – rails against immigration, net zero energy policies, ‘nanny state’ regulations.

Junior doctors are walking out for six days as part of a long-running dispute over pay that saw them take 28 days of industrial action last year.

International students can no longer get visas for their dependants unless they are on a postgraduate research programme or a government-sponsored course.

Close to 400 pubs in England and Wales closed in 2022, continuing a trend that has seen about 15,000 establishment shut their doors across the UK over the last two decades.

The inquiry is examining the UK’s pandemic response and has heard testimony about often chaotic scenes in the government of then-PM Boris Johnson, marked by incompetence, back-stabbing and misogyny.

Finance minister Jeremy Hunt announced a huge package of 110 measures aimed at reinvigorating the ailing economy and boosting business investment.

Former footballer Gary Neville is marketing to Hongkongers, flats in a 41-storey tower in Manchester that will be the first branded residences and five-star hotel in the city located in northwest England.

Representatives of AI companies and political leaders will meet at Bletchley Park in England next week. Sunak said China had been invited to the summit but attendance was not guaranteed.

The potential staff cuts, reported by the Sunday Times, are said to part of plans to replace its coal-powered blast furnaces with electric arc furnace technology producing “greener” steel.

Currently, the UK imports around 150,000 metric tons, or a quarter of its total rice imports from India, thanks to cost-effective import tariffs.

The opposition Labour Party overturned huge Conservative majorities to win the parliamentary seats, boosting leader Keir Starmer’s hopes of becoming prime minister in a UK vote expected next year.

The protester shouted “true democracy is citizen-led” and “politics needs an update” before scattering glitter over Keir Starmer’s head.

Sunak cancelled a rail link to Manchester ending weeks of uncertainty and provoking anger in his own Conservative Party.

He also wants to preserve parts of its history, such as what he says was the UK’s deepest bar, frequented by engineers and clerks who worked underground.

The HS2 railway was intended to slash journey times and increase capacity between London, the central England city of Birmingham and the northern cities of Manchester and Leeds.

An imminent decline in global interest rates should boost housing markets, but any improvement in Hong Kong could be delayed until there is a broader recovery in the local and wider Chinese economies, Knight Frank’s Liam Bailey says.