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Wife of former PM says her time in No 10 helped shape her Cefinn clothing brand, which is opening a London storeWhile the Tories are in freefall, one former first couple are bucking the trend. Samantha Cameron, the designer and founder of the fashion brand Cefinn and wife of the former prime minister David Cameron, is about to open her first bricks-and-mortar store. The...

London mayor expected to criticise Susan Hall in speech launching solar panels on school roofsSadiq Khan will accuse his Conservative rival in the race to be London’s next mayor of being “Trumpian” over the climate crisis, as he announces plans for solar panels on schools.Khan is expected to acknowledge resistance to his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in a speech on Friday...

Police keeping open mind over motive after victim was discovered with multiple stab injuries in Bayswater propertyA murder investigation is under way after a woman was found dead with a number of stab wounds in her home in west London, the Metropolitan police has said.Officers were contacted on Sunday by friends of the woman, who were concerned about her welfare. Continue reading...

Community facility on UK’s first council estate reopens after outcry at local authority’s attempt to hike rentsWashing machines are once again whirring and dryers tumbling at a community launderette in east London that the local council had abruptly closed just weeks before, in a victory for local residents.People living in and around the Boundary estate, the UK’s first council estate, between Shoreditch and Bethnal...

Trhas Tesfay, who fled war in Ethiopia, says she suffers hunger headaches as she cannot eat Home Office hotel mealsOne of Ethiopia’s elite female cyclists will be pedalling at the front of one of London’s biggest bike races next month while living in an asylum seeker hotel on less than £10 a week.Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay, 22, rode a bicycle for the first time when...

Exclusive: London mayor to launch plan on Wednesday alongside Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellorSadiq Khan, the London mayor, is to launch a plan to create 150,000 “high-quality, well-paid jobs” by 2028.The plan will be unveiled by Khan on Wednesday alongside the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who will declare that a Labour administration will “reset” the relationship between national government and London. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: Inside the buildup to the 2 May vote, and what the result might mean for Labour at the general election• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.The streets of London are riddled with “crime and desperation”. “Ulez enforcers dressed in black faces covered with masks” terrorise the city “at the beck and call of their Labour mayor master”....

From expensive rent to efforts to keep up with fashion, a young man’s missives on display in Cumbria are relatable to todayWhen Ben Browne set off on horseback from his small village in the north of England for the bright lights of London in 1719, his concerns were not so different from those of today’s young people. Mainly: please send money, everything is so...

Footage of people panicking, designed to attack the London mayor’s record on crime, was filmed in a New York subway stationThe Conservatives have deleted an online video that used scenes of a panicked crowd at a New York subway station to criticise Sadiq Khan’s record on crime in London.The attack ad, posted on X in support of Susan Hall – Khan’s rival for the...

Young people are slowly stopping attending Dalston mosque that could be forced to accept developers’ offers, says ownerNestled among the kebab shops, Caribbean takeaways and flashy new-build flats in Dalston, north-east London, sits the UK’s first Turkish mosque. Like many things built by and for the deep-rooted communities in this heavily gentrified part of London, it is fighting for survival.“Our bills have tripled, costs...

Mayor says May election is a ‘once in a generation’ chance to tackle the city’s housing crisisSadiq Khan will launch his campaign for a record third term as mayor of London by promising the “greatest council homebuilding drive in a generation”.Appearing at an event in London on Monday, alongside the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, with whom the mayor has had public policy clashes in...

Five-mile stretch in Surrey of UK’s busiest motorway is shut all weekend while a bridge is demolishedThousands of drivers face being stuck in gridlocked traffic this weekend due to an unprecedented closure of the M25, Britain’s busiest motorway.A five-mile stretch of the motorway between junctions 10 and 11 in Surrey was closed in both directions at 9pm on Friday while a bridge is demolished...

London mayor’s office hopes works for Trafalgar Square will continue tradition of fostering debate over artA bronze sculpture paying homage to a woman of colour; and a hollow, lifesized person on a horse cast in a slime-green resin will be the next two artworks installed on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth.The works by Tschabalala Self and Andra Ursuța were selected from a shortlist which included...

Ministers disappointed by decision of one of worst sewage dumpers not to join England-wide initiativeThames Water has risked a fresh backlash over its commitment to tackling sewage dumping after it declined to commit funds to a £180m industry-wide initiative to fast-track efforts to reduce pollution in England’s waterways. The government said on Monday that the sum would be spent by six companies over the...

Open letter signed by families of victims including Manchester Arena bombing says debate ‘must not play into terrorists’ hands’More than 50 survivors of terrorist attacks, including the Manchester Arena bombing and the London Bridge attacks, have signed an open letter warning politicians to stop conflating British Muslims with extremism.The signatories include Rebecca Rigby, the widow of soldier Lee Rigby who was murdered in south-east...

The government’s commissioner for countering extremism said the marches are an ‘environment for radicalisation’As on previous Saturdays in the past six months, there were two marches taking place in London today. The first, a gathering of tens of thousands of full-throated, flag-waving supporters of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza gathered at Hyde Park Corner at noon, and shuffled peaceably and patiently in the sunshine...

Fifth major pro-Palestine rally of the year comes after government adviser warns against portraying protesters as extremistThousands of protesters are expected to gather again in central London to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the fifth major pro-Palestine demonstration in the capital so far this year.Saturday’s protest comes a day after Dame Sara Khan, a UK government adviser on social cohesion, said attempts...

Research looked at three London boroughs to value overall health benefits of active travel over 20 years at up to £4,800 per headPolicies to help people walk and cycle such as low-traffic neighbourhoods can create public health benefits as much as 100 times greater than the cost of the schemes, a long-term study of active travel measures has concluded.The research, based on six years...

Eleven people treated for smoke inhalation after fire breaks out in residential building in LondonEleven people have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out at a converted terraced house in the upmarket London neighbourhood of South Kensington.Fifteen fire engines and about 100 firefighters were called to the fire at a terraced house converted into apartments on Emperor’s Gate, in the south-west of...

UK’s largest water company also calls for dividend payouts and lower fines for breaches to avoid taxpayer bailoutThames Water has been lobbying the government and regulators to let it increase bills by 40%, pay lower fines for breaches and keep paying out dividends as part of efforts to avert a taxpayer bailout, according to a report.The under-fire utilities firm, the UK’s largest water company,...

PM says prejudice unacceptable but refuses to address anti-Muslim concerns after comments about London mayorUK politics live – latest updatesRishi Sunak has denied that the Conservative party has a problem with Islamophobia in the wake of Lee Anderson’s comments about Sadiq Khan, continuing to label them as “wrong” rather than prejudiced.Undertaking a round of BBC local radio interviews to promote spending moved from HS2...

Exclusive: Group of London toilet cleaners and attendants at court of appeal over legality of outsourced contractsA group of toilet cleaners and attendants for London’s most famous parks could be about to make legal history in the court of appeal by arguing that their outsourced contracts amounted to indirect race discrimination.While Royal Parks’ mostly white in-house staff were paid at least the London living...

Carved wooden tabot has been at Abbey since British forces looted it at Battle of Maqdala in 1868Westminster Abbey has agreed “in principle” to returning a sacred tablet to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, igniting a debate around restitution claims made by the East African nation.The tabot – a blackened flat piece of wood featuring a carved inscription that symbolically represents the Ark of the...

Public encouraged to comment on seven artists’ proposals for ephemeral pedestal in Trafalgar SquareA sweet potato island; a hollow, lifesized person on a horse cast in slime-green resin; and a golden bronze sculpture of a woman whose features have been amalgamated are among the shortlisted ideas for the next fourth plinth commission in Trafalgar Square.Organisers of the contemporary art installation announced on Monday seven...