Magician named as Britain’s Got Talent winner

The winner of Britain’s Got Talent has been announced, with Magician Harry Moulding taking home £250,000.

The illusionist fell to his knees as presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly declared him champion.

He later told Ant and Dec: “I can’t believe what is going on. Thank you, thank you everyone so so much. I genuinely feel like everyone has been behind me. This has been the most incredible journey.”

The Blackpool-based magician performed earlier in the night and stunned the judges by correctly guessing which cards they had chosen from a pack. To add to the impressive feat he did all of this while jumping out of a plane. He was fast-tracked to the final after guest judge KSI hit the golden buzzer in the semi-final, which also saw him propose to his girlfriend.

Moulding, who beat nine other finalists to reign supreme, will also perform at the Royal Variety Show as part of their prize.

Dance group The Blackouts was named the runner-up, with dancer Binita Chetry coming in third place.

The final itself, which aired live on Saturday (31 May), was a dramatic one which saw Ant and Dec briefly pause the show as they weren’t ready for young musician Olly Pearson’s performance.

“It was going so well but we’re going to have to have a quick chat with you judges because we’re not quite ready on stage yet for Olly,” McPartlin said.

Elsewhere, Donnelly had to apologise after judge Bruno Tonioli swore during his reaction to comedian Joseph Charm’s performance. “We were just p***ing…” said the 69 before pausing himself and correcting his comments. He then issued an apology for swearing.

“Apologies if you were offended by Bruno’s slip of the tongue there,” added Donnelly.

The finalists of the 18th series of ITV’s talent contest were made up of magicians, dancers and choir singers under the watchful eye of judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, and Bruno Tonioli.

This season of the show – its 18th, after originally premiering in 2007 – started back in February, and three months later the end is almost here.

They included Scottish singer-songwriter Vinnie McKee, Swiss dance group The Blackouts, 11-year-old guitarist Olly Pearson and supermarket worker Stacey Leadbetter, whose singing skills saw her put through by guest judge KSI.

Elsewhere, drag queen opera singer Jasmine Rice also competed alongside alternative dance group Ping Pong Pang, stand-up comic Joseph Charm, and Hear Our Voice, a choir group whose members were victims of the Post Office scandal as depicted in ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

The programme, which was broadcast live from the Hammersmith Apollo after a week of five semi-finals, also saw performances from singer Stacey Leadbeatter, dance group Ping Pong Pang and guitarist Olly Pearson.

A wildcard act introduced into the live final was revealed to be singers Han & Fran, who performed an Abba medley.

Reeves told ‘impossible to invest in growth, services and net zero’

Spending commitments on defence mean it is “impossible” for the chancellor to invest in economic growth, public services and net zero policies when she allocates money for the next three years, leading economists have warned.

Rachel Reeves will face “unavoidably” tough choices as she set out her plans in a spending review in just over a week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says.

The government has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GPD within the next two years.

But on Saturday, ahead of the launch of a new defence strategy on Monday, the defence secretary John Healy went further as he said there was “no doubt” the UK would meet its target to raise the level to 3 per cent by 2034.

The IFS said the spending review would be dominated by money for defence and the NHS. Its research economist Bee Boileau said funding for other priorities will likely slow to a “trickle”.

She said: “At the spending review the government faces some unavoidably tough choices, particularly as, after turning on the spending taps last autumn, the flow of additional funding is now set to slow to more of a trickle.

“Take capital spending: government investment is set to be sustained at historically high levels in the coming years, but most of the increase happened last year and this year, and it looks as if all of the remaining increase in funding over this parliament has already been allocated to defence.

“Simultaneously prioritising additional investments in public services, net zero and growth-friendly areas within this envelope will be impossible.”

On Saturday The Independent revealed that Angela Rayner and Ms Reeves were at loggerheads over the spending review as the deputy prime minister’s department missed an unofficial deadline to settle its budget until the next general election without securing an agreement.

With the review set to be unveiled on 11 June, departments said that the Treasury wanted its plans agreed by the start of this weekend.

But The Independent understands that Ms Rayner’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is one of several departments yet to settle with Ms Reeves and her deputy Darren Jones.

The review will see Ms Reeves announce the government’s day-to-day departmental budgets for the next three years and investment budgets for the next four.

The Local Government Association has called for councils to get a “significant and sustained” boost to funding so they can deliver vital services.

“Councils in England face a funding gap of up to £8bn by 2028-29 and have already had to make huge savings and efficiencies over the past decade,” LGA chair Pete Marland said. “They desperately need a significant and sustained increase in overall funding in the spending review to meet the requirements being placed on them.

“Without adequate funding, councils will continue to struggle to provide crucial services, with devastating consequences for those who rely on them, and it will be impossible for them to help the government achieve its reform and growth agenda.”

The Liberal Democrats urged the government to put money into social care.

“Ending the crisis in our NHS must be a top priority, but unless they fix social care too, ministers will just be bailing water from a sinking boat with a spoon,” the party’s treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper, said. “Vital NHS investment risks going to waste if hospitals can’t discharge patients who don’t need to be there and if local authorities don’t have the resources to care for people in their homes and prevent them going to hospital in the first place.”

She also urged the government to negotiate a bespoke UK-EU customs union, to boost the economy, before looking at “painful cuts to already stretched budgets”, from justice to farming.

‘I thought I had pins and needles, but a week later I was paralysed’

A father-of-two who assumed a tingling sensation in his hands was just pins and needles woke up paralysed a few days later – and couldn’t even close his eyes for weeks.

Luke Pickering, a mechanic from Nottingham, went to work as normal when he first noticed the strange sensation in his hands.

The next day it had progressed to his toes and despite trying to carry on as normal, he soon took a turn for the worse.

“I was carrying my eldest down the stairs and I just felt weak, and I thought I was going to drop him,” Mr Pickering told the Independent.

He insisted that he was still able to go to work but his partner Alix, 31, realised he wasn’t well and took him to A&E where he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) – a rare condition where the immune system begins to attack the nervous system.

From that moment in November 2023, Mr Pickering did not return home for another 94 days.

“I thought I’d be coming back out soon, but as the week progressed, I just got weaker and weaker. I went from using crutches to being put into a full hoist. I couldn’t do anything for myself,” he said.

“I was paralysed from the head down. Even my face was paralysed so I had to sleep with my eyes open for three weeks.”

Normally triggered by a virus infection, the condition usually causes tingling, numbness, or pins and needles in the arms and legs first before the symptoms spread to other parts of the body, causing muscle weakness.

However, Mr Pickering did not recall having any colds, fevers or stomach bugs before his symptoms hit.

The condition, which affects around 1,300 people in the UK a year, is treated through immunotherapy including intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and plasma exchange.

Mr Pickering had IVIG, but his condition continued to deteriorate so doctors decided to transfer him to the Intensive Care Unit at NUH’s City Hospital.

“I could feel myself getting worse. I prepared myself to say my goodbyes to my family, but I wasn’t willing to say it. I just said ‘see you later,’” he added.

Mr Pickering was visited by his partner, their two-year-old son and their newborn baby every day and was determined to get better for them.

He said: “I was really hard on myself at the time, but the only way I was going to be happy was by getting home. I was determined to get out and walk again.”

The third round of IVIG and a blood plasma transfusion worked allowing Mr Pickering to start recovery at the Linden Lodge rehabilitation unit in Nottingham just before Christmas. There he had speech and language therapy and learnt how to walk again.

Recalling feeling “terrified” to stand and walk again, he said: “I knew my body wasn’t ready for it, but you just have to keep doing it.”

Eventually in February 2024, Mr Pickering learnt to walk again and now a year after coming home, he is living an almost normal life again, including being back fixing cars and tractors in his job as a mechanic.

Although he still can’t feel his toes, Mr Pickering said he is grateful for the treatment he received.

However, the small risk of his condition relapsing still hangs over him.

“If I wake up in the middle of the night with pins and needles, that’s it. I’m awake all night because I think it’s happening again,” he explained.

Following his recovery Mr Pickering has also become a patient ambassador for the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), a brand new 70-bed rehab facility.

In his voluntary ambassador role, Mr Pickering will support other patients going through similar rehabilitation.

Talking about his role at the centre, he said: “I just wanted to give back. When I was going through it, I wanted someone with a positive outcome to just talk to.”

Starmer in race against time to stop Trump’s shock 50% steel tariffs hitting UK

The UK faces a race against time to prevent Donald Trump’s swingeing new 50 per cent tariffs on steel hitting an already beleaguered critical industry.

The US president sent shockwaves through the global economy when he announced on Friday that he would raise the tariffs from 25 per cent to “further secure” the industry.

“We’re going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody is going to get around that,” Trump told steel workers on a visit to a Pennsylvania plant.

He later confirmed on his Truth Social platform that the change would be “effective Wednesday, June 4”.

A UK-US trade deal unveiled with much fanfare earlier this month should have exempted Britain from steel tariffs – but it has yet to be implemented.

Ministers now face a scramble to ensure the agreement with the US is in place before Wednesday.

The government is urgently seeking clarification from the US on what the latest announcement means for the UK, the Independent understands.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is also set to meet his US counterpart Jamieson Greer in a bid to secure an agreed timeline to lift the tariffs.

But the face-to-face talks, after an OECD trade ministers summit in Paris, are thought to be scheduled for Wednesday, raising the prospect of an eleventh-hour showdown.

Gareth Stace, the director general of the UK Steel trade body, warned that Trump’s latest announcement was a “body blow” and could lead to orders for British steel being delayed or cancelled.

“To wake up this morning to a doubling of the tariffs to 50% will be of serious concern and confusion to our sector here in the UK, “ he added.

Earlier this month President Trump hailed the trade agreement with the UK as a “great deal for both countries”, while the prime minister said the move would “boost British businesses and save thousands of British jobs” and deliver on his promises to protect carmakers and save the UK’s steel industry.

Under its terms, levies on steel and aluminium were to be reduced to zero.

However, a general 10 per cent tariff for other goods would remain and Britain agreed to scrap its tariff on ethanol coming into the UK from the US.

But the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the UK had been “shafted” as she contrasted the amount UK business would have to pay with their costs before President Trump came to power.

Last month MPs were forced to hold an unusual Saturday sitting to approve emergency plans to save British Steel‘s Scunthorpe blast furnaces by taking control away from its Chinese owners.

Although the new law stopped short of nationalisation, the government conceded it was “likely” British Steel would have to be taken into public ownership as Sir Keir warned the UK’s economic and national security was “on the line”.

At the time, he said his government was “turning the page on a decade of decline, where our manufacturing heartlands were hollowed out by the previous government. Our industry is the pride of our history – and I want it to be our future too.”

On Trump’s new 50 per cent steel tariff announcement, a government spokesperson said: “The UK was the first country to secure a trade deal with the US earlier this month and we remain committed to protecting British business and jobs across key sectors, including steel.

“We are engaging with the US on the implications of the latest tariff announcement and to provide clarity for industry.”

Jade Thirlwall leads anti-JK Rowling chant at music festival

Pop star Jade Thirlwall has led a crowd of thousands in an anti-J.K. Rowling chant during a music festival known for celebrating LGBTQ+ culture.

While performing on the Main Stage at Mighty Hoopla in London Saturday evening, Thirlwall ignited the crowd when she chanted “transphobes” and the crowd responded: “F*** you!”

She then changed the prompt to “J.K. Rowling” to which the crowd responded with another enthusiastic “F*** you!”

Video of the moment was shared on social media with on-screen text reading: “Jade, the legend you are!!!”

Rowling, author of the acclaimed Harry Potter series, has come under intense scrutiny during the last few years for her comments about women and transgender rights.

The author, 59, first made controversial comments about the transgender community in December 2019. Since then, she has published and retweeted numerous posts containing hateful rhetoric toward the trans and non-binary communities.

Rowling has denied being transphobic, but has previously stated that she would “happily” go to prison for misgendering a trans person rather than refer to them by their preferred pronouns.

She’s even gone so far as to dismiss concerns that her views on transgender people will damage her legacy. When asked in 2023 by interviewer Megan Phelps-Roper about her legacy in the podcast titled The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author said she doesn’t think about it.

“I think you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly. I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy, what a pompous way to live your life thinking about what my legacy will be. Whatever! I’ll be dead, I care about now, the living.”

Meanwhile, Thirlwall has been outspoken about the need to support LGBTQ+ rights.

A former member of the girl group Little Mix, Thirlwall said in a recent interview with Gayety: “I’ve always been quite vocal, and I’m not always going to get it right. But you can’t be a pop artist right now without speaking out about certain things.

“We’re seeing an attack on the trans community, and I have a very big LGBTQ+ fanbase,” she continued. “I can’t sit back and not be vocal about defending that community. I’m happy to pay the consequences if it means doing the right thing.”

Thirlwall’s fans have celebrated the anti-Rowling chant and the singer’s Mighty Hoopla performance.

“Out of this world. That was beyond anything in terms of a show. The woman she IS,” one fan wrote on X.

“Jade thirlwall is THAT GIRL,” another said.

“JADE AMELIA THIRLWALL I LOVE YOU SO MUCH and f*** you transphobes and jk rowling,” someone else wrote.

Win a luxury ticket package for two to this year’s Wilderness Festival

Music fans can win a luxury package for two to this year’s Wilderness Festival, all courtesy of Audi.

Wilderness returns this year to the picturesque nature reserve at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, and will be headlined by rock band Supergrass, Nineties rave duo Orbital, and Brit Award-winning, Grammy-nominated indie-rock duo Wet Leg.

Completing the headliner lineup are Basement Jaxx, who are making their return to live shows for the first time in over a decade, as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of their groundbreaking album, Remedy.

The winner will receive a pair of complimentary festival tickets and boutique accommodation in a luxury cabin for two. They will also be treated to an Audi Kitchen experience and, for the ultimate luxury, your own private chauffeur to take you and your guest to the festival and return journey.

Enter the prize draw here.

Wilderness Festival is known for its eclectic music lineup, which this year includes performances from pop singer Lapsley, singer-songwriter Bess Atwell, Scottish musician Jacob Alon and DJ Craig Charles.

At The Sanctuary and Spa, guests will discover an oasis of calm, whether that means taking part in disco yoga or a workshop to explore your sensuality. Highlights include boating, massage treatments, sauna rituals, hot tubs, a wild sauna, Wim Hof method ice baths and wild swimming.

Gourmet food offerings can be found at Ben Quinn’s long table banquet in the woods, a once-in-a-lifetime experience set in the woods and lit by chandeliers. There, Quinn and his team will serve up a feast of flavour cooked right in front of you five courses of carefully curated, responsibly sourced, local and seasonal ingredients.

Elsewhere, attendees can join a number of talks, comedy sets and conversations, from Food Stories with Jay Rayner to a live recording of Jamie Laing’s podcast, Great Company.

Comedian, writer and NHS doctor Matthew Hutchinson will share a sharp and moving look at life on the frontline of British healthcare, while cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith will uncover a bold and fascinating alternative history of female friendship.

The prize draw will open for entries at 3pm (BST) on 7 May 2025 and close at 3pm BST on 17 June 2025. Only one entry per person is permitted for the Prize Draw. Terms and conditions apply.