Badenoch accused of ‘hypocrisy’ after opposing energy project in her constituency

Kemi Badenoch has been accused of “staggering hypocrisy” after privately opposing an energy infrastructure project in her constituency, despite taking aim at the government for not doing enough to tackle nimby blockers.

In a letter to constituents last month, seen by The Independent, the Tory leader said she has “joined six other Conservative MPs from across East Anglia in writing to Ed Miliband to demand a fair and thorough assessment of alternatives to the Norwich to Tilbury pylons project”.

She said the project – which passes through her Saffron Waldon constituency – “risks permanent environmental and visual damage, would hurt house prices, disrupt farms, businesses and community spaces”.

The project will see a new 400 kilovolt electricity transmission line built between Norwich and Tilbury, spanning over 180 kilometres.

Mrs Badenoch said she told the energy secretary to consider laying the pylons underground, even though such a move is estimated to cost taxpayers far more.

When the Tory leader’s office was asked about her opposition to the plans, they claimed “there is evidence it is just as cost-effective” to put the cables underground. But when asked to provide the evidence, they failed to do so.

National Grid sources said that burying the cables would not only be up to seven times more expensive, it would also not meet the requirements of the project.

Meanwhile, a report from the Institution of Engineering and Technology said underground cables are, on average, around 4.5 times more expensive than overhead lines.

Writing in The Times less than a month ago, Mrs Badenoch said: “Politically, government is increasingly powerless in the face of legal challenges.

“Last week I spoke about the tangle of domestic and international rules that block us building new homes and infrastructure”.

And last year, as shadow housing secretary in the weeks after the election, she suggested that new Labour backbenchers would turn into nimbys when they face complaints from voters.

“Many of them have been thinking they’d get into government and concrete over lots of Tory constituencies,” she told the Commons.

“Three weeks ago just 15 per cent of the green belt was in Labour constituencies, now it’s 50 per cent. They aren’t Tory constituencies now, they are Labour.

“They are now your voters and you’re going to have to tell them that you’re going to do something that many of you promised locally that you would never do.”

Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, Chris Curtis, warned that Mrs Badenoch’s decision to oppose the pylon line demonstrates “the same ‘one rule for us’ mindset that brought us wild parties in Downing Street while the country suffered in silence”.

“Kemi Badenoch is fast becoming the poster child for everything the British public rightly despises about politics”, he said.

“She rails against legal blockages in the media while using them at home when it suits her. Voters have had over a decade of being lectured by politicians in Westminster, only to watch them flip flop whenever they could benefit personally or politically.

“It is the same ‘one rule for us’ mindset that brought us wild parties in Downing Street while the country suffered in silence.”

He added: “But that kind of hypocrisy is not just insulting, it is holding Britain back”.

Meanwhile, David Taylor – Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead – said it was “staggering hypocrisy”, warning that Britain “can’t afford more Tory nimbyism when our country’s future is on the line.”

He said: “After her government did their best to bankrupt the country, she’s joined fellow Tory MPs to block the Tilbury pylons project in her own patch, while the country urgently needs new energy infrastructure to keep the lights on and power new homes.

“This is classic one rule for them, another for everyone else. The Conservatives were in power for 14 years and left us with the worst housebuilding record since the 1920s, a time when pylons hadn’t even been invented.

“Now Labour’s in government, we’re serious about building the infrastructure and homes Britain desperately needs.”

A spokesperson for National Grid said: “We’re committed to consulting extensively and listening to the views of communities and stakeholders as we develop and shape our plans.

“Our role is to find a way to take the home-grown, more affordable and cleaner energy from where it’s generated to where it’s needed in our homes, business and public services, and we share our plans with Ofgem to ensure value for money for bill payers.

“We consider all technology options – offshore, underground, and overhead lines – and then balance a range of factors, including what’s possible from an engineering and environmental point of view and feedback from local communities.

“The secretary of state for energy security & net zero will then make the final decision, following a recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate, on whether we have got that balance right when considering granting planning permission.”

A spokesperson for Mrs Badenoch said: “She’s pushing for the cables to be buried. She’s on the record calling for this and that there is evidence it is just as cost effective.”

The Independent has contacted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for comment.

How a German backpacker survived 11 days lost in the Australian outback

Exhausted, dehydrated and disorientated, Carolina Wilga was certain she wasn’t going to be found alive after spending 11 nights lost in the remote Australian outback.

With no idea where she was heading and very alone having abandoned her van to try and find help, she focused on the one navigational guide she knew – walking west by following the sun.

She knew time was running out as she trekked through one of the most sparsely populated and remote places in the world.

However, through incredible luck, she managed to survive, finding a road where she was spotted by a local and delivered to safety.

It’s a rare tale of survival for someone who was missing for so long in difficult terrain. Western Australia acting Det Insp Jessica Securo said it was an “incredible result”, after a multi-day search of the vast bushland about 200 miles northeast of Perth involving homicide police, planes and helicopters, as well as local residents.

“It’s sheer luck. The area out there, there’s mixed terrain. It can be quite dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing or where you are going. It’s very easy to get lost in that area,” Det Insp Securo said.

“She’s essentially out in the wilderness for about 11 nights, which is significant, and just brings us back to how lucky she was that she was located safe and well, and how thankful we are that we managed to find her.”

The 26-year-old German backpacker had been living in Western Australia (WA) for two years, and was heading on a trip towards the country’s east with no concrete plans beyond exploring new places, police said.

She drove through the town of Beacon, on the edge of WA’s Wheatbelt region, stopping at a general store for some supplies. Driving into the vast Karroun Hill nature reserve, her Mitsubishi Delica got bogged in wet sand about 35 km from the nearest road.

Ms Wilga tried to get it out, using the van’s recovery boards and planks of wood, but nothing appeared to work. She spent a night with the vehicle, but without phone reception, she decided to try to search for help and quickly became lost.

After that, she decided to follow the sun, walking west to try to find any sign of other human life.

Western Australia is vast. The largest Australian state, covering more than 2.5 million sq km, it’s more than half of the area of the European Union. It is also sparsely populated: more than two-thirds of the state’s 3 million residents live in the capital of Perth, and much of the state is farmland, mining, or nature.

Ms Wilga faced bad weather – nights got extremely cold, police said, and without her vehicle she was totally exposed to the elements. It also rained heavily for a couple of days.

However, Det Insp Securo said it was good that it was not too hot – temperatures in the state can exceed 40 degrees Celsius in summer.

Rescuers had held grave fears for Ms Wilga’s survival after so long in the wilderness. The German backpacker is the second person to have gone missing in the area in the last 12 months.

Barry Podmore, 73, has been missing since December after going gold prospecting at Karroun Hill, according to the ABC.

His vehicle was found abandoned about 40km north of Beacon by police in May, but no trace of the man has been found.

Det Insp Securo said people who live in WA know it is a vast and at times dangerous place.

“It can be quite challenging to survive in those areas if you don’t know where you’re going or what you’re doing,” she said.

“So all we can advise people to do is invest in things like personal locator beacons, where you may be able to raise emergency services if you come into trouble, trouble you know, share your travel plans with your loved ones. Plan your destinations and then make contact with those persons when you arrive in one.”

Her other tip for people who run into trouble like Ms Wilga is for people to stay with their vehicle.

“It’s far easier for an aerial search to locate a vehicle than it is a person,” she said.

Ms Wilga’s vehicle was found first, a day before she was spotted on the road by a local just 24 km from her abandoned van.

“She was very traumatised and just overwhelmed to be able to found someone that could help her,” said the detective inspector, who spoke to Ms Wilga in hospital on Saturday morning.

“Look, she’s good. She’s very fatigued. She’s had a good night’s sleep, she’s had a shower. We’ve got her some food, which was a massive relief for her. So she’s just taken it one day at a time at the moment.”

Receiving treatment for her minor injuries, including many mosquito bites, as well as emotional support, Ms Wilga remains in hospital and has been in contact with her family in Germany.

But despite remaining overwhelmed by her ordeal, det insp Securo said the backpacker has no plans at the moment to leave Australia.

“Carolina has told me that she loves Australia. She still has so much travel to do here. She hasn’t made it over to the East Coast yet, so that’s still on her bucket list. So I think if she has the ability to stay, she definitely will.”

Fiona Phillips’ husband ‘angry’ about lack of support for his wife’s Alzheimer’s

Fiona Phillips’s husband, Martin Frizzel, has opened up about the frustrations he is facing over his partner’s Alzheimer’s diagonsis.

The broadcaster, 64, learnt that she had the condition, which causes cognitive decline, in 2022. She went public with her diagnosis the following year in a bid to raise awareness and tackle stigma surrounding the disease.

Phillips, who married Frizzel in 1997, has documented her experience in a new book titled Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer’s, written with the help of her husband as well as her former Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Frizzel, the former editor of This Morning, revealed that he only intended to write “a few paragraphs” for his wife’s book, but ended up writing 24,000 words when his anger about the situation began to simmer.

“I started off writing about what a great woman she is and just how horrible it is and dreadfully unlucky that she is the latest in the long line of her family to get it,” Frizzel explained.

“Then I just got very angry as to what little support there is. You realise that there are about 70,000 people who have early-onset Alzheimer’s, a million or so roughly in the country who have Alzheimer’s, and you realise that there’s not a lot of help out there.”

He continued: “As a family, we just kind of get through it and at some point we will need more support, but there’s just nothing really.”

Appearing on This Morning on Friday (July 11), Frizzel shared that Phillips sometimes becomes confused over who she is. Referring to a recent photo taken of the presenter, he said: “She’s looking great and she’s kinda smiling… And what you don’t know is she thought I’d kidnapped her.”

He added that she recognises him as her husband “most of the time”.

Frizell stepped down from his role as the editor of This Morning in 2024 after a decade on the show, in order to focus on “family priorities”.

The journalist recently made the heartbreaking admission that he wished his wife had been diagnosed with cancer rather than Alzheimer’s.

“It’s a shocking thing to say, but at least then she might have had a chance of a cure, and certainly would have had a treatment pathway and an array of support and care packages,” he wrote in another extract from Remember When.

“But that’s not there for Alzheimer’s. Just like there are no funny or inspiring TikTok videos or fashion shoots with smiling, healthy, in-remission survivors.”

Frizell and Phillips share two sons: Nathaniel, 26, and Mackenzie, 23.

Lions sbeat AUNZ Invitational XV in final fixture before first Test

The British and Irish Lions enjoyed a near-perfect preparation for their first Test with Australia as they beat the AUNZ Invitational side 48-0.

The tourists got off to a blistering start in Adelaide with two tries in the first 10 minutes, as Duhan van der Merwe crossed well before Ben White picked straight from the ruck and touched down.

Van der Merwe crossed a second time to give the Lions a 17-0 lead at the break, and the tourists didn’t feel like resting on their laurels, with Sione Tuipulotu, Scott Cummings and Ronan Kelleher going over after half-time and van der Merwe sealing his hat-trick late on.

There was still time for Henry Pollock to get on the scoresheet too, applying pressure before beating the defender to a loose ball, and it marked a superb all-round performance from a dominant Lions side.

And next up for the tourists is the first Test against Australia in Brisbane on 19 July.

Follow all of the latest reaction from the Adelaide Oval with our live blog below:

Noel Gallagher questions fans booing song dedication at homecoming gig

Oasis made a glorious return to Manchester on Friday night (12 July) but Noel Gallagher had to address some fans after they booed a dedication to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.

The homecoming gig took place at Heaton Park, one week after their highly praised first performance of the reunion tour in Cardiff. It was the first of five sell-out shows they will play in Manchester.

Around 80,000 people flocked to see the band’s first hometown show in 16 years, which featured more than one nod to other notable figures from Manchester’s recent history.

During the concert, Liam Gallagher dedicated “D’You Know What I Mean?” to “the greatest manager of all time, the one and only Pep Guardiola”. The Spanish coach has been in charge of Manchester City, the team the Gallagher brothers support, since 2016, winning 18 trophies in that time.

Guardiola, 54, was in attendance at the show, where the dedication was met with some boos, likely from fans of rival football teams. Noel amusingly responded to the jeers, asking the crowd: “Who you f***ing booing?”

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager was pictured with Liam’s two sons Lennon, 25, and Gene, 24, and Noel’s three children Anais, 25, Donovan, 17 and Sonny, 14, before the show began.

Gene, whose mother is Liam’s ex-wife Nicole Appleton, shared a photograph to Instagram, with the caption: “Pic of the century alright now everyone else f*** off.”

Guardiola’s daughter, Maria, later posted a video of her and her father passionately singing along to Oasis’s 1996 hit song “Don’t Look Back in Anger”.

Elsewhere, in the set Noel dedicated a rendition of “Half the World Away” to the late comedian and actor Caroline Aherne.

The 1998 track, from Oasis’s b-sides compilation album The Masterplan, was used as the theme song for the hit TV sitcom The Royle Family, which Aherne wrote and starred in.

“This one is for Caroline,” said Gallagher before starting the song. Aherne died in 2016, just two years after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Oasis’s triumphant homecoming gig follows on from their shows at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, where they kicked off their reunion tour on 4 July.

During that first performance, the band dedicated “Live Forever” to Liverpool player Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash with his brother Andre Silva on 3 July.

After Manchester, Oasis will visit London’s Wembley Stadium, Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, and Dublin’s Croke Park throughout July, August and September.

The Oasis reunion tour was announced in August last year, decades after Noel quit the band after a backstage brawl at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in 2009.

While fans were thrilled at the news, some were left outraged after a number of standard tickets in the UK and Ireland jumped from £148 to £355.

The controversy prompted the Government and the UK’s competition watchdog to pledge to look at the use of dynamic pricing.

Liam Gallagher made a controversial joke over the ticket pricing scandal on the first night of their tour, asking the crowd: “You having a good time, yeah? Is it worth the £40,000 you paid for the ticket?”

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Just one in three support doctor strikes, poll shows as Streeting warned he ‘cannot afford to lose’

Just one in three people support plans by doctors to stage five days of walkouts later this month, a new poll has revealed as tens of thousands of patients across the country face operations and appointments being cancelled.

Meanwhile nearly half of those polled (49 per cent) oppose the planned industrial action called by the British Medical Association, a YouGov survey has found.

The figures showed a marked fall in support compared with previous industrial action. When doctors last went on strike, just before last year’s general election, YouGov found the action was supported by 59 per cent of the public, and opposed by 36 per cent.

It comes as a former Labour cabinet minister and union leader warned the BMA it had picked the wrong battle with the government, and told health secretary Wes Streeting it was a fight he had to win.

Alan Johnson, who was health secretary for two years under Tony Blair and who used to lead a union himself, told the Independent: “This has all the signs of the BMA leading their troops into a battle they can’t win – nor should they, given that government has honoured the pay review recommendations in full having settled last year’s dispute immediately on taking office.

“I doubt if there’s anybody with any trade union experience who thinks the BMA have chosen the right terrain on which to go to war with government. This is a battle Wes Streeting has to win,” he added.

Medical leaders also warned resident doctors, as junior doctors are now known, that they may “never recover” the trust of patients if they go on strike again.

Mr Streeting has told junior doctors that after a 28.9 per cent pay rise last year when Labour entered government, the public would not understand why “you would still walk out on strike, and neither do I.”

But the new leader of the BMA has said that resident doctors’ 29 per cent pay demand is “non-negotiable” and warned strikes could go on for years.

Dr Tom Dolphin also claimed the demand was both reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS.

He said the union will not negotiate on or accept a figure lower than 29 per cent because that is the extent of the real-terms loss of earnings the BMA say doctors have seen since 2008 – a salary they want restored in full.

Former Tory health minister Steve Brine warned the strikes had the potential to “undo the good” that had been down on cutting NHS waiting lists.

Up to 50,000 resident doctors are expected to join the walkout from 7am on July 25 to 7am on July 30.

About 1.5 million operations and appointments had to be cancelled during the last wave of industrial action by junior doctors.

Mr Streeting has urged the BMA to “listen to the public”. He said: “Instead of rushing down this unreasonable path, the BMA need to pause and think about the real risk of people losing trust in doctors and the damage that would do to our NHS and the entire medical profession.”

Lord Darzi of Denham, a surgeon who led a damning review of the NHS last year, said: “Doctors have a special place in society. The public’s trust in doctors is earned, not guaranteed. I fear it will never recover if the BMA go ahead with strikes that are plainly unjustifiable.”

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, also said doctors must consider “how difficult it might be to recover public trust”.

The best and worst barbecue foods for your health, according to the experts

Barbecue season should be a golden time for health. You’re outside, cooking from scratch, eating slowly (ish) and enjoying yourself. The method is simple and fire-kissed. No deep-fat fryers or ultra-processed ready meals in sight. But the way most of us do barbecues? That’s a different story. Salty supermarket sausages. White bread buns. A plastic pot of coleslaw sweating in the sun. Possibly some scorched halloumi if someone’s feeling fancy.

What should be a wholesome, gut-friendly way of eating – grilled proteins, heaps of vegetables, fermented sides if we’re really doing it right – quickly turns into a bloated, beige pile of processed meat, saturated fat and sugar-laden sauces.

And it’s not just the waistband-tightening aftermath we should worry about. Experts warn that the typical British barbecue could be quietly sabotaging your gut, heart and long-term health – but it doesn’t have to be that way.

“It’s easy to exceed the recommended daily salt intake (6g for adults) in just one plate of barbecue food, with salt in processed meats like sausages and burgers (both meat and meat alternatives), bread rolls, shop-bought marinades, sauces and sides such as coleslaw and potato salads,” says Zoe Davies, senior nutrition projects officer at Action on Salt and Sugar.

She adds: “Consistently eating too much salt, which we often all are without realising, increases our risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. Early studies suggest high salt intake could also decrease certain health-promoting gut bacteria, however, there’s still more research to be done in this area.”

Reducing salt intake across the population, she says, could prevent thousands of premature deaths and ease pressure on the NHS.

Tracy Parker, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, agrees that “some barbecue favourites, like processed meats and salty sauces, can add significant amounts of salt and saturated fat to your diet, which isn’t great news for our hearts. Over time, eating too much salt can increase your blood pressure, and too much saturated fat can raise your ‘bad’ cholesterol levels – both risk factors for heart attacks and strokes.”

From a cancer risk perspective, the type of food on the grill matters more than the flame itself. “When it comes to [the disease], what you eat is more important than how you cook it,” says Maxine Lenza, health information manager at Cancer Research UK. “But some things that are often cooked on barbecues, like processed and red meats, can increase the risk of bowel cancer, and eating foods high in fat, sugar and salt can make it harder to keep a healthy weight, which can also increase your risk.”

Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology and co-founder of the ZOE health study, adds: “Processed and red meats, when eaten regularly, are linked to an increased risk of colon cancer and poorer gut health. It’s fine to enjoy them occasionally, but best to avoid having them often. They have pro-inflammatory effects on the gut and can increase the presence of unhelpful microbes, disrupting the balance of the microbiome.”

The point is clear: it’s not the barbecue that’s the problem. It’s what we’re putting on the grill.

But that doesn’t mean your barbecue is doomed. Here’s how to make it better – without sacrificing flavour.

Cheap sausages, supermarket burgers and fatty steaks are some of the biggest offenders. They’re often ultra-processed, packed with salt and high in saturated fat. Many also contain nitrates or nitrites, which have been linked to increased risk of bowel cancer and cardiovascular disease.

“Your choice of meat is important,” says Spector. “Choose fish or white meat, like chicken or turkey, when you can. It’s best to only eat red and processed meats once in a while, but if you do, go for leaner cuts and chop off excess fat.”

Homemade burgers made from lean mince (beef, turkey, lamb or plant-based) are a huge improvement, both nutritionally and in flavour. Marinated chicken thighs are another great alternative – and more forgiving on the grill than chicken breast. You could also opt for fish, like salmon or mackerel, which are high in omega-3s and far lower in salt and saturated fat.

“To enjoy a healthier barbecue without compromising on flavour,” says Parker, “choose leaner cuts of meat, such as loin of pork instead of ribs, or lean steak rather than a fattier cut. Firm-textured fish, like salmon, tuna or mackerel, and meatier vegetables like mushrooms, aubergine, peppers and courgettes are also great alternatives.”

And if you’re cooking meat, how you prep it matters. “Evidence suggests that cooking meat on a BBQ can produce chemicals that are harmful to heart health,” says Spector. “One way to reduce the production of these compounds is by marinating the meat in something acidic. For instance, lemon juice works well with chicken, giving it extra flavour and helping retain moisture.”

Barbecue sauce, ketchup and even some honey mustards can pack in alarming amounts of salt and sugar – often without tasting particularly complex or interesting. And because they’re slathered on top of already salty food, the totals add up fast.

“Salty and sweet BBQ sauces aren’t great for gut health, but because we tend to have them in smaller amounts, their effect on health will also be smaller,” says Spector. “However, if you want healthier condiments, try to find ones with ingredient lists that are low in salt and sugar. Alternatively, you could make your own.”

“Instead of shop-bought marinades and salad dressings, which are often high in salt,” Parker suggests, “try making your own with fresh herbs, citrus juices and spices to help keep salt levels low without missing out on flavour.”

Davies agrees: “Opt for lean, unprocessed meat, fish and vegetarian sources of protein, with home-made marinades using citrus, garlic, chilli and vinegar for a far better flavour.”

This is perhaps the biggest barbecue fail – and the easiest to fix.

“Most importantly, as far as gut health goes, make sure you include plenty of plants,” says Spector. “Make a fresh salad dressed with extra virgin olive oil, grill some vegetable skewers, or steam some mixed beans. These provide fibre and other healthy plant compounds to support your gut bacteria. Try to include as many different coloured plants as you can to get the maximum amount of healthy plant bioactives.”

Grill vegetables as eagerly as you grill meat. Courgettes, peppers, mushrooms, aubergines, asparagus and sweetcorn all take on beautiful char. Add wholegrains, legumes, herbs, seeds – anything that ups variety and fibre. The more colour, the better.

The classic British barbecue setup often includes a drink in one hand and a paper plate in the other. But alcohol paired with salty food, low fibre and heavy meats is a combination that can leave you bloated, tired and uncomfortable, and it’s not great for your gut either.

Enjoy a glass or two, but alternate with kombucha, sparkling water with citrus, or a wine spritzer. The point isn’t abstinence – it’s balance.

As Lenza reminds us: “If people are concerned about their cancer risk, there are other proven steps they can take too, such as not smoking, staying safe in the sun and drinking less alcohol.”

The takeaway? The grill isn’t the problem. In fact, it might be your greatest tool – simple, flavourful, social. With a little thought and a few tweaks, the classic British barbecue can become something that actually supports your health, rather than quietly undermining it.

Get the right ingredients on the grill and you’re laughing: grilled fish or spiced vegetable skewers, yoghurt-dressed slaw, fibre-packed sides and a plate full of colour. Your gut bacteria, heart and waistband will all be better off for it – and you don’t have to miss out on any of the fun.

So yes, you can still have your sausage. But maybe just the one. Wrapped in a flatbread. Next to a salad. And chased with something fermented.