Bondi Beach gunmen ‘received military-style training’ in Philippines

The father and son gunmen who carried out the Bondi Beach attack spent nearly all of November in the Philippines, according to the Australian authorities.

The trip was confirmed by both Australia and the Philippine authorities after ABC cited security sources as saying the attackers may have travelled there for “military-style training”.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese has said the attack that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event by the sea appeared to have been driven by extremist beliefs. “It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Mr Albanese told ABC Sydney.

A spokesperson for Australia’s immigration bureau said Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, left Australia for the Philippines six weeks ago and returned on a flight to Sydney on 28 November. Sajid Akram was shot dead by police during the attack while his son Naveed was critically injured and taken to hospital under police guard.

Sajid Akram travelled on an Indian passport. The pair listed Davao as their destination upon arrival in the Philippines, Australia’s immigration bureau spokesperson Dana Sandoval said. Davao, a sprawling city on the eastern coast of Mindanao – the largest southern island – lies within a region where Islamist militants have historically operated in poorer central and southwestern areas.

Ms Sandoval said: “Sajid Akram, 50, Indian national, and Naveed Akram, 24, Australian national, arrived in the Philippines together last 1 November 2025 from Sydney, Australia.”

The Philippine military said it could not verify whether the Akrams received arms training during their trip.

New South Wales (NSW) police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, also confirmed the Philippines trip, saying investigators were scrutinising the purpose of the visit and the men’s movements while abroad.

Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong has spoken with her Philippine counterpart Tess Lazaro and briefed him on the ongoing investigation.

Mr Lanyon said a vehicle linked to the younger man contained improvised explosive devices and “two homemade Isis flags”.

Investigators are now probing whether the Akrams had links to a transnational terror network, according to the sources cited by ABC.

Naveed Akram had been investigated for six months in 2019 by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the country’s domestic intelligence agency.

Mr Albanese said a six-month ASIO investigation found “no evidence” that either the father or the son had been radicalised.

Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of carrying out the Bondi Beach attack that left 15 people dead and dozens more injured during a gathering of people to celebrate the beginning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in the popular Sydney tourist destination. Those killed on Sunday included a 10-year-old child, a British-born rabbi, a former police officer, and a Holocaust survivor.

Health authorities have said that 24 people are still being treated in hospital, with several in critical condition.

Mr Albanese and NSW premier Chris Minns on Monday vowed to strengthen gun laws in the country. NSW Police said on Tuesday that Naveed Akram has regained consciousness after being in a coma since Sunday’s attack.

Australian Federal Police commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said the Bondi Beach attack appears to have been carried out by the father and son who “aligned themselves with a terrorist organisation, not a religion”.

The Australian PM has also hailed a bystander who tackled one of the gunmen on Sunday and seized his weapon, calling him a “true Australian hero”. The fruit shop owner, Ahmed al-Ahmed, a father of two from Sydney, was seen tackling one of the gunmen before wrestling his weapon away from him during the antisemitic terrorist attack.

Video footage of Mr Ahmed intervening circulated widely on social media following the attack. Mr Ahmed’s family previously said he was in hospital with bullet wounds to his arm and hand, but was in “good spirits”. His father said his actions showed the 43-year-old’s impulse to protect people as he called him a “hero of Australia”.

Dozens treated after ‘carbon monoxide leak’ at M&S

An M&S store in London has been closed following a suspected carbon monoxide leak, which left a number of people hospitalised.

Emergency services were called to the scene of the Charlton branch of Marks & Spencer at 9.32am on Tuesday. Around 35 people had left the building in southeast London.

Paramedics treated 30 people for chemical inhalation at the scene, with 11 patients taken to hospital and 19 discharged.

Staff from the London Ambulance Service, the London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police were all in attendance.

James Johnson, strategic commander for the ambulance service, said: “We were called at 9.32am today to reports of a suspected carbon monoxide incident on Gallions Road, Charlton.

“We sent a number of resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, incident response officers, paramedics in fast response cars, advanced paramedics and paramedics from our hazardous area response team.”

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “Firefighters were called at 8.35am today to a suspected carbon monoxide leak … Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus have used specialist equipment to carry out a systematic sweep of the building and found elevated readings of carbon monoxide. Crews have carried out further sweeps to check for no elevated readings. They have also completed a ventilation of the building.

“Around 35 people left the building before firefighters arrived and crews have assisted colleagues from the London Ambulance Service to treat a number of patients at the scene. Two fire engines and two fire rescue units were sent to the scene.”

Local councillor David Llewellyn Gardner called it a “major incident” on Facebook, although emergency services have not declared one. He urged people to “avoid the area until all clear”.

An M&S spokesperson said: “Our Charlton store is temporarily closed as we investigate an incident that happened earlier this morning. We hope to reopen as soon as possible.”

How a £195 Beef Wellington became Christmas’s most debated dish

It tells you everything about Britain in 2025 that the most contentious cultural artefact of the festive season isn’t a political budget, a tax rise or even a football result. It’s a beef wellington.

And not just any wellington, but the £195 Marks & Spencer x Tom Kerridge wellington – a truffle-laced, fillet-stuffed monument to extravagance that sold out immediately despite half the country calling it obscene and the other half insisting you could “make it at home for £40 if you weren’t lazy”.

Britain has, against all logic, entered a fully fledged wellington arms race. Which raises a question few expected to ask this year: how did a pastry-wrapped hunk of beef become the most political dish on the Christmas table?

To understand the wellington boom, you have to understand the psyche of a country that hasn’t had a good year since 2019. Since then – even if we ignore the global pandemic that has surely impacted much of the following – we’ve absorbed inflationary shocks, food shortages, supply chain collapses, shaky leadership, bird flu outbreaks, beef price surges and a cost-of-living crisis that no longer feels like a crisis so much as the new normal. National optimism has drained away. Disposable income has shrunk. The future feels smaller.

And yet, here we are, willing to spend anywhere between £30 and £200 on a single, high-stakes centrepiece for the Christmas table that can collapse into a soggy beige tragedy if you so much as breathe near it.

It’s illogical, indulgent and strangely defiant. It’s also very, very British.

The wellington’s extraordinary popularity makes sense when you consider the cultural anxieties it so neatly contains. It is both aristocratic and accessible, a dish that looks as if it belongs on a silver platter carried by footmen, yet is also recognisable as a distant cousin of the sausage roll. It signals wealth, but also practicality by promising to feed six to eight. It straddles aspiration and nostalgia, status and comfort, showmanship and familiarity.

Crucially, it is incredibly difficult to make well. It requires chilling, wrapping, precise timing, meat thermometers, a vigilant eye and nerves of steel. And yet supermarkets have performed a quiet miracle: they have turned this notoriously high-maintenance dish into a “finish-at-home” event requiring nothing more than faith and an oven preheated to 200C.

It is this duality – the promise of luxury without labour – that allows the wellington to slip so neatly into every corner of the class spectrum. The affluent treat it as a festive flourish; the aspirational treat it as a special occasion; the exhausted treat it as a shortcut to competence.

Every tier of British society can project something onto it. The wellington doesn’t smooth Britain’s class contradictions; it embodies them.

The romantic origin story (because there always is one) goes like this: the beef wellington was invented to honour the Duke of Wellington after his victory at Waterloo, a culinary tribute to British heroism and military might by way of a patriotic renaming of the French filet de bœuf en croûte. Because nothing says “British” more than nicking something from the French. It is a lovely story – the kind Britain specialises in – except for the awkward fact that there is no evidence it is true.

The Greeks were the first to wrap a flour and water paste around their meat to seal it before cooking, and the Cornish pasty has been around since the 14th century. Many of the earliest references to “beef wellington” actually come from the US as early as 1903, later appearing in a 1939 guide to where to dine in New York City and in a 1965 Julia Child’s cooking programme. It was also reportedly Richard Nixon’s favourite dish.

It might, in other words, be French by technique, American by popularisation and British only by force of personality, which may be the most accurate metaphor for modern British cuisine I’ve ever heard. And if the wellington is not, strictly speaking, Britain’s national Christmas dish, it is unquestionably Gordon Ramsay’s. If the dish had a modern patron saint, it would be him.

What makes this year’s Wellington Wars so potent isn’t simply the M&S price tag. It’s that Britain is suddenly drowning in beef wellingtons, each one doubling as a kind of edible personality test.

At the top of the food chain, Fortnum & Mason’s £120 wellington presides like an aristocrat at a village fete, designed for households where someone plays the piano after lunch unironically and “hamper season” is marked in the calendar.

At the opposite end of the social spectrum sits Charlie Bigham’s £30 working-class hero-turned-middle-class favourite, packed in its signature little wooden box – the one with staples so no one is allowed to utter the words “ready meal”, even though that is, of course, exactly what it is. That a dish once associated with the Napoleonic wars now lives next to Tuesday-night macaroni cheese is, arguably, the most British development of all.

Somewhere in the suburban middle sits COOK’s £90 “from frozen” wellington, the choice of families who own two cars, three calendars and one tired parent who refuses to compromise on standards. It is the sensible shoe of the wellington world: respectable, reliable and reassuringly devoid of ego.

Waitrose has gone full Noah’s Ark with two of every kind: mushroom wellingtons, salmon wellingtons, nut roast wellingtons and enough pastry-wrapped optimism to cater an entire Lib Dem fundraiser. These are not centrepieces so much as declarations of virtue with an expensive glaze.

Restaurants are conducting their own pastry arms race. At Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, the wellington arrives by the slice at £55; Hawksmoor has engineered a vegetarian version for the same price, proof that even carnivorous temples must occasionally bend the knee to 2025; and celebrated pastry chef Calum Franklin’s Pie Room at the Rosewood has turned the dish into a kind of architectural marvel for “Welly Wednesdays”.

Oh, and there was also the poisonous, death cap mushroom-spiked killer wellington in Australia that briefly made everyone glance suspiciously at their duxelles.

All of which would be amusing enough, were it not happening against the backdrop of one of the most precarious Christmas food landscapes in recent memory.

This year’s market conditions have only intensified the craze. Bird flu outbreaks and constrained supply chains have made turkey unreliable and expensive, which in turn has pushed up the price of chicken – the protein Britons normally flee to when everything else goes wrong. Beef and veal prices have climbed sharply, mushrooms have suffered from rising energy costs in commercial growing, and even butter – essential for pastry – has had an inflationary wobble. By the time you’ve bought beef, mushrooms, decent pastry and a bottle of wine to steady your nerves, it can genuinely be cheaper – or at least less emotionally ruinous – to buy the whole thing engineered by someone else.

And yet, somehow, the very conditions that should have doomed the wellington have only made it more desirable.

Why? Because Christmas remains the last untouchable zone of national indulgence. If the rest of the year has felt compromised, Christmas dinner, simply, must not be. In a landscape of shortages and inflation, the wellington has become the culinary equivalent of dressing up for a Zoom call: an attempt to restore dignity in undignified times. If you’re the type of person who dresses the Christmas tree early, you’ve probably also got a beef wellington in your Ocado basket.

Perhaps the most telling contradiction is that the nation loudly derided the £195 wellington while quietly buying it anyway. If publicly the dish became a symbol of excess, privately, the numbers tell a different story. What people say on social media and what they serve on Christmas Day clearly are two entirely different things.

Ultimately, the battle of the beef wellingtons reveals more about Britain’s emotional landscape than its culinary one. It shows a country wrestling with class uncertainty, desperate for treat culture, nostalgic for glamour, weary of effort, suspicious of tradition yet clinging to it, eager to feel competent and festive in a year that offered very little of either.

It has become the national Christmas dish of 2025 not because it is historically British, but because it is symbolically British: aspirational, contradictory, theatrical, slightly absurd and held together by optimism and pastry.

In a country where everything feels uncertain, the wellington’s message is reassuringly simple: everything might be falling apart, but look! The middle is still pink.

Only Fools and Horses cast to reunite for special anniversary series

Sir David Jason is set to reunite with fellow cast members from the beloved sitcom Only Fools and Horses for a new documentary series, marking the show’s 45th anniversary.

Titled Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive, the programme promises to unveil behind-the-scenes footage and previously unseen material that, according to the series producer, was “filmed but never broadcast”.

The iconic sitcom, a ratings juggernaut for the BBC, first graced screens on 8 September 1981. It became a career-defining role for Sir David, who portrayed the entrepreneurial Del Boy, and Nicholas Lyndhurst, who played his younger brother Rodney.

It followed the colourful escapades of market trader Del Boy and his less streetwise brother as they navigated the highs and lows of life in Peckham, perpetually striving for wealth.

Sir David, 85, expressed his enduring affection for the show, stating: “The love for Only Fools has never faded. It’s incredible to see how many people still hold it close to their hearts. Revisiting these rediscovered moments reminded me just how special the show was – and still is. It’s incredible to be able to share them now.”

The two-part series will feature new interviews with cast and crew, alongside archival material spanning more than 10 classic episodes, including fan favourites like “The Jolly Boys’ Outing” and “Mother Nature’s Son”.

Cast members, including Sir David, Tessa Peake-Jones (Raquel), Gwyneth Strong (Cassandra), and Sue Holderness (Marlene), will also pay tribute to the show’s late creator, John Sullivan, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 64.

The documentary will also include new material from episodes such as “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Uncle”, “Mother Nature’s Son”, “Time on Our Hands”, and an unbroadcast opening scene featuring Del and Rodney in a nightclub from “The Class Of ’62”.

The unearthed clips have undergone digital scanning and restoration from 16mm negatives, ensuring the cast appears in high definition. Sean Doherty, the director and series producer, highlighted the show’s lasting appeal: “Few shows have the kind of enduring popularity that Only Fools enjoys. The archive has uncovered some extraordinary material – 66 unseen clips and scenes so far that were filmed but never broadcast because they didn’t fit the timing or structure of the original episodes, plus nearly 100 assets from rushes and location filming. We’ve truly been spoilt for choice.”

Helen Nightingale, UKTV’s head of factual and factual entertainment commissioning, added: “Only Fools And Horses is part of the national DNA. With its humour, heart and unforgettable characters, it’s British comedy at its very best. This series is a celebration of its legacy and a chance to share new discoveries with the fans who’ve loved it for decades.”

The cast also included Leonard “Lennard” Pearce as Grandad, Roger Lloyd Pack as Trigger, and John Challis as Boycie. The enduring popularity of the show also led to a musical adaptation starring Paul Whitehouse, which opened in 2019 and toured the UK and Ireland in 2024 and 2025.

Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive is scheduled to air on U&GOLD in 2026.

Row erupts at Oxfam after chief executive forced out

The forced exit of Oxfam’s chief executive in the UK has sparked a row at the charity, with one prominent trustee claiming that damning leaks to the press were intended to “destroy” Halima Begum and compounded existing headwinds the organisation faces.

Over the weekend Dr Begum was removed by the board after an independent review – which has not been made public, and which The Independent understands had not been presented to her – that allegedly flagged “serious issues” in her conduct and decision‑making.

The organisation’s trustees said Dr Begum’s £130,000 a year position was “untenable” because of an “irretrievable breakdown in its trust and confidence” in her ability to do the job.

Dr Begum has also been accused of bullying and creating a “climate of fear” since she took up the role nearly two years ago – allegations which her supporters within the charity have dismissed as “absurd”.

In an article announcing her removal late on Sunday night, The Times reported that a letter to the board “signed” by almost 70 Oxfam staff – but who have remained anonymous – had called for trustees to investigate her conduct. The charity then hired an external public relations company to handle her departure.

In a statement on Monday, Oxfam GB said: “In line with our policies, a review was carried out by an independent specialist consultancy with recognised expertise in workplace culture, equity, and inclusion. We have great respect for colleagues who have raised concerns about culture. Their perspectives informed an independent review that took place.”

With little opportunity to defend herself before news of her sacking was publicised, colleagues sought to defend Dr Begum.

In a statement to The Independent, Balwant Singh, a board trustee at Oxfam GB, said: “Oxfam believes in and values kindness, justice and fairness. Sadly, Halima’s treatment has been anything but kind, just or fair.

“Whilst many of those who raised concerns about Halima’s leadership hid behind anonymity by claiming fear of retribution and retaliation, it is sickening that Halima has been subjected to what appears to be a carefully orchestrated and intentionally brutal retaliation and retribution in the national media.”

He added: “It also saddens me that for an organisation that stands for speaking up, many have chosen to hide behind anonymity. It does not bode well for the culture at Oxfam.”

Dr Begum’s departure comes weeks after the unexplained departure of Oxfam GB’s board chair, Charles Gurassa, who in 2023, when Dr Begum was appointed, described himself as delighted that someone with “such a wealth of experience in how to make change happen and a real passion to fight injustice” had agreed to lead the charity.

Shortly after her appointment, Dr Begum’s analysis of Oxfam’s finances revealed a £16.3m deficit which was soon worsened by massive US and UK foreign aid cuts. With falling donations and a weak UK economy, the future of the organisation she had joined was far from guaranteed.

Her appointment of a new chief financial officer and a subsequent restructuring, which meant putting hundreds of jobs at risk of redundancy, helped move the dial to address the financial issues. Nonetheless, in September Oxfam said: “Charities are being asked to do more with less at the very moment people need us most.”

Sources told The Times that staff had been unhappy over the necessary restructuring and that it had created “widespread animosity”.

Meanwhile, according to Mr Singh, Dr Begum “had filed a grievance/whistleblowing claim” against Mr Gurassa, made before she was aware of any concerns about her leadership.

“The claims related to sexism, racism and bullying. The grievance process is yet to be completed,” he told The Independent.

Akiko Hart, the director of the campaign group Liberty, also defended Dr Begum, who she described as a “mentor and friend”.

“I would urge everyone watching to hold off from immediate judgement and see what facts and evidence emerge,” she said in a LinkedIn post.

“I would invite people to reflect on the timing of this announcement, at the tail end of a painful restructure which was approved by the board, and a few weeks after the resignation of the chair.”

Oxfam has fought to maintain its hard-won reputation as a leading NGO in the years since allegations emerged in 2018 that the charity’s staff had hired sex workers while overseas, including in Haiti and Chad.

More recently, shop profits have fallen by around two-thirds in the past three years, according to figures released this month, underscoring a sharp downturn in retail performance.

Earlier this year, the organisation cut 250 roles from its 2,100-strong UK workforce, a move aimed at trimming £10.2m from its wage bill to address the shortfall in finances.

Over the summer, Dr Begum was accused of potentially compromising Oxfam’s reputation for neutrality after joining a parliamentary panel which featured a Palestinian journalist reported to have described the 7 October attacks on Israel as a “great day”.

Oxfam’s chief supporter officer, Jan Oldfield, who has been in the role for four years, will now become acting chief executive.

Pit-Smoked and Bourbon-Soaked: how to eat in Kentucky like a pro

What’s a drop of Bourbon or a foot tapping beat without the perfect dish to accompany them? There’s more to the Bluegrass State than whiskey and music alone. Though those things are important. Vital actually.

In Kentucky, the good times come served with a side of soul-enriching food, from fine dining, to time-honed traditions passed down through generations. A combination of Southern know-how, bountiful farmland and top-notch ingredients, plus modern culinary talent combine to make Kentucky a truly world-class culinary destination.

So get your fingers sticky with the sweet tang of BBQ, find the ultimate comfort food at a ma and pop shop on the roadside, or pull up a chair beneath a crisp linen tablecloth. It’s all here. Let us guide you to the top spots.

Louisville

Home of the world-famous Kentucky Derby, and with deep roots in the world of whiskey making, Louisville is a place where tradition is respected. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t reinterpreted, reinvented, and well, shaken up.

Kentucky’s largest metropolis, which straddles the slow running waters of the Ohio River, was built on whiskey. But as the new food hub of the South, it’s writing a new, distinctly delicious chapter.

‘New Southern Cuisine’, that’s the term coined for this new spirit of reverent playfulness where chefs across the city are putting new unique twists on traditional Southern fare from Hot Browns to Benedictine.

At 610 Magnolia, in the heart of Old Louisville, for chef and owner Edward Lee that means seasonal, multi-course menus that combine surprising global flavours into locally-inspired, often Bourbon laced dishes. Think seared scallops with kimchi or a sweet pea risotto with rock shrimp and magnolia.

Jack Fry’s is an institution. Behind its shutter board and mullioned window exterior, live jazz accompanies Southern flavours prepared with classic French techniques since 1933. Where once bootlegging occurred in a backroom, today spicy fried oysters, Bourbon braised short ribs, and peach cheesecakes laden the tables.

Don’t Miss:

Walk the distilleries and tasting rooms of Whiskey Row. This is mandatory. The imposing cast iron and red brick facades of Main Street once fronted the offices and warehouses for the burgeoning Bourbon barons. Today, they’re a playground for whiskey enthusiasts with exclusive bottlings, tastings and more to explore.

Follow Whiskey Row – and the Urban Bourbon Trail – across multiple blocks, and you’ll find NuLu (New Louisville). The East Market District of downtown draws an artsy crowd hang out to its neighbourhood murals, street art, galleries, and innovative eateries from Biscuit Belly to Royal Hot Chicken.

Lexington and the Bluegrass region

Combine fine dining with authentic Bluegrass charm in Lexington and beyond, where a visit to the world famous Keeneland Rack Track isn’t all about the horses. Yes, Lexington is a race horse capital, but sometimes the food is the main event.

Arrive purposefully hungry, and get amongst the smell of turf, saddle leather and smoked meats as jockeys, trainers and spectators alike head to the Track Kitchen. A morning staple and one of the city’s best-kept secrets, its home-style food feels like a hug. But careful, pace yourself.

Trackside concession stalls, only open during the races, beckon with their many culinary delights. From Keeneland’s signature Bourbon Bread Pudding to Kentucky Beer Cheese and the refreshing Keeneland Breeze cocktail, the food and drink here are as much a part of the experience as the races themselves. Classic Southern comfort meets local flair.

Don’t Miss:

Head out to the countryside, where the morning mist sits low on the pastures of Thoroughbred farms. Culinary star, Chef Ouita Michel may have just pioneered farm-to-table dining over the past 15-plus years. With all that high-quality produce in abundance surrounding Lexington, it just made sense to make the most of it.

Visit all eight of Ouita’s famous restaurants – or just a few – on a culinary tour. Honeywood at Fritz Farm is all about the locally-grown specialities, from sweet potato beignets to duck-fat basted New York strip. Meanwhile, Smithtown Seafood is a quintessential taste of the south with wild-caught fried catfish, fresh-shucked oysters and blackened catfish.

Owensboro

Breathe in the sweet smell of smoke and molasses. When you catch the scent of a true pit master at work, you follow it.

In Owensboro, Kentucky’s undisputed BBQ capital, a passion for flavour and a dedication to time-honed techniques, means you’re in for a treat.

In this city located on the south side of a deep bend in the Ohio River, BBQ is more than just a dish, it’s a tradition. With a history dating back to the 1830s, the area has developed its own unique style of pit BBQ, where vinegar-based sauces are mopped over the meat during a lengthy smoking process. Think tangy, tender, and melt-in-the-mouth.

Sure you’ll find chicken, beef, et al. But with sheep historically more plentiful, the main event here is mutton. Burgoo who? Look out for local dish Burgoo, a stew similar to Irish or Mulligan stew, most often served with a generous wedge of cornbread. Well, this is Kentucky.

Don’t get us wrong. BBQ is a year-round way of life with secrets passed down generations. Head to the Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, where smoked meat has been slung since the 1950s. Or Old Hickory BBQ, where the grills have been firing since 1918.

But once a year Owensboro becomes the global BBQ capital. At the International Bar-B-Q Festival, BBQ and Barrels, held every second weekend in May, 80,000 assemble for two days of BBQ heaven, while teams fiercely compete over secret recipes and sizzling coals.

Don’t Miss:

What goes better with a smoked slice, than the twang of strings? Owensboro is the Bluegrass world capital too. Stop by the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum – the only international museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing the history and culture of this soulful, uniquely American genre.

Killers who target prison officers to get whole life orders

Killers who target police, prison and probation officers will be punished with whole life jail sentences, the government has announced.

Deputy prime minister David Lammy unveiled plans to toughen up punishments for those who murder officers or former officers in attacks linked to their service.

It comes after prison officer Lenny Scott, 33, was murdered by a gangland “executioner” who waited four years to take revenge on him for seizing a phone from his cell at HMP Altcourse, in Liverpool, in 2020.

Armed robber Elias Morgan shot father-of-three Mr Scott six times outside a gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, on 8 February 2024.

Because Mr Scott had left the prison service by then, Morgan did not face the harshest penalty available of a whole life order, ensuring that he would never be released from jail. He was instead sentenced to serve a minimum of 45 years behind bars.

Conservatives peer Lord Sandhurst this month called for the government to address a “clear loophole” in the law, adding: “How many serving or former officers walk our streets knowing that they will remain potential targets long after they take off the uniform, and knowing that under the law as presently interpreted, their killers may not face the penalty that Parliament intended for those who attack innocent public servants?”

Mr Lammy, who is also the justice secretary, today announced he would change the law in an amendment to the Sentencing Bill.

It means any murder connected to an officer’s current or former duties will be subject to a whole life order.

He told the Commons: “This government is clear that perpetrators of heinous killings like these must feel the full force of the law….

“This means offenders can expect to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

“It is the latest step this government is taking to keep our hardworking prison and probation staff safe.”

Sentencing minister Jake Richards added: “Those who murder the people who keep us safe – whether in uniform, off duty or long after they’ve served – deserve nothing less than to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

“These are cowardly, vindictive attacks by criminals who seek revenge on the very officers who confront danger on our behalf. Our message to them is simple: if you target police, prison or probation staff, you will never walk free again.

“We will always stand squarely behind the men and women who protect the public, and we will ensure their killers face the toughest punishment law allows.”

‘Doctors are not self-indulgent’: Readers on NHS strike action

Independent readers are split after resident doctors voted to press ahead with a five-day strike just before Christmas, prompting a furious response from health secretary Wes Streeting, who branded the action “self-indulgent” and “dangerous”.

Many in our community criticised the timing, arguing that striking during peak winter pressures and record flu admissions risks harming patients and eroding public trust. For these readers, doctors should have waited until January to maximise leverage without endangering care, with some questioning whether the right to strike should apply in such circumstances.

Others strongly defended the doctors, pointing to more than a decade of real-terms pay erosion, worsening conditions and staff shortages. They argued the overwhelming vote for action shows deep frustration, not militancy, and accused successive governments of exploiting goodwill while underfunding the NHS.

Several commenters blamed Conservative austerity for the current crisis, while some warned Labour’s confrontational tone risks repeating past mistakes rather than resolving them.

A recent poll of readers reflected the divide in opinion: 47 per cent said doctors have no choice, 18 per cent supported strikes but said the timing was wrong, while 35 per cent opposed the action, saying it will harm patients.

Here’s what you had to say:

Whilst I believe the doctors are wrong to strike, it was a cast-iron certainty when Streeting caved in to their pay demands.

I’m afraid if Streeting did not see this then it exemplifies his naivety, and that of the government.

Their inexperience was obvious pre-election and we are paying for it now. We were warned by Rishi!

Imsethorus

If I were a Tory (unlikely) I would keep my mouth shut about anything to do with the NHS. When Gordon Brown left office, public satisfaction with the NHS was at a record high. The state it is in now is 100 per cent down to the Tories. The public knew that, but kept voting Tory anyway. Choices have consequences.

I can see why Wes Streeting is frustrated, and I don’t envy him having to sort out 14 years of Tory NHS-bashing. But he needs to moderate his tone. Shouting about the BMA and resident doctors being this, that and the other is straight out of the Tory playbook. It is not going to help him.

I have to say that in their shoes I would have left a strike until January. But I’m not a resident doctor, and a 5 to 1 majority for striking shows they feel that enough is enough, and the warning light has been on for a long time. Despite the frothings of the last five administrations, and (sadly) it seems this one too, doctors are generally not difficult, Communist, irresponsible, etc. They are talented people doing a difficult job and asking the government, and society, to recognise that.

Donc79

Medics normally have my full support but the resident doctors have this all wrong.

They have a right to strike, but they choose when and how, and there is no need to strike now. They could easily wait to strike until the flu season has peaked, and still have the impact of a strike but without putting the public in unnecessary danger. This is ill-timed and ill-judged, and they will lose the public’s support.

Plenty of other public sector workers can argue they’ve missed out on pay rises throughout austerity, but not all can strike. If they insist on being this irresponsible, perhaps it’s time for doctors’ right to strike to be reserved – like police and army…

Bobby

Doctors are hardly part of the revolutionary class, so when they vote in these numbers for strike action, something is seriously wrong. We are mostly all dependent on the NHS for our health and, for some, whether they live or die, so we should be doing something to make doctors’ jobs doable. This is not just wages and training, but also conditions of service, the support of allied professionals and an investment into new technologies. Let’s do something rather than just tinker around on the sidelines.

Ithinkweknowtheanswertothat

I do sympathise with the doctors, but those in urgent critical need of care do not have the luxury of sympathy for them. Laying on a trolley in a corridor or the back of an ambulance is the norm now. How much worse would it be if the doctors got exactly what they demand, when there is only one pot of gold? How will that improve the lot of their patients? Certainly not in a good way. Something has to give. Longer waiting lists and more cancellations.

Equally, the government needs to make a reasonable offer, payable over a period of two or three years. Not right now – that is extortion.

Chuckiethebrave

I’m a little tired of the emotional blackmail that successive governments and the press subject workers to if strike action is threatened. They are accused of being selfish and unreasonable. Let’s put this in context: 14 years of either no pay rise or a below-the-rate-of-inflation rise. Pay cuts. A lack of training places for doctors finishing their degrees. If you treat people badly enough for long enough, they will ultimately withdraw their goodwill. This isn’t this government’s fault but they have inherited the consequences of 14 years of taking advantage of the goodwill existing in the public sector. Those calling for privatisation might want to consider how much better doctors are paid in that sector.

Speculator

Poor Wes still doesn’t get it. The resident doctors are only doing what’s right by wishing to return their income level (depleted by the Tories) to current rates. What can be wrong with that? We need these dedicated people who’ve studied for years, seen their relative incomes eroded far more than other equivalent professions, and also find that their advancement prospects are severely limited by cheaper foreign competition. Of course, Conservative austerity is ultimately to blame for this current crisis, but is it any wonder that increasing numbers of these disillusioned folks are leaving the country to our national disadvantage?

hayneman

Self-indulgent? Streeting isn’t good at his choice of words, is he? The last thing doctors are is self-indulgent. It’s a job with an enormous amount of sacrifice.

I remember him saying the NHS had its ‘begging bowl’ out each winter to cope with flu season.

He and all health secretaries should be made to follow a junior doctor on a week’s work. They wouldn’t be able to cope after one shift.

Rowantree

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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