NHS doctors begin five-day strike amid staff cuts warning

Doctors have launched a five-day strike with NHS bosses warning there is a possibility of cutting frontline staff appointments and operations for patients.

As thousands of resident doctors go on strike across England from 7am on Friday in a dispute over pay, the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, which represent health trusts, said continued action was piling pressure on already-stretched budgets.

The strike action from Friday is the 13th walkout by doctors since March 2023, with the last strike in July estimated to have cost the health service £300m.

NHS Confederation and NHS Providers said that if the NHS continues to have to foot the bill from strikes, it could lead to staff being cut and fewer tests, appointments and operations being carried out.

The knock-on impact on patients is that they will be forced to wait longer for care, and many may no longer be able to work without the treatment they need, they said.

The groups also warned that strikes are hindering progress in bringing down NHS waiting lists. Figures on Thursday showed early signs that the waiting list is dropping, with September seeing a slight fall after three consecutive months of rises.

The strike comes as polling in The Times suggested 48 per cent of resident doctors wanted the action called off, and only 33 per cent thought it should go ahead.

The last time resident doctors went on strike, more than 54,000 procedures and appointments needed to be cancelled or rescheduled, despite the NHS maintaining 93 per cent of planned activity.

NHS Confederation chief executive, Matthew Taylor, said: “There is no doubt that patients will bear the brunt of this disruption, with tens of thousands of tests, appointments and operations likely to be delayed or cancelled.

“NHS leaders understand how frustrating this will be for them, being left waiting in pain or discomfort, not knowing when their treatment will be rescheduled.

“With flu already beginning to bite, there is a real risk that these strikes will leave the NHS limping into a very difficult winter at a time when it is trying to recover performance and implement vital long-term reforms.

“But industrial action is also having a major financial impact on the NHS, with the last five-day walkout estimated to have cost a staggering £300m.

“These costs are not included in the health service’s budget, which is already very tight given the strain on public sector finances.

“This means that more strikes will blow further holes in these constrained budgets and could result in leaders having to cut staff or reduce service levels in order to balance the books.”

Mr Taylor said the British Medical Association (BMA) “must recognise that these strikes are disproportionate, given the current financial environment and the fact resident doctors have already had one of the biggest pay rises in the public sector.”

He said: “We would urge them to call them off, moderate their demands to something achievable and re-enter negotiations.”

Health secretary Wes Streeting has refused to move on the issue of pay for resident doctors, saying they have received an almost 30 per cent increase in pay over three years.

But the BMA argues doctors need a 26 per cent pay uplift to restore their earnings, once inflation is taken into account.

On Thursday, the BMA said doctors must not be called off the picket lines to cover planned NHS work during the strike.

The union said it would not agree to “derogations” – where resident doctors are asked to leave the strike and work when patient safety is at risk – unless NHS trusts have already cancelled planned activity and “incentivised” other medics to provide cover.

Dr Tom Dolphin, BMA council chair, and Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair, told hospital leaders in a letter that derogations are “not in place to avoid disruption caused by industrial action but to ensure that in unexpected and extreme circumstances patients will continue to receive safe care”.

The letter said: “Derogations will not be granted if planning has not occurred to incentivise non-striking doctors to cover emergency work, or if non-emergency work is continuing.”

It comes after NHS England chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, told hospital bosses earlier this week to deliver at least 95 per cent of planned activity and “not to adopt” the BMA’s rate card to pay medics covering for striking doctors.

Sir Jim told hospital chief executives that rescheduling appointments and operations should “only happen in exceptional circumstances to safeguard patient safety”.

His letter also said that if non-striking doctors provide cover during the strike, trusts “should not adopt the BMA’s rate card”.

The BMA’s consultant rate card for working outside contracted hours sets a fee of £188 per hour for weekdays from 7am to 7pm, and £250 per hour for 7pm to 11pm.

Weekends are 7am to 11pm for £250 per hour, and overnight shifts of 11pm to 7am are £313 per hour.

Chief executive of NHS Providers, Daniel Elkeles, said patient safety was the number one priority.

“Trust leaders and their frontline teams are working flat out to manage the impact of industrial action, including asking other senior staff to step in and provide essential cover for their striking colleagues, while doing their own jobs,” he told the PA news agency.

“Derogation requests during strike action aren’t made lightly. These requests are initiated by trust-based medical directors, who are senior clinicians acting in good faith, to keep patients safe when unexpected and extreme circumstances arise during strikes.”

The BMA’s current mandate for strike action runs out in January, after which it would need to ballot members.

Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, accused NHS managers of “emotionally blackmailing frontline staff who are taking legitimate industrial action to defend their pay and conditions, and fight for employment”.

He said that strikes “have not come out of the blue”, adding: “What has been offered so far still leaves thousands of resident doctors without a role this year, and the government seems determined to cut pay even further next year.”

Dr Fletcher said “any resident doctor” would challenge the narrative that the NHS is “somehow turning a corner”.

“We have doctors sitting on bins because there aren’t enough chairs, patients routinely being seen in corridors, A&E waits through the roof and rota gaps are an accepted norm,” he said.

“We cannot let the government and managers gaslight the public into putting the blame for these system-wide failures at the doors of hardworking doctors who are standing up for their profession and the future of the health service.”

NHS England is urging patients to continue coming forward for care and attend any planned appointments unless they hear otherwise.

Patients who need emergency help should continue to use 999 or A&E as normal, while NHS 111 is also available alongside usual GP services.

Zelensky condemns ‘wicked attack’ on Kyiv as death toll rises to four

Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday condemned a “wicked” Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv that left four people dead in the Ukrainian capital.

At least 27 people were injured as Russia pelted Ukraine with at least 430 drones and 18 missiles overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian president said the attack was “deliberately calculated” to cause “maximum harm to people and civilian infrastructure”. Strikes also hit Kharkiv and Odesa regions, he said.

Among the injured were a pregnant woman and a 55-year-old man in Bila Tserkva, who suffered thermal burns and was hospitalised in critical condition, according to regional head Mykola Kalashnyk.

The attack on the capital was ongoing, officials said, urging residents to remain in shelter until an air raid alert could be lifted. City authorities also warned of power and water outages.

The attack came as European Union officials warned this week that Ukraine must continue to crack down on corruption following a major graft scandal that has put top nuclear energy officials under scrutiny.

The brutal truth about being in a mixed-class marriage

Only a foolhardy woman would organise a hen night that sweeps in her mum, sisters, and her mum’s best friend and assistant, but glaringly omit to ask her future mother-in-law. So, why did Holly Ramsay (daughter of chef Gordon) apparently open the door to a lifetime of conflict and pain by not asking her fiance Adam Peaty’s mum Caroline, who helped steer her son to Olympic gold? The answer, as so often in the UK, could well be class.

The Ramsays have shot up in the world and now belong to that weird upper echelon of society comprised of famous people, the seriously wealthy and the posh. Needless to say, Holly was privately educated from the word go, attending Montessori nursery school and hanging out with the Beckham kids.

Adam, by contrast, comes from a very modest background. Raised in Wattisham, Suffolk, his mother Caroline was a nursery manager, while his dad Mark worked as a bricklayer and then a supermarket caretaker. This meant they had to make sacrifices to fund their son’s sporting talent, including Caroline rising at 4am to take him to swimming practice.

Adam has often been photographed with his mum beaming and wearing his medals around her own neck, looking like the textbook example of a close-knit, proud, down-to-earth family. Reports suggest that some of Peaty’s working-class relatives feel alienated by the celebrity lifestyle he now leads and perceive that he has “forgotten where he came from”.

Never underestimate the emotional havoc that can be wreaked within families when someone “marries up” or “down”. Especially if one side proves snooty, another is chippy and other relatives start pitching into the dispute. Class warfare is Britain’s favourite leisure activity, with no sin greater than the family member who’s “changed”.

Peaty’s mum Caroline expressed her distress through social media posts featuring quotes about heartbreak. One recent post stated: “When you love someone, you protect them from the pain, you don’t become the cause of it,” which she captioned: “The ones I love are the people who hurt me the most.”

And then Aunt Lousie weighed in, writing in a now-private Instagram post: “@hollyramsayy I’m so glad that you had a great hen do. As a bride, you deserve that. However, as a person, you were divisive and hurtful towards a woman who I have loved and continue to love deeply.

“A woman who opened her home and heart to you. You decided, for whatever reason, not to invite her, your prospective mother-in-law, to your hen night, yet Adam invited his father-in-law, your dad, to his stag night,” the message continued.

The slighted family is where I place my natural allegiance, as a publican’s daughter who was looked down on by my own father-in-law, although his disdain took a while to emerge. I knew I was marrying into what you could call the Scottish Borders’ squirearchy, but I hoped I could charm them around. My in-laws spent most of their spare time hunting, shooting and fishing, and their circle encompassed local landowners, including a couple of dukes. My husband went to a leading public school and used to joke that his father had intended him for the daughter of a laird, preferably someone who owned a distillery.

Staying at my in-laws’ freezing manse, with its stable yard and small ruin in the grounds, involved dinner parties with decanters and my husband acting as unofficial butler. It was a million miles away from the tiny cottage adjacent to the pub where I grew up, where my four siblings and I shared bedrooms and crammed rowdily around a small wooden table for meals, licking plates to annoy my mum and swapping unflattering stories.

Not that any of this mattered, or so I thought. My future father-in-law made it clear I was preferable to the “dreadful socialist” girlfriend he’d once dated and the “very common” one, who didn’t know how to use a soup spoon. He was reassured by my RP voice and treated me rather like an amusing showgirl – until, that is, I became editor of The Erotic Review and he decided “your sort of people and our sort of people are very different”.

It didn’t end there. There was an unkind letter in spidery writing informing me I was vulgar, my husband was told I didn’t know how to behave, and it was an indictment of my character that I hadn’t joined the WI and didn’t arrange flowers or play golf.

Increasingly, my family got sucked in. He hadn’t approved of our wedding party, which was an uproarious celebration at my family’s pub, or even the lovely suite of rooms my aunt had generously provided for them as accommodation. I tried for years to heal the rupture, writing emollient letters and sending presents which he never acknowledged. He carried his feud to the grave, and, for my part, I hugely resented his efforts to put a wedge between me and my spouse.

We have also seen this kind of family infighting before over mixed-class weddings in the royal family. The media circus involving Prince Harry, the then Meghan Markle, and her estranged father Thomas and tell-all sister Samantha, was the epitome of “she thinks she’s too good for us”. Although Thomas Markle went full declassé by staging a paid photoshoot for a tabloid pre-wedding, resulting in him being “banned” from his own daughter’s nuptials.

Far more painful (to this viewer at least) was the intense snobbery faced by the Princess of Wales’s family before her marriage to Prince William. It was leaked that Kate and Pippa Middleton were called the “Wisteria sisters” for being social climbers and Carole Middleton was criticised for chewing gum in public (apparently it was a Nicorette as she’d given up smoking).

Cruel people muttered “doors to manual” behind Kate’s back on the grounds that Carol had once been an air stewardess. Within the royal family, it was rumoured that several of the most self-aggrandising members of the family looked down their noses at the upstart commoner. Even now, 14 years after the wedding, it’s clear that while there’s mutual respect between King Charles, Queen Camilla, and Michael and Carole Middleton, they aren’t what you’d call natural chums.

My own gentle, kind mother’s mantra, that you should treat everyone exactly the same way, no matter their background, struck me as being far more classy than the behaviour of my own father-in-law. I got a lot of consolation from friends with similar stories. One friend from a working-class background had been drunkenly insulted by her upper-middle-class mother-in-law at her wedding and had promptly slapped her (I actually witnessed this moment). Another pal from a small Northern semi said she was only really accepted into her aristocratic husband’s family after 20 years of wedded bliss and three children.

Mind you, it’s not always the posher or more successful family’s fault, by any means. Some possessive, boundary-enforcing clans want to keep their kids away from interfering, upwardly mobile types. I once attended a wedding where the night before the nuptials, the proudly working-class mother-of-the-bride phoned the groom’s well-heeled parents to say the bride was sleeping with another man – a lie designed to derail the ceremony. But it gave everyone collywobbles when the vicar reached the line, “if anyone knows just cause or impediment why these two persons should not be joined together in marriage…”

But what makes the Holly Ramsay and Adam Peaty debacle truly astonishing is the fact that they must have observed the implosion of the Beckham family following Brooklyn’s marriage to billionaire’s daughter Nicola Peltz, since the two families are thick as thieves. Having seen the carnage of that rupture, you’d think the Ramsays would bend over backwards to not upset Caroline Peaty, whatever the underlying reasons for the rift. Let’s just hope good sense is restored, olive branches are extended, and that Holly and Adam realise no marriage is entirely about the happy duo. It takes two tribes and a peace pipe to make a wedding.

Epstein ‘kept close eye on Trump’ even after fallout

The Trump administration again finds itself caught up in the Jeffrey Epstein saga after the House Oversight Committee released emails from the late convicted sex offender’s estate that mentioned President Donald Trump.

In one of the messages, the disgraced financier tells longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump spent “hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims and in another states that he “knew about the girls.”

The latest tranche of private emails and messages reveal that the commander-in-chief was a regular topic of discussion as Epstein frequently turned to close Trump ally Steve Bannon, journalist Michael Wolff and others for counsel as the net closed around him. He died in a New York jail cell in August 2019.

Several messages include disparaging remarks about Trump while others find Epstein keeping close tabs on his movements long after their friendship ended, which, according to the president, happened around 2004 when he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for poaching staff.

Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s sex crimes.

The House of Representatives will vote next week on whether to compel the Justice Department to publish all of its unclassified files on Epstein.

Dare we go the full Danish and make Britain a ‘zero refugee’ zone?

In many international arenas, the UK likes to present itself as a model with something akin to a divine right to “lead”. So it is refreshing to find at least one member of the current government looking to see what international examples the UK might usefully follow. Step forward, home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who is about to announce changes in the immigration and asylum system that are borrowed, to some degree at least, from Denmark.

Why Denmark? In the simplest of terms, because Denmark, under left-of-centre PM Mette Frederiksen since 2019, offers a unique combination of a European country with a social democratic government that has managed to reduce the number of migrants and asylum seekers to a 40-year low by dint of rigorous legislation and enforcement, while mostly staying on the right side of the Geneva Conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The left-of-centre government element is crucial, because it stands to give the UK’s Labour government cover for measures that would otherwise be condemned as exclusive to the far right. Danish ministers do not entirely reject this argument, but they have a reply: by addressing public concerns about levels of legal and illegal migration, their government has effectively bought the freedom to implement its socialist agenda elsewhere. So this is a way for the left not only to keep the far right out of power – unlike what has happened in other countries – but to remain true to its liberal left agenda.

For a Labour government under pressure from Reform UK, specifically on the subject of migration and asylum, the attractions of a Danish solution are clear. The question might be: why did the last Conservative governments, or indeed the last Labour home secretary, Yvette Cooper, not look towards Denmark?

Another question might go further back: why did David Cameron, when trying to negotiate concessions that could keep the UK in the EU, not seek a similarly wide opt-out on justice and home affairs, including migration, to the one secured by Denmark when it joined the Maastricht Treaty in 1992?

In fact, the UK benefited from its own opt-outs and, unlike Denmark, remained outside the Schengen agreement. Where it mainly appears to have differed from Denmark, however, is in the use it made, or did not make, of its EU opt-outs, which anyway no longer apply, given Brexit. Something similar, however, could apply to the migration and asylum measures now enforced by Denmark that the UK is eyeing.

They include offering only temporary refuge for those fleeing war, rather than indefinite leave to remain – with some Somalis, Sudanese and Syrians now being required to return home. It is not enough to claim membership of a persecuted minority to qualify for asylum, which is increasingly restricted to those personally targeted by a given regime. Conditions for family reunion – currently being reviewed for refugees in the UK – are stricter in Denmark, in terms of income, work and language requirements, with the minimum age for spouses being 24, a measure designed to reduce the incidence of enforced marriages. Permanent settlement is open only to those who have been resident for eight years and who are in work.

Such measures are within the jurisdiction of Denmark, just as they could be within the jurisdiction of the UK if the government and, where necessary, parliament so chose. Nor do they necessarily conflict with the Geneva Conventions, at least as they were interpreted during the Cold War, when political asylum was granted to a relatively small number of persecuted individuals.

Today’s greater freedom to travel means that many more people arrive at a foreign border with the right, both under the Geneva Conventions and under the European Convention on Human Rights, to claim asylum. But the right to claim is one thing, and the right for that claim to be granted is another, with Denmark interpreting the provisions far more strictly than the UK – and without, for the most part, drawing the ire of the ECHR. That would suggest that at least part of the greater generosity shown by the UK rests on interpretation, rather than the actual letter of the law – something that Cooper, and now Mahmood, set out to address.

Being more Danish in the granting of asylum, residence and family reunion could perhaps reduce the desirability of the UK, and so the number of legal and illegal arrivals – even without resort to two of the Danish measures that would probably fall foul of MPs and, to a lesser extent, the public in the UK. One is requiring asylum seekers to contribute to their keep with any valuables they may have brought with them. Another is trying to foster integration by refusing to house new migrants in areas populated predominantly by non-Danes. It is hard to see any local authority willing or able to push through such a policy in the UK.

Whether Danish-style measures would discourage new arrivals to the extent they appear to have in Denmark, however, is another matter. Enforcement in a country that has a tenth of the UK’s population, and is less ethnically diverse, is a very different prospect from enforcement in the UK, which also applies to the number of those refused asylum seekers and those convicted of a criminal offence who should be deported. Scale matters – as does the lax border regime of the UK, which still will not reintroduce border controls on departures.

The draw of the English language, the continuing ease of finding work (ie, the UK’s non-enforcement of its labour laws), and the lack of a consensus among Labour MPs about even the desirability of stricter migration controls all militate against the Danish model being more than part of a solution, even at a time when Labour is looking at sweeping losses to Reform in the spring local elections, and perhaps a landslide defeat at the next general election, probably in 2029.

With all the recognition of difference, however, ministers should be encouraged to look outside these islands for solutions that could work. And Denmark, commonly found to be one of the happiest countries in the world, could reward closer scrutiny.

It also offers a template for digital ID, beyond the limited right-to-work ID currently being proposed in the UK; it is pioneering statutory age restrictions on social media, and it has a universal health service with generally better outcomes than the NHS, and an enviable sense of national cohesion. It also has higher taxes, which might carry its own message: if the chancellor raises income tax this month, UK taxpayers should demand the incorporation of a bit more Denmark in return.

Food photography tips: how to make food look as good as it tastes

Ever since the rise of social media, sharing food online has become a global obsession. From Instagram reels to TikTok trends, food content dominates our feeds and for good reason. Food is a universal love language. There’s something irresistible about the smell of freshly baked bread or the comfort of a steaming bowl of delicious pasta.

But as any food lover knows, capturing a photo that truly does your meal justice is easier said than done. Yet, it’s a powerful skill to have, as the perfect food shot can turn a humble dinner into viral content and, in some cases, transform small cafés, bartenders, and home bakers into internet stars.

At the heart of this movement sits the smartphone camera. And as someone who’s been immersed in food photography for over a decade and adores a smartphone for its ease of use and authentic way of capturing food moments, I was eager to see what Samsung’s new lightweight Galaxy S25 FE device could bring to the dinner table as it were.

When it comes to shooting food, I look for four essential things in a phone camera:

The Galaxy S25 FE ticks all four boxes and then some, and truly feels as though it was designed with the modern day foodie/food creator in mind. It even introduces ground-breaking AI features that promise to make editing and shooting more intuitive than ever, for a true end-to-end all encompassing device that elevates your food images effortlessly.

When it comes to food photography, the right lens can transform an ordinary plate into a visual feast – and the Galaxy S25 FE delivers a versatile mix that makes shooting creative, effortless, and fun.

The phone features four lenses in total, each one offering something unique for the way you tell your food story. Up front is a 12 MP selfie lens – solid, though not one you’ll often reach for when photographing your meals (unless you’re keen to share a reaction pic after). The real excitement is at the back, where three impressive lenses open up endless visual possibilities.

The 12 MP ultra-wide lens truly shines in tight spaces – whether you’re in a bustling café or a cosy, low-lit bar – capturing the full atmosphere with ease. It’s also perfect for those beautiful ‘table spread’ shots that continue to be popular on social media: think a tapas feast, a Christmas dinner, or a brunch spread where you want every dish in frame, without needing to balance on a chair!

For most food photography though, the star of the show is the 50 MP wide lens. It’s the one that produces those crisp, vibrant images with lifelike colours that leap off the screen. I always suggest shooting dishes that are abundant in natural hues such as bright salads, deeply coloured curries, or gorgeous fruit platters – and wherever possible, using natural light – because on social media colourful food always wins! I’ll often book a restaurant table near a window or shoot at my home studio beside one: it’s the easiest way to make textures sing and let the Galaxy S25 FE’s sensor show what it can really do.

Then there’s the 8 MP telephoto zoom lens, your best friend for capturing all the delicious food trends making the rounds right now such as the creamy frosting on a cinnamon roll or the sparkle of sea salt on a perfectly fried egg with feta and chilli sauce. It’s also great for those close-up shots that add a touch of drama and intimacy to your food feed – the ones that make people stop scrolling and think, ‘Dang, I need that right now.’

Together, these lenses help you capture not just what your food looks like, but how it feels to eat it.

As mentioned above, natural light is always a food photographer’s best friend, but when you’re enjoying a cosy evening meal, it’s not always an option. Most phone cameras struggle in those dimly lit restaurants or candlelit bars, often leaving food looking flat and colours washed out. That’s why I was especially curious to see how the Galaxy S25 FE would perform once the sun went down considering it has Enhanced Nightography and an AI-powered ProVisual Engine – an image processing engine that analyses each shot to automatically improve its visual. So, I put it to the test and am pleased to report, it delivered.

Even under low, warm lighting, the Galaxy S25 FE captures crisp textures and allows your food to look as good as it tastes, whilst infusing it with that evening ambience. For best results, I would recommend using the ultra wide lens in evening settings to capture the restaurant’s atmosphere and the wide lens for your food shots as it will result in the sharpest low light shots.

The Galaxy S25 FE also introduces some clever AI-powered tools that make creating food content even easier. One standout is Audio Eraser*, perfect for those who prefer filming in lively, bustling restaurants. It intelligently removes unwanted background noise, allowing the subtle sounds of your dish like the gentle bubble of hot soup or the satisfying crunch of a bite to take centre stage instead.

There’s also Photo Assist**, which includes Generative Edit and Sketch to Image***. The former lets you effortlessly move or remove distractions from your frame, while the latter allows you to write or draw directly onto your image – not something I’d necessarily do because food is just so naturally beautiful in its own right, but which could be ideal if you’re keen to add a more personal or artistic touch to your social media food posts to ensure you stand out from the crowd.

The Galaxy SE25 FE isn’t just another smartphone, instead it’s a powerful tool for food lovers and food content creators alike. Whether you’re an aspiring influencer keen to share your latest cookie haul, a café owner hoping to make your matcha lattes go viral or simply a home cook who loves sharing their latest creations, this phone can absolutely help you along your delicious journey. Cheers to that!

Kimberly Espinel is an award-winning food photographer, blogger, stylist, podcaster, teacher and author – find out more at her website or on Instagram.

To find out more about the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE visit Samsung

*Samsung account login required. Six types of sound can be detected; voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise. Results may vary depending on audio source & condition of the video.

**Samsung account login is required. Requires network connection.

***Samsung account login and network connection may be required for certain AI features.

Storm Claudia: Where 150mm of rain could fall today as Met Office weather warnings issued across UK

Storm Claudia is set to hit the UK today as the Met Office issued amber weather warnings, forecasting heavy rain will lead to flooding and disruption across the country.

The amber warnings are in place from midday to midnight on Friday, with 50 to 75mm of rain forecasted for Wales with with some higher ground likely seeing 100-150 mm and 40 to 80mm expected in the East Midlands, the east of England, London and southeast England, northwest England, southwest England, Wales, and the West Midlands.

Some 20 flood warnings and 33 flood alerts have also been flagged as Storm Claudia, named by the Spanish Meteorological Service, makes its way towards the UK.

A 24-hour yellow weather warning for rain has also been issued from 6am on Friday in the southern part of the country.

A yellow rain warning is currently in place in central, Tayside and Fife, northeast England, northwest England, southwest Scotland, and Strathclyde until 7pm on Thursday. A total of 15 to 25mm of rain is expected, with some areas in southern Scotland potentially seeing around 40 to 60mm.

Met Office chief meteorologist Matthew Lehnert said: “Storm Claudia will bring very heavy rainfall to a large swathe of central and southern England and Wales on Friday into Saturday. This rain will become slow-moving, and some areas could see up to a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours.

“Much of this will fall on saturated ground, increasing the chances of flooding and contributing to the amber warnings we have issued.

“Within the Amber warning areas, some could see in excess of 150mm accumulate during the event, with 60-80mm fairly widely. Gusty winds in the northwest of England and northwest Wales is an additional hazard, with 60-70mph gusts possible in exposed places within the warning area.”

In areas under an amber warning, the Met Office is cautioning that fast-flowing or deep floodwater is likely and could cause danger to life.

Homes and businesses are expected to be flooded and the weather agency has also warned of travel disruption and power cuts in affected areas.

The impacts may be exacerbated by strong easterly winds, as well as thunderstorms arriving on Friday afternoon, it said.

Alun Attwood from Natural Resources Wales said: “We’re urging people to be vigilant and to make preparations for potential flooding now. You can check if you live in an area at risk of flooding on our website and sign up for our free flood warning service.

“We do not provide flood warnings for flooding from surface water, so it’s important for everyone to know their flood risk.”

Here is the weather forecast for the UK for the coming week, according to the Met Office:

A very wet day across parts of England and Wales with a strong easterly wind developing. A colder day for Scotland and Northern Ireland with sunny spells and isolated showers.

Rather cloudy and damp on Saturday across southern and central areas, but colder and clearer conditions further north will spread southwards during Sunday. Cold and bright for many on Monday.

‘Do not travel’ warning for rail passengers as Storm Claudia sweeps in

Storm Claudia is causing hundreds of train cancellations across the UK. The Met Office has issued amber warnings for rain across a swathe of England and Wales, north of a line between Cambridge and Cardiff as far as Lincolnshire, the Midlands and mid-Wales.

In addition, yellow warnings for wind and rain cover much of Britain south of Lancashire and the Humber.

Most Northern services are likely to be “severely disrupted” with no rail replacement buses. The rail firm says “avoid travelling if you can”.

Rail passengers face widespread delays and cancellations across the network on Friday, possibly extending into the weekend, due to a combination of speed restrictions and flooding.

Avanti West Coast is telling passengers: “We’re running a reduced timetable further to speed restrictions applied by Network Rail. Fewer trains will run and journeys will take longer.”

The train operator, which connects London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and southern Scotland, has cancelled dozens of trains – mostly linking London with Birmingham and Manchester.

Avanti is warning passengers of “a risk of further disruption on the rail network due to this extreme weather, especially in the North West.”

TransPennine Express warns passengers that many trains may not run after 1pm today. Tickets for this afternoon and evening can be used on any of the rail firm’s trains this morning, or at any time over the weekend.

East Midlands Railway has cancelled all westbound trains running across the Pennines from Sheffield to Liverpool Lime Street due to depart after 10.45am. Eastbound trains from Liverpool Lime Street to Sheffield will be axed from 1pm onwards.

CrossCountry and Chiltern Railways are both halving frequencies on key routes: CrossCountry between Birmingham and Manchester after 1pm, and Chiltern to and from London Marylebone.

In Devon, the Great Western line from Exeter to Barnstaple is closed due to flooding “until Sunday at least”. Replacement taxis and coaches are being provided.

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