Treasury to insure Bayeux Tapestry for £800m ahead of UK loan

The Treasury is set to insure the historic Bayeux Tapestry for an estimated £800m when it arrives on loan at the British Museum next year.

The government-backed cover will protect the 70-metre artefact, which depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and the Battle of Hastings, against damage or loss during its transfer from France and throughout its exhibition in the UK.

The insurance will operate under the Government Indemnity Scheme, a vital alternative to commercial insurance that allows major art and cultural objects to be displayed across the UK.

The Financial Times reported that the Treasury had provisionally approved the estimated valuation for the more than 900-year-old tapestry, with the final figure expected to be around £800m.

“The Government Indemnity Scheme is a long-standing scheme that allows museums and galleries to borrow high-value works for major exhibitions, increasing visitor numbers and providing public benefits,” An HM Treasury spokesperson said.

“Without this cover, public museums and galleries would face a substantial commercial insurance premium, which would be significantly less cost-effective.”

The scheme is estimated to have saved UK museums and galleries £81m compared to commercial insurance.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the 1066 battle that saw William the Conqueror take the English throne from Harold Godwinson and become the first Norman king of England.

It will be on loan while the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy closes for renovation, with its reopening scheduled for October 2027.

It is part of a cultural exchange that will see the British Museum loan the Sutton Hoo collection, the Lewis Chessmen and other items to France in return for the tapestry.

In France, voices from the art and conservation fields have called on president Emmanuel Macron to abandon the project over concerns that transportation would cause irreparable damage to the tapestry.

Holly Ramsay and Adam Peaty tie the knot at star-studded wedding

Star-studded guests gathered in Bath on Saturday as Gordon Ramsay walked his daughter Holly down the aisle to marry Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty.

The celebrity TV-chef said he “couldn’t be a prouder dad” as guests including Sir David Beckham and Lady Victoria Beckham arrived at the ceremony held at Bath Abbey.

However, Mr Peaty’s parents, mother Caroline and father Mark were notably absent from the couple’s nuptials, amid a family fall-out.

A row exploded when Caroline publicly said she was not invited to Holly’s hen do, and told the Daily Mail about the fall out ahead of the wedding.

She told the paper that despite not being invited to the wedding, she had planned to go along anyway to watch but ultimately decided against it.

Mr Peaty’s sister, Bethany, was in attendance at the wedding, serving alongside Holly’s two sisters as her bridesmaids.

Sir David and Lady Victoria Beckham’s three youngest children Romeo, Cruz and Harper were also pictured at the Abbey, though their eldest son, Brooklyn, was also absent amid their own family feud.

MasterChef: The Professionals presenter Marcus Wareing, who has worked with Ramsay, and Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies were among the celebrities seen making their way into the church.

Ahead of Holly’s arrival, Peaty, who turns 31 on Sunday, was seen wearing a tuxedo as he arrived at the abbey alongside his groomsmen.

On Saturday morning, Peaty posted a photo to his Instagram story that showed the sun rising and wrote: “Morning of our wedding.”

The swimmer, from Staffordshire, who has won six Olympics medals, was previously in a relationship with artist Eirianedd Munro and the pair have a five-year-old.

Holly, 25, kept the finer details of her dress under wraps as she arrived at the abbey shrouded in a white cloak, hand-in-hand with her father. The bride, who opted for a dewy make-up look, styled her hair in an up-do and was wearing a veil.

Gathered well-wishers could only catch a glimpse of some lacy detail, with a hint of a scalloped skirt and long train.

Before the wedding celebrity chef Ramsay, 59, said in a post on Instagram: “I’m truly so lucky being able to walk this beautiful bride down the aisle and gaining an incredible son in law @adam_peaty!

“I love you so much @hollyramsayy and couldn’t be a prouder Dad xxx.”

Her bridesmaids, who each held a bouquet of what looked to be calla lilies, wore floor-length, satin-look red gowns while her mother Tana was in a bottle green dress.

Lady Beckham, 51, wore a cut-own dark teal gown from her Victoria Beckham Pre Spring/Summer 2026 collection that is worth £1,290.00.

Earlier on Saturday, foliage was placed around the abbey’s historic West Front door in preparation for the celebration.

Ramsay has six children, including Holly’s sisters Tilly, 24, and Megan, 27, who were bridesmaids at the wedding, and sons, Jack, 25, Oscar, six, and two-year-old Jesse.

Peaty reportedly met his new wife through her sister Tilly while the pair both took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2021.

Holly announced their engagement on September 12 2024 in an Instagram post that said: “I am marrying my best friend. I truly cannot put into words how I am feeling right now.”

In a separate post, Peaty said: “I can’t believe you’re going to be my wife. I’m truly the luckiest man on earth to have such a gentle, caring and beautiful woman by my side.”

Russian submarine followed spy ship into British waters

A Russian submarine was deployed alongside a spy ship to map critical undersea infrastructure around Britain, it has emerged.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has declassified a photo of the incident, which saw a submarine shadowing the Yantar, officially described as a Russian research ship, as it reportedly surveyed the gas pipeline linking Britain and Ireland. It was not clear whether the escort was one of Russia’s own purpose-built sabotage submarines.

An anti-submarine Merlin Mk2 helicopter could be seen from the photo tracking the Yantar in the Irish Sea from November last year; a British submarine also emerged from the surface nearby.

It is believed to be one of several operations where Russian submarines have accompanied the Yantar into waters close to the British Isles, according to The Sunday Times.

First sea lord general Sir Gwyn Jenkins said earlier this month that there had been a “30 per cent increase in Russian incursion in our waters” just over the last two years.

The activity is most visibly seen in the presence of spy ships like the Yantar operating near UK waters, he said, but warned: “It’s what’s going on under the waves that most concerns me.”

Just last week, Sir Gwyn warned that Russia was renewing its investment in its elite deep-sea submarine division, known as Gugi. The UK sanctioned the Russian military agency, which is leading the development of Russia’s underwater intelligence gathering operations, in June this year.

An MoD spokesperson said: “As the defence secretary has said, our message to President Putin is clear: we see you, we know what you are doing, and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.

“We are acutely aware of the threat posed by Russia, which includes attempts to map undersea cables, networks, and pipelines belonging to both the UK and our allies, and we are tackling these threats head on.

“That is why the prime minister set out the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, including a commitment to increase spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP from April 2027, and an ambition to spend 3 per cent of GDP in the next parliament, as economic and fiscal conditions allow.

“In addition, we have introduced 900 new sanctions against individuals, entities and ships under the Russian regime, and accelerated the development and deployment of advanced anti-submarine technology.”

The government believes its Atlantic Bastion programme, which is integrating autonomous vessels, AI-enabled sensors, warships, and aircraft to safeguard critical undersea infrastructure against evolving challenges, will help to secure the North Atlantic for the UK and Nato to counter the threat of Russia’s evolving submarine force.

Babylon’s Diego Calva on playing a villain in The Night Manager

It’s a crisp December afternoon in north London, and Diego Calva is thinking back to the night his mum threw shapes with Leonardo DiCaprio at the 2023 Golden Globes. The 33-year-old Mexican actor – wearing a white T-shirt, silver chain, hooped earrings – was up for Best Actor (Musical/Comedy) for Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s sprawling epic about Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talkies. He was the sole newcomer in the category, alongside Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. What stuck with him, though, was how surreal it was to see his mother not only “dancing with Leonardo” but also “sharing a conversation with Quentin Tarantino”.

He pauses. “She’s been having a great time, and I hope she feels the same way that I do – like I want to be awake more than sleep, you know?” That last bit isn’t a throwaway. It’s a callback to something he said upon Babylon’s release: that for the first time in his life, he preferred his waking life to the blank expanse of night. Before Hollywood, there had been darker days. Depression lingered. Now, sitting in a film studio promoting The Night Manager, he fizzes with enthusiasm, his hazel eyes gleaming. When he speaks, his accent is lilting and mellifluous, each word given its own rhythm and weight.

The BBC series returns nearly a decade after it first appeared, all sun-soaked Mediterranean villas and serpentine plotting. Tom Hiddleston was Jonathan Pine, the former soldier turned luxury hotel night manager turned reluctant spy navigating a world of oligarchs and arms dealers – a performance so debonair that it had everyone convinced he’d be the next James Bond. Adapted by David Farr from a John le Carré novel, it was sleek and sexy: event TV of the highest calibre. It won Baftas, Golden Globes, Emmys. In the new series, Farr expands the story beyond the original book into a plot that takes in betrayals, conspiracy theories, and guerrilla warfare in Colombia. Starring opposite the returning Hiddleston and Olivia Colman, Calva is Teddy Dos Santos, the enigmatic heir apparent to Hugh Laurie’s arms dealer Richard Roper.

Calva locked himself in his house in Mexico for two days to nail down the audition, working through scenes with an actress friend. One exchange had to plumb emotion. “And the other one I had to look dangerous and mysterious,” he says. They recorded 30 or 40 tapes. His performance is exceptional: an impeccably tailored study in stillness and sleepy-eyed sophistication, with menace pooling just beneath the surface. “Sometimes that kind of silence is way more threatening,” says Calva.

His assurance in the role sometimes deserts him in real life. “I’m afraid in a lot of situations – press, doing this interview, a dinner later – but when I’m shooting, when I’m acting, I’m free.” That freedom, he says, depends entirely on the right conditions being cultivated on set. His collaboration with I Hate Suzie director Georgi Banks-Davies, who took over from Susanne Bier for the sequel, was key. “As an actor, it’s really important to feel safe… to play, to explore, to be curious,” Calva says. “Teddy is Georgi’s and Diego’s creation. We created all the layers on the character, but that only came from trust. I will work with her every single day of my life with no problem. This doesn’t happen with every director.”

The same trust developed with Hiddleston. “I’m the rookie,” he says. “Tom’s career is amazing. He’s been doing this for a long time.” Calva describes himself as “a thief” – picking up techniques by watching how others work. But Hiddleston didn’t just let the younger actor observe from the sidelines. They went to dinners, hung out between takes, built genuine rapport. “There’s a captain in every team,” Calva explains, using a football metaphor. “The technical director was Georgi, but on the field, the captain was Tom. If you’re selfish, the team is not going to win.”

In Mexico, as a teenager, Calva was first exposed to the BBC not through television, but through Radio 1’s Essential Mix. A big fan of electronic music, he namechecks the programme’s host, the veteran superstar DJ Pete Tong – not exactly the most obvious introduction to the broadcaster whose flagship New Year’s Day drama he’s leading.

The Night Manager continues a pattern in Calva’s career: morally complex characters operating in shadowy worlds. He was a drug lord in the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico; now he’s an arms dealer. Is he concerned about being typecast? “No,” he says, “because when people see this show, they’ll see the writing is so layered. We always focus on the human side of the story. It’s a spy story. Everybody’s lying. You don’t know what’s going to happen. So the only way you can believe a lie is if it’s actually kind of true. We tried to find that human side of every character.”

The industry is changing, he adds, pointing to his breakthrough role. “I don’t think that 25 years ago you could name a movie the size of Babylon, that kind of scale, with a Latino actor being the lead.”

Babylon was Chazelle’s three-hour paean to Golden Age Hollywood. Sucked into a gilded bacchanal of sex, drugs and duplicity is Calva’s Manny Torres, the wide-eyed Mexican immigrant clawing his way from elephant-wrangling dogsbody to studio executive. It’s a wonderful performance. Finding genuine pathos beneath the glamorous excess, he’s the film’s warm, watchful centre, his eyes registering every triumph and indignity in turn.

The role changed everything. Chazelle had spotted Calva’s headshot when searching for an unknown to anchor the film. The audition process stretched across 2019 and into the pandemic. Chazelle asked for more tapes and told him to work on his English. “My English was really bad, but like, really, really, really bad,” he tells me. “Past tense? It was just impossible, like the word ‘went’. I just used to say, ‘I go yesterday to the restaurant.’”

When he arrived on set, the education began. Like Manny, he suddenly found himself in the orbit of some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, in this case Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. It was hard to not feel intimidated. “You’re thinking that you’re dealing with Pokémon, you know, with gods,” says Calva. “But when you realise you’re dealing with people, right? And they share their stories with you, and you realise that they, at some moment, were in a very similar spot…” The stories helped: “Brad Pitt was working dressed as a chicken for a restaurant,” he notes.

Robbie and her husband Tom Ackerley noticed Calva heading back to his hotel alone, and invited him to move in. They spent evenings cooking, playing cards, going to the beach; Pitt, meanwhile, quietly helped refine Calva’s pronunciation.

Before landing Babylon, Calva had worked across every department on Mexican film sets – sound, editing, production assistance, whatever would get him close to the craft. “Between Manny and me, we kind of share the same path, working as a copy guy, trying so many different jobs, so many different disciplines in movie-making, and then – boom, we made it, right?”

When Babylon opened, it divided critics and died at the box office. The response to it doesn’t faze him. “In my opinion, I won,” he says. “Apocalypse Now, Fight Club, just to name two… even Goodfellas… they were flops. I hope, right, there’s this dream, of course, that in 20 years there’s a change of view about Babylon.”

If Babylon didn’t exactly conquer the box office, it did turbo-boost Calva’s self-belief. “With time,” he says, “I realised that there’s no imposter syndrome any more.” His most prominent role since came in the unabashed queer romance On Swift Horses, where he played a Las Vegas hustler who becomes the secret lover of Jacob Elordi’s drifter. Calva is no minnow at a smidge over 6ft, but kissing the 6ft 5in Elordi in matching tighty whities gave him neck pain.

There’s one aspect of Manny’s journey in Babylon that he’s determined not to repeat: the way he lies about his Mexican identity. Calva has been careful to maintain his roots. He came from the independent film scene in Mexico, and has made a point of returning. “I’ve been able to work on Mexican productions,” he says. “And now there’s a new value on my name, and I love to use it – for example, when a new filmmaker is going to do their first movie, and to finance the movie, it helps to have a Diego Calva. I’ll sign it. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to make it, because of scheduling or whatever, but I think it’s really important to go back to your country, in my opinion, to act there. If I direct someday, I will definitely pursue going back and doing it in Mexico, with a Mexican production, with Mexican money, with Mexican actors, and a Mexican movie.”

Directing was the original goal. As far back as he can remember, Calva always wanted to be a filmmaker – at least since watching Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. “That was just like, ‘OK, I want to change my life,’” he recalls.

Calva was born in Mexico City and raised as an only child by his mother, who worked in publishing, in their book-filled apartment. For much of his childhood it was just the two of them; the man he considers his father – whose profession he describes as “a thinker… it’s hard to describe” – is not his biological parent. They were a very cultured family, he says. “So maybe if I was a lawyer, that would be weird, but I’m the obvious consequence of my parents.” As well as writing poetry, the young Diego Calva developed an obsession with movies – first Disney, then, after his first girlfriend broke up with him, Pedro Almodóvar’s entire filmography. But it was Goodfellas that proved revelatory.

Calva has just finished working on Her Private Hell from Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish director behind the neon-drenched thriller Drive. The work keeps coming. As our conversation winds down, Calva still can’t believe his luck. “Since Babylon, I want every day to be 48 hours long because I’m enjoying it so much.” He breaks into a wide smile. “Life is beautiful, man.”

‘The Night Manager’ airs on BBC One on New Year’s Day

It’s about experience: Further Education teachers share what it takes

In the modern world, many of us are working longer than ever. Research based on ONS Labour Market data found that there are almost one million more workers aged 65 and above since the millennium and the state pension is set to rise to 67 by 2028 and 68 by the late 2030s. Subsequently, having multiple careers is becoming increasingly popular. And after decades working in a specific industry, sharing the work-based knowledge you have gained via teaching in further education is one of the most rewarding career shifts you can make.

Further Education teaching (defined as any education for people aged 16 and over who aren’t studying for a degree) allows you to switch up your working days and harness the skills and experience you have developed, all while helping shape the next generation of workers in your field.

To find out more about the role, from what it takes to the best parts of the job, we spoke to Further Education teachers who have switched from doing their day job to teaching it…

John Ryan, 51, from Weston Super Mare, worked for more than a decade on site in the construction industry, mainly in bricklaying and supervising roles, before an opportunity to become a Further Education assessor changed his path in his thirties. Travelling nationally to assess the work of new bricklayers in order to sign off their NVQs (National Vocational Qualification), the college John was associated with then started offering him some teaching work.

With no prior teaching qualifications, John completed these alongside his assessing and teaching roles with the fees picked up by the teaching college. “I liked the idea of passing on my knowledge and giving young people the skills and confidence to progress in a trade,” he says. “Teaching in Further Education felt like a natural next step because it would allow me to combine my practical background with coaching and mentoring.” There were practical draws too. “On site in the construction industry you are self-employed so you do not get holidays or sick pay. The stability of income and regular paid holidays was a big draw of Further Education teaching,” he adds.

Since his first assessing role 18 years ago, John has worked between assessing, teaching and jobs back on the construction site and now, he currently teaches bricklaying and groundwork full-time at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.

John’s extensive site and supervisory experience has proved to be hugely valuable when it comes to teaching his students there. “I can explain not just the ‘how’ but also the ‘why’ behind industry standards,” he explains. “Learners often respond well to hearing about real jobs, site challenges, and the professional behaviours that employers expect. It makes the lessons more relatable and credible,” he shares.

“For example, I can share stories of accidents when teaching site safety, or explain how a mistake of a few millimetres on a construction site can cost you time to rectify, which in turn will cost you money,” he says. “These hands-on, real world experiences make the theory relatable and show learners the real value of getting it right.”

Coral Aspinall, 52, who became a full-time Further Education teacher 12 years ago, agrees. “My experience allows me to put my teaching into context,” she says. Coral started out her engineering career at 16 as an apprentice in a local engineering company. Following a BSc in Engineering and Business Management, she worked for many years in the engineering industry before enrolling on a part-time PGDE (Professional Graduate Diploma in Education) course for teaching. She’s now the Engineering Programme Leader at the Stockport campus of the Trafford and Stockport College Group. Here, they offer qualifications such as Level 2 Performing Engineering Operations as well as engineering-focused Level 3 T Levels and Level 3 Btec Awards. They also offer Level 3 apprenticeships across engineering including Technical Support, Engineering Fitter and Maintenance Management.

“Because I’ve been an engineering apprentice myself, I understand what the student needs to be successful in terms of skills, knowledge and behaviour,” she explains. “I also have contacts in the wider engineering community and understand what an employer is looking for in an apprentice, and can also share insights in terms of how the sector is shifting and evolving to help support their progress.”

Working for an extensive period of time in a field before passing on that knowledge gives teachers maturity and empathy which can be hugely helpful for students, especially those facing complex life situations.

Beyond the practical techniques, a big part of John’s role is helping learners build confidence, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills that employers look for. “Many of my learners have different challenges, so they value teachers who are approachable, who believe in them, and who prepare them for real opportunities in work or further study,” he says. For John, his previous work experience has allowed him to do this. “On site, I worked with people facing all sorts of pressures, from work to life issues, which taught me to be patient and supportive,” he explains.

Coral has had a similar experience. “I see my role as more than imparting knowledge; it is about preparing the young person for the next stage of their journey. The students trust me to have their best interests at heart; they come to me for advice on their next steps and how they can achieve their aspirations, and I’ll support them with both practical advice and words of encouragement.”

For Coral, teaching later in life allows her to draw from a mature perspective, and teach her students positive workplace behaviours alongside skills and knowledge. “Students thrive when they have clear unambiguous boundaries, so I’m firm around expectations in terms of timekeeping, attendance and attitude. This is particularly important to succeeding in the workplace as employers value these behaviours as much as, or even more than having specific expertise or know-how (which can generally be developed).”

If you’re looking for a fresh career option, and keen to share your skills with the next generation, Further Education teaching could be a really enriching new phase. Further Education covers a huge range of career sectors including construction, law, engineering, digital, hospitality, tourism, beauty and more. This includes BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council qualifications), T Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) or City & Guilds Qualifications.

Teaching in a mixture of colleges (often General Further Education Colleges or Sixth Form Colleges) and Adult and Community Learning Centres as well as workplace and apprenticeship settings, further education teachers share their years of real world industry skills with a diverse mix of people from those straight out of school aged sixteen to those making career switches later in life.

You don’t always need an academic degree or prior teaching qualifications to start teaching in further education. You can undertake teacher training on the job, often funded by your employer, so you can start earning straight away.. Furthermore, it doesn’t mean you have to stop working in your chosen field. Further education offers hybrid opportunities – so you could teach part time alongside your other commitments. This means you could have the best of both worlds, where you are still working in your chosen industry and teaching alongside it at a time that suits your schedule. Find out if it’s the right move for you here.

If, like John and Coral, you see the appeal in sharing the knowledge and skills you’ve developed with the next generation, exploring the option of becoming a Further Education teacher can be a great next step. As John shares, the reward is always worth it: “It never gets old passing on my knowledge to people starting on their journey, knowing I have made a difference and getting a smile and thanks in return!”

Looking for a new role that’s rewarding, flexible and draws on your current career? Why not consider sharing your experience where it matters most – helping inspire the next generation of workers in the field you love? Visit Further Education to find out more

Cruise ship runs aground on first trip after passenger’s death

An Australian cruise ship has run aground with 120 passengers on board on its first trip since a passenger died after being left behind on a remote island.

The Coral Adventurer hit a reef off the coast of Papua New Guinea early on Saturday morning, according to reports.

The ship’s operator, Coral Expeditions, said no one was hurt in the incident.

“Coral Adventurer had a grounding incident in coastal Papua New Guinea yesterday. All passengers and crew are safe,” a spokesperson told The Guardian.

“An initial inspection indicates no damage to the vessel. The incident has been reported to authorities and will undergo further official inspections to the hull and marine environment as a standard procedure.”

Passengers on board are reportedly staying on Papua New Guinea while a team attempts to re-float the ship and inspect the hull.

The Coral Adventurer is currently under investigation following the death of an elderly passenger who was left behind on a remote island.

Suzanne Rees, 80, was hiking on Lizard Island with other passengers from the Coral Adventurer when she started feeling unwell and became separated from the group.

Believing she had made her way back to the ship alone, her fellow hikers returned to the vessel and it left the island without her.

The crew realised she was missing and returned to the island to look for her but a day later, on 25 October, Rees was found dead.

Australian authorities have launched an investigation into the woman’s death.

Under existing regulations by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), captains or masters of commercial passenger vessels are required to maintain systems ensuring every passenger is accounted for at any given time.

The woman’s daughter, Katherine Rees, said earlier that the family was “shocked and saddened that the Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island after an organised excursion without my mum, Suzanne.”

“From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense,” she told The Australian.

“I hope that the coronial inquiry will find out what the company should have done that might have saved Mum’s life,” the daughter said.

The CEO of Coral Expeditions, Mark Fifield, said that the company offered its full support to the Rees family and cancelled the remainder of the voyage.

The Independent has contacted Coral Expeditions for a comment.

‘Life-changing’ asthma drug only requires two jabs a year

An asthma treatment that only requires patients to have two jabs a year to prevent life-threatening attacks will be available in Britain.

The pharmaceutical giant GSK has been granted marketing authorisation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for depemokimab.

The treatment, which will be sold under the brand name Exdensur, is an “ultra-long-acting” version of a biologic treatment that contains antibodies to reduce inflammation in the lungs.

It is the first of its kind, and treats respiratory diseases with just a twice-yearly dosing.

Kaivan Khavandi, SVP & global head of Respiratory, Immunology & Inflammation R&D, GSK, said: “Today’s UK approval of Exdensur, the first in the world, has the potential to redefine care for millions of patients.

“This ultra-long-acting biologic delivers sustained efficacy to reduce asthma exacerbations, keep patients out of hospital and help prevent cumulative lung damage in just two doses a year.

“This is a step change in respiratory treatment, and we look forward to additional regulatory decisions expected in the US, Japan, EU and China.”

Results from a trial of 762 patients found that the drug reduced clinically significant exacerbations of asthma attacks by 54 per cent and cut hospital admissions by 72 per cent.

Asthma is a condition that inflames and narrows the airways in the lungs, making breathing difficult, while severe chronic rhinosinusitis is inflammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses where symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks.

This inflammation can lead to soft tissue growths, known as nasal polyps.

The medicine is administered via injection under the skin once every six months.

The treatment is due to go on sale privately in the first half of 2026, before and watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), will decide whether it will be prescribed on the NHS, The Times reported.

Julian Beach, MHRA interim executive director of Healthcare Quality and Access, said: “These conditions affect a significant number of people across the UK, and in some cases can be difficult to manage despite existing treatments.

“This approval represents another potential treatment option for patients living with some forms of these conditions whose symptoms have not been adequately controlled with current therapies.

“As with all licensed medicines, we will keep the safety and effectiveness of depemokimab under close review.”

Last month, Asthma and Lung UK said that over the last two years alone, there has been a 23 per cent increase in emergency hospital admissions for respiratory conditions – such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Between April 2024 and March 2025, there were 2,268,865 emergency hospital admissions for respiratory conditions in England, compared to 1,841,010 between April 2022 and March 2023, a rise of 427,855.