A former Conservative MP said he is unable to get a job in teaching because of his political views.

Jonathan Gullis, who was a teacher before he entered Parliament in 2019, said he believed he had failed to get an interview for a teaching role because most people in the teaching profession treat Tories with “disdain”.

Mr Gullis was elected the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North as part of Boris Johnson’s 2019 landslide, but lost his seat in July.

Before he entered the Commons he worked as a teacher at a number of schools, including the Fairfax Academy in Sutton Coldfield, north of Birmingham.

His experiences mirror those of defeated MPs and ministers in 1997, when the Tories lost to Sir Tony Blair’s party.

Life after Parliament

Mr Gullis told Times Radio: “It’s nearly three months now and I’m still without a job, right? And that’s scary. I’m a father of a four year-old and a two year-old. I’ve got a wife who’s extremely supportive.

“I was a teacher before and I’ve applied for a few jobs and sadly not even had an interview yet. So actually, I think the days when being an ex-MP was something that was wanted or desired is no longer. I think we’re now seen as a problem. And so that’s a challenge.”

Asked whether it was more a problem that he was a Tory, Mr Gullis replied: “When I entered teaching it was always slightly more centre-Left leaning, but I always felt that it was fair.

“When I left the profession to enter Parliament I felt that being a Conservative was something that was treated with disdain, and I do think there are a lot of schools that will see who I used to represent, and maybe my views which they may not like, and because of that – not because of what I can do as a teacher – but because of that I won’t even be given an interview.

“I think that’s a damning indictment on the profession that I do love and do care about, but sadly if you’re going to have too many activists in the classroom, which I do think we have at this time, then politics is going to sadly determine who’s allowed to work in that profession.

“This is not good for pupils, it’s not good for parents, but is particularly bad for pupils because they need teachers to be coming to deliver high-quality education. Not pursuing the very woke agenda that sadly has entrenched many of our education sectors.”

Giovanni Pernice, the Strictly dancer, has been cleared by the BBC of physical aggression against Amanda Abbington, his dance partner.

The BBC apologised to Abbington, saying it had assessed and “upheld some, but not all” of her complaints about Pernice’s behaviour during her time on the show.

In a statement, the BBC said: “We want to apologise to Amanda Abbington and to thank her for coming forward and taking part. We know this would not have been an easy thing to do.

“At the time, although the production team took steps to address the issues as they understood them, ultimately these were not enough.”

Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, said: “There were a number of complaints under our bullying and harassment policy and a number of those complaints have been upheld.”

Abbington claimed that Pernice’s behaviour towards her in the rehearsal room during last year’s series was “inappropriate, mean, nasty and bullying”.

The BBC is understood to have upheld six of 17 complaints. Pernice was cleared of intimidating or aggressive behaviour but was found to have used “belittling” language and given negative feedback.

There were instances of “inappropriate” sexual banter although this was said to have been done with humour.

Pernice always protested his innocence, saying that he had never threatened or abused the actress, maintaining there was no evidence to support Abbington’s claims.

Abbington withdrew from the show last year citing a medical issue, but later went public with her allegations about Pernice.

In a statement, Abbington said she felt vindicated by the findings. She said: “As the BBC has indicated today in its statement, my decision to come forward and complain about Giovanni Pernice’s conduct towards me was not an easy thing to do.

“In the days, weeks and months since I contacted the BBC, I’ve been accused of being a liar, a troublemaker and of being ‘mad and unstable’. I’ve also received rape and murder threats and a bomb threat was sent to my place of work. My family and children have also been subjected to threats and intimidation.

“Despite this vile abuse, I’ve never regretted coming forward, and today’s apology from the BBC is a vindication of my complaint. It’s not just a vindication for me, it’s a vindication for the other people who have contacted me since I made my complaint to express concerns about their own experiences on Strictly Come Dancing. I hope those who have felt unable to speak out now will be more confident that they will be listened to and believed.

Abbington said she would consider an invitation from the BBC to meet with senior management.

She added: “This apology means a great deal to me. So too does the fact that the BBC have acknowledged the steps that were put in place to support and protect me and past contestants were ‘not enough’.

“What matters most now is that lessons have been learned and that the BBC makes the changes they’ve promised, to ensure others don’t experience the same ordeal that I and others like me did.”

Announcing the conclusion of the investigation, which has taken many months, the BBC said: “We take any allegations of bullying and harassment very seriously and this review has taken time due to its complex nature and our desire to ensure a rigorous and robust process was undertaken.

“Strictly Come Dancing is a family show and we rightly expect very high standards. While competition can be tough, rigorous and demanding, we want the show to ultimately be a joyous and transformative experience. It is a great shame if this hasn’t been the case for everyone who has appeared on the show.”

In a written statement, a spokesman for Giovanni Pernice said: “We are pleased that this six-month review has not found any evidence of threatening or abusive behaviour by Giovanni.

“Giovanni is relieved that the overwhelming majority of allegations out to the BBC have not been upheld and looks forward to continuing his work on Dancing With The Stars in Italy this season.”

The broadcaster also released new details of the duty-of-care measures, which have been introduced in the wake of Abbington’s complaint.

A team of 15 chaperones monitor the rehearsals, completing daily training logs which are reviewed by senior executives.

Celebrities and dancers are also offered a psychological review and must complete a “wellbeing questionnaire” in which they talk about “the type of experience the celebrity would like on the show and expectations of training from both sides”.

There is a formal exit interview for each celebrity as they leave the show.

Everyone working on Strictly, in front of and behind the camera, has been required to attend workshops “addressing the culture of the show and expected behaviour”.

A pensioner has been turned away from a GP for being “already dead”, despite being very much alive. 

Alan Rocket, 69, had been attempting to re-register at his former doctor’s surgery when he was informed by staff that he was “deceased”.

Reception staff refused to hand over Mr Rocket’s medical data, forcing the retired decorator to go home and fetch his passport as a proof of identity.

Mr Rocket, who is in remission from bowel cancer, said his experience at the Shenley Green practice in Birmingham had been distressing. He told The Sun: “It was really upsetting. Five years ago this month, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

“I’m in remission now but I’m still not 100 per cent clear. So to be told I was dead completely stressed me out. I told my daughters and they were upset too. I wasn’t getting anywhere so I got my ID and came back and said, ‘Here you go, I’m alive.’”

‘Technical issue’

Mr Rocket added that employees had “smirked” at him while they delivered the news of his earlier death.

Despite delivering his identity documents, Mr Rocket was reportedly unable to register at the practice for another 24 hours. A spokesman for the surgery told The Sun that there was a “technical issue” with the patient records and apologised for any inconvenience caused.

Earlier this year, another elderly cancer patient was left unable to access his medical records or reorder his medication after being registered as dead on the NHS computer system. 

John Ashcroft, 73, who is in remission from prostate cancer, received a call from his local GP telling him he was deceased in late July.

GPs working fewer hours

It comes after a study revealed GPs are working an average of 26 hours a week.

The contracted hours fulfilled by each fully qualified GP has fallen from 30 a week on average in 2016, to 26 a week in 2022, according to new analysis of NHS data.

Dr Rosa Parisi, the study’s lead author from the University of Manchester, which conducted the research, suggested that GPs may be working less because they were “likely to be unwilling or unable to face more of the intense day-to-day pressures”.

The study revealed that despite there being about 6 per cent more GPs in 2022 than there were in 2015, they were delivering 2.7 per cent fewer hours in total. This is despite an increase of almost 250 patients per GP.

Researchers said the decrease in total working hours was down to a combination of family doctors retiring early, poor recruitment and retention and more GPs doing fewer hours.

A 96-year-old woman who killed another pensioner when her car mounted the pavement as she left a bridge club has been spared jail after a judge said that it was “common sense”.

June Mills told police she lost control of her Vauxhall Corsa when it accelerated unexpectedly as she left Elbow Lane Methodist Church in Formby, Merseyside, shortly after 4pm on Aug 2 last year, killing Brenda Joyce, 76, and injuring Jennifer Ensor, 80.

Sentencing her at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, Judge Simon Medland KC said: “On any view and from every angle, this case is an utter tragedy.

“Mrs Joyce died, Mrs Ensor was injured, you have lost your good character and are in the dock of Liverpool Crown Court.”

But Judge Medland added: “Bearing in mind the imposition guidelines, the pre-sentence reports, the abundance of references and, if I might add, plain common sense, it would not profit anybody to make that an immediate sentence, nor would that be a just outcome.”

He suspended the sentence for 18 months.

Mills, of Broadway Close, Ainsdale, Merseyside, was ordered to pay £1,500 and £500 prosecution costs, and was disqualified from driving for five years.

Robert Dudley, prosecuting, had previously told the court Joyce and Mrs Ensor had been walking along the pavement after leaving the bridge club, which they attended with Mills, when the collision happened.

‘I had no control over car’

Mills, who was in a wheelchair and wore a green fleece and tartan blanket over her knees for the hearing, told police in a prepared statement that her accelerator pedal felt as if it had “dropped to the floor” as she manoeuvred around a parked car and she had “shot forward”.

She said: “It all happened very quickly and there were people in front of me but I could not avoid hitting them because the car was going so fast I had no control over it.”

The court heard Joyce’s husband did not support the prosecution.

In a statement read to the court, Mrs Ensor said that she suffered minor physical injuries, including tendon damage which prevented her from playing a full round of golf, and had a “sense of guilt” at having survived.

Tom Gent, defending, said: “This is plainly a dreadfully sad case. Mrs Mills, the defendant, is extremely sorry for what happened. The consequences will haunt her forever. She feels great shame and guilt.”

He said that the former careers adviser, who surrendered her driving licence following the crash, had previously been involved in voluntary work with victims of crime and young offenders.

He added: “Recently she has housed, and continues to house, Ukrainian refugees.”

He said that she now accepted she must have mistakenly applied too much acceleration that caused her car to lurch forward and mount the kerb.

Austria’s foreign minister performed a long, deep curtsy before the star guest at her wedding, a smiling Vladimir Putin.

It was 2018, four years before Putin was to invade Ukraine, and Karin Kneissl is no longer foreign minister.

But the party that appointed her, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), has now won a general election for the first time.

Herbert Kickl, its leader, is savouring his triumph, but the real winner is Russia’s pariah president.

The FPO has a “friendship pact” with Putin’s United Russia party.

When Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Austrian parliament in March last year, FPO MPs walked out in protest.

They claimed that Austria’s constitutional neutrality was violated by the speech, but there is no question whose side Mr Kickl is on.

Why Austria never joined Nato

Vienna’s relations with Moscow have historically been closer than most European countries. Austria’s permanent neutrality was the Soviet Union’s pre-condition for talks that ultimately led to the withdrawal of Allied troops in 1955.

It is why Austria never joined Nato. Neutrality remained popular even as Sweden and Finland ditched it to join the Alliance after the invasion of Ukraine.

Austria is part of the European Union. It stops short of donating weapons to Kyiv, but does send financial aid and supports the bloc’s sanctions against the Kremlin. It has also taken in almost 80,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Even that qualified support will now come into question. The FPO has already attacked the outgoing government, accusing it of an “anti-neutrality policy” for supporting EU sanctions against Moscow.

The risk of future measures being blocked or watered down has increased if Mr Kickl can form a coalition government.

EU sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 member states to be imposed. Other measures helping Kyiv could also be slowed down by an obstructive Vienna.

The expectation is the FPO will form a new government with the centre-Right OVP. It won’t be the first time the conservative establishment has joined forces with the more extreme FPO, which was founded by former Nazis in the 1950s, but the first time that the FPO is the senior partner.

Some predict that the coalition negotiations will sideline Mr Kickl and defang his more extreme policies. But the FPO will drag the government farther to the Right on issues such as immigration and potentially Ukraine.

The success of the hard and far-Right in recent elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands has led directly to crackdowns in migration in those countries.

Hard-Right in European mainstream

The hard-Right is firmly in the European mainstream. Now the far-Right is on the march.

The difference between Mr Kickl and his friends Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders is that the French and Dutch politicians have tried to disown their former admiration for Putin.

The FPO, like the far-Right AFD in Germany, never has.

Ms Le Pen has worked hard to detoxify her party, but the FPO makes no such compromises. It calls for Fortress Austria against migrants, a war on “political Islam”, a ban on trans-friendly language and a refund on fines for breaking Covid regulations.

Its success now risks emboldening other pro-Putin parties in Europe to break cover, preach their distrust of Nato and call for appeasement of Russia.

Austria on its own is not influential enough to move the dial on EU support for Ukraine. However, a chancellor in an FPO-led government will be welcomed at the European Council with open arms by Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary.

Mr Orban has long railed against EU sanctions, met with Putin since the invasion and been a thorn in Mr Zelensky’s side.

He was thrilled with the FPO victory, which bolsters the ranks of an anti-Ukraine bloc, which includes the pro-Putin Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia.

Andrej Babis, the former Czech prime minister and another Putin apologist, also looks like he could return to power next year after his party won the most seats in senate elections this week.

All three preach appeasement, refuse to send weapons to Ukraine, oppose sanctions and want immediate peace talks that will favour Russia.

Hungary was long Europe’s soft underbelly, but it is now growing over central and Eastern states as the war drags on and the cost of living crisis bites.

Drone patrols have been launched over a sprawling forest on the slopes of Japan’s Mount Fuji that has become notorious for suicides.

Alarmed at a resurgence in people taking their lives in Aokigahara Forest, also known as the “sea of trees”, the Yamanashi regional government has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles to carry out sweeps of the 14-square-mile forest.

Made by Tokyo-based company JDrone, larger models are equipped with cameras and infrared sensors to detect people beneath the dense canopy and share that data with teams on the ground.

Smaller handheld units are then guided to the location of the heat signal and the search teams, through a camera and speaker, are able to communicate with anyone they find.

Working in unison, the large and small drones are then able to lead the search teams to the location of the individual.

According to the Yamanashi government, 182 bodies were discovered in the forest in both 2019 and 2020, rising to 192 in 2021 and 199 in 2022.

The total rose to 215 deaths in 2023, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

The first recorded suicide in Aokigahara was in the 1920s, when the son of a wealthy couple wanted to marry a waitress.

The man’s parents opposed the union, so the couple travelled to the forest to die together. The case attracted media attention and there were reports of similar suicide pacts over the following decades.

Things took a darker turn in 1970 after a popular romantic novel described the double suicide of lovers in the forest.

Japan’s economic problems of the 1990s saw another surge in deaths which coincided with the release of another book that described it as a peaceful place to die.

Many of the dead were businessmen who had lived well during the financial bubble years but who lost everything in the crash. Failure in business is considered a mark of shame in Japan.

With suicides increasing again, the regional government hopes the drone technology will enable them to intervene in some suicide attempts and convince others not to try to take their own lives in the forest.

Keiko Chiken, a spokesman for the local authority, told the Mainichi: “We want to dispel the image of Aokigahara as a famous suicide spot.”

Marine Le Pen has celebrated the march of hard-Right parties across Europe after the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) won its first ever general election victory. 

Other Eurosceptic leaders also hailed Herbert Kickl’s historic triumph as a victory for national sovereignty against Brussels overreach.

Ms Le Pen said there was a Right-wing wave across Europe, which had brought nationalists to power in Italy, the Netherlands and ushered in an anti-migrant government in France.

“After the Italian, Dutch and French elections, this groundswell which carries the defence of national interests, the safeguarding of identities and the resurrection of sovereignties, confirms everywhere the triumph of the peoples,” Ms Le Pen said.

The National Rally leader is allied to the FPO in the European Parliament.

The FPO has Nazi roots, having been founded in the 1950s by a former SS officer. It is vehemently opposed to military support for Ukraine and is friendly towards Vladimir Putin, with its nominee for foreign minister dancing with him at her wedding in 2018.

Today, the FPO continues to flirt with fascism, with its leader Mr Kickl styling himself as Austria’s next “Volkskanzler”, the same title used by Adolf Hitler. He has also called for asylum seekers to be “concentrated” in the same place, remarks condemned as an allusion to Nazi concentration camps, which he denied.

Prior to the election, some FPO officials were reportedly caught singing a Nazi SS loyalty song at the funeral of their colleague Walter Sucher, who died aged 90.

The hard-Right party’s election victory was described by the International Auschwitz Committee, which represents survivors of the Nazi Holocaust from 19 countries, as an “alarming new chapter” in Austrian history.

Ms Le Pen’s own victory in this year’s European elections was so commanding that Emmanuel Macron called snap elections that led to a Right-wing government. 

The Patriots for Europe group wants to claw back powers taken by Brussels from national governments and reform the EU.

Geert Wilders, the veteran Eurosceptic, won elections in the Netherlands in 2023. Despite leading his Party for Freedom to a convincing victory, he did not become prime minister. His calls for a “Nexit” referendum and for the Koran to be banned were too controversial for his eventual coalition partners.

“The Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, France, Spain, Czech Republic and today Austria! We are winning! Times are changing!,” he said on X.

“Identity, sovereignty, freedom and no more illegal immigration/asylum is what tens of millions of Europeans long for.”

Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, said: “Another win for the Patriots: a historic victory for FPO in Austria! Congratulations to Herbert Kickl!”

Friendly towards Russia

Mr Orban is a veteran of many battles with Brussels over sovereignty, migration and opposition to Western sanctions on Russia for the illegal war in Ukraine.

The FPO campaigned hard in the elections on a pro-Putin, Eurosceptic and anti-migrant platform.  “The government of the state is increasingly no longer in Vienna, but in Brussels,” its manifesto said.

“The space of the state is being eliminated by the de facto principle of open borders.The people of the state are gradually being replaced by permanent mass immigration,” it added.

Led by 55-year-old Mr Kickl, the FPO won 28.8 per cent of the vote, ahead of the centre-Right OVP on 26.3 per cent, and the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPO) on 21.1 per cent according to a projection based on nearly all the votes by pollster Foresight for broadcaster ORF, a slightly bigger victory margin than final polls had indicated.

“We’ve made Austrian history because it’s the first time the Freedom Party is number one in a parliamentary election, and you have to think how far we’ve come,” Mr Kickl said after the party’s record showing, which came seven decades after its foundation in the 1950s under the leadership of a former Nazi lawmaker.

On Monday, the Austrian parties began the process of holding coalition talks which could prove time consuming and complex. The FPO currently lacks enough support from other parties to form a coalition.

The Freedom Party (FPO) secured the first far-Right national parliamentary election victory in post-World War II Austria on Sunday, finishing ahead of the governing conservatives after tapping into anxieties about immigration, inflation, Ukraine and other issues. 

But the chances of Herbert Kickl’s anti-immigrant FPO governing were unclear. 

Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party finishing first with 29.2 per cent of the vote and the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) led by chancellor Karl Nehammer was second with 26.5per cent. 

The centre-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21 per cent. The outgoing government – a coalition of Mr Nehammer’s party and the environmentalist Greens – lost its majority in the lower house of parliament.

“Tomorrow there will be a blue Monday and then we will set about turning that 29 per cent into a political reality in this country,” Mr Kickl told supporters on Sunday evening, playing on the fact blue is the colour associated with his party.

The unprecedented win for Mr Kickl’s FPO could install him as the first far-Right chancellor in Austria’s post-war history if he manages to build a coalition.

The triumph of the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO on Sunday was another milestone in the recent rise of Europe’s hard-Right. But the party immediately suffered a stiff reality check, Reuters reported.

Facing Mr Kickl in a television studio after results came in, leaders of the other parties in parliament dismissed his overtures on forming a coalition.

An FPO-led government would cause a major headache for other EU leaders as they wrestle with growing populism across the bloc.

Earlier this month, the far-right Alternative for Germany won its first state elections in Thuringia.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party entered government in May, six months after coming first in parliamentary elections.

Mr Wilders hailed the FPÖ victory as evidence of a far-right surge across the continent.

“The Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, France, Spain, Czech Republic and today Austria! We are winning! Times are changing!” he wrote on X.

And although Marine Le Pen’s National Rally narrowly lost a snap election in France in July, it gained enough seats to act as kingmaker in the resulting hung parliament.

Meanwhile, Viktor Orban, the president of Hungary, has become a vocal opponent of military support for Ukraine.

The FPO will face an uphill struggle to form a coalition, however, as Austria’s other parties consider Mr Kickl too toxic for high office.

He has been accused of flirting with fascism, including with a 2018 remark that the authorities should “concentrate asylum seekers in one place” in what was widely viewed as an allusion to Nazi death camps.

The far-Right party could try and lead a coalition with Mr Nehammer’s OVP, which came second. Mr Nehammer has already ruled this out unless Mr Kickl does not serve as chancellor.

“Austrians have made history tonight… you can clearly see that change has come,” Michael Schnedlitz, the FPO general secretary, said on Austrian TV after the exit poll was released.

During the campaign, the FPO – a party with Nazi roots founded in 1956 by a former SS officer – pledged to turn the country into “Fortress Austria” and introduce a controversial “remigration” policy.

Remigration would involve deporting asylum seekers, particularly criminals, and blocking family reunification for migrants already based in Austria.

FPO party chiefs have also vowed to significantly tighten Austrian land border security, scrap Austrian involvement in the EU Sky Shield air-defence scheme, and remain strictly neutral on foreign conflicts.

Friendly towards Russia

The party is friendly towards Russia and has described EU leaders’ close support for Ukraine as “madness”.

In 2018, the party’s nominee for the post of foreign minister danced a waltz with Vladimir Putin at her wedding.

Mr Kickl also agitated against lockdown rules during the pandemic, refusing to wear a face mask in parliament. The party has pledged to enshrine in Austria’s constitution that there are only two genders.

The FPO and OVP parties have previously joined forces in short-lived coalitions where the FPO was the junior partner.

Their first coalition collapsed in 2002 amid FPO infighting, while the second coalition imploded in the wake of the 2019 Ibiza affair.

In that scandal, the FPO’s Heinz-Christian Strache, then leader and vice-chancellor, resigned after he was filmed meeting a woman who was posing as the niece of a Russian media buyer, to discuss swapping government contracts for favourable coverage.

The OVP’s Sebastian Kurz, the chancellor at the time, then lost a no-confidence vote in parliament that brought down the coalition.

‘Only option for voters’

“The FPO will support anti-immigration policies, but the fact that it will likely govern in coalition will prevent a radicalisation of policy,” said Safa Sharif, a political analyst from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

In Vienna, supporters of Mr Kickl’s FPO said it was the only option for voters who wanted drastic action on slowing down the rate of migration and keeping Austria neutral.

“My opinion is it’s the only serious party,” said Nordika, 49. “I’ve voted for them before as well, because I think that closing the borders will work, it is the best solution for European security.”

Also running this year was the anti-establishment Beer Party, which was initially founded as a joke in 2015 by Dominik Wlazny, a rock musician and medical doctor.

Since the Ibiza scandal, the party has vowed to clean up corruption in politics, with the candidates campaigning in leather jackets and hosting beer-hall sessions for potential voters.

“[Our voters] are frustrated with how it is now, it cannot be like this in the future,” said Viktoria Mullner, a Beer Party candidate in Vienna. “Most of them saw our spirit on what we want to do, what we want to achieve, our core values of doing politics that are clean and for the people. It’s not just because the FPO [is rising in the polls].”

Boris Becker has tied the knot for a third time, with only two of his four kids present at his latest wedding in Italy.

The German tennis star, 56, married 34 year-old Lilian de Carvalho de Monteiro this month in picturesque Portofino, near the northern Italian city of Genoa — without inviting half of his children.

Present were his two eldest sons Noah and Elias, from his first marriage to Barbara Feltus, German-American designer, actress and model.

Absent was his only daughter Anna Ermakova, whom he conceived during a one-night stand with Russian Angela Ermakova – a waitress at London’s Nobu at the time – while Barbara was in labour with Elias.

His 14-year-old son Amadeus, born during Becker’s nine-year marriage to Dutch model Lilly Kerssenberg, wasn’t at the Portofino ceremony either.

According to Becker’s ex, it was because the former Wimbledon champion kept his son in the dark about the upcoming event.

“When I asked Amadeus about it, he was surprised. He didn’t know anything about it,” Lilly Becker told Bunte, a German magazine.

“Of course he’s wondering why he wasn’t invited and that his father didn’t tell him anything about it. He’s not a child anymore. He’s 14!”

Lilly Becker insisted that she wished her ex the best but “behaving that way towards our son really is the last straw. Who doesn’t want him to come?”

Anna Ermakova didn’t get an invite either.

In contrast to her famous father, who was deported from the UK to Germany in 2022 following a conviction for failing to declare assets during bankruptcy proceedings, Ms Ermakova went to Germany willingly in 2023 to compete in – and win – Let’s Dance, Germany’s version of Strictly Come Dancing.

Ms Ermakova was reportedly keen to establish an identity for herself beyond her parents’ infamous liaison. She won Let’s Dance with a record number of public votes and perfect scores from the show’s judges.

“You’ve already conquered the hearts of the Germans. You’ve taken them by storm. Your talent, your discipline, your performance and more – your personality, are amazing. And I couldn’t be prouder,” Becker, who became the youngest man to ever win Wimbledon when he has 17, said in a video message to his daughter just ahead of the 2023 final.

Just over a year later, Ms Ermakova reportedly found out about her father’s latest wedding plans from the newspaper.

Ms Ermakova herself has said little since, telling Austrian newspaper Heute at Oktoberfest in Munich “I’m not here to talk about it today. I’m here for Oktoberfest, to celebrate.”

Becker hasn’t confirmed why two of his children weren’t invited to his wedding to Ms de Carvalho Monteiro – a political risk consultant who he had been seeing since at least the time of his 2022 conviction.

At the time, Judge Deborah Taylor said Becker had shown no remorse for failing to declare over a million pounds in assets as part of bankruptcy proceedings. Becker was sentenced to prison time, but released early and deported to Germany in December 2022 after living in the UK for over a decade.

During that time he lived in an expensive rented house in Wimbledon and shopped lavishly while commentating on tennis for the BBC and coaching Novak Djokovic – who won six Grand Slam titles during his three years of coaching under Becker.

But the former tennis prodigy’s legal problems didn’t begin in the UK. They started 20 years prior to his British conviction, when a court in his native Germany convicted him of tax evasion in 2002.

Becker was found to have spent most of the years between 1991 and 1993 living in Munich, but hadn’t registered an address there for tax purposes. He was convicted of evading an equivalent of about €1.6 million in taxes. He was issued a two-year prison sentence suspended for three years and ordered to pay a €300,000 fine and donate a further €200,000 to charitable organisations.

Becker currently lives in Italy with his new wife. In 2017, he was named head of men’s tennis with the German Tennis Federation. A documentary about his turbulent life, Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2023.

Prince Harry is back in London where he will make his seventh solo appearance in as many days before heading off to southern Africa.

The Duke of Sussex, 40, will attend the WellChild Awards on Monday evening, presenting an award and delivering a speech at the annual ceremony, which honours seriously ill children.

His whirlwind return to the UK falls in the middle of a hectic schedule in which he is crisscrossing the globe, without his wife, to promote his own charitable interests.

He was not expected to meet with his father, the King, who is in Scotland, or his brother, the Prince of Wales.

The Duke’s appearance at the WellChild Awards – an annual event that he has long made a point of attending – comes hot on the heels of five high-profile speeches in New York last week on behalf of his various charities, as well as a star turn in a skit on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon in the US.

He then flew back to California to be reunited with the Duchess of Sussex and their two children, Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, before flying to London this weekend.

As his charitable push continues, he will then head to southern Africa, where he will visit Lesotho 20 years after his first visit, made during his gap year, for a series of engagements to promote Sentebale, the charity he founded in 2006.

At an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week, he spoke in both English and Sesotho, a language of Lesotho, as he described the country as “a home away from home”.

He said the tiny landlocked nation, and its Royal family, had been “a pillar of strength” for him personally over the last 20 years and had welcomed him “with open arms and such kindness.”

The Duke is currently required to give 30 days’ notice of his travel plans to the UK so each visit can be assessed on its merits.

He has again opted not to stay at a royal residence in London, having previously raised concerns about his security when coming and going from such high profile locations.

His lack of guaranteed police protection remains a bone of contention after he lost a High Court challenge earlier this year over his right to state-funded security.

The Duke’s appeal against the ruling will be heard next April, but he remains insistent that it is too dangerous to bring his wife or children, fearing a “knife or acid” attack.

The Duke is last thought to have seen his father in February, when he flew from the US for a brief visit shortly after it was revealed that the King had been diagnosed with cancer.

The pair spent no more than around 40 minutes together at Clarence House.

They did not meet when the Duke returned to London in May, despite the fact that he was invited to stay at Buckingham Palace, or again when he returned for the funeral of his uncle Lord Fellowes in August, when he stayed with Earl Spencer, his late mother’s brother, at the ancestral home of Althorp in Northamptonshire.

The Duke has been patron of WellChild, which supports sick children and their families, since 2007 and will tonight present the award for Inspirational Child (aged 4-6).

The Duke wrote in his memoir, Spare, that the event was “always gutting”, the children so brave and their parents so proud but tortured.

In 2019, he choked up as he attempted to deliver his speech, later revealing that “gratitude and sympathy converged” after he caught sight of his wife in the front row and thought of their son, Prince Archie, who was a baby at the time.

Almost 1,000 British holidaymakers are taking legal action after being struck down with stomach bugs while on holiday in Cape Verde.

A total of 926 people over three years have been struck down with gastrointestinal infections while staying at luxury hotel resorts on the island.

Infections such as Shigella and Salmonella have been reported by holidaymakers with some unable to leave their room for several days.

Cordelia Plummer, 56, from Shard End, Birmingham, and partner Ian Waller, 56, from Kingston-Upon-Hull, are among a new group of holidaymakers to contact lawyers about their holiday.

They were both struck down with serious illness during a two-week stay at a 5-star hotel in Sal, Cape Verde in July this year.

The holiday was booked via tour operator Tui, and the couple paid almost £3,000 for their all-inclusive break.

‘Incredibly concerning’

Jatinder Paul, a specialist international serious injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell who is representing the holidaymakers, said: “The sheer volume of clients we’re continuing to see coming forward having fallen ill during stays in Cape Verde over the last three years is incredibly concerning.

“The numbers involved show that these aren’t isolated incidents. The fact that significant numbers are still approaching us with similar first-hand accounts points towards a worrying picture of ongoing illness that shows no sign of ending.

“Those we represent rightly have a number of concerns over how such illnesses have occurred over such a period of time,” he said.

“Gastric illness can result in long-term health problems or even death, and the fear is this could end in tragedy if something isn’t done to address the underlying causes.”

It is thought that several different groups fell sick with similar issues at the same time and the lawyers are calling for more people to come forward.

Tui was approached for comment.

Plummer, a customer service assistant, was taken ill a week into the break with severe gastric symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhoea.

She was confined to her room for four days and consulted her GP upon returning to the UK, who initially said her symptoms could be a sign of Shigella.

Waller was struck down a few days later with the same symptoms which continued for the remainder of the holiday and upon his return to the UK.

‘I’ve never felt so ill’

The couple said they were shocked to read negative reviews of the resort online after returning home and had noticed that food was often served uncovered and lukewarm.

Plummer said: “What was meant to be a dream two weeks on a wonderful island turned into a holiday Ian and myself will now do our best to forget.

“What started as headaches and a feeling of nausea, became the worst sickness and diarrhoea I’ve ever known.

“I think everyone has probably had an upset stomach at one time or another, but I have never felt so ill.”

The couple are among a new group of ten holidaymakers who stayed at a five-star hotel this summer to instruct Irwin Mitchell.

Meanwhile, hundreds of other holidaymakers have instructed the firm following an illness at other Cape Verde hotels.

In 2022, a total of 806 people came forward followed by 65 in 2023 and 55 so far this year.

Cocaine thought to be worth up to £3.1 million has washed up on a beach in Cornwall.

A black bag, which appeared to be wrapped in a bin bag, was found on Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes on the north Cornish coast on Saturday.

An image said to have been taken outside Schooners bar overlooking the cove shows a police officer beside the bag.

Otis Robertson, 19, who works at Schooners bar, told The Telegraph that the bag had been found in a cave nearby.

He said: “In the morning, it was found in a cave by a dog walker. They instantly called the police. It was a big black carrier bag. The lifeguards said it was full of bricks [of cocaine].

“The police came down and searched to see if there was any more. They actually said it was around 40kg and valued at £3 million.”

Mr Robertson claimed that recent strong winds had brought the bag ashore.

An anonymous resident told the Daily Mail: “It’s been the talk of the village this weekend. It’s a very gossipy place anyway but when something unusual like this happens, even more so.

“I’m told the drugs were found washed up on Saturday morning and the police were called. The beach is popular with dog walkers and even out of the main holiday season there are always lots of people here.”

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has said that the domestic cocaine market is dominated by criminal gangs who make around £4 billion a year.

In February, the NCA and Border Force seized 5.7 tons of cocaine – one of its biggest-ever seizures of class-A drugs in the UK. The contraband was found hidden among bananas in a container at Southampton Port which had been transported from South America and was bound for Hamburg, Germany.

Based on UK street-level prices, this cocaine would have had an estimated value of over £450 million.

Last month, a Royal Navy patrol ship seized £40 million of cocaine from a speedboat in the Caribbean.

Royal Marines and US Coast Guard personnel on HMS Trent intercepted the vessel carrying 506kg of Class A narcotics south of the Dominican Republic.

The bust was the sixth made by the Royal Navy vessel this year, bringing the total amount of drugs seized to £551.5 million.

Devon and Cornwall Police was contacted for comment.

A 75-year-old grandfather choked to death on chicken nuggets after care home staff failed to cut up his food, an inquest has found.

Bob Buckley, who had dementia, was vulnerable to choking and required specialist care with meals while a resident at The Chase in Canterbury.

He was seen turning “blue in the face” after being left unsupervised at the care home, which was found by Kent and Medway coroner’s court to have caused his death through negligence.

When he was found choking, staff tried dislodging food from his throat by repeatedly slapping his back and using a thrusting technique.

A risk assessment from the care home had stressed that Buckley needed food to be cut into small pieces, and staff had to be nearby when he ate.

Despite two ambulance crews arriving in minutes, Buckley’s heart stopped and, because of a do-not-resuscitate order, paramedics did not attempt to revive him.

Medics discovered that he had eaten whole chicken nuggets and half a baby carrot. He died on Aug 11 2019.

‘Surprised at the size of the food’

Ian Brownhill, the coroner, said: “The food was not cut into small pieces, and paramedics were surprised at the size of the food removed from Bob’s airway.

“Carer one handed Bob the plate of food at tea time. She also plated the food, which he ate.

“She previously said the plates were pre-prepared, but this does not accord with what she told police after his death.”

Carer two was thought to have been responsible for monitoring Buckley as he ate, according to the manager.

But she was discovered to have left him, and other guests, unsupervised, the court heard.

“Carer two was aware they ought not to leave residents unsupervised but did so,” Mr Brownhill said.

Representatives for the care home previously argued that the factors of his death “was so unclear that you could not conclude this was unlawful killing”.

Mr Brownhill said that while The Chase breached its duty of care, the death did not meet the requirements for corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter.

Recording a narrative conclusion of neglect, he said: “Bob had been identified as a risk of choking despite the fact that those caring for Bob did not properly mitigate this risk.

“They did not cut up his food or monitor him closely enough. This led to his death.”

Buckley’s family had been forced to wait five years for the inquest to conclude because, in part, of criminal charges being lodged against a staff member.

In August 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges.

Guilt ‘will never leave mum’

Lisa, Buckley’s step-daughter, told KentOnline: “My mum made it very clear on more than one occasion that Bob was a choking risk as he ate very quickly and tended to pouch food in his mouth.

“He had to have someone sit with him while eating.

“To hand over the care of your loved one to someone else is one of the hardest things you can do.

“The guilt of making that decision and what happened after will never leave mum.”

A spokesman for The Chase said: “We acknowledge the coroner’s findings and would like to offer our sincere condolences and apologies to Mr Buckley’s family for their loss.

“Due to the ongoing investigations, which have now concluded, we have been unable to comment on this matter previously.

“Since Mr Buckley’s death, a new management team has been put in place.

“We have implemented a number of new policies and procedures, specifically in relation to the management of risks around diet and nutrition and all staff have received further training.

“A further inspection was carried out at the home by the CQC [Care Quality Commission] in May 2023 and the home was assessed to be good, safe and well-led.

“We remain fully committed to maintaining this high standard of care to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of our residents at all times in the future.”

Local residents have accused the transgender owner of a £5 million castle of alienating them after she alleged that their attitudes to her were forcing her to sell up.

Samantha Kane, who was born male and now refers to herself as Lady Carbisdale, claimed that the rural community around her castle near Ardgay in Sutherland was “not ready” to accept someone who has changed their gender.

The barrister said that she had decided to sell Carbisdale Castle, which she has spent millions of pounds restoring, after “hurtful” gender identity comments were shared on social media.

But locals said that they were “delighted” she bought the castle two years ago with plans to bring the 29-bedroomed property back into use as a luxury hotel.

They alleged that the relationship only turned sour when she started putting up fences blocking access to public pathways they had helped clear around the 117-year-old castle.

Ms Kane, who is thought to be the only person in the UK to have changed gender three times, has put the property on the market for £5 million.

Anne Henderson, 69, who owns a farm that borders land with Carbisdale Castle, insisted that the row had nothing to do with Ms Kane’s gender.

She said: “We are a very welcoming and open community. We are happy to have anybody here.

“It is so beautiful and we want to share it. It’s almost like a safe haven – we have people of all persuasions who live here. We accept people at face value unless they prove themselves otherwise.”

Mrs Henderson alleged that her family felt “threatened” when Ms Kane turned up at her house following a meeting last November when her plans to bring public land into her private ownership were rejected.

She claimed: “She presented herself at our farmhouse the next day and I invited her into the kitchen. She then proceeded to accuse us of ruining her business.”

Mrs Henderson said her husband, Robert, eventually asked Ms Kane to leave, claiming: “She tried to get my husband to hit her, she kept saying: ‘Go on, you know you want to hit me.’” 

One local businesswoman, who did not want to be named, told the Scottish Daily Mail: “Sadly, she didn’t get the locals onboard. Everyone was delighted when she bought the castle and were really looking forward to it being used again. But unfortunately she alienated them by pushing them out instead of welcoming them.

“She stopped people getting to some of the accesses. A lot of locals helped clear paths away – they just wanted to use the area. But she alienated the locals, the locals didn’t alienate her.”

Another claimed: “She was stopping people walking on land that was supposed to belong to the forestry. Anyone can walk there but she was putting up fences and putting up signs saying it was private property. She was chasing people off the land and taking benches away.”

Paul Whittock, who owns Ardgay Garage, said that Ms Kane’s claims about the Highlands not being ready for someone who has changed gender were “absolute rubbish” and “it’s got more to do with her behaviour”.

But Ms Kane, 65, rejected the claims, and told the Scottish Daily Mail: “All of these people are obviously motivated by some sort of hate or jealousy or prejudice. It’s complete lies and utter nonsense.

“I try my very, very hardest to renovate the castle, I offer jobs to the local community, I open up the castle for the local community.

“I have done everything in my power to be friendly and nice. But the castle is being disrespected. I am leaving the place and I am still being hounded by lies and nonsense.”

Michael Baird, a local councillor, said that there was an “element of truth” to Ms Kane’s allegations as the “small community around the castle” had “hounded out” a previous developer.

The 19-bedroom, 29-acre castle comes complete with its own loch. Ms Kane bought the property for more than £1 million.

But police were called over a community council meeting at which homophobic remarks were allegedly made about her.

Ms Kane had attended the meeting to state her intention to restore the manor, but had to leave while a vote took place.

One resident, who did not want to be named, claimed that he heard a woman had been “abusive” towards a committee member understood to have been Ms Kane.

Police Scotland said it received a report of a disturbance in Carron Place, Ardgay, on Nov 23. Officers issued advice and a woman received a recorded warning in relation to an earlier disturbance on Nov 21.

At the time, Ms Kane described the police involvement as an “overreaction” despite claiming that some of what was said was “homophobic and racist”.

Ms Kane was born in Iraq and moved to the UK, later making a fortune as the head of investment at a Saudi-owned company. She transitioned to become Samantha in 1997 and in 2004 transitioned back to a man.

In 2018, she underwent further surgery and hormone replacement therapy to retransition into a woman.

Two people have died after a large wildfire burned through forestland near a popular holiday resort in Greece.

About 350 firefighters and eight water-dropping aircraft brought the blaze under control near Xylokastro in the southern region of Peloponnese, about 93 miles south-west of Athens.

Villages near the seaside town were evacuated overnight after the fire broke out on Sunday.

Reports suggested that the two men who died rode into danger on a motorbike to help a friend protect his flock of sheep from the wildfire.

Constantina Dimoglidou, a Greek police spokesman, said that the recovered bodies were severely burnt and laboratory tests were necessary for their identification.

The fire service has launched an investigation, the Greek Citizen’s Protection Ministry said.

Strong winds blew through woodland left tinder-dry by a warm spring and hot summer.

As summer temperatures continue to rise across Europe, wildfires are an annual blight to Greece.

In the past few months, authorities have had to cope with more than 4,500 wildfires.

Buildings in the suburbs of Athens were left gutted after deadly flames reached the capital in August.

Firefighters in Attica, central and western Greece and Peloponnese have been placed on red alert.

The Foreign Office has issued a warning to British holidaymakers in Greece to beware of wildfires.

The BBC’s “institutionally hostile” coverage of Israel has made Britain unsafe for Jews, a former director has claimed.

In a report published on Monday, Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television from 2013 to 2015, accuses the broadcaster of making “false and damaging claims about Israel’s conduct of this war”.

It also claims “appalling lapses in accuracy have served to fuel the flames of anti-Semitism that have spread across the world”.

The document is a review of alleged breaches, errors and complaints made against the corporation in its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The report claims: “Whenever the corporation is faced with the choice of whose account or narrative to believe, it seldom points in Israel’s direction.”

Three Jewish groups endorsed Mr Cohen’s findings.

In a joint statement first published in The Times, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council, and the Community Security Trust warned that the BBC’s reporting has “led many British Jews to conclude that the BBC has become institutionally hostile to Israel”.

Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, also backed the report, saying: “The data could not be clearer: wherever sustained misinformation and demonisation of Israel is found, incidents of anti-Jewish racism surge.”

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Cohen said that the widespread support for his review was a direct result of the risk posed by the BBC’s coverage to the “safety and security” of British Jews.

He said: “The reason the community organisations have got behind this is because they believe that the BBC’s hostile reporting on Israel has a direct impact on the safety and security of Britain’s Jewish community. That’s why they’re speaking up. They’re not speaking up simply because they disagree with some reporting.

“They have seen over the last year that [this reporting] has a real world impact on Jewish people, and that the BBC is contributing to an atmosphere in the UK in which Jewish people feel less safe because their reporting lacks impartiality.”

An earlier report into alleged BBC anti-Israel bias by Israeli lawyer Trevor Asserson claimed the BBC had “breached rules 1,500 times” over the Gaza war.

In one example, it criticised the broadcaster for using the term “revenge attacks” in a headline about Israel’s response to the Oct 7 Hamas attacks, arguing it depicted Israel as a “vengeful aggressor”.

The review’s approach and bipartisan endorsement from the Jewish community is likely to cause extreme discomfort amongst BBC executives.

The Board of Deputies is usually seen as Left-leaning, and indeed Phil Rosenberg, its new president, is a former Labour councillor.

Adamant that the catalogue of alleged errors must not be brushed aside, Mr Cohen has called for a judge-led inquiry into the report’s findings.

He said it was crucial that such an investigation was independent, as the BBC “has gotten into the habit of marking its own homework and finding that there may have been “one or two mistakes along the way, but there’s never any systemic problem”.

“I think when you’ve got 60 pages of a dossier, you can see there’s a systemic problem, and that’s what the BBC don’t want to acknowledge and accept.”

The corporation routinely states that it has a robust process in place to handle complainants, who have the right of appeal to the independent regulator, Ofcom.

‘Profoundly troubling’

Sir Ephraim, who backs the call for an independent inquiry, said: “Few institutions are as vital for our national cultural identity or for the health of our democracy as the BBC. That’s why the content of this report, which records the repeated and long-standing failure to ensure impartial and accurate news coverage of the existential war that Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, is so profoundly troubling.”

He explained that demonisation of Israel in the media increases anti-Jewish racism, saying this is “one of the reasons why the accuracy and objectivity of our national broadcaster is so important for the Jewish community”.

A BBC spokesman said: “The Israel-Gaza conflict is a polarising and difficult story to cover, and we understand there are a range of views. The BBC has focused on reporting the conflict impartially, bringing audiences breaking news, insight and analysis, and reflecting all perspectives.

“While we do not recognise the overall characterisation of our journalism in this report, we will, of course, always look at anything raised with us with care and attention.”

Marine Le Pen has celebrated the march of hard-Right parties across Europe after the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) won its first ever general election victory. 

Other Eurosceptic leaders also hailed Herbert Kickl’s historic triumph as a victory for national sovereignty against Brussels overreach.

Ms Le Pen said there was a Right-wing wave across Europe, which had brought nationalists to power in Italy, the Netherlands and ushered in an anti-migrant government in France.

“After the Italian, Dutch and French elections, this groundswell which carries the defence of national interests, the safeguarding of identities and the resurrection of sovereignties, confirms everywhere the triumph of the peoples,” Ms Le Pen said.

The National Rally leader is allied to the FPO in the European Parliament.

The FPO has Nazi roots, having been founded in the 1950s by a former SS officer. It is vehemently opposed to military support for Ukraine and is friendly towards Vladimir Putin, with its nominee for foreign minister dancing with him at her wedding in 2018.

Today, the FPO continues to flirt with fascism, with its leader Mr Kickl styling himself as Austria’s next “Volkskanzler”, the same title used by Adolf Hitler. He has also called for asylum seekers to be “concentrated” in the same place, remarks condemned as an allusion to Nazi concentration camps, which he denied.

Prior to the election, some FPO officials were reportedly caught singing a Nazi SS loyalty song at the funeral of their colleague Walter Sucher, who died aged 90.

The hard-Right party’s election victory was described by the International Auschwitz Committee, which represents survivors of the Nazi Holocaust from 19 countries, as an “alarming new chapter” in Austrian history.

Ms Le Pen’s own victory in this year’s European elections was so commanding that Emmanuel Macron called snap elections that led to a Right-wing government. 

The Patriots for Europe group wants to claw back powers taken by Brussels from national governments and reform the EU.

Geert Wilders, the veteran Eurosceptic, won elections in the Netherlands in 2023. Despite leading his Party for Freedom to a convincing victory, he did not become prime minister. His calls for a “Nexit” referendum and for the Koran to be banned were too controversial for his eventual coalition partners.

“The Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, France, Spain, Czech Republic and today Austria! We are winning! Times are changing!,” he said on X.

“Identity, sovereignty, freedom and no more illegal immigration/asylum is what tens of millions of Europeans long for.”

Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, said: “Another win for the Patriots: a historic victory for FPO in Austria! Congratulations to Herbert Kickl!”

Friendly towards Russia

Mr Orban is a veteran of many battles with Brussels over sovereignty, migration and opposition to Western sanctions on Russia for the illegal war in Ukraine.

The FPO campaigned hard in the elections on a pro-Putin, Eurosceptic and anti-migrant platform.  “The government of the state is increasingly no longer in Vienna, but in Brussels,” its manifesto said.

“The space of the state is being eliminated by the de facto principle of open borders.The people of the state are gradually being replaced by permanent mass immigration,” it added.

Led by 55-year-old Mr Kickl, the FPO won 28.8 per cent of the vote, ahead of the centre-Right OVP on 26.3 per cent, and the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPO) on 21.1 per cent according to a projection based on nearly all the votes by pollster Foresight for broadcaster ORF, a slightly bigger victory margin than final polls had indicated.

“We’ve made Austrian history because it’s the first time the Freedom Party is number one in a parliamentary election, and you have to think how far we’ve come,” Mr Kickl said after the party’s record showing, which came seven decades after its foundation in the 1950s under the leadership of a former Nazi lawmaker.

On Monday, the Austrian parties began the process of holding coalition talks which could prove time consuming and complex. The FPO currently lacks enough support from other parties to form a coalition.

Members of a Russian ice hockey team have been jailed after they “humiliated” Federal Security Service (FSB) opposition players by beating them up during a match.

A mass brawl erupted between the “Tough Guy” team and the FSB’s “Phantom” side in far east Russia when two players clashed, video footage shows.

The brawl, which took place in March, involved all 12 players throwing punches at one another and tussling on the ice.

As an FSB attacker and the opposition defender wrestled each other to the ground, individual fights broke out as other Tough Guy players started throwing punches at the opposition team.

Brawls are commonplace in ice hockey, considered to be one of the most popular sports in Russia, but after this match the FSB reportedly ordered the arrest of the opposition players.

‘Hooliganism’ charge

Baza, a Telegram channel with close connections to the Russian security services, said that five players from the Tough Guy team were detained immediately and charged with “hooliganism”, which carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

The Tough Guys team was also disqualified from the ice hockey tournament, the channel added.

“A brawl during a hockey match is a common occurrence and, as a rule, guilty hockey players are usually punished with penalty minutes on the bench,” Baza said. “But this game was special. Immediately after the competition, five Tough Guy players were arrested.”

Two more Tough Guy players were detained last week and ordered to surrender their passports as they were considered a “flight risk” ahead of their trial.

‘Prepare to be imprisoned’

The case has proved controversial in Russia, splitting sports champions and fans over whether the hockey players should have been detained.

Newsbox24, a Russian news Telegram channel, said the arrests were absurd after a “standard” ice hockey brawl. “If you go into the rink against an FSB or police team, should you also prepare to be imprisoned in case you win?” it said.

Reader comments under the Newsbox24 post said the FSB team had been “humiliated” and had acted cowardly by allegedly ordering their arrest.

Other people, though, were more protective of the FSB team.

Yulia Chepalova, a three-time Olympic cross-country ski champion, said that the Tough Guy players should be ashamed for brawling with the FSB, but that criminal prosecutions were taking retribution too far.

Too many Conservatives went “woke” to win votes, Liz Truss has claimed, accusing fellow Tories of failing to fight the culture wars.

The former prime minister said that parts of her own party had adopted socially progressive policies in the hope it would make them more electable.

Ms Truss made the remarks as she appeared in conversation with The Telegraph’s Tim Stanley during her only appearance of this year’s Conservative Party conference.

On Thursday afternoon, she claimed there had been a “big push on woke” which had filtered out into the Civil Service, the BBC and the corporate world.

She said: “I think the Equality Act in Britain was a major part of the country becoming more woke, the Gender Recognition Act and then these things have simply been used as a ratchet to make things worse.

“But there’s been a cultural battle that Conservatives have failed to stand up to.

“In fact, many Conservatives have simply gone along with it because they thought it was electorally advantageous to be seen as progressive. What we’ve seen is a shift from the establishment being fuddy-duddy conservatives to the establishment being the liberal Left.”

Ms Truss was forced out of Downing Street after just 49 days in autumn 2022 amid the economic and political fallout to her and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget.

Asked whether she thought she would have fared better at July’s general election than Rishi Sunak, her successor, she replied: “Yes, I do. Because when I was in No 10, Reform was polling at three per cent.”

By the time of the election, she added, this was much higher because “we promised change that we didn’t deliver. Now, of course without the support of the parliamentary party it was very, very difficult for me to get my changes through.

“And if you have people in the parliamentary party saying ‘this is Liz Truss’s fault this has happened’… It is very difficult for me to deliver that change.”

She said if her tax-cutting agenda had been “allowed to succeed”, Britain would have lower corporation tax and would have brought duty-free shopping into London.

But she admitted it would have been a “tall order” for the Tories to triumph in 2024, and said the party’s best chance of victory would have been keeping Boris Johnson.

Ms Truss said: “I think our best chance of winning would have been to have kept Boris. I think it was a very stupid move of some of my colleagues to undermine Boris.

“And they still haven’t admitted that. And that’s another bit of the analysis that needs to be done.”

She also blamed the rise of Reform, which won just over four million votes at the election, for the loss of her South West Norfolk seat.

Ms Truss said: “I lost my seat largely due to Reform. So Reform took a lot of my vote in South West Norfolk and I was frankly in quite a difficult position because I was running under a very orthodox Conservative Party while being an unorthodox Conservative myself.

“That’s what happened to us in many similar seats. Because Reform did so well, Conservatives lost and Labour got in. I don’t believe the people of South West Norfolk actually consciously wanted a Labour MP.

“They didn’t vote Labour because they were enthusiastic about the Labour Party, they voted Labour because they were fed up that we hadn’t delivered.”

Asked about the current leadership contest, Ms Truss said none of the Tory leadership hopefuls had acknowledged “how bad things are” for both their party and the country.

She said: “There’s been a bit of Panglossian, ‘all we need to do is unite, all we need to do is show competence and we will be ushered back into office’.

“They have to explain what went wrong, why things are so bad for the Conservatives and what they’re actually going to do.

“Now take energy prices. Now I haven’t heard anybody advocating for fracking, I haven’t heard a serious discussion about oil and gas or coal.”

Three Just Stop Oil activists have denied throwing soup on two Van Gogh paintings in a revenge attack hours after other activists were jailed.

The paintings, both versions of the artist’s Sunflowers, were targeted at the National Gallery on Friday shortly after two Just Stop Oil activists were jailed for pouring soup over another painting in the series by the Dutch artist in October 2022.

Stephen Simpson, 71, and Mary Somerville, 77, both of Bradford, West Yorks, and Phillipa Green, 24, of Penryn, Cornwall, pleaded not guilty to criminal damage at Westminster magistrates’ court.

Prosecutor James Bowker said the frames of the paintings had been damaged, adding that an antique frame owned by the National Gallery that was estimated to be worth £10,000 to £20,000, would “likely require lengthy restoration”.

He said the value of the other frame, on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was “unknown but likely to be in a similar range”. Neither painting was damaged.

Mr Bowker said that damage to the artworks would have a “serious social impact”, adding that the Sunflowers “are loved by millions of people around the world and in the UK”.

The court heard that the defendants entered the Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition at the museum in Trafalgar Square at around 2.30pm on Friday.

Simpson and charity worker Green threw soup on to a painting on the left of the gallery and retired teacher Somerville threw soup on to a painting on the right.

The trio then took off their coats to reveal T-shirts which said “Just Stop Oil” on them.

Defending, Raj Chada said the damage to the frames had not been assessed yet.

He said: “There was no damage to the paintings whatsoever.

“They have been covered by a very thick protective glass screen.”

The incident came after the sentencing on the same day of Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, who were jailed after causing as much as £10,000 worth of damage to the frame of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

Plummer received a two-year jail term while Holland was handed 20 months.

The protesters threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work in October 2022, before kneeling down in front of the painting while wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts and gluing their hands to the wall beneath it. The painting has an estimated value of £72.5 million.

District Judge Minhas bailed Simpson, Somerville and Green with the condition of not entering the Greater London area within the M25 except for pre-arranged court appearances.

The activists, who pumped their fists and waved at supporters in the public gallery after being bailed, will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on Oct 28.

A former lawyer who hounded British soldiers over fake war crimes in Iraq has pleaded guilty to fraud.

Philip Shiner admitted to three counts of fraud linked to claims made against Iraq war veterans.

Shiner, 67, led the pursuit of legal claims against British soldiers accused of ill treatment of Iraqi detainees after the 2003 war.

On Monday, he appeared at Southwark Crown Court, where he entered his pleas and will be sentenced on Dec 2.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow.