Savers face a cut to the tax-free lump sum they can take from their pensions, under plans being considered by the Chancellor.

The Telegraph understands that government officials have asked one of Britain’s top pension providers to assess the impact of cutting the tax-free lump sum to £100,000, a third of the current limit.

At the moment, most savers can take 25 per cent of their pension pot tax-free once they reach the age of 55, up to a maximum of £268,275.

A source told The Telegraph that the Government was looking at recommendations by two major think tanks to reduce the limit in an effort to raise around £2 billion in revenue at the Budget.

However, such a move would be seen as another attack on pensioners after Rachel Reeves’s winter fuel raid.

Experts also warned it could open the door to legal challenges.

Both the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Fabian Society have argued that the lump sum should be cut from £268,275 to £100,000 because the current cap favours the wealthy.

The move could affect one in five retirees, the IFS estimated.

Steven Cameron, of the pension company Aegon, said: “Many individuals will have planned their retirement finances on the assumption they could take 25 per cent of their full fund as a tax-free lump sum. Being stopped from doing so would cause a major outcry.”

Mike Ambery, of the pension firm Standard Life, said: “Operationally, it would be complicated. That’s because pension funds are normally written under trust and also you can’t really retrospectively make changes to benefits that people have already built up. It could be subject to a legal challenge.”

Because of these risks, the Treasury could be tempted to taper away the tax-free lump sum gradually over time. But this would have a knock-on effect on revenue.

The Chancellor has reportedly backed down on plans to reduce the 40 per cent pension tax relief for higher earners amid concerns it would unfairly hit those working for the public sector.

She is also considering abandoning her pledge to abolish non dom status over fears it may fail to raise any money and is now thought to be looking for other ways to plug a claimed £22 billion hole in the public finances.

However, the Government has already faced a backlash, including from Labour MPs, over the decision to hit pensioners by scaling back the winter fuel allowance for most.

There have been fears about the erosion of the £268,275 cap ever since the abolition of the lifetime allowance.

The  £268,275 figure equates to 25 per cent of the £1.073 million allowance, which used to be the maximum someone could build up in their pensions without paying extra tax until the Tories scrapped it in April 2024.

The IFS said in a report published last month: “While there is a case for encouraging people to save at least a certain amount for their retirement, it is hard to justify continuing to subsidise extra saving for individuals with pension wealth little short of £1,073,100.”

With the autumn budget looming, more savers have been drawing their tax-free lump sum as soon as they hit retirement age or upping their pension contributions in advance of any fiscal changes.

Bestinvest, an investment platform, said it had seen a tenfold increase in contributions to Sipps (Self-invested personal pensions) in September. Meanwhile, the number of pension withdrawal requests doubled year-on-year, driven mainly by savers accessing their tax-free lump sum.

The Chancellor was last week urged to reassure pensioners after it emerged savers were pulling money out of their retirement pots early owing to fears of an Oct 30 tax raid.

In a letter to the Treasury, Quilter, a wealth manager, warned that Budget fears had prompted clients to take “knee-jerk decisions” that could jeopardise their financial security.

Steven Levin, Quilter’s chief executive, said: “We are witnessing more clients considering whether to withdraw their pension tax-free cash prematurely.

“The knock-on uncertainty around changes to pension tax reliefs, tax-free cash and possible amendments to pension contributions is causing anxiety and confusion for those trying to plan their financial futures.”

The letter added: “A prompt statement from the Treasury, advising against changes to pension arrangements pre-Budget, would be highly beneficial.”

Wealth managers warned that changes to tax-free withdrawals would be destabilising for those in their late 50s and early 60s who have already earmarked funds in their retirement plans, such as paying off their mortgage.

Jason Hollands, of wealth manager Evelyn Partner, said: “More customers are getting in touch to ask about withdrawing money early. This has been fuelled by think tanks, such as the IFS, saying the lump sum should be slashed to £100,000.

“This has petrified some people who might have been banking on tax-free cash to clear mortgages or reduce debt in the next few years.

A Government spokesman said: “We do not comment on speculation around tax changes outside of fiscal events.”

A soldier accused of spying for Iran before escaping from prison approached MI6 saying he wanted to be a “double agent”, a court heard.

Daniel Khalife, 23, told security services he had agreed to provide information to the Iranian government but later told police it was “double bluff” and an attempt to “sell himself” to the UK security agencies.

Woolwich Crown Court heard Khalife had thought about espionage since the age of 17 and sought out Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

A “relatively short but intense” nationwide search was launched after his alleged escape from Wandsworth Prison, the court heard.

Opening the case, Mark Heywood KC, prosecuting, said the allegations concerned “surreptitious gathering and communication with foreign agents of sensitive, sometimes secret information”.

He said much of it was “information of a kind relevant to the work of the Armed Forces of this country, and so which might well be useful to her enemies”.

“Over a period of more than two years, the defendant collected and made digital records, but also sometimes in paper form, of a large quantity of information of that kind.

“All the while he was a serving soldier in the British Army, employed therefore to uphold and to protect the national security of this country.”

He added that he “made contact with agents of Iran” and “then, on many occasions, he passed information he had gathered to them”.

Turning to the detail of the charges, Mr Heywood said that after completing his training, Khalife joined the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford in March 2020.

‘Developing techniques’

“Daniel Khalife had no real intention to simply get his head down, learn his trade and become what he considered to be a mere Army signaller, even an expert.

“Even during this early stage of his learning, and while still 17 he had begun to entertain thoughts about espionage.”

Outlining how Mr Khalife began developing spying “techniques”, he said that in October 2018 he “typed Mi5 into the search engine” and in December 2018 created two email accounts in the assumed names James Richardson and James Anderson.

In April 2018, he created a contact on his phone with the Iranian dialling code +98 and  “gave the contact the identity ‘Ir’, presumably short for Iran or Iranian”.

He later told police that was a contact for the “first agent” he was in touch with and he initially made contact with a man called Hamed Ghashghavi before being put in touch with an English-speaking handler.

He later told the police when interviewed in January 2022 he was “trying to engage in a double bluff”.

The court heard that on Aug 11 2019, Mr Khalife went to Mill Hill Park in Barnet where he took a photograph of an item inside a bag of dog excrement, said to be the first “clandestine handover” of £1,500 in payment from Iran.

The following day he allegedly took steps to acquire a new passport, later telling police that had been prompted by his handlers, jurors were told.

On Aug 23, he used the MI6 “Contact Us” page on their website to send a message from an email address in the name alexrichardson9632@gmail.com telling them he had been contacted five months earlier by an Iranian government-linked group called New Horizon, it was said.

“They said that they first needed me to create trust, so I made a fake document and sent it to them.

“After 1 week they payed [sic] me 2,000 dollars in a drop off point in Barnet. The reason why I agreed to do this is because I want to work as a double agent for the security service.”

Mr Heywood said Mr Khalife was “flirting with and playing this game of making contact with the UK security agencies from time to time”.

On Oct 10, he wrote again using a different email and saying he had deleted the previous account “because I didn’t feel as though I took the relevant precautionary measures to keep my identity hidden”.

He said that New Horizon knew what he worked as and “thought I had access to information that would be valuable to them” but said this was “not true”.

“I gathered already leaked info from wikileaks and made it look like it was new information to be sent to them…There is more stuff to add however I don’t have the time to write it all here.”

Mr Khalife allegedly travelled a year later to Istanbul for a meeting with his handlers and in August 2020 received a message from a “David Smith” saying: “I have some very good news for you. We are organising a meeting for you in Iran.”

Mr Khalife asked if it was better to go to Ankara, the Turkish capital, or Istanbul and “Smith” suggested the latter was “better because it is a tourism city”.

“To look like a holiday it needs to have a return ticket,” Mr Khalife responded. “I will try to be there on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

He was told “no one must not get aware of your trip” and not to go to the Iranian embassy in London.

Anonymous message

However, Mr Heywood added that rather than “an attempt to be able to sell himself to the UK security agencies” which he did contact, “his real focus was with those of Iran”.

“It will be for you to say whether his motives were, whether he was playing a cynical kind of game,” he told the court.

“The prosecution case is that he began a process of obtaining, recording and communicating material, information of a kind that might be or was intended by him to be useful to an enemy of the UK. 

“In doing so, he was consciously acting for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of this country.”

Mr Heywood related a message Mr Khalife sent anonymously to the Secret Intelligence Service on Aug 23 2019 in which he detailed agreeing to provide information to the Iranian government.

Mr Khalife wrote: “The reason why I agreed to do this is because I want to work as a double agent for the security service.”

Earlier, Mr Heywood explained the threat from Iran to the UK, saying “one significant branch of the Iranian armed forces is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” whose role included “foreign intelligence”.

‘Iran a real threat to security’

“Iran is one of the relatively few countries in the world with which this country does not have good and mutually beneficial relations,” he said.

“The evidence will show that Iran is a state actor that threatens the United Kingdom. 

“Particularly, both now and during the period with which the case is concerned, Iran represented a real threat to the security of this country.

“That matters, because collaborating with or passing significant information to representatives of a country like that itself creates a risk and can be criminal.”

Mr Khalife was a computer network engineer with the Royal Corps of Signals, the British Army’s communications arm, based at Beacon Barracks, Stafford.

British-born Mr Khalife, who has Iranian and Lebanese heritage, is accused of committing an act prejudicial to the interests or safety of the state by collecting information that might be useful to an enemy between May 1 2019 and Jan 6 2022, contrary to the Official Secrets Act 1911.

He is also charged with eliciting information about members of HM Armed Forces and a third “bomb hoax offence” alleging he left three canisters with wires on his desk in his accommodation at MoD Stafford, also known as Beacon Barracks, on Jan 2 2023.

Mr Khalife, from Kingston upon Thames, south-west London,  is also accused of escape, contrary to common law.

He denies the charges and the trial, expected to last six weeks, continues.

The VAT raid on private schools could be changed amid a backlash from military families ahead of the Budget, The Telegraph understands.

The Treasury previously said ministers would “closely monitor the impact” of the policy on children of serving personnel and diplomats, and that any changes would be considered next year.

However, The Telegraph understands that the monitoring and cross-government discussions are happening now after military families warned that they could leave the Armed Forces over fee increases.

Ministers are understood to be considering various options for military families ahead of the Budget on Oct 30, when the legislation, to impose 20 per cent VAT on private school fees from Jan 1 2025, will be formally unveiled.

Potential mitigations are understood to include a VAT exemption for military families who receive the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) – a form of taxpayer-funded support to help with private education.

The Government could also choose to recalculate the CEA to ensure those families are shielded from the VAT raid.

The CEA is designed to provide stability for children whose parents frequently work away, and can cover up to 90 per cent of boarding school fees.

It is currently capped at £9,080 a term for senior school pupils and £7,489 for younger pupils, with families paying the remaining 10 per cent.

This means that, despite the financial aid, military parents in receipt of CEA support often have to spend upwards of £17,000 per year to send their child to boarding school. 

‘They’ll consider leaving’

This will now be eligible to increase by 20 per cent VAT under current plans.

The policy has prompted growing calls for the Government to reconsider the VAT policy for service families.

The Army Families Federation wrote to the Treasury last month warning that many “will now consider leaving” unless the Government rolls out concessions.

The charity, which supports soldiers and their families, said a poll showed that 70 per cent of those with privately educated children would quit the forces without further support.  

The military is already facing a recruitment crisis and struggling to retain experienced staff.

In its formal response to the Treasury’s consultation on the VAT plans, the AFF warned that “any failure to mitigate the effect of this policy will lead to disincentivising service personnel to remain in the Army, at a time when retention is already a critical concern for the MoD [Ministry of Defence]”.

It cited concerns from one military family whose private school bills are set to triple under the VAT policy. 

The parents said their 10 per cent CEA contribution to cover three children’s boarding fees would rise from £11,718 a year to £30,405 a year under the VAT plans, potentially making them unaffordable.

The RAF Families Federation also wrote to the Treasury calling for a reprieve for the children of serving personnel. 

The support group said a poll of more than 100 members showed 30 per cent “would have to consider leaving the military” under the VAT plans.

It warned that this could pose a particular concern among military families posted overseas, where there is often no English schooling provision and children are frequently sent to boarding school.

“These posts require experienced personnel, many of whom are of an age where they have teenage children. There is a risk that these posts will simply be unable to be filled as a result, leaving a significant gap in the UK’s ability to carry [out] our key defence tasks,” it said.

The Naval Families Federation also wrote to the Treasury last month warning of an exodus from the armed forces under the VAT plans.

It said a third of families “made it clear that they are considering whether they will remain in the Armed Forces if these changes are implemented without any due consideration for the unique circumstances of service life”.

The Telegraph revealed last month that the Army consulted military families over their concerns separate to the Treasury consultation on the VAT plans, which closed on Sept 15.

Military families were asked to share their views by Sept 23 in a poll drawn up by the Army’s policy team and shared on its official social media channels.

The Army said it was “keen to understand the impact of this change on service personnel and their families” and recognised that many families “depend on private schools to provide stability to their children while they meet the day-to-day demands of service life”.

‘Destructive, disruptive and divisive’

It comes amid widespread backlash over the Government’s flagship education policy, with unions and tax associations now calling on ministers to delay it until next September.

Damian Hinds, the shadow education secretary, said in an Opposition Day Debate on the VAT plans on Tuesday that it was a “destructive, disruptive and divisive education tax… [that] will interrupt learning”.

MPs voted to reject a motion put forward by the Conservatives to publish an impact assessment on the plans ahead of the Budget.

James Murray, the Treasury minister, defended the decision not to delay the policy, saying that “a January 2025 start date means that schools and parents will have had five months to prepare”.

A government spokesman said: “We want to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help to raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for next year, such as recruiting 6,500 new teachers.”

“We provide Continuity of Education Allowance to eligible officials and service personnel, which is in recognition of the enormous sacrifices our military families make and the fact that they are often required to move base location. 

“The allowance ensures that we can limit disruption to the education of serving personnel’s children.”

The Post Office is considering scrapping two thirds of jobs in a drive to cut costs, The Telegraph can reveal.

A review into the sustainability and future of the Post Office was launched earlier this year by Nigel Railton, its interim chairman.

Plans are “under discussion” with the Government, the business’s only shareholder. They are expected to be shared with staff and sub-postmasters in the coming weeks.

The proposed swingeing cuts have led to fears that more Post Offices could close across the country.

The news came as Nick Read, Post Office chief executive, prepares to face his first of three days of questioning at the Horizon Inquiry on Wednesday.

The inquiry into the wrongful prosecution of 900 sub-postmasters – after Fujitsu software incorrectly recorded shortfalls in their accounts – has previously heard Mr Read was “obsessed with his pay” and repeatedly asked for pay rises.

Former HR director Jane Davies submitted a document to the Post Office which detailed complaints against Nick Read, while she was in her post.

A subsequent investigation exonerated the chief executive, but Ms Davies previously told MPs in a letter that she found the chief executive to be “obsessed with his pay” to such an extent that it was “a huge distraction” from her establishing herself in her new role.

‘Seeking views’

Announcing the strategic review earlier this year, the Post Office said it would be seeking the “views of the serving postmasters and other stakeholders with an interest in the Post Office’s role in communities across the country”.

Yet The Telegraph understands one recommendation currently being considered could result in Post Office staff numbers being slashed from around 3,100 to approximately 1,000.

It is understood that the recommended reductions are intended to help cut more than £200 million in costs, with plans to use at least some of the saved money to improve sub-postmasters’ pay.

Any cut to Post Office staffing would not affect sub-postmasters, independent operators who run the vast proportion of the UK’s 11,500 branches.

However, it raises the possibility that the country’s dwindling Crown Post Office network, run by staff directly employed by the business, could be reduced still further.

As of March 2023, there were just 117 Crown branches remaining in the UK.

Jobs to be cut could also include those of staff working in the company’s London headquarters.

The review is also expected to say whether a number of branches, in some of the most rural parts of the country, will see vital grants reduced dramatically.

Earlier this year, The Telegraph revealed that nine branches could be forced to reduce their hours or close after the Post Office had written to them to say that the “exceptional payments” they received from the business would be reduced or cut altogether.

When The Telegraph approached the Post Office about the affected postmasters, the business said it would not go ahead with the changes until the strategic review was completed.

James Cartlidge, a Tory MP and former defence minister whose constituent was affected by the plans, likened the review to a “sword of Damocles” over the postmasters’ heads.

Much-anticipated evidence

On Wednesday, Mr Read will make his much-anticipated appearance at the inquiry, to which he will give evidence over three days.

Mr Read, who announced in September that he would be leaving his job in March 2025, is likely to be questioned on claims that he repeatedly asked for more money and threatened to resign when his requests were refused.

Last week, Henry Staunton, the former chairman of the Post Office, was questioned over a letter he sent to Grant Shapps when the latter was business secretary about a “critical situation” regarding Mr Read’s pay package.

Writing that Tim Parker, Mr Staunton’s predecessor, had raised similar concerns about the chief executive’s pay on two previous occasions, Mr Staunton suggested that Mr Read’s base salary should be raised from £415,000 to £535,800 – and his total compensation packaged hiked from £788,500 to £1,125,180.

Mr Staunton also told Mr Shapps that he should recognise that “if Nick were to resign” any replacement would be seeking a minimum of £1 million for their overall pay package.

When asked about the letter, Mr Staunton said: “It was obviously just a massive salary increase for – in a company where it wasn’t a normal corporate. It’s – it was a public – owned by the public, paid for by the public purse.”

A Post Office spokesman said: “Our interim chair commissioned an independent review that’s looking at the sustainability of our branches and how we can best serve communities into the future.

“He has been clear from the outset that remediation for postmasters affected by the IT scandal and providing postmasters with a higher revenue share are his priorities.

“A range of recommendations are currently under discussion with the Government, and we are engaging with bodies representing Postmasters as these discussions continue.”

A Department for Business and Trade spokesman said: “The future of the Post Office is crucial for customers, postmasters, businesses and communities, helping to drive growth across the country.

“Nigel Railton has commissioned a wide-ranging, independent review regarding its future direction and a number of recommendations are currently under discussion.”

Robert Jenrick went backwards in the Tory leadership race because of a “flat” performance at last week’s party conference, critics claimed on Tuesday night.

The former immigration minister – seen by many as the original frontrunner – lost two supporters in the third ballot of MPs, ending up with just 31 backers.

It put him just one vote in front of Kemi Badenoch, leaving the pair in a fight to the finish to get to the final two to be put forward to the membership, alongside James Cleverly.

A member of a rival camp claimed that not only did his conference speech not go down well, the row over his claim that special forces were “killing rather than capturing terrorists” further added to his woes.

“Rob’s speech was flat, his ECHR video row annoyed more people than it won over, and there’s a general sense that his campaign has hit its ceiling and is now sinking,” the source said.

On Tuesday night, Nigel Farage said he believed Mr Jenrick would not make the final two.

He said: “I could give him lessons if he wants, I could coach him, but you can’t try and out-Farage Farage unless you’ve got a track record of believing in these things.”

A spokesman for Ms Badenoch’s campaign said: “There are three candidates left in this contest, two are gaining votes and one is going backwards and losing support.

“The Right of the Conservative Party now needs to coalesce around Kemi, who can reach across and unify the Party, has the star quality to cut through in Opposition, and is indisputably the members’ choice for leader.”

However, members of the former immigration minister’s team were bullish, saying they believed many of those who backed Mr Cleverly on Tuesday would return to Mr Jenrick.

“Some MPs were trying to be smart but will come back once they realise the stakes,” a source said.

They said that Ms Badenoch really needed to go ahead of him in terms of votes in the third ballot, because more Tom Tugendhat backers will switch their support to Mr Jenrick than to Ms Badenoch.

On Tuesday night, Nick Timothy became the first supporter of Mr Tugendhat to do so.

The source said they were not worried they had lost momentum, saying that if Mr Jenrick gets into the final two: “The contest will be between the man who resigned over the failed Rwanda Bill and the man who took it through the Commons.

“It will be between the man who has talked about the importance of the NHS versus someone who is purely about vibes.”

Another campaign source said: “Robert is now in prime position to make the final two. MPs want seriousness and competence.

“That’s why he’s won support from across the party so far – from Danny Kruger on the Right to Vicky Atkins on the Left.”

MPs will vote on Wednesday to whittle down the final three to a final two who will then go forward to the final vote, which is by the membership.

With such a slight margin between the pair, it could take the decision of just one MP to change the identity of the final two.

All may not be lost for Mr Jenrick however, if he gets through to the final two.

The Conservative Party membership is known to be further to the Right than the MPs, which could prove a problem for Mr Cleverly.

One recent poll found that if the former home secretary and Mr Jenrick both went to the membership, Mr Jenrick would narrowly win.

However, Mr Cleverly clearly went down much better at the Tory conference in Birmingham last week, when he warned activists against appointing an “apprentice” rather than someone who had been both foreign secretary and home secretary,

Mr Jenrick’s speech, however, failed to win over the conference hall to the same extent. He used the event to evoke Sir Tony Blair by calling for his Party to become the “New Conservatives”.

Polls also indicate that Ms Badenoch could beat Mr Cleverly if she ends up in the final two.

One of her rivals said: “MPs have a choice between a serious and competent leader or, on a weekly basis, having to defend attacks on Doctor Who, and madcap ideas like lowering maternity pay, the end of free care with the NHS and how the minimum wage is too high. 

“The Party can’t afford more years of this.”

Rachel Reeves has been warned that increasing taxes on alcohol and pubs in the Budget would spell “the end of the affordable pint”.

Brewers and hospitality firms have told the Chancellor they have “nothing left to give” and would be driven out of business by further costs.

In a letter seen by The Telegraph, they also told Ms Reeves that Angela Rayner’s plan to boost workers’ rights is at risk of causing a staffing crisis.

Ms Reeves is considering an increase in alcohol duty in the Budget, despite warnings it would lead to a drop in revenues by depressing sales of drink.

The Treasury has also failed to guarantee that 75 per cent business rates relief for pubs will be extended beyond next April, when it is due to expire.

Under the Tories alcohol duty was frozen for almost three years – from autumn 2020 until August 2023, when it was was increased by 10 per cent, in line with inflation at the time.

Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor, then froze the levy at his final two budgets, with the most recent freeze set to expire in April unless Ms Reeves extends it.

A sector in crisis

Leading drinks companies warned higher taxes would have a devastating effect on a sector facing a “cost-of-doing-business crisis”.

“The industry simply cannot afford other costs, let alone tax increases,” they said in a letter organised by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).

“Put plainly, for thousands of pubs and brewers across the country there is nothing left to give. The cost of this will be borne by brewers and pubs initially but… ultimately it is the customer who will have to foot the bill.”

The letter was signed by dozens of Britain’s biggest brewers and pub firms including Greene King, Youngs, Heineken UK and Wetherspoons.

They urged Ms Reeves to stick to the five-point plan for pubs she unveiled during the election campaign, which included business rates reform.

“If that plan is not delivered, we will see pubs close and the end of the affordable pint,” they wrote.

“When a pub struggles to survive, it cannot continue to be the beating heart of a community, keep employing staff, or contribute to economic growth.”

Alcohol duty – which depends on a drink’s strength – on a pint of 4.5 per cent beer at a pub is 49p. The average price of a pint overall, covering all strengths, is £4.98

Senior figures in the drinks industry have voiced fears Ms Reeves could target their sector to raise revenue to fill the claimed £22 billion budget black hole.

But they have warned the Treasury that previous alcohol duty increases, including the last one imposed by Rishi Sunak, have led to a drop in revenues.

That is because consumers have become increasingly sensitive to even relatively small price increases in recent years, they said.

Brewers have also warned that new green rules on packaging will lead to “eye-watering extra costs” equivalent to a 7-14 per cent increase in beer duty.

Under the Tory-era plans, from next year companies will have to pay towards the collection, recovery, and disposal of packaging on their products.

Beer garden smoking

Drinks companies have raised wider concerns that the Government risks damaging their business model with its interventionist approach.

In the letter they said the planned ban on smoking in beer gardens “risks driving customers from pubs that have spent millions investing in outdoor spaces”.

They also warned that Ms Rayner’s package on workers’ rights, which includes a clamp-down on zero hours contracts, will damage the sector.

“Significantly above inflation increases to the National Living Wage and disproportionate restrictions to employment flexibility will lead to significant staffing difficulties,” they wrote.

“This won’t just affect employers; it will affect those who need flexibility to work, which is why we need a clear plan from Government about how this will be mitigated.”

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the BBPA, said the warning showed that Labour must stick to its promises to support the sector.

“They must use this Budget to cut beer duty, reform business rates, and maintain the vital 75 per cent business rates relief,” she said.

“If they want to keep the public house a public home, they must keep their word and support a sector that pours billions into the economy, supports more than a million jobs, and is a cornerstone of the community.”

The Treasury has said it does not comment on budget speculation.

Russian spies are targeting Britain with Cold War-style sabotage, the director general of MI5 has warned.

Writing exclusively for The Telegraph, Ken McCallum said Vladimir Putin’s intelligence agencies are targeting businesses to undermine the UK’s security and economy.

His comments came as he gave his annual threat briefing, in which he warned that Russian operatives are “on a sustained mission to generate mayhem in British streets”.

In a joint article with Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI chief executive, business leaders were urged to “think hard about the sabotage risk you might be facing”.

“States are not just going after government and military secrets, British businesses have become a target too”, they wrote. “State actors have made aggressive and well-documented attempts to steal UK advantage, including through cyber attacks and penetration of supply chains.

“It might sound like a Cold War-era manoeuvre, but while the war in Ukraine grinds on, we have seen Russian state-sponsored sabotage attempts targeting European – including UK – businesses, with arson a prevalent, but not the only, tactic.”

The Cold War was characterised by repeated attempts by East and West to steal the others’ industrial and military secrets. Mr McCallum said logistics firms, and those with international footprints, are most at risk.

In recent months, the Kremlin has re-energised such covert activity through the use of criminal gangs and is thought to be behind a number of planned or actual attacks across Europe.

In May, the Polish authorities arrested an alleged Russian spy ring planning attacks on commercial premises in the country.

Donald Tusk, the prime minister, said at the time: “We currently have nine suspects detained and indicted, who have been directly implicated in the name of Russian [intelligence] services in acts of sabotage in Poland.”

Earlier this year, Thomas Haldenwang, the head of German domestic intelligence, warned that “we assess the risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage [by Russia] to be significantly increased”.

In the UK, seven people were charged over a Russia-linked arson attack on a Ukrainian business at an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, on March 20. 

Two were charged under the National Security Act 2023 – the first case to involve alleged offences under the new legislation.

Giving his annual speech from the Government’s Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre, in west London, Mr McCallum gave a stark warning to anyone considering working for states hostile to British interests.

He said: “If you take money from Iran, Russia or any other state to carry out illegal acts in the UK, you will bring the full weight of the national security apparatus down on you. It’s a choice you’ll regret.”

The MI5 chief added that as the war in Ukraine continues, the security services were seeing “Putin’s henchmen seeking to strike elsewhere in the misguided hope of weakening Western resolve”.

The expulsion of more than 750 Russian diplomats from Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine has put a “big dent in the Russian intelligence services’ ability to cause damage in the West”, he added.

As a result, malign states such as Russia and Iran have increasingly turned to criminal elements to carry out their “dirty work”.

The MI5 director general said Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU – deemed responsible for the 2018 chemical attack in Salisbury against double agent Sergei Skripal, which resulted in the death of local woman Dawn Sturgess – had been active in the recruitment of criminals.

“The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets,” he said. “We’ve seen arson, sabotage and more – dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness.”

Elsewhere in his speech, Mr McCallum said the law enforcement and security services were “powerfully alive” to the risk that events in the Middle East could trigger a terror attack in the UK.

He said al-Qaeda had sought to capitalise on the conflict in the Middle East by calling for violent action, and that his staff would give their fullest attention to the risk of an increase in Iranian state aggression in the UK.

Since the start of 2022, MI5 has helped to disrupt 20 Iran-backed plots presenting lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents.

Speaking a day after the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel, the spy chief said “the ripples from conflict in that region will not necessarily arrive at our shores in a straightforward fashion”, adding: “They will be filtered through the lens of online media and mixed with existing views and grievances in unpredictable ways.”

Russia and Iran continue to be the focus for external threats to the UK, with the number of state threat investigations run by MI5 up 48 per cent in the last year alone.

The head of MI5 said his agency also has “one hell of a job on its hands” given the changes in the terrorist threat in recent years. Since 2017, MI5 and the police have together disrupted 43 late-stage attack plots. In some cases, terrorists were trying to get hold of firearms and explosives in the final days of planning mass murder.

Although Islamist extremism continues to make up about three-quarters of MI5’s counter-terrorist work – the remainder being extreme Right-wing terrorism – Mr McCallum said that “much has shifted”.

“Straightforward labels like ‘Islamist terrorism’ or ‘extreme Right-wing’ don’t fully reflect the dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies we see,” he said. “We’re encountering more volatile would-be terrorists with only a tenuous grasp of the ideologies they profess to follow.”

Referring to advances in communications technology, Mr McCallum said security services must keep access to online communications in the face of calls for greater encryption and privacy, otherwise “terrorists will be able to operate at scale without fear of consequence”.

He said: “Privacy and exceptional lawful access can coexist if absolutist positions are avoided. World-class encryption experts are confident of this.”

Mr McCallum also revealed there has been a threefold increase in the number of under-18s investigated by his agency for involvement in terrorism over the last three years.

Extreme Right-wing terrorism “skews heavily towards young people”, he said, “driven by propaganda that shows a canny understanding of online culture”. This has resulted in 13 per cent of MI5’s terrorist investigations being against children.

Italy’s prime minister appeared in court on Tuesday to demand punishment for two men who allegedly created deepfake pornographic videos of her and posted them online.

Giorgia Meloni, who dialled into the courtroom by videolink, has demanded 100,000 euros (£84,000) in compensation, which she said she will donate to a fund that helps female victims of domestic violence.

Roberto Scurosu, 73, and his son Alessio Scurosu, 40, from Sardinia, are accused of creating the fake videos featuring Ms Meloni and posting them to American porn websites in 2020, two years before she became prime minister.

The videos were viewed millions of times, prosecutors allege.

Both men are accused of defamation. In Italy, some defamation cases can be criminal and carry a custodial sentence.

“I insist on demanding the punishment of those who are responsible because I consider what they did to be intolerable,” the prime minister told the court, according to Ansa, Italy’s national news agency.

“This is a form of violence against women. It is intolerable in terms of how these images made me feel.

“With the advent of artificial intelligence, if we allow the face of some woman to be superimposed on the body of another woman, our daughters will find themselves in these situations, which is exactly why I consider it legitimate to wage this war. 

“I consider it to be my responsibility and maybe there should be more severe laws.”

‘Sends message to women victims not to be afraid’

Ms Meloni appeared by video link from Rome, giving evidence in the trial held in the Sardinian town of Sassari.

She expressed worry about the way AI can be used to produce images that appear to be authentic.

The prime minister responded to questions put to her by a prosecutor, Maria Paola Asara, the judge in the case, Monia Adami, and a defence lawyer, Maurizio Serra.

Her decision to pursue the case is intended to “send a message to women who are victims of this kind of abuse of power not to be afraid to press charges”, her lawyer said earlier this year.

Police were able to identify the father and son by analysing their phone and computer records, as well as nicknames that they used online.

Deepfakes are realistic-looking videos, images or audio clips that depict people in situations they have never actually been in by using technology that digitally enhances or changes content.

According to the Ban Deepfakes campaign, deepfake sexual content increased by more than 400 per cent between 2022 and 2023.

Fake pornographic images of the actresses Emma Watson and Kristen Bell and the singer Taylor Swift, among others, have gone viral, sometimes being seen millions of times before platforms remove the content.

Vladimir Putin will hold an urgent meeting with the Iranian president on Friday over the crisis in the Middle East.

Putin will fly to Turkmenistan for a previously unscheduled appearance at an obscure summit of regional leaders, the Kremlin said.

Aides said he would meet Masoud Pezeshkian to discuss the conflict that has drawn Israel and Iran to the brink of war.

“This meeting is of great importance both for discussing bilateral issues and for discussing the sharply aggravated situation in the Middle East,” said Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin aide.

Iran and Russia have become close allies since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Iran has been supplying Russia with missiles and drones since 2022 in return for technical know-how, money and other weapons.

This is the first meeting between the two leaders since Iran fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel last week in response to Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader.

Putin and Mr Pezeshkian are also due to meet on the sidelines of the annual summit for the Brics economic group in Kazan, Russia, on Oct 22-24.

Mikhail Mishustin, Russia’s prime minister, visited Iran last week for talks with Mr Pezeshkian and Mohammad Reza Aref, the first vice-president.

Analysts said that the Interconnection of Times and Civilizations: the Basis of Peace and Development Forum was an obscure meeting spot for Putin and Mr Pezeshkian.

“The meeting seems to have been organised at the last minute,” said Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Iran may want to secure Russian support as it awaits Israeli retaliation for its ballistic missile strikes on Oct 1. It is a strange place to hold a bilateral meeting, and not necessarily a normal forum for the two countries to meet.”

Leaders of Central Asian countries are meeting to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Magtymguly Pyragy, the 18th-century poet and philosopher.

Considered one of the fathers of Turkmen language literature, his writings were infused with Sufism, a mystical form of Islam, and embryonic feelings for Turkmen nationalism.

Neither are topics that Putin has previously shown an interest in.

Former Soviet Turkmenistan is officially a neutral state that lies on the edge of Central Asia, bordering Iran. Gas production, mainly sold to China, props up its economy. This year it has made moves to sell gas to Europe, via Azerbaijan.

Lisa Marie Presley’s life was a very American tragedy. The only child of rock ’n’ roll’s King, she seemed predestined to spend her days overshadowed by her origins. Born in 1968, her own journey through life included a stab at rock stardom, marriages to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage, struggles with drug addiction and the suicide of her beloved son Ben in 2020. It all ended with her own death in January 2023, aged 54, from a heart attack, following bariatric surgery she had undergone an attempt to lose weight.

Presley had been recording tapes for a planned autobiography, which has been posthumously completed by her daughter, the actress Riley Keough. From Here to the Great Unknown is published today; as befits the daughter of Elvis, it’s quite the ride. Here are some of the highlights.

On Elvis

In August 1977, when Lisa Marie was nine years old, Elvis hired Libertyland amusement park in Memphis in its entirety, so that he could take her on the rides. “I remember sitting next to him on the roller coaster that day – the Zippin Pippin – keeping one eye ahead on the ride and the other on the gun in his holster, which was on my side,” Lisa Marie recalls in the memoir. “Unless you know or understood him, that sounds terrible, I know. You might think he was crazy, carrying a piece with his daughter sitting next to him, but he was just from the South. It was really funny. So we rode and rode.”

A week later, Lisa Marie was in the upstairs bathroom of Graceland, watching her father die from a drug-related heart attack. “They were standing over him, moving him around, trying to work on him. I was screaming bloody murder.” She is still haunted by the sound of her grandfather Vernon wailing in the living room, “He’s gone, he’s gone!” But, as she observes with tangible disgust, “that afternoon turned into a free-for-all. Everybody went to town. Everything was swiped, wiped clean – jewellery, artefacts, personal items – before he was even pronounced dead.”

Elvis, she writes, “was a God to me.” It’s a statement indicative of the lack of perspective that runs through this crazy tale. “You could always sense my dad’s intensity. If it was a good intensity, it was incredible. If it was bad, watch the f— out. Whatever it was going to be, it was going to be a thousand per cent. When he got angry, everybody would run, duck and take cover.” She depicts him in a hotel penthouse suite in Tahoe, strung out and upset at not being able to get the drugs he wanted, throwing objects off the balcony by the armful, “really angry, cursing and screaming”, while his Memphis Mafia cronies cowered behind sofas. 

On her lawless life at Graceland

Lisa Marie grew up at Elvis’s Memphis mansion, Graceland, which she describes as being “like its own city, its own jurisdiction. My dad was the chief of police, and everybody was ranked. There were a few laws and rules, but mostly not.”

Lisa Marie lived life like a feral princess, running wild with cousins and the staff children, threatening to have people fired if they did not do her bidding. Elvis let her ride her pony through the house, where it stopped and defecated right outside her snuff-pipe-smoking great-grandmother’s bedroom.

The depiction of Graceland is insane, like the Beverly Hillbillies with drugs and guns. Elderly women in the family pull knives on each other; everyone rides recklessly around in golf carts, a “full-on demolition derby all day long”. The Memphis Mafia congregate in a downstairs pool room that Lisa Marie describes as “a vortex”, full of “never ending cigarettes, dirty magazines, dirty cards, dirty books… One time my dad threw a stink bomb down the steps into that room and then locked the doors so no one could get out.” There was a shed full of weapons and fireworks. “Dad and his friends would take firecrackers and shoot them at each other” until an incident when “they all exploded at the same time. The whole shed went up in flames.” Fondly recalling the mayhem, she says: “Sometimes I can’t believe no one was killed up there.”

On her ‘chilly’ mother, Priscilla

One person who isn’t going to enjoy this book is Lisa Marie’s mother, Priscilla Presley, still alive and now 79. “She met my dad at 14, and her parents allowed it. It was a different time,” Lisa Marie notes. (Elvis was 24.) Priscilla is described as having “a chilly disposition” and lacking in “maternal instincts”. After Elvis’s death, Lisa Marie realises: “I’m stuck with this woman. It was a one-two punch: he’s dead and now I’m stuck with her.”

Life with Priscilla was much more strict but also curiously hands-off. Priscilla was frequently absent on film sets and modelling shoots, while Lisa Marie relied on support from the Church of Scientology, to which she’d been recruited by John Travolta. “Scientology kind of raised me for her.” She claims an abusive adult would come to her room at night to spank her. “There was a lot of violence in that house.” But when she showed her mother her bruises, Priscilla would respond: “Well, what did you do to cause that?” Later in life, when Priscilla had another child, there was a degree of rapprochement between daughter and mother, but the memoir doesn’t suggest genuine closeness. “She was never a friend, someone I could talk to,” she says. “I felt like I was her trophy.”

On the ‘controlling, calculating’ Michael Jackson

Lisa Marie’s own love life was always something of a mess. She lost her virginity aged 14 to a 23-year-old actor, who sold pictures of them together to the press. She claims that Priscilla wreaked revenge by setting him up for a drug bust. 

At the age of 21, Lisa Marie became pregnant by, and married musician Danny Keough, father of the memoir’s co-author Riley. He is – perhaps not coincidentally – the only man in Lisa Marie’s life who comes across in this book as honourable and caring. But she left him for pop superstar Michael Jackson in 1994, even as Jackson was facing child-molestation accusations.

Lisa Marie protests that she “never saw a goddamn thing like that. I would have killed him if I had”, yet there are sinister undercurrents between the lines of a relationship she claims was the happiest of her life. “I fell in love with him because he was normal,” she insists, even as she describes a life of wildly inflated luxury, driving the children to school with his pet chimpanzee, and keeping a private anaesthesiologist on hand for reasons he refuses to explain to her. Jackson was 34 when they got together, but told her “he was still a virgin. I think he had kissed Tatum O’Neal, and he’d had a thing with Brooke Shields, which hadn’t been physical apart from a kiss. He said Madonna had tried to hook up with him once too, but nothing happened.”

Despite Lisa Marie’s insistence that she did not believe the paedophile allegations, she admits she didn’t want to have children with Jackson because, she says, “I knew he ultimately wanted to be the only caretaker of the children. Michael wanted to control things. He didn’t want a mother influence, or any other influence, for that matter. I figured Michael would have me have the children and then dump me, get me out of the picture. I could read him like a clock. I knew his nature, and he was very controlling and calculating.”

Conflict over her refusal to have more children and his increasing drug dependency led to the couple splitting less than two years into their marriage, after which Jackson cut off all contact with her. “I can get really mean and really angry and I freak people out when I get like that,” admits Lisa Marie. “It comes from trying to protect myself from pain. I know people can hurt me, so I’ll shut them out. I learned from the best: Michael Jackson. He did it really well.”

On the ‘dramatic’ Nicholas Cage

Lisa Marie was married and divorced four times, the briefest being 108 days in 2022 with the actor Nicolas Cage, a known Elvis obsessive. From Here to the Great Unknown doesn’t shed much light on this relationship, but Riley Keough fills in some gaps, recalling her own memories of it as having been a “ton of fun”. 

The couple dressed up as horror-film characters, and Cage turned up every day in a different Lamborghini to shower Lisa Marie in diamonds. During one yacht trip, things became rowdy, and she threw a $65,000 engagement ring into the Pacific Ocean. “Nic bought her another one,” we’re told, “even more expensive than the first.” All Lisa Marie has to say is this: “We were so dramatic, the two of us, that we couldn’t stay contained.”

On heartbreak and death

After Elvis died in 1977, his body laid in state for visiting crowds at Graceland. Lisa Marie would sit and watch as they filed past his coffin, “fainting and screaming and grieving so hard”. She doesn’t know if anyone noticed her there, watching. Later, when the crowds were gone, she went down to his casket, “to touch his face and hold his hand, to talk to him. It’ll hit me still, on and off it comes. There have been nights as an adult when I would just get drunk and listen to his music and sit there and cry. The grief still comes. It’s still just there.”

I met Lisa Marie in 2012, in a record-company office in London. She was promoting her third and finest album, Storm & Grace, and she cut a striking figure, heavily made up, dressed (as usual) all in black. It was impossible not to note the family resemblances. She had Elvis’s eyes and heavy jaw, a slight curl to the top lip, although there was just as much of her mother in her angular beauty. Her body language was stiff and cautious; she took a long time to warm to the interview. She didn’t speak expansively or give out more information than needed. When I asked whether she was a suspicious person, she replied: “I should be more suspicious. I was born into this, I saw things way too young. You have to constantly keep your eye open. Something happens to people around fame and power and money. It’s a monster you have to tame.”

At 40, following the birth of twins by Caesarian section, she became addicted to painkillers. Soon she would be popping “80 pills a day” and it was a decade-long struggle to recover. In the memoir, most of this is told from the perspective of Riley Keough, although Lisa Marie’s comments lend sad insights, equating her belated drug dependency with a loss of focus and meaning in her life. In 2014, she left the Church of Scientology, long having harboured doubts. She seemed to be getting her life back on track.

Then in 2022, her son Ben killed himself with a shot to the head. In a morbid echo of Elvis’s lying-in-state, Lisa Marie kept his body in a bedroom at her home for two months, with the temperature maintained at 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius). “I think it would scare the living piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that,” she admits. “But not me… I felt so fortunate that there was a way I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could process his death.”

The latter passages of From Here to the Great Unknown evoke a constant struggle to live with grief. Ultimately, Riley Keough believes that her mother died of a broken heart. “I saw a picture of myself with my parents yesterday,” says Lisa Marie on tapes recorded just months before she died. “I was five or six. I’m standing between the two of them, and they’ve each got my hand. After my father died, people always described me as sad. It was like a permanent imprint on my face after that, in my eyes. 

“But that sadness was not in this photograph. That forlorn little princess bulls–t hadn’t reared its ugly head yet. The sadness started at nine when he passed away, and then it never left. Now it’s even worse – my eyes are downcast permanently in this grief. The view is pretty limited. I always thought – why does everybody always say I look sad. And now I get it.”

From Here to the Great Unknown (Macmillan, £25) is out now

A man who allegedly sold his 11-month-old baby on Facebook for $955 (£729) to fund his online gambling has been arrested by Indonesian police. 

The 36 year-old, who is being identified as RA, was caught after the child’s biological mother returned home to find her baby missing.

Zain Dwi Nugroho, the police chief in Tangerang, a city that merges into the east of the capital, Jakarta, said: “She pressed RA to share the whereabouts of their child until he eventually confessed that he had sold the newborn.

“RA saw on Facebook that the buyers were looking to purchase a toddler so he sent them a message and arranged the purchase.”

He added that the man claimed to police that he needed the money because of financial hardships but then used the proceeds for online gambling.

The police found the baby in a rented home in Tangerang, alongside two adults who were also arrested for suspected involvement in a human trafficking network – a crime that carries a punishment of up to 15 years in jail and a 600 million rupiah fine in Indonesia.

Traffickers will be ‘punished severely’

Ai Maryati, the head of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission, told detiknews: “There is no excuse to be treating children this way and violation of their rights has to be punished severely.”

It comes a month after authorities dismantled a baby trafficking ring in the vast archipelago. 

These cases are not isolated. Roughly 9.3 per cent of people were living under the international poverty line in 2023, and police say that some people consider their children as a way out.

In September, police uncovered a baby trafficking ring after receiving a tip-off in Depok, a city directly south of Jakarta, where they arrested eight people involved in buying and selling young children online.

Arya Perdan, the city’s police chief, said that the children were advertised on Facebook, with prices ranging 10 million to 15 million Indonesian rupiah (£490 to £740).

The traffickers then took the infants to Bali, where they were re-sold for as much as 45 million rupiah (£2,195), CNN Indonesia reported.

According to the United Nations, about 56 per cent of all human trafficking victims worldwide are in the Asia Pacific region, with south and south-east Asia considered key hubs for supplying victims.

Convicted paedophile and rapist Christian Brückner, the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, could be released from prison next year after he was acquitted of separate rape charges by a controversial German judge.

Brückner, 47, is believed by German investigators to have killed three-year-old McCann after abducting her from her parent’s holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.

He has never been charged in relation to McCann’s disappearance.

Instead, he was on trial at Brunswick regional court for various non-related offences that took place in Portugal between December 2000 and June 2017. These include charges of rape and masturbating in front of children.

On Tuesday, Uta Inse Engemann, the presiding judge, said evidence against Brückner was “insufficient” and acquitted him of all charges.

Ms Engemann said she takes her responsibility to “serve the truth” seriously, but added: “We cannot wrap people in cotton wool.”

“This oath means that we don’t have to cater to the views of the media and the defence and the prosecution or the table of regulars-in-a-pub,” she said after delivering her verdict. 

“We have to balance all the evidence presented to us.”

Starting her two-and-a-half hour verdict, Ms Engemann said the testimonies of two former petty criminals were “almost worthless” in relation to the alleged rapes of an elderly woman and a 14-year-old girl.

Manfred Seyfurth and Helge Büsching claimed to have seen videos of Brückner committing rape after breaking into his house in Portugal while he was in prison for stealing diesel.

But Ms Engemann said their testimonies contained inconsistencies on the age of the victims, their nationalities, the language they spoke, the position they were raped in and whether Brückner was involved.

Moving on to the rape of Hazel Behan, Ms Engemann said she believed something “dreadful” had happened to the Irish national, but argued it was not plausible to identify Brückner as her rapist simply by saying he had “piercing blue eyes”.

The judge went as far as to question whether Brückner even had such eyes, having requested to look into them directly herself.

The judge then argued it was not plausible to conclude that Brückner could be found guilty of raping Ms Behan because he had been convicted of Diana Menkes’s rape in 2005.

The prosecution had argued there was a clear link between the rapes because Brückner allegedly liked to tie people up, inflict pain on them for his own excitement, humiliate and subjugate them, and that the rape was only secondary to him – which it argued happened in both cases.

But the judge pointed out the difference in locations in the cases of Ms Menkes and Ms Behan, the level of security at each location, the age of the victims, and the way in which they were raped.

The trial was a fiercely contested battleground. The courtroom saw angry verbal skirmishes over 35 days of proceedings between prosecutors and the defence, led by Friedrich Fülscher, along with shouted interruptions by Ms Engemann.

Last week, Ute Lindemann, the chief public prosecutor, demanded a total of 15 years in prison for Brückner, and for him to be placed under preventive detention, whereby prisoners deemed to pose a danger to society are not released even if they have served their sentence.

Mr Fülscher, Brückner’s defence attorney, tried to dismantle the prosecution’s case in his terse closing plea on Monday and showed solidarity with the judge, whom the prosecution accused of bias in favour of Brückner.

He said: “Last week, you attacked the professional judge, my colleagues and myself, polemically and personally for long bouts.

“You made it clear from the outset that your closing statement was addressed to the public and not to the chamber.”

“You were particularly concerned with maximising damage to professional judges. Almost without exception, your criticism was unjustified and of a rarely low level. My colleagues and I will not stoop to this level today, rather devote ourselves to the actual purpose of these proceedings.”

Ms Engemann, who was born in the federal state of Lower Saxony during the 1960s, studied law at the University of Göttingen before starting her first judicial role at Brunswick regional court in 1993.

Her career took a controversial turn between 2005 and 2010 because of her association with Vaternotruf, a fathers’ rights organisation based in Berlin.

Vaternotruf was known for its outspoken advocacy of fathers involved in custodial disputes, often criticising what it perceived as systemic biases against men within family courts.

Ms Engemann drew fierce criticism from feminist organisations and legal professionals, who raised profound concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

She then officially distanced herself from the Vaternotruf organisation, but the issue has continued to raise questions about her neutrality.

By 2015, her career focus shifted to criminal cases, and she presided over a violent crime trial in Brunswick in 2017.

Brückner’s case went to trial early this year, with Ms Engemann triggering controversy by ruling in July that the evidence against him was so “insufficient” that the arrest warrant would be lifted.

It provoked particular concern that she made this announcement before the prosecution had finished giving its evidence.

As a result, the prosecution moved to have Ms Engemann removed on the basis that she allegedly was biased.

A prosecution motion for prejudice was filed at the 28th hearing and claimed that by making the previous announcement, she had hinted at a preconceived intent to acquit Brückner.

The prosecution now has the ability to appeal Ms Engemann’s verdict by taking it to Germany’s supreme court, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.

If this court rules in their favour, there will be a retrial using a different judge. Ms Lindemann already stated her intention to “take it to Karlsruhe”.

Meanwhile, Brückner still needs to serve the end of the sentence he was handed in 2019 for the brutal rape of Diana Menkes, a US national, in Portugal in 2005. He is set to be freed next year.

In court on Monday, Mr Fülscher said: “We are sitting here today to decide on the freedom and the fate of a human being. Mr Brückner is accused of committing five serious offences, but the court of the main trial tells a completely different story than the public prosecution office has presented here.”

Alluding to Nazi Germany, he continued: “Our constitutional state is first and foremost that the respective offence and not the offender is at the centre of the proceedings.

“We no longer lock people up here because they have character deficits. That time is long gone in our history, thank God.”

A report provided by Dr Christian Riedeman, the forensic psychiatrist, painted a grim picture of Brückner.

Dr Riedemann testified that Brückner falls into the “highest category of danger”, describing him as a serious threat to society.

She also revealed that he wrote disturbing stories with graphic descriptions and drawings detailing the rape of women and children.

This revelation further fuelled the prosecution’s narrative of Brückner as a dangerous and calculating individual.

Yet despite the damning psychological profile, the defence argued that his modus operandi was different because of how he interacted with the victims and the language used during the attacks.

The defence maintained doubt on whether he is the perpetrator in all the cases being brought before the court.

But throughout the trial, Brückner sat impassively – appearing gaunt and detached – and did not make any official statement before the court.

Boris Johnson has said Sue Gray clung on to her job for so long because she “knows where the bodies are buried”.

But the ex-prime minister said Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff was “always a goner” after a member of her family took donations from Lord Alli.

He told LBC that he always knew Ms Gray would have to resign eventually, because her son had taken money from the peer to help run his campaign for Parliament.

Liam Conlan, Ms Gray’s son, is now Labour MP for Beckenham and Penge after receiving a £10,000 donation from Lord Alli towards his campaign.

While she was a civil servant, Ms Gray wrote the damning report into Downing Street lockdown parties, prompting the downfall of Mr Johnson.

It was announced on Sunday that Ms Gray had been removed as chief of staff and replaced with her rival, Morgan McSweeney.

‘Propriety and ethics stuff’

Mr Johnson said: “The interesting thing about Sue is that she spent a long time in the heart of Whitehall, kind of clearing up all the sort-of propriety and ethics stuff.

“So I think she knows where the bodies are buried, and so I think she’s been able to parlay that very useful knowledge into the position she had held until just now.”

He added: “I thought that it was Chronicle of a Death Foretold, really, because I think that this … she was always a goner.

“I don’t want to be seen to be dancing on anybody’s grave – but as soon as it became clear that her son had received money for his campaign – he’s a Labour MP now – from a guy called Waheed Alli, who then got a pass to enter Number 10.”

He added: “And I thought, even if she didn’t know about the suits, even if she didn’t know about the designer spectacles and whatever it was, that was going to be a tough one for her. So I thought this was always going to happen”.

Mr Johnson also claimed she “cut up rough” when she did not get a promotion in the civil service.

“She thought she was going to be, whatever it was, permanent secretary in the Northern Ireland Office, and when she was disappointed in that, she cut up rough,” he claimed.

Mr Johnson is publicising his memoirs, Unleashed.

Joe Biden pushed the UK into giving up the Chagos Islands over concerns the US would lose control of an important air base, The Telegraph understands.

Days after the general election in July, senior officials from the White House’s National Security Council and State Department told the incoming Labour government that refusing to sign away the islands would jeopardise the “special relationship” with Washington.

Sir Keir Starmer was criticised last week for his decision to give up the archipelago of more than 1,000 tiny islands, a UK overseas territory since 1965 known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory.

It was suggested the deal could give China access to the Diego Garcia air base, which is on the largest island in the chain.

Under the deal, Mauritius will take control of the islands, but Britain and the US will rent the base for 99 years.

Strategically important air base

The Telegraph understands that American officials pushed the UK toward the deal, fearing that if it was not signed, Mauritius would successfully apply for a binding ruling at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take control of the islands, effectively shuttering the air base.

The base is considered strategically important because it puts some bomber aircraft within range of the Middle East. Diego Garcia was previously used by the US to conduct bombing runs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US officials told the Foreign Office that a quick deal should be signed before the American and Mauritian elections next month, agreeing to give up UK territory in exchange for the base.

The officials argued that handing over the islands would safeguard Britain’s special relationship with the US, and that a binding court ruling would make it more difficult to fly aircraft to the base, conduct repairs, and cooperate with UN agencies.

‘Deal makes UK look pathetic’

Since announcing the deal on Thursday, the Government has faced criticism from MPs, who argue that Britain should not have agreed to give up territory and to rent a military base it already controls.

Boris Johnson said the “terrible” deal made the UK look “pathetic”.

Some also argued that the base would come under threat from Chinese spyware, because Mauritius and China are economically aligned.

The Telegraph understands that the full terms of the deal, which has not been made public, contain protections against Chinese influence in the islands without the agreement of Britain and the US.

On Monday, Robert Jenrick said David Lammy had signed the deal so that he could “feel good about himself at his next north London dinner party”.

In a debate discussing the decision in Parliament, the Tory leadership contender said: “We’ve just handed sovereign British territory to a small island nation which is an ally of China – and we’re paying for the privilege.

“All so that the foreign secretary can feel good about himself at his next North London dinner party.”

‘Unsustainable’ legal position

However, the Foreign Secretary told MPs on Monday that the dispute between Britain and Mauritius was “clearly not sustainable” and that Labour faced a choice between “abandoning the base altogether or breaking international law”.

Friends of the British Overseas Territories, a charity dedicated to British-owned islands abroad, called Mr Lammy’s statement “shameful”.

“Proceeding with the transfer of [the island] goes against our national interests and must be stopped at once,” it said.

The ICJ had already issued a non-binding ruling that the islands belong to Mauritius, and a further ruling that forced the handover of the base was likely, he said, because of the “regrettable” removal of indigenous islanders by the UK in the 1960s.

Downing Street insisted the deal to give up sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) was due to the “unsustainable” legal position and had no impact on other disputed territories including the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman would not be drawn on the cost to the UK taxpayer of the deal which will see Mauritius being given sovereignty over the islands, with a 99-year agreement to secure the strategically important UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.

The spokesman said: “The Government inherited a situation where the long-term secure operation of the military base at Diego Garcia was under threat with contested sovereignty and legal challenges, including through various international courts and tribunals.

“You will be aware that the previous government initiated sovereignty negotiations in 2022 and conducted a number of rounds of negotiations. This Government picked up those negotiations and has reached an agreement, which means that for the first time in over 50 years, the base will be undisputed, legally secure, with full Mauritian backing.”

Asked why the Islands should not be seen as a precedent for other sovereignty disputes such as the Falklands and Gibraltar, the spokesman said: “It’s a unique situation based on its unique history and circumstances, and has no bearing on other overseas territories.”

The spokesman added: “British sovereignty of the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar is not up for negotiation.”

Britain has never been fatter – with the average man weighing 14st by middle age, according to new data.

The NHS statistics show that we weigh around a stone more than we did 30 years ago – while waistlines keep expanding.

Middle-aged women now weigh an average of 12st, the figures show, with waists of around 36in.

Men of the same age tip the scales at 14st, with a waistband of around 40in.

Health officials said the figures, which reflect the average weights for those aged between 45 and 64, were “worrying” – saying obesity is now one of the greatest challenges facing the country.

It comes as new research suggests that adult obesity may now have peaked in the US. Rates have fallen by around two percentage points since 2020, to 40 per cent.

In England the figure is 26 per cent. Experts said increased employment of weight-loss drugs, which one in eight American adults have used, could be behind the recent US dip.

The NHS is now gearing up for the mass rollout of weight-loss jabs for the first time. The proposals will see up to 1.6 million people offered injections of tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro, with some prescriptions issued via “remote clinics” following online consultations.

The jabs will be targeted at the heaviest patients with the most health problems, starting with those with a BMI over 40 and multiple chronic illnesses.

But the national research results reveal a far wider problem – with two in three people losing in the battle of the bulge.

‘Diabetes, heart attack and stroke’

Dr Clare Hambling, NHS national clinical director for diabetes and obesity, said: “These worrying figures highlight that obesity is now one of the greatest public health issues we face in this country.

“It has a major impact on our health, increasing the risk of many diseases including diabetes, heart attack and stroke, and action is urgently needed across society to turn the tide on the rising rates seen in recent decades and stop so many lives being cut short.”

She said the NHS was “here to help” those trying to lose weight, rolling out 12-week courses which offer behavioural coaching and lifestyle advice for obese patients with health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

“Maintaining a healthy weight can be difficult, but the NHS is here to help those at greatest risk through our effective digital weight management programme and providing access to new weight loss treatments, while supporting wider efforts to tackle the issues contributing to obesity to help save lives and reduce its cost to families, the health service and the economy,” Dr Hambling said.

The figures for England show that in 1993, when data collection began, the country was already battling a major weight problem.

In total, 44 per cent of men were overweight, while 13 per cent were obese.

Now 39 per cent are overweight – while 28 per cent are obese.

For women, 32 per cent were overweight and 16 per cent obese.

Now, the figures are 31 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

The statistics from the Health Survey for England 2022 shows that the peak age for excess weight is 55 to 64, when 80 per cent of men and 69 per cent of women are overweight or obese.

Average heights come in at 5ft 9in for men, and 5ft 4in for women.

Across all ages, the average woman now has a waistline of 34.9in – around two and half inches more than in 1993. For men it is 38.3in, almost two inches more than it was 30 years ago.

The rest of the UK collects data in different ways, but the figures show similar trends.

Tam Fry from the National Obesity Forum said the statistics “highlight the abysmal failure of every administration since 1993 to tackle obesity.”

Katherine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of charities and medical royal colleges, which is calling for extra taxes on unhealthy foods said: “We all want to grow old healthily, and maintaining a healthy weight is an important factor in living out our years in good health.

“However, it is not always easy to access a healthy, nutritious diet, especially if you are juggling responsibilities such as being a parent, carer, worker and managing a household, as many people in middle age are.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “This country has failed to tackle the obesity crisis, harming people’s health and costing the NHS billions of pounds.

“This government is urgently tackling the obesity crisis head on – shifting our focus from treatment to prevention – to ease the strain on our NHS and helping people to live well for longer.”

Stargazers will be able to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower this week as the Earth travels through a cloud of comet debris.

The meteor shower, also known as the Giacobinids, will last until Thursday but will peak on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

It comes after a rare scientific phenomenon known as “Steve” appeared in UK skies on Monday night. 

The relatively new scientific discovery – which stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement – was spotted in Scotland and north-east England.

Little is known about the formation, but it only appears during auroras, which were also seen across England. It appears as a ribbon and lasts for 20 minutes to an hour before disappearing.

What time will the Draconid meteor shower be visible tonight?

While most other meteor showers are best seen in the early hours, the Draconids are best caught in the evening after nightfall.

Dr Minjae Kim, a research fellow from the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, said: “The shower’s radiant point is highest in the evening sky, making it a rare meteor shower best viewed after sunset rather than in the early morning hours.”

The Draconid meteor shower takes place every year and comes from the debris of comet 21 P/ Giacobini-Zinner, which orbits around the Sun for six and a half years.

The name Giacobinids comes from Michel Giacobini, who discovered the comet 21 P/Giacobini-Zinner from which the meteors come.

The streaks seen in the night sky during the meteor shower can be caused by particles as small as a grain of sand.

“During ideal conditions, observers may witness up to 10 meteors per hour,” said Dr Kim.

Where is best to watch the Draconid meteor shower?

Finding a location with an unobstructed horizon and very little light pollution is recommended for seeing the meteor shower.

“The waxing crescent to first quarter moon phase will provide relatively dark skies, enhancing visibility,” said Dr Kim.

“Seek out any areas with minimal light pollution, such as rural settings or parks away from city lights. Also, find a spot with an unobstructed view of the sky and a clear horizon. Allow your eyes about 20-30 minutes to adjust to the darkness for optimal night vision, which is always helpful.

“You could bring a reclining chair or blanket to comfortably observe the sky. Remember, patience is key when stargazing. Settle in, relax, and let the wonders of the night sky unfold before you.”

A convicted burglar from Albania filmed himself flaunting a Ferrari in London, despite being deported twice from the UK.

Dorian Puka, 28, who has twice been jailed and deported for burglaries, sneaked back into the UK and posted a 90-second video of himself driving the £300,000 car on his TikTok and Instagram accounts.

The Home Office admitted it was powerless to remove Puka again until his asylum claim had been fully heard, but warned that foreign criminals should be “in no doubt” of the law being enforced. 

The disclosures come after The Telegraph revealed another Albanian criminal, who entered the UK again after being deported, won the right to stay under the European Convention on Human Rights.

It prompted calls by Tory MPs for the UK to quit or campaign for reforms to the convention, with Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister and Tory leadership contender, claiming it had become a “charter for criminals”. 

Puka was originally jailed for nine months in 2016 and deported the following year for attempting to break into a property. The owner spotted him on a webcam while on holiday in France.

Within a year, he managed to evade border controls and return to the UK and carry out a string of burglaries in suburban London.

Puka was eventually caught by plain clothes officers patrolling Surbiton, in the south-west of the capital, after an increase in local burglaries. He was wearing an expensive watch he had stolen. He was jailed for three and a half years and then deported in March 2020.

During his time in a UK prison, he earned notoriety for using an illegal mobile phone smuggled into the jail to post Instagram pictures of himself. He posed alongside the leader of an organised crime group who was serving a 12-year sentence for conspiracy to supply cocaine and money laundering.

After returning to Albania for several months, he travelled through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands before beating border checks to enter Britain again in December 2020, according to his Instagram account.

It is understood that he has lodged an asylum application, and has been on immigration bail and subject to an electronic tag since last year while he awaits a tribunal to decide on his claim.

As well as the clip of the Ferrari, he has posted photos and videos of his time on holiday at the Carbis Bay Hotel near St Ives, Cornwall, showing himself walking on the beach with the tag on his leg.

His social media account also includes images with other luxury cars, including a Porsche Cayenne, a Mercedes G-Wagon, a Bentley Bentayga, a BMW X5, a Mercedes AMG, and a Jaguar XF.

His sources of funding remain unknown, but Albanian reports suggest he has been staying in a £250,000 two-bed terraced flat in Hounslow, west London.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Foreign nationals who commit crimes should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced. Mr Puka has been deported by the UK before. It is UK law that we cannot deport individuals where there are claims or representations still awaiting decision.

“We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK, with 3,000 returned since the Government came into power.”

To famous correspondences such as Henry James and Edith Wharton, JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis, and Catherine the Great and Voltaire, we can now add the rather surprising duo of King Charles and Melania Trump. 

The former first lady of the United States revealed in her new memoir that she and her husband have an ongoing correspondence with the monarch, writing: “Our friendship with the royal family continues and we exchange letters with King Charles to this day.”

One can only imagine the contents of those letters between the King and the former fashion model, although perhaps thoughts on green issues are exchanged between pleasantries. Mrs Trump first met the then Prince of Wales in New York in 2005, and it was “an absolute pleasure to reconnect with him” in 2019, she comments in her book, when she was seated next to him at a Buckingham Palace banquet during the Trumps’ state visit to the UK. 

Mrs Trump adds: “We engaged in an interesting conversation about his deep-rooted commitment to environmental conservatism.”

Of course, it is to be expected that King Charles would communicate with the leaders of other nations, and Mrs Trump’s husband could yet make a return to the White House. The King sent a private letter to the former president after the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally in July.

He also wrote frequently to another first lady, Nancy Reagan. The pair met when he visited the White House in May 1981, just before his wedding to Princess Diana, and renewed the acquaintance during another US trip in 1985. They wrote from that point on until Reagan’s death in 2016.

In one letter written shortly after that second visit, the King shared that Diana “still hasn’t got over dancing with John Travolta, Neil Diamond and Clint Eastwood in one evening, not to mention the president of the United States as well!”

He was then remarkably candid about the breakdown of his marriage. In a letter to Reagan dated June 21 1992, he described it as “a kind of Greek tragedy”, adding: “It is so awful. Very few people would believe it.”

However, Reagan and Trump are far from the only people that this prolific letter-writer could count among his correspondences, nor does he confine himself to the usual heads of state and politicians.

In fact, one of the King’s keen pen pals is the Australian comedian and novelist Kathy Lette. “King Charles is the most witty wordsmith,” Lette tells the Telegraph. “If he were not born to wear the crown, I have no doubt he’d be literary royalty, ruling supreme as a star columnist on The Telegraph.” High praise indeed.

Lette considers herself a republican, at least as far as Australia is concerned, yet is good friends with King Charles and Queen Camilla. In 2017, she attended the latter’s 70^th birthday celebrations. 

Lette first met the King at an event at Australia House, in the mid 1990s, where she made him laugh by quipping that she too was royalty of a kind because she could trace her lineage back to the first fleet of criminals who landed in Oz. She has praised the King’s “disarming charm”, as well as for being “way ahead of his time on all those environmental issues. I can connect with him on that, big time.” 

Actress and comedian Miriam Margolyes revealed that her correspondence with the King began when he wrote to her about her 1998 audiobook recording of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, and that they have since exchanged numerous notes. Like Lette, she is a great admirer of King Charles, commenting that “he does a huge amount people don’t know about”. Margolyes always hand-writes her letters to the King and never uses a computer, she said, “because I don’t want him to feel that somebody else could see what I write and what he writes.”

It seems very likely that the King similarly prefers the pen to the keyboard. He recently described Dinah Johnson, founder of the Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society, as “inspirational”, and it’s been estimated that, while Prince of Wales, he wrote about 2,400 letters a year, or six and a half letters every day – many to members of the public, and many of them handwritten. 

That speaks to his estimable sense of duty, and also supports Queen Camilla’s view that he is something of a workaholic. Royal expert Richard Kay reports that the King is often to be found in his study late at night, long after his wife and staff have retired to bed, still working on his correspondence. He doesn’t seem to rely on a secretary, instead choosing to put pen to paper himself.

A royal source said that letters from the public often catch the King’s eye because of the issues they raise, and that the letter-writer will then receive a personal letter from him. The source added: “It is all about listening. [the King] says we only learn when we listen and when members of the public write to him, that is a form of active listening.”

The King is also renowned for his compassionate letters at difficult times. Actor Richard E Grant struck up a friendship with King Charles when he became an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust, and was subsequently invited for a weekend at Sandringham, and later to King Charles and Queen Camilla’s wedding. In his book Pocketful of Happiness, Grant writes that when his wife Joan was diagnosed with lung cancer, the King sent her “a two-page, handwritten letter, full of love, compassion, empathy and encouragement.” 

The King gained a new pen pal in 2020 when he wrote a get-well letter to Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald after she tested positive for Covid. “I thought that was tremendously kind and I responded,” said McDonald. “He had Covid as well. This virus makes unlikely allies of us all.” She later conveyed her sympathies, in letter form, following the death of Prince Philip.

Some of King Charles’s other numerous pen pals include the 104-year-old Ena Mitchell in High Wycombe, whose husband Bill was killed in Belgium in 1944. She joined the War Widows’ Association, and the King became its patron. Mitchell and King Charles exchanged letters over the years and, she said, she has sent him “a couple of architecture books I thought might interest him.”

The King’s dedication to letter writing began early. Last year a very endearing note from a six-year-old Prince Charles to The Queen Mother was discovered in a loft and put up for auction. Dated March 15 1955, and written in precise, looping letters on Buckingham Palace notepaper, it reads: “Dear Granny, I am sorry that you are ill. I hope you will be better soon. Lots of love from Charles.” The note also includes colourful drawings and kisses.

The handwriting hasn’t stayed that neat, alas. The King’s letters to various government ministers and politicians were nicknamed the “black spider” memos because of his spiralling, semi-legible scrawl in black ink. Graphologist Elaine Quigley said that his distinctive longhand suggests he is a sensitive man, single-minded, and a passionate communicator. We know King Charles prefers a fountain pen because he used his own when signing his accession documents: a Montblanc 146 Sterling Pinstripe Solitaire. 

Letters seem to be a medium in which he can unburden himself. He recently wrote candidly to friends about his cancer treatment, with one person sharing that the letters suggested his determination not to let the disease slow him down. It was also via a letter (albeit one shared on the royal family’s website and social media) on Sandringham House-headed stationery that the King thanked the public for their good wishes.

In 2020, King Charles and Queen Camilla wrote a letter addressed to “Everyone at Royal Mail” and left it on a bench outside their front door at Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate, for collection by their local postman, Neil Martin. In the heartfelt note, they said that the Royal Mail’s role had never been more important than during the pandemic, as many people took the time to “write a letter, or a card, to those from whom they are separated. Receiving such a personal message at this difficult and anxious time can mean an enormous amount.”

That appreciation for letter writing might well have been instilled by the late Queen Elizabeth II. She kept up a correspondence with her American pen pal, Adele Hankey, for 70 years. Hankey first contacted the queen on her coronation, and the pair shared a birthday, April 21.

It’s a fine tradition to uphold, particularly as technology encroaches on our means of communication. After all, what could be better than receiving a thoughtful, handwritten letter – especially one penned by a royal hand.

Flood alerts are in place across England amid warnings that thunderstorms and heavy rain will cause travel disruption.

There were more than 70 alerts cautioning of possible flooding on Tuesday evening as the Met Office issued a weather warning for thunderstorms.

Flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, were also in place for seven locations on Tuesday evening, including two in Bristol.

Other warnings were issued for Gog Brook in Warwick, Bunches Brook from Broadway to Childswickham in Worcestershire, and for low-lying properties near the River Brue and Glastonbury Millstream from Lovington to Highbridge in Somerset.

A warning was also issued for the B1040 Thorney to Whittlesey Road to the south of the River Nene near Peterborough.

On Tuesday evening, an MP warned that parts of Northumberland were experiencing “severe flooding” amid “extreme conditions”.

Blyth and Ashington MP lan Lavery said his office had “taken numerous calls about the serious flooding” in south-east Northumberland.

A local councillor said roads had been closed near Blyth and fire and rescue service crews were at the scene.

It came after the Met Office warned that thunderstorms may cause flooding and road closures across parts of southern England.

A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms was issued by the Met Office from 10am on Tuesday until 3am on Wednesday.

An area from Dorset to Kent, and stretching as far north as Worcester and across to East Anglia, was covered by the warning.

The Met Office said spray and sudden flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures.

It added that there was a small chance some communities could be cut off by flooded roads.

Mr Lavery said on Tuesday evening that south-east Northumberland was “experiencing severe flooding”.

In a statement posted on social media, the Labour MP said: “We are aware that the emergency services and NCC (Northumberland County Council) are on the ground doing their best in the extreme conditions.

“I know many people have seen their properties flooded and this is just the latest in a series of recent floods affecting the area and there are a number of issues which has made them worse.”

In a post on social media, county councillor Scott Dickinson said: “A number of roads have been closed in the Blyth area and NCC teams are at the scene, along with crews from Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, Northern Powergrid and Northumbria Water.”

National Highways said the M5 in Somerset was temporarily closed southbound on Tuesday afternoon due to flooding after heavy rainfall.

Liam Eslick said: “We are looking to see quite a lot of rainfall with 20mm-30mm in two to three hours but there could be some very heavy bursts with 40mm-50mm falling over a longer period of time.

“We are expecting to see not just rain, we are expecting some hail and quite a lot of thunder, a lot of these showers could turn thundery as they combine together and become larger systems.

“So we are expecting thundery outbreaks and quite gusty conditions, it’s a pretty hefty system across the south.”

The Met Office said showers and thunderstorms will move north and east across southern Britain into Tuesday evening, before gradually clearing from the west.

It added that 40mph gusts of wind are possible in the south of the warning area.

An election day terror plot has been intercepted by the FBI.

An Afghan immigrant, who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State, planned to target large crowds on Nov 5, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was arrested after the FBI discovered that he had been stockpiling automatic weapons and had taken steps to liquidate his family’s assets.

CBS reported that he had travelled to the US on a special immigrant visa in 2021.

He is accused of accessing IS propaganda and contributing to a charity which funnels money into the terror group and is also alleged to have checked surveillance cameras in Washington DC and viewed webcams showing streams of the White House and Washington Monument.

The FBI also believe Tawhedi had searched for places with lax gun laws.

A video recorded on July 20 apparently shows him reading a text to two children about the rewards that a martyr receives in the afterlife

The FBI obtained communications between Tawhedi and a person he believed was involved in IS who facilitated recruitment, training, and indoctrination of potential terrorists.

Tawhedi has been charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to IS, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

He was also charged with receiving a firearm to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

“The Justice Department foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semi-automatic weapons and commit a violent attack in the name of Isis on US soil on election day,” said Merrick Garland, the attorney general.

“We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that Isis and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorize the American people.”

Iran is rapidly expanding a secretive military site used to manufacture ballistic missiles for export overseas, The Telegraph can reveal.

The clandestine site is used to store and prepare missiles before they are shipped overseas to Tehran’s proxies and allies.

Activity at the site, known as the “Shahid Soltani Garrison”, has intensified in the second half of the year, coinciding with reports from Western governments that Iran had begun shipping ballistic missiles to Russia.

At the same time, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an Iranian-backed terror group, ramped up their use of ballistic missiles in attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.

The site is located north-east of Tehran, nestled in a mountainous area between the cities of Karaj and Eshtehard.

It falls under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Al-Ghadir missile command unit.

As well as having operational control of Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles,  Al-Ghadir is responsible for transporting weapons and specialists to train its proxies and allies to use them.

The IRGC unit has been under US and EU sanctions for over a decade.

The Israeli military has said it is planning a “serious and significant” retaliatory strike in response to Iran’s recent ballistic missile barrage, which could include strikes on sites like the Soltani Garrison.

The intelligence on the new site was compiled by the National Council for Resistance in Iran, an opposition group, with the help of sources inside the country and the IRGC.

The group has a strong track record of gathering intelligence on the Iranian regime’s secret operations.

It was the first to reveal the existence of the clandestine Natanz nuclear site, Tehran’s main uranium enrichment site, in 2002.

Hossein Abedini, a senior member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said: “Exporting terrorism, fundamentalism, and warmongering are the other side of domestic repression and an integral part of the regime’s strategy for survival.

“The regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly declared that if we do not fight outside Iran’s borders, we will have to fight the enemy in Iranian cities.”

He added: “This explains why the regime needs belligerence, the export of extremism, proxy forces and focuses on nuclear weapons and missile programmes, plundering the Iranian people’s wealth and resources to this effect.”

The missile site’s last-known commander was Brigadier General Partovi, the opposition group said.

He is supported by members of the IRGC’s local branch in nearby Eshtehard.

The site consists of a series of warehouses that were built about 15 years ago and a newer network of underground tunnels developed more recently.

The missiles believed to be stored at the site include the Shabab 3, a medium-range ballistic missile fired from a mobile launcher, and Fattah class rockets, which have been given to Russia.

The base is separated into two areas, the first with at least five large warehouses, covering around 6,500 square metres.

One of the blue-roofed buildings is around 20 metres tall, indicating the presence of an internal crane to move cargo around.

Satellite imagery of the site in July 2024 shows more than 10 trailers were outside the facility, indicating increased activity.

A second set of around 10 white-roofed structures, covering around 3,000 square metres, sits adjacent.

Alongside the surface installations, there are two tunnels spanning about 305 metres from end-to-end. Excavation started in 2017 and was finished four years later.

Close to the tunnel openings there are what appear to be ventilation ducts.

Iran has a history of building tunnels alongside its military and nuclear installations to protect them from air strikes.

Last year, its regime unveiled details of what it claimed to be a tunnel network used to house air defence systems.

Underground tunnels were also constructed around the Natanz nuclear site, which analysts said were so deep that US air strikes would be unable to reach them.

Local officials, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, say the area around Soltani Garrison is both sensitive and secretive.

Guards are stationed on the road leading up to the facility, with only vehicles belonging to missile site personnel allowed beyond the checkpoint.

The site is protected by two rows of barbed wire and locals are not permitted to approach or take photographs in its direction.

An NHS doctor sued his employer for racism after he was suspended for being “extraordinarily lazy”, a tribunal heard.

Dr Christopher Oyediran was banned by bosses from locum shifts because he would “disappear” every time for up to four hours, an employment tribunal heard.

The 36 year-old was reportedly “always late”, which meant that he missed handovers, was “difficult to contact” and had a “verbally aggressive attitude” towards staff.

He was said to “sit at his desk on his phone for the majority” of shifts and do “minimal work”.

As the “litany of complaints” mounted, bosses suspended him from taking more shifts until an investigation into his conduct took place.

He refused to co-operate and took Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust to the tribunal, claiming race discrimination, whistleblowing and failure to make reasonable adjustments for his ADHD.

The case was thrown out by a judge who said there was not “even a remote possibility” his suspension was based on his race.

The Nottingham hearing was told he had worked for the trust since 2013 before leaving in 2017 and returning to locum at both Queens Medical Centre and City Hospital in February 2020.

Dismissive behaviour

In July 2021, concerns were raised about his work at City Hospital. Issues included his start time, dismissive behaviour towards colleagues, lack of presence in clinical areas and asking junior doctors not to contact him unless it was urgent.

In August 2021, it was reported that he went on his break at 4.30am during a night shift and “had not been seen since”.

Dr Oyediran then asked for a pay rise and promotion in September 2021. However, as a result of concerns about his attitude and behaviour this was not granted and his elusiveness during night shifts continued.

In November 2021, further concerns were raised. He was described as “extraordinarily lazy, sitting at the desk on his phone for the majority of the shift and doing minimal work, was belligerent, and extremely rude to staff”.

It was said: “When asked to do small tasks such as review ECGs he would refuse and throw the ECG back at the staff member and declined to help with a difficult cannula as the patient was not in his team.

“On several occasions, when asked to review patients, he declined to do so.”

Such behaviour was said to be a “recurring theme”.

He was summoned to an appraisal in December 2021. A meeting was suggested in which he could address complaints made against him but he denied all the claims in an email.

‘Capable of reflection’

He wrote “I know I have my flaws”, but said he was “very much capable of reflection”.

He said that if the allegations were “rumours and conjecture” he wanted to know how the trust was going to “remedy things”.

As a result, he was told he could not work at the emergency department of the Queens Medical Centre while an investigation was carried out.

He was told: “There is a genuine concern for your health and a feeling that some of the behaviours described by different staff members, in a number of testimonies, might result from the pressure you are under.”

After further concerns about absences, he went off sick in December 2021 and refused to engage with any investigation. He then told bosses: “It’s probably best for everyone if I move on.”

In February 2022, Dr Oyediran’s solicitor made contact with the trust to bring forward claims of whistleblowing, race discrimination and failure to make adjustments to his ADHD.

Michael Butler, the employment judge, dismissed all of them.

He said: “Much of [Dr Oyediran]’s argument [is] centred around his allegation that there had been some sort of conspiracy against him at the behest of a small number of staff.

“It is our view that there is no evidence at all that race played any part in [the trust]’s decision to cancel his shifts pending an investigation into the complaints against him.

“Indeed, we cannot find that there was even a remote possibility that the decision made by [the trust] was based on [Dr Oyediran]’s race.

“The claim of direct race discrimination must fail.”

The panel was “unanimous” in deciding that the trust’s application was “well founded” and ordered Dr Oyediran to pay £20,000 costs.

The King will not attend the Cop29 climate summit being hosted by Azerbaijan in November amid his cancer treatment.

The monarch has long campaigned on environmental issues but will be absent from the United Nations gathering being held in the oil-rich state from Nov11 to 22.

The head of state has been receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer since early in 2024 and the global climate change conference will begin just over two weeks after the King and Queen’s long-haul trip to Australia and Samoa ends.

He told 2023’s summit the world remains “dreadfully far off track” when it comes to meeting climate targets.

Sources told the Daily Mirror “an abundance of caution” is needed with the monarch’s current schedule.

A source told the newspaper: “He has not been asked by the Government to attend the event and he is also mindful of his own commitments following the upcoming autumn tour.

The source added the King would have “relished the chance to attend” but he is “incredibly busy already”.

“A decision was taken for His Majesty not to attend the conference this year,” they said.

The overseas tour has been curtailed on doctor’s advice, with a visit to New Zealand dropped from the itinerary and other changes to the programme.

At the time the visit was announced a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “We’ve had to make some difficult decisions about the programme with the Australian government, about where their majesties can get to.”

The King will also pause his cancer treatment during the 11 days he is away from the UK.

Charles missed Cop27 in 2022, the first climate change summit of his reign, after a “unanimous agreement” was reached that the King should not attend the gathering in Egypt after advice was sought by his office from Liz Truss’s government.

But the following year the head of state delivered an address on the opening day of Cop28 in Dubai where he called for meaningful change.

Oxford University is to launch a new termly debate series to “reaffirm the importance of free speech”.

Prof Irene Tracey, the university’s vice-chancellor, said on Tuesday that freedom of speech was “the lifeblood” of the university and that she was taking steps to ensure Oxford was not full of “same-thinking tribes”.

In her annual oration to staff and students, the university chief unveiled Oxford’s new Sheldonian Series of debates.

Starting in November, the termly exchanges at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre will allow students “to hear from scholars and voices from a range of fields on some of the big questions of our age”.

The inaugural debate will discuss the theme of democracy, and will take place shortly after the US election on Nov 5. The guest speakers are yet to be announced.

Prof Tracey said: “The spirit of these events will be one of examination and exploration, of curiosity and challenge.

“It is clear we need to reaffirm the importance of free and inclusive speech, diversity of thought and vibrant exchange of ideas.”

The debates could be the first major test of current free speech laws after the Government pulled the plug on new protections for academics.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, announced in July that she had paused the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act just days before it was due to come into force and would now consider repealing it.

The legislation was to include a new complaints scheme for academics and visiting speakers who had been cancelled or “no-platformed” over their views.

Open letter

Prof Tracey said the new Oxford debating series had been designed with help from an academic who has openly criticised the Government’s decision to shelve new free speech laws.

Addressing students on Tuesday, the Oxford vice-chancellor said Julius Grower was one of three academics who “have taken this concept forward and are working with me to develop the series”.

Mr Grower, an associate law professor at Oxford University, was one of the first ten signatories to an open letter calling on Ms Phillipson to reinstate the “vitally important piece of legislation”.

Signed by more than 650 academics, the letter sent in August said that “free speech duties on universities have long been neglected, despite being enshrined in law”.

Mr Grower previously intervened in support of Prof Kathleen Stock after students protested the academic’s planned appearance at the Oxford Union over her gender-critical views.

The law fellow at St Hugh’s College helped draft a letter from Oxford dons last year in support of Prof Stock’s right to express her views.

Speaking on Tuesday, Prof Tracey said: “Freedom of speech is the lifeblood of our university and we uphold the right for everyone to openly express their views and opinions with respect and courtesy, within the limits of the law.

“As a university, we must nurture and celebrate our differences, confident that those who try to divide us into same-looking and same-thinking tribes, whether by selfish design or accidental algorithm, will ultimately fail.

“Let us all dare to be different, to do things differently, and to bring forward the day that the world remembers the beauty of the kaleidoscope of humanity.”

The VAT raid on private schools could be changed amid a backlash from military families ahead of the Budget, The Telegraph understands.

The Treasury previously said ministers would “closely monitor the impact” of the policy on children of serving personnel and diplomats, and that any changes would be considered next year.

However, The Telegraph understands that the monitoring and cross-government discussions are happening now after military families warned that they could leave the Armed Forces over fee increases.

Ministers are understood to be considering various options for military families ahead of the Budget on Oct 30, when the legislation, to impose 20 per cent VAT on private school fees from Jan 1 2025, will be formally unveiled.

Potential mitigations are understood to include a VAT exemption for military families who receive the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) – a form of taxpayer-funded support to help with private education.

The Government could also choose to recalculate the CEA to ensure those families are shielded from the VAT raid.

The CEA is designed to provide stability for children whose parents frequently work away, and can cover up to 90 per cent of boarding school fees.

It is currently capped at £9,080 a term for senior school pupils and £7,489 for younger pupils, with families paying the remaining 10 per cent.

This means that, despite the financial aid, military parents in receipt of CEA support often have to spend upwards of £17,000 per year to send their child to boarding school. 

‘They’ll consider leaving’

This will now be eligible to increase by 20 per cent VAT under current plans.

The policy has prompted growing calls for the Government to reconsider the VAT policy for service families.

The Army Families Federation wrote to the Treasury last month warning that many “will now consider leaving” unless the Government rolls out concessions.

The charity, which supports soldiers and their families, said a poll showed that 70 per cent of those with privately educated children would quit the forces without further support.  

The military is already facing a recruitment crisis and struggling to retain experienced staff.

In its formal response to the Treasury’s consultation on the VAT plans, the AFF warned that “any failure to mitigate the effect of this policy will lead to disincentivising service personnel to remain in the Army, at a time when retention is already a critical concern for the MoD [Ministry of Defence]”.

It cited concerns from one military family whose private school bills are set to triple under the VAT policy. 

The parents said their 10 per cent CEA contribution to cover three children’s boarding fees would rise from £11,718 a year to £30,405 a year under the VAT plans, potentially making them unaffordable.

The RAF Families Federation also wrote to the Treasury calling for a reprieve for the children of serving personnel. 

The support group said a poll of more than 100 members showed 30 per cent “would have to consider leaving the military” under the VAT plans.

It warned that this could pose a particular concern among military families posted overseas, where there is often no English schooling provision and children are frequently sent to boarding school.

“These posts require experienced personnel, many of whom are of an age where they have teenage children. There is a risk that these posts will simply be unable to be filled as a result, leaving a significant gap in the UK’s ability to carry [out] our key defence tasks,” it said.

The Naval Families Federation also wrote to the Treasury last month warning of an exodus from the armed forces under the VAT plans.

It said a third of families “made it clear that they are considering whether they will remain in the Armed Forces if these changes are implemented without any due consideration for the unique circumstances of service life”.

The Telegraph revealed last month that the Army consulted military families over their concerns separate to the Treasury consultation on the VAT plans, which closed on Sept 15.

Military families were asked to share their views by Sept 23 in a poll drawn up by the Army’s policy team and shared on its official social media channels.

The Army said it was “keen to understand the impact of this change on service personnel and their families” and recognised that many families “depend on private schools to provide stability to their children while they meet the day-to-day demands of service life”.

‘Destructive, disruptive and divisive’

It comes amid widespread backlash over the Government’s flagship education policy, with unions and tax associations now calling on ministers to delay it until next September.

Damian Hinds, the shadow education secretary, said in an Opposition Day Debate on the VAT plans on Tuesday that it was a “destructive, disruptive and divisive education tax… [that] will interrupt learning”.

MPs voted to reject a motion put forward by the Conservatives to publish an impact assessment on the plans ahead of the Budget.

James Murray, the Treasury minister, defended the decision not to delay the policy, saying that “a January 2025 start date means that schools and parents will have had five months to prepare”.

A government spokesman said: “We want to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help to raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for next year, such as recruiting 6,500 new teachers.”

“We provide Continuity of Education Allowance to eligible officials and service personnel, which is in recognition of the enormous sacrifices our military families make and the fact that they are often required to move base location. 

“The allowance ensures that we can limit disruption to the education of serving personnel’s children.”

Oxford University is to launch a new termly debate series to “reaffirm the importance of free speech”.

Prof Irene Tracey, the university’s vice-chancellor, said on Tuesday that freedom of speech was “the lifeblood” of the university and that she was taking steps to ensure Oxford was not full of “same-thinking tribes”.

In her annual oration to staff and students, the university chief unveiled Oxford’s new Sheldonian Series of debates.

Starting in November, the termly exchanges at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre will allow students “to hear from scholars and voices from a range of fields on some of the big questions of our age”.

The inaugural debate will discuss the theme of democracy, and will take place shortly after the US election on Nov 5. The guest speakers are yet to be announced.

Prof Tracey said: “The spirit of these events will be one of examination and exploration, of curiosity and challenge.

“It is clear we need to reaffirm the importance of free and inclusive speech, diversity of thought and vibrant exchange of ideas.”

The debates could be the first major test of current free speech laws after the Government pulled the plug on new protections for academics.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, announced in July that she had paused the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act just days before it was due to come into force and would now consider repealing it.

The legislation was to include a new complaints scheme for academics and visiting speakers who had been cancelled or “no-platformed” over their views.

Open letter

Prof Tracey said the new Oxford debating series had been designed with help from an academic who has openly criticised the Government’s decision to shelve new free speech laws.

Addressing students on Tuesday, the Oxford vice-chancellor said Julius Grower was one of three academics who “have taken this concept forward and are working with me to develop the series”.

Mr Grower, an associate law professor at Oxford University, was one of the first ten signatories to an open letter calling on Ms Phillipson to reinstate the “vitally important piece of legislation”.

Signed by more than 650 academics, the letter sent in August said that “free speech duties on universities have long been neglected, despite being enshrined in law”.

Mr Grower previously intervened in support of Prof Kathleen Stock after students protested the academic’s planned appearance at the Oxford Union over her gender-critical views.

The law fellow at St Hugh’s College helped draft a letter from Oxford dons last year in support of Prof Stock’s right to express her views.

Speaking on Tuesday, Prof Tracey said: “Freedom of speech is the lifeblood of our university and we uphold the right for everyone to openly express their views and opinions with respect and courtesy, within the limits of the law.

“As a university, we must nurture and celebrate our differences, confident that those who try to divide us into same-looking and same-thinking tribes, whether by selfish design or accidental algorithm, will ultimately fail.

“Let us all dare to be different, to do things differently, and to bring forward the day that the world remembers the beauty of the kaleidoscope of humanity.”