Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, personally controlled the takeover of Newcastle United by the state’s sovereign wealth fund, leaked WhatsApp messages seen by The Telegraph suggest.

The messages from Amanda Staveley, who brokered the club’s sale by tycoon Mike Ashley to the Gulf Kingdom’s trillion-dollar Public Investment Fund (PIF), raise questions over guarantees made to the Premier League to secure the deal. 

The cache of WhatsApps suggest the Crown Prince, who is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, was signing off key decisions.

At one point, Ms Staveley warns the sellers that “the Crown Prince is losing patience”, and when the deal hit trouble, she said the governor of PIF was “trying to…convince the Crown Prince not to pull out”.

The messages shed new light on the extent of political involvement in the takeover. 

Ms Staveley enlisted the help of the Saudi ambassador to the UK to rescue the deal, saying on Aug 6, 2020: “The UK Saudi ambassador spoke to the Crown Prince this morning.”

Later that month, she sent another message that read: “We need to update the Saudi Ambassador at 4pm as he needs to update the Crown Prince.”

In April 2021, Boris Johnson, then prime minister, said his government “was not involved at any point in the takeover talks on the sale of Newcastle” in a written parliamentary answer. 

However, Ms Staveley was in direct contact with Lord Grimstone, then the minister for investment, and told the sellers of the club that the minister “pushed behind the scenes and made it very clear that their preference is for the deal to go ahead”.

The Premier League initially blocked the sale of Newcastle United to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund over concerns that the club would in reality be controlled by the Saudi state.

Via lawyers, Ms Staveley said she only ever referenced the Crown Prince in his capacity as chairman of PIF. To suggest that her messages cast doubt on whether the assurances about independence from the Saudi state have been adhered to subsequently “is as illogical as it is misconceived,” she added.

The sale eventually went through after the Premier League was given “legally binding assurances” that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) – which now owns 80 per cent of the club – was separate from the Saudi state.

The sale was highly controversial because of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. A CIA report concluded that the Crown Prince was responsible for ordering the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist, which was still fresh when the takeover was first proposed. 

Foreign states are not banned from owning Premier League clubs under its own rules, but the Saudi state was accused of illegally pirating the League’s games on a state-run channel, which presented a barrier to ownership.

The Premier League eventually removed its objections after being convinced that PIF would be acting independently of the Saudi state in the running of Newcastle United.

While the Crown Prince is chairman of PIF, the Premier League said at the time it had “received legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United Football Club”.

Ms Staveley said at the time of the takeover that PIF was “an autonomous commercially driven investment fund”.

‘Repercussions’

The non-executive chairman of Newcastle United is Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF, but the WhatsApp messages suggest it was the Crown Prince who had the ultimate say over the purchase.

On March 3, 2020, Ms Staveley told the Ashley camp: “The Crown Prince is losing patience – I need to assure him we will get there.”

On July 29 that same year, she messaged Mr Ashley’s team to say: “HE [His excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan] is trying to hang on to the deal and convince the Crown Prince not to pull out.”

But in October 2020, Ms Staveley had WhatsApped Mr Ashley’s team to say: “No10 can’t get any further involved than what they have done to date. Gerry [Lord Grimstone] said that they pushed behind the scenes and made it very clear that their preference is for the deal to go ahead, they are obviously very aware of the damage this has caused and the repercussions for future investments.”

The £305 million sale of Newcastle United went ahead in October 2021, with PIF owning 80 per cent of the club, Ms Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners owning 10 per cent and the property developers David and Simon Reuben owning 10 per cent.

Earlier this year, Ms Staveley, who had become the public face of Newcastle United, left the club after selling her shares.

Lord Grimstone told The Telegraph that he kept abreast of large potential investments into the UK in his former role as investment minister, particularly those such as Newcastle United, which was in the public domain and “attracting a great deal of public interest”.

He added: “I made it very clear to Mr Hoffman that my only role was to facilitate the passing of ideas between the PIF and Premier League and that in no way did I seek to prejudice the Premier League’s complete autonomy in this matter.”

The Premier League declined to comment.

A spokesman for PIF said: “In October 2021, following a lengthy investigation, the Premier League announced that the sale of Newcastle United Football Club had completed following the receipt of assurances that the government of Saudi Arabia would not control the Club. 

“The facts and circumstances that underpin those assurances, as confirmed at the time to the Premier League, remain unchanged.”

Ms Staveley said she was “entirely confident” that the assurances had been adhered to.

‘The Crown Prince is losing patience’: Messages reveal how faltering deal came close to collapse

In the vexed history of football club takeovers, few have been as controversial as the purchase of Newcastle United by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Initially delayed by Premier League concerns that club would be controlled by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia itself, the deal eventually went through after “legally binding assurances” were given that this was not the case.

Leaked messages obtained by The Telegraph, however, have thrown that statement into doubt by revealing how closely involved Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the Saudi prime minister and de facto ruler, was in the progress of the deal.

The Crown Prince, known by his initials MbS, is the man accused of ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident journalist who was strangled and dismembered by an assassination team in Turkey in 2018.

While Premier League clubs and fans were troubled by the possibility of one of England’s biggest football clubs being controlled by a foreign government with one of the world’s worst human rights records, the British government took the opposite view.

Eager to keep a strategic and economic ally happy, ministers in Boris Johnson’s government worked behind the scenes to make the deal happen.

They have always maintained that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would operate independently of the Saudi government in running Newcastle, but WhatsApp messages sent by the woman who negotiated the deal show that the Crown Prince was regularly updated as to the progress of the deal.

News of Saudi Arabian interest in buying Newcastle United first emerged in March 2020 when it was reported that Amanda Staveley, who had previously been involved in the sale of Manchester City to an Abu Dhabi-based wealth fund, had approached the North East club as part of a group that also included Saudi Arabia’s PIF and the property billionaires Simon and David Reuben.

In fact, Ms Staveley had been speaking to representatives of Newcastle United owner, Mike Ashley, since July 2019, and made a formal offer in November of that year.

Mr Ashley, who made billions by founding the Sports Direct shop chain and later bought House of Fraser, was keen to sell, having put the club on the market in 2017. But there was a problem.

A World Trade Organisation investigation had concluded that the Saudi government was behind a pirate TV channel illegally broadcasting Premier League matches.

The rights to show Premier League matches in the Middle East were held by the Qatari broadcaster BeIN, which was also the League’s highest-value overseas contract.

But Saudi Arabia had banned BeIN from broadcasting in its country, and instead pirated Premier League footage was being illegally shown on a Saudi channel, beoutQ.

‘It’s not sportswashing’

Anyone suspected of piracy can be banned by the Premier League from owning a club. Even if the Saudis stopped showing the pirated matches, the Premier League could still block the takeover on the basis that they had been guilty in the past.

To pass the Premier League’s owners and directors test, Ms Staveley’s consortium needed to prove that PIF was independent of, and not controlled by, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or in other words, the Crown Prince.

Much of the discussion in public was about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record (Amnesty International and Khashoggi’s widow were among those who objected to the deal when it became public) but it was the piracy issue, not Saudi state ownership, that was the problem.

This need to show that PIF was autonomous of the Kingdom or the Crown Prince became known as the “separation issue”.

Ms Staveley was categoric about this in an interview she gave in October 2021, after the takeover had eventually gone through. “Human rights we take very seriously,” she said, “but our partner is PIF, not the Saudi state. The separation issue has been resolved. It’s not sportswashing. It’s investment.”

The Premier League also stated at the time that it had received “legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United Football Club”.

This was a thin tightrope to walk given the Crown Prince is the chairman of PIF. 

Officially, at least, the man making the decisions was Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF (and now the chairman of Newcastle United), but deference to the Crown Prince looms large throughout the correspondence seen by The Telegraph. 

On March 3, 2020, Ms Staveley WhatsApped the Ashley camp to say: “The Crown Prince is losing patience – I need to assure him we will get there.”

Then, on July 29, with news of the proposed deal now out in the open and Mr Ashley haggling over price, Ms Staveley told Ashley’s team: “HE [His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan] is trying to hang on to the deal and convince the Crown Prince not to pull out.”

Panic sets in

By the following month, the deal had run into trouble. The Premier League was expressing concerns over the ownership structure, and in particular, the Crown Prince’s role – and panic began to set in among the deal-makers.

The stumbling block was not the fact that a foreign state might own a Premier League club – which is not banned by the League’s rules – but the fact that the Saudi government stood accused of piracy on the airwaves.

Enter Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, who was called upon to smooth matters with the Premier League.

“The UK Saudi ambassador spoke to the Crown Prince this morning,” Ms Staveley reported to Ashley’s team on Aug 6, 2020.

Then, on Aug 25, she said: “We need to update the Saudi Ambassador at 4pm as he needs to update the Crown Prince.” 

In another message later the same day, she said the Saudi ambassador “has been dealing with this given the public nature of the deal. He reports directly to the Crown Prince”.

She then sent a letter to the Ashley camp, saying: “This is the letter that the ambassador is willing to sign and send to the EPL [Premier League] should there be confirmation from them that it would provide the necessary evidence of separation.”

Behind the scenes, Boris Johnson’s government was doing all it could to make sure the deal went through.

Lord (Gerry) Grimstone, the former Barclays Bank chairman who was minister of state for investment at the time, was in direct contact with Ms Staveley. He was worried that Saudi Arabia might scale back other investments in the UK if it was snubbed over the Newcastle United deal.

On Sep 8, 2020, Ms Staveley sent a WhatsApp to Lord Grimstone asking him whether he thought he should “check in” with Gary Hoffman, the chairman of the Premier League. She signed the message “A xx”.

The minister replied: “He says it should be in the next couple of days. Gx.”

She responded: “Great sweetheart. Thank you. Xx.”

Former model dated Prince Andrew

Ms Staveley, a former model who once dated Prince Andrew and reportedly turned down a marriage proposal from him, often uses words like “sweetheart” and “my love” in work-related messages.

Mr Hoffman later said the government had put pressure on the Premier League to approve the takeover, which was denied by Boris Johnson. In a parliamentary answer to Chi Onwurah, the Newcastle Central MP, in April 2021, Mr Johnson said: “The government was not involved at any point in the takeover talks on the sale of Newcastle.”

On Oct 5, however, Ms Staveley told Mr Ashley’s team: “No10 can’t get any further involved than what they have done to date. Gerry said that they pushed behind the scenes and made it very clear that their preference is for the deal to go ahead, they are obviously very aware of the damage this has caused and the repercussions for future investments.”

In 2021, The Daily Mail revealed that Eddie (now Lord) Lister, Boris Johnson’s chief of staff, told the then prime minister in September 2020 that the Newcastle takeover was “hopefully” going to go ahead, to which Mr Johnson replied: “Brilliant.”

The deal stalled in Sep 2020 because of the Premier League’s concerns over the ownership structure, but Ms Staveley had other powerful friends outside of government. 

According to sources close to the deal, the Premier League was told that Newcastle United fan Sir Tony Blair, whose Institute for Global Change had been advising the Saudi government for several years, was ready and willing to get involved in the negotiations – an offer that was turned down by the Premier League.

Sir Tony would later say that the Saudi takeover was “great” for the club, adding that it “doesn’t diminish any of the things that should never have happened, like Khashoggi, but it’s important for people who are Newcastle United supporters to understand there is also huge change going on in [Saudi Arabia]”.

A spokesman for Sir Tony said he was not a broker for the deal and did not receive any payment. 

‘Perfect – okay to send’

By November 2020, Ms Staveley had enlisted the help of Richard Holden, the Conservative MP for North West Durham (later the party chairman), who wrote to Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, asking about the date for a proposed arbitration hearing over the stalled takeover.

He sent it to Jamie Reuben, son of David Reuben, who said: “Perfect – okay to send.”

Mr Holden replied: “Plan was to send and if I’ve not heard anything back a week on Monday to do a press thing about it.” More than 80 MPs wrote to the Premier League demanding transparency over its decision-making in relation to the owners and directors test.

There was also the matter of the price of the club to be agreed with Mike Ashley. On May 3, 2021, as both sides were becoming exasperated with each other, Ms Staveley sent a testy message to Mr Ashley’s team. It read: “I think they (the Crown Prince) [her brackets] want the chance to have the deal clean and are fed up with the world – especially the US Biden – telling them how they should do business.”

Later she added: “To be frank, Saudi are more committed than ever.”

By July 2021, with the deal heading for arbitration, Ms Staveley pushed for a resolution using all of the friends she could muster.

She messaged the Ashley camp on July 9 to say: “Can you speak with Jamie [Reuben] and us on Boris. He just wants an update before he reaches out. He is going to get a question raised to Boris in PMQs – we are also going to get Tracey Crouch [a former sports minister] to do the same.

“We had a great Zoom meeting with Chi [Onwurah] this morning. We need some written questions to present to Dowden and Boris. She’s really keen to help.” 

‘Keen to ensure transparency’

Ms Onwurah told the Telegraph that she was “keen to ensure transparency and to get answers for Newcastle United fans from the government and the Premier League” but did not take sides in the matter.

Lawyers for Ms Staveley’s consortium argued that the Premier League had been unduly influenced by other clubs not wanting Newcastle to have wealthy new owners.

By mid-September 2021, it looked as though the sands were shifting. Ms Staveley sent a photograph (below) of the Emir of Qatar posing with the Saudi Crown Prince and told the Ashley camp: “The fact that the Emir of Qatar is cosying up to MBS is very telling.”

Sure enough, there was suddenly a breakthrough in October 2021. Saudi Arabia announced it had lifted its ban on BeIN, meaning the piracy row was resolved. 

The sale of the club for £305 million was confirmed the very next day, with PIF taking an 80 per cent stake, the Reuben brothers 10 per cent and Ms Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners 10 per cent.

Ms Staveley assured the media at the time that PIF was “an autonomous commercially driven investment fund”.

According to one source close to the deal, the fact that the piracy row had been resolved was not the reason the Premier League dropped its objections to PIF being the majority owner of Newcastle United. 

Chairman forced out 

Instead, they said they had been convinced that PIF would be independent of the Saudi state in the running of Newcastle – meaning the piracy row became irrelevant – and that the timing of the decision to approve the sale so close to the piracy issue being resolved was coincidental.

When there are winners, there must also be losers. Premier League chairman Mr Hoffman was forced out by clubs who felt they were not properly consulted over the Newcastle takeover and left his job after less than two years in the role.

Ms Staveley became the public face of Newcastle United, running the club with her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi and becoming a key ally of manager Eddie Howe. But with her role as dealmaker fulfilled and PIF apparently keen to take control of managing the club, she sold her shares and left earlier this year.

The Premier League declined to comment.

A British Army soldier who helped train Ukrainian forces to fight Russia died on a night-time military exercise in the Brecon Beacons, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

Police have launched an investigation into the death of Corporal Chris Gill, 35, of 4th Battalion, The Ranger Regiment, who lost his life in a “non operational incident” on Wednesday.

The MoD has not provided further details on the circumstances, but Cpl Gill’s commanding officer described him as a “remarkable Army Special Operations soldier” who had served in Afghanistan before volunteering to train Ukrainian soldiers.

Dyfed-Powys Police confirmed it is investigating the death “during a military exercise in the Crickhowell area of Powys”.

Cwrt-y-Gollen training base, two miles away from the town, is used for training special forces soldiers and firing with live ammunition.

Police investigation

A spokesman for the force said: “Police were notified at just after 1am on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, and a joint investigation is underway, supported by the Health and Safety Executive.

“Our thoughts are with Cpl Gill’s family, who are being supported by a family liaison officer.”

In a statement, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bairsto, the regiment’s commanding officer, paid tribute to Cpl Gill, known also as ‘Gilly’, as a “strong and natural leader” who was “dedicated to his family”.

“Corporal Gill’s professionalism and commitment to service inspired those around him and left him held in the highest regard.”

Lt Col Bairsto said Cpl Gill’s readiness to volunteer to train Ukrainian soldiers in the UK was “testament to his commitment to service and preservation of our freedoms”.

“His relentless, quick wit became central to the morale of the teams he led. In the face of adversity, he could always be relied upon to get everyone chuckling no matter the situation.”

The statement added: “The death of Cpl Gill is sorely felt. His family has lost a loving and doting father, husband, and son.

“His friends and fellow Rangers will miss a much-loved and respected leader. The Army has lost a professional, capable, and loyal Special Operations soldier, whose contribution to the team made it much stronger than the sum of its parts; he made a real impact throughout his distinguished career.”

Period in Afghanistan

Cpl Gill joined the British Army in 2011 and was first deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan, where he trained allied forces.

He was later redeployed to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north of the country, and he went on to serve in Belize, the US, Kenya and Morocco.

In 2021, he volunteered for the Army Special Operations Brigade, the formation responsible for training foreign combatants.

A spokesman for the MoD said: “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time.”

An inquest is due to be opened by the South Wales coroner’s office in Pontypridd next week.

A mother has won more than £28,000 in compensation after her boss sacked her for getting pregnant while on maternity leave.

Nikita Twitchen, 27, was preparing to return to her office admin post after having a baby when she discovered she was pregnant again.

Managing director Jeremy Morgan, 49, dismissed her before she returned to stop her going on another 36-week period of maternity leave.

She was left unemployed and took cleaning jobs while pregnant to support her family.

She took building-services firm First Grade Projects to an employment tribunal, where a judge ruled she had been unfairly sacked.

Ms Twitchen, of Porth, in Rhondda, was taken on in October 2021 as an office administration assistant – and described her working relationship with Mr Morgan as “very good”.

She told the Cardiff tribunal they got on well and he was “very responsive” when she needed to speak to him.

But she fell pregnant and took maternity leave in June 2022 from their offices in Pontypridd, South Wales. Eight months later she had a return-to-work meeting with Mr Morgan, which “started positively”.

Mr Morgan said the business was doing well and had recently secured a contract with the NHS, and added that he was looking forward to Ms Twitchen coming back.

Towards the end of the meeting, Ms Twitchen revealed she was pregnant again, although it was only at the eight-week stage.

The tribunal heard this “came as a shock” to the boss.

When her maternity leave came to an end on Mar 26, no one from First Grade contacted her to confirm her return to work.

She had expected to come back on Apr 3, but had to push for a response to her message to Mr Morgan.

Eventually he responded to her: “It’s best to leave it until you have your routine in place.”

Financial difficulties

She subsequently called three times without getting a response, but later in April he rang her to say she was being made redundant because of financial difficulties and delays in some payments to the business.

He later claimed new software was being installed that meant her role “would no longer exist”.

Employment Judge Robin Havard said she should be “commended” for working from June to October 2023 at a launderette and a caravan park.

She cleaned caravans in the summer “in very hot conditions, travelling 45 minutes each way, up until she was 39 weeks pregnant”, said the judge, who added that Ms Twitchen needed a job for her family’s financial stability.

The judge also noted that Mr Morgan had made no mention of financial difficulties or redundancy initially.

The judge criticised First Grade’s failure to “produce any evidence of the alleged financial difficulties, or of the new software” during the court case. At no stage did Ms Twitchen receive a written statement setting out the reasons for her dismissal.

Judge Havard found that Ms Twitchen was dismissed because she was pregnant. The judge highlighted Mr Morgan’s “change of attitude” after learning of the pregnancy.

He also pointed out the change in his “speed of response” to messages and the “complete lack of any coherent evidence-based alternative explanation” despite ample opportunities to provide one.

The judge concluded the dismissal of Ms Twitchen was unfair, discriminatory and must have caused her “real anxiety and distress over a period of time, having been dismissed when pregnant and losing her sense of financial security with all the family responsibilities that she had”.

HS2 spending is set to be reviewed amid concern the cost of the project could have been underestimated by £10 billion.

Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, has announced the Government will be taking a series of urgent measures to “get a grip” on the spiralling bill for the high-speed rail route.

Ministers will step in to oversee the building of the line between London and Birmingham, while an independent review is launched into the project’s finances.

It comes after the Government was unable to get clarity from HS2 on whether the latest overspend on the project was £10bn or £20bn, according to The Sunday Times.

The newspaper cited leaked documents stating that officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) had received “increasing unassured estimates” from the HS2 executive, “preventing us from taking a reliable view” on the cost.

It added: “Given the rapid changes and inconsistent projections from HS2 Ltd, DfT has low confidence in the advice we have received to date.”

There have been warnings that the overall price tag could be more than £65bn.

Ms Haigh said she would be holding regular meetings to take stock of the project, which has faced repeated delays, along with Lord Hendy, the Rail Minister, and Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

It will publish reports on HS2 every six months to “ensure complete accountability and transparency”.

In a statement on Sunday, the Government poured cold water on reports that it could revive part of the line’s northern leg that was scrapped by the Tories last year in a bid to limit the ballooning bill.

However, speculation remains that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, could use her first Budget to announce that the link will be extended to Euston, despite concerns it could saddle the taxpayer with billions of pounds in extra costs.

The move would ensure that the high-speed rail route runs into the centre of London, rather than ending at Old Oak Common in the west of the capital.

Ms Haigh said: “One of my first jobs as Transport Secretary has been to urgently review the position I have inherited on HS2.

“It has long been clear that the costs of HS2 have been allowed to spiral out of control, but since becoming Transport Secretary I have seen up close the scale of failure in project delivery – and it’s dire.

“Taxpayers have a right to expect HS2 is delivered efficiently and I won’t stand for anything less.”

The review will be led by James Stewart, the former chief executive of Infrastructure UK who worked on the Crossrail project in London. It will present its report to the Government this winter.

The Department for Transport warned that some contracts for companies working on HS2 could be renegotiated or amended as part of the process.

Ms Haigh added: “I have promised to work fast and fix things and that’s exactly why I have announced urgent measures to get a grip on HS2’s costs and ensure taxpayers’ money is put to good use.

“It’s high time we make sure lessons are learnt and the mistakes of HS2 are never repeated again.”

A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd said: “We welcome the Secretary of State’s priorities for HS2 Ltd and are committed to working with the new Government to improve delivery. We also fully support James Stewart’s governance review and look forward to his recommendations.

“HS2 Ltd recognises that there are many lessons to be learned from delivery to date and, under new leadership, are actively implementing the changes within our control to stabilise costs.

“HS2 is a complex project of strategic importance to the UK’s rail network, which will not only provide better journeys, more services and fewer delays for rail passengers, but will unlock economic growth and tackle regional inequality.”

Wes Streeting is considering fining NHS patients who miss appointments to save the health service around £1billion a year.

The Health Secretary has refused to rule out penalising no-show patients in the future and The Telegraph understands the policy could be included in the Government’s 10-year health plan, which will be launched next spring.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer announces the biggest ever public consultation on the future of the NHS on Monday, which echoes Sir Tony Blair’s 2003 “Big Conversation” that led to initiatives including the smoking ban.

Fining patients was first proposed by Rishi Sunak during the Tory leadership contest when he pledged to charge £10 for every missed GP and hospital appointment.

His Government ditched the plans in October 2022 with officials saying it was “not right the time” for the policy.

But Mr Streeting suggested he could resurrect the concept if Labour’s reforms to cut missed appointments fail.

Asked whether he would consider fining patients, he told Times Radio: “At this stage, it’s not something I’m looking at doing, but once we’ve got the system working effectively, if we still have this problem of missed appointments then I might be more open-minded.”

He said his priority was to address why patients are missing their appointments in the first place.

“I want to fix the reasons why the NHS causes people to miss appointments and improve the way in which we are able to choose and book appointments and then keep people updated,” he said.

NHS figures show eight million hospital appointments are missed each year, which is around one in 15, as well as around one million GP slots.

Ministers are prioritising reducing Did Not Attends (DNA) because the wasted clinical time costs more than £1.2 billion per year, and is greater than the entire NHS backlog of 7.64 million.

From Monday, patients, NHS staff and the public will be able to share their experiences and concerns about the health service to help shape its future – including whether financial penalties could reduce missed appointments – on a new website called change.nhs.uk.

The Prime Minister said: “I know first-hand how difficult it has been for staff and patients battling against a broken system for over a decade. But it’s time to roll up our sleeves and fix it.

“We have a clear plan to fix the health service, but it’s only right that we hear from the people who rely on the NHS every day to have their say and shape our plan as we deliver it.”

The “national conversation” is akin to New Labour’s “big conversation”, which helped shape Sir Tony’s policies, including the public smoking ban, crack down on junk food ads, and an increase in the private sector’s involvement in the NHS.

Mr Streeting said the Government “needs your ideas to help turn the NHS around”.

“Whether you use the NHS or work in it, you see first-hand what’s great, but also what isn’t working,” he said. “In order to save the things we love about the NHS, we need to change it.

“Our 10-Year health plan will transform the NHS to make it fit for the future, and it will have patients’ and staff’s fingerprints all over it.”

Radical reforms already set to shape the plan include embracing technology. Millions are set to benefit from wearable technology like smart watches, so people can monitor their own health, as revealed by The Telegraph.

This includes smart watches for patients to monitor high blood pressure or those with Type 2 diabetes to manage blood sugar spikes by receiving alerts on their phones.

Smart rings permitting cancer patients to track vital signs may also be rolled out more widely.

Mr Streeting also revealed that the NHS was set for a boost in the autumn Budget, which would prioritise improving infrastructure and technology, and deliver the party’s manifesto promise of 40,000 extra appointments per week.

He suggested extra money for hospitals would be tied to productivity and reforms.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that “the approach that the Chancellor and I are taking is to link investment to reform”.

“We definitely need to manage performance,” he said. “I think it’s a quid pro quo. It’s my responsibility to give system leaders the tools to do the job, and that’s my responsibility as Secretary of State, but it’s their responsibility to deliver.

“We’re a team, we’ve got to work in partnership, and the way I’m thinking about the reform agenda and how we go about it and how we involve the NHS staff in it, is a team effort.”

JK Rowling has revealed that she twice turned down a peerage.

Kemi Badenoch has promised to give the Harry Potter author an honour should the Conservative MP win the contest to lead her party.

Now, that public pledge floated during the leadership campaign has led Rowling to say she would turn down a peerage should it be offered.

The writer, 59, revealed that she had refused honours in the past, under Labour and Conservative governments.

Rowling wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “It’s considered bad form to talk about this but I’ll make an exception given the very particular circumstances.

“I’ve already turned down a peerage twice, once under Labour and once under the Tories. If offered one a third time, I still wouldn’t take it. It’s not her [Badenoch], it’s me.”

Badenoch suggested the idea after praising the author’s opposition to transgender ideology.

She said Rowling and Dr Hilary Cass, who led a review of NHS gender identity services for children, were “attacked relentlessly by all sorts of oddballs and bad people”.

Asked whether she would give Rowling a peerage, Mrs Badenoch said: “I would. I don’t know whether she would take it. I certainly would give her a peerage.”

Rowling did not give reasons for refusing a peerage and has not made any public pronouncements about the honours system.

The writer was for a long time a supporter of Labour but criticised the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, and has raised concerns with the party’s position on gender-related issues under Sir Keir Starmer.

The writer does have other state honours and received an OBE in 2000 for services to children’s literature.

In 2009, the global popularity of her books led to her being made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government.

In 2012, she was granted the Freedom of the City of London for services to children’s literature, and in 2017 she was included in the Order of the Companions of Honour.

Rowling is not the only British writer to have turned down an honour. JB Priestley refused a peerage, and Rudyard Kipling twice turned down a knighthood. CS Lewis, Roald Dahl and Aldous Huxley also refused a KBE.

It is customary that both the offer and any refusal remain a private matter.

However, some refusals have been made public. John Lennon returned his MBE in protest over British involvement in the Biafran War in Nigeria.

Ribindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet, was awarded a knighthood by King George V, but later renounced it in protest at the Amritsar massacre.

Angela Rayner has been given a permanent seat on the National Security Council after initially being sidelined by Sir Keir Starmer.

Details of the committee’s line-up published just over a week ago revealed there was no seat for the Deputy Prime Minister, marking a break from former practice.

But on Sunday No 10 confirmed that she had been made a permanent member, in a rapid about-turn on its previous position.

The move would appear to be an attempt by the new No 10 chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, to bolster Rayner’s position and project a strong working relationship between the Prime Minister and his deputy.

During her tenure as chief of staff, Sue Gray was understood to be supportive of Rayner but according to The Guardian this did not always translate into practice with promises not always being delivered on.

Ms Gray was also reported to attend meetings at the National Security Council before she was ousted earlier this month after she lost a power struggle at the heart of Downing Street.

News of Rayner’s admission comes amid reports the pair have been at loggerheads over the upcoming Budget, with Ms Rayner said to have written to Sir Keir with concerns over spending cuts for her department.

The National Security Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, is attended by senior Cabinet members and intelligence chiefs on a regular basis.

It includes Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, John Healey, the Defence Secretary, Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, and Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister.

Ms Gray, who has since been replaced by Morgan McSweeney as Sir Keir’s chief of staff, was also granted access to the meetings despite questions over her connections to the Irish Republican movement.

Ms Gray spent several years running a pub close to the Irish border during a career break from Whitehall in the 1980s and returned to Northern Ireland to serve as permanent secretary in Stormont’s Department of Finance in 2018.

She has twice had to deny claims that she was a spy during The Troubles, telling the BBC and Sir Keir’s biographer Tom Baldwin that such accusations were untrue.

The National Security Council’s terms of reference are “to consider the strategic approach to national security, foreign policy, resilience, international relations, economic security, trade, development, defence and global issues”.

Ms Rayner’s initial exclusion was a break from former practice, as previous deputy prime ministers have been permanent members of the group since it was established by David Cameron in 2010.

The only exception was Therese Coffey, who served as deputy during Liz Truss’s brief tenure in Downing Street.

Ms Truss abolished the council to set up a larger foreign policy and security committee instead, with Ms Coffey as the deputy leader.

‘Attendees are not fixed’

Downing Street initially denied Ms Rayner had been snubbed. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said at the time: “All Cabinet committees include a range of secretaries of state, usually relevant to their portfolio.

“As you can see on the list of attendees meeting, attendees are not fixed and ministers are always invited according to the specific agenda of the meeting.”

On Sunday, Downing Street confirmed Ms Rayner had a permanent seat, as first reported by The Guardian.

A No 10 source told the newspaper: “Keir respects Angela and wants to make sure that is recognised more widely in Government.”

Ms Rayner is also a member of Cabinet committees that are focused on home and economic affairs, and leads the future of work committee to oversee the Government’s reforms to employment law.

In July, allies of the Deputy Prime Minister told The Telegraph they feared she was being “frozen out” after having been identified as the biggest potential threat to Sir Keir.

Last month, it emerged that Rachel Reeves had been given the keys to Dorneywood – a grace-and-favour mansion in Buckinghamshire – after speculation that the 18th-century house might go to Angela Rayner instead.

The move marked a break with Labour tradition, since the house went to John Prescott when he was deputy prime minister over Gordon Brown, then chancellor.

Typically, the Buckinghamshire house is used by chancellors, but the Prime Minister can grant it to any member of the Government.

Polling revealed Ms Rayner to be the most popular choice among Labour voters to succeed him, and she has a strong following on the Left of the party because of her history within the trade union movement.

Staff at a branch of McDonald’s have been sworn to secrecy about whether Kamala Harris ever worked there after Donald Trump accused her of lying.

Employees at the franchise in Alameda, California told The Telegraph they had been instructed by bosses not to talk about the vice-president, after claims that she invented her summer job to appear more authentic to voters.

Trump visited a franchise of the restaurant in Feasterville, Pennsylvania on Sunday, and cooked fries in one of the branch’s fryers. The dine-in restaurant was closed to the public to accommodate his visit, but the drive-thru remained open.

“This is fun, I could do this all day,” he said, after serving a customer from the hatch. “I wouldn’t mind this job.”

Donning a McDonald’s apron, he asked an employee: “Do I take off my jacket? The press wants to see this.”

He was then instructed on how to cook and season the fries.

Ms Harris has spoken repeatedly about her time at the restaurant, and says her job there during her university degree in the 1980s inspired her to support working families.

“Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family,” she told MSNBC last month.

“I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility then is to meet those needs.”

Ms Harris said she first “did fries” at the restaurant and then worked as a cashier to help pay for her law degree at the University of California.

It is not known which branch in Alameda Ms Harris worked at, but at one location, on Shore Line Drive, The Telegraph understands the owner asked staff not to speak about Ms Harris after the branch began to receive calls from journalists looking to verify Ms Harris’s claim.

Trump, who is a long-time fan of the fast-food restaurant, has said Ms Harris’s summer job was invented to improve her credentials with working class voters. McDonald’s claims that one in eight Americans has worked in one of its branches.

The former president told supporters at a rally in Detroit on Friday that Ms Harris “lied about working at McDonald’s”.

“That’s like not a big thing, but can I be honest with you, it’s terrible,” he said.

Ahead of the trip, the Trump campaign sent a press release promoting a story from the Washington Free Beacon, which reported that Ms Harris did not mention her job at McDonald’s on her CV when applying for a job as a law clerk in the Alameda County district attorney’s office in 1987.

Neither Ms Harris nor Trump have offered proof of their claims about her job there. In an interview on Fox News on Thursday, he said he had asked the restaurant’s owner about it.

“I know she didn’t [work there],” he said. “We checked it out. They said she never worked here. She even picked the store. We went to the manager. The manager’s been there forever.”

Ms Harris did not mention the job in either of her memoirs, published in 2010 and 2019, and appears to have first revealed the job during a rally in Las Vegas in 2019.

McDonald’s used by politicians seeking authenticity

McDonald’s, which is by far the largest restaurant chain in the US by sales volume, has a long history of being used by politicians seeking authenticity.

Trump made headlines in January 2019 when he served a platter of Big Macs and fries to the Clemson University football team at the White House.

His own order includes two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate milkshake, according to a 2017 book by his former aides Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie.

Bill Clinton, Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan all visited branches of the restaurant on the campaign trail, while Hillary Clinton opted for Chipotle.

McDonald’s declined to comment.

Giorgia Meloni has vowed to press ahead with Italy’s controversial policy to divert migrants to Albania despite a court ruling blocking the move.

The Italian prime minister’s multi-million euro proposal to send asylum seekers to two processing centres in northern Albania was thrown into doubt after a Rome court on Friday ruled the first group of migrants taken there aboard a navy vessel should be brought to Italy.

Italy’s experiment in offshore processing is being viewed with interest by other European countries and Britain, while the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.

Ms Meloni dismissed Friday’s court ruling as “prejudiced” and said it was up to her government to determine which countries were safe and which were not.

“Italians have asked me to stop illegal immigration and I will do everything possible to keep my word and stop human trafficking,” the prime minister told the media.

She is preparing an urgent decree to be put to a cabinet meeting on Monday to override the court decision, which called into question which countries were safe for the return of migrants.

The government is also considering a legal appeal. Ms Meloni’s conservative coalition had hoped to process as many as 36,000 migrants and refugees a year in Albania.

The first 16 migrants arrived at the facilities, built and financed by the Italian government in northern Albania, on Wednesday.

Four were released on arrival for health reasons or because they were minors.

The Rome court ruled the 12 others had to return to Italy because their countries of origin – Egypt and Bangladesh – could not be considered safe.

All were brought to the port of Bari on Saturday and local media reported they appeared to be in shock. Only migrants coming from a list of 22 nations Italy has classified as safe can be sent to Albania.

Egypt and Bangladesh are on the list, but a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the matter made it impossible to hold them in Albania, the Rome court said.

Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister and head of the far-right League party, attacked the judges for the decision and said: “If one of these 12 (migrants) commits a crime, rapes or kills, who will pay the consequences?’’

Government critics hailed the court decision and called for the resignation of Carlo Nordio, the justice minister, who claimed the judiciary had exceeded its powers.

“The agreement with Albania is illegal”, said Elly Schlein, the head of the main opposition Democratic Party. “To the government I say: turn around and stop. You have already wasted nearly a billion euros, money that citizens could have used for public health care.”

The five-year scheme, estimated to cost €670 million (£557 million), has been dismissed by critics as a costly public relations exercise.

Italia Viva, the party led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, said it would file a formal complaint with the Court of Auditors on Monday, blaming the prime minister for a waste of public money.

“What we are seeing is a scandal for Italian families: that money should have gone to police, health care, youth. Not to the prime minister’s commercials,” wrote Francesco Bonifazi, an Italia Viva MP, on X.

The US has launched an investigation into the leaking of two alleged intelligence documents that detailed Israel’s preparation for a potential strike on Iran in the coming days.

The documents, seen by The Telegraph, include interpretations of satellite imagery that appear to have been prepared recently by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and analyse information gathered by US spy satellites and the National Security Agency.

They were marked “top secret”, dated Oct 15 and 16 and were circulated on Friday night on the Telegram messaging app.

One document says Israel continues to prepare munitions and covert drone activity, while the other outlines Israeli Air Force exercises involving ballistic and air-to-surface missiles.

Both say the activities were believed to be in preparation for a strike on Iran. 

“We cannot definitively predict the scale and scope of a strike on Iran and such a strike can occur with no further GEOINT warning,” one document cautions.

GEOINT is a military acronym for geospatial intelligence, which mostly relies on satellite images but can also include signal intercepts.

The document adds: “We have not observed indications that Israel intends to use a nuclear weapon,” saying a recent dispersal of Israel’s Jericho II medium-range ballistic missiles, which are believed to have been built as nuclear delivery systems, was probably defensive.

Notes are ‘US assessment of events’

The United States does not publicly acknowledge the existence of Israel’s nuclear arsenal, which Israel itself has never admitted to.

The second document described two large Israeli air force exercises including refuelling aircraft and an early warning aircraft.

The Telegram channel accused at first of leaking the documents said the documents initially appeared in a separate private group with 7,000 members.

“We also reiterate that we have no connection to the original source, which we assume to be a whistleblower within the US Department of Defence,” the statement said. In a separate statement, the Telegram group said an acquaintance had received the documents through an anonymous source.

The group claims to be run by independent journalists and that it is not “Iran-affiliated”, but it refers to the Israeli government as the “Zionist regime” and uses Tehran time as a baseline.

The New York Times reported that the documents have been discussed by largely pro-Iran accounts on Telegram since Friday.

The documents do not appear to be a comprehensive assessment of Israeli intentions but an assessment of developments by the US on the dates given.

An Israeli reprisal against Iran has been expected since Iran launched its own retaliatory assault on Oct 1, launching 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli targets in at least two waves.

The Iranian attack was a response to the killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

‘Deeply concerning’

US officials acknowledged the documents are authentic to The New York Times.

The government is said to be investigating who had access to the alleged classified documents.

“The leak is very concerning. There’s some serious allegations being made there, an investigation underway, and I’ll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours,” Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, told CNN’s “State of the Union. “We’re following it closely.”

Two years ago, a large leak of classified material appeared on Discord including details of Ukraine’s order of battle. It was one of the biggest leaks of government secrets in US history.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden said during a visit to Germany that he has a good understanding of how and when Israel plans to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.

US officials told CNN that the leak is “deeply concerning”, while privately acknowledging they are authentic to The New York Times.

The US is said to be investigating who had access to the alleged classified documents.

Two years ago, a large leak of classified material appeared on Discord and was made public last year. It was one of the biggest leaks of government secrets in US history.

On Friday, Joe Biden, the US president, said during a visit to Germany that he has a good understanding of how and when Israel plans to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.

The remarks were the first time the US has indicated that an understanding has been reached with Israel on the nature of the retaliation. Mr Biden has previously said he opposed Israel targeting Iranian nuclear or oil sites.

The IDF said on Sunday night that it intended to strike financial institutions linked to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

Ukraine is developing a drone capable of intercepting Russia’s Iranian-designed kamikaze drones, The Telegraph can disclose.

The new weapon will be deployed to chase down and intercept Shahed-136s instead of conventional air-defence munitions to protect Ukrainian cities against Russian barrages.

This is the first time a photograph and details of the classified “Sting” first-person view (FPV) Shahed-hunter have been made public.

Its developers, the Wild Hornets group, say their latest innovation will be able to fly faster than 100mph and at altitudes nearing 10,000ft.

The Sting is a classic quad-copter design with a large dome protruding upwards from its centre, where the warhead and camera is fitted.

It will be piloted from the ground using VR goggles that allow the operator to see exactly where it is flying.

A future development will have an artificial intelligence targeting system that will enable the pilot to lock on to enemy targets.

Similar drones have been used to intercept Russian surveillance drones that fly high and slow over the battlefield gathering intelligence for artillery and missile units.

Videos showing Ukrainian drones crashing into Russian Orlan and Zala drones have been circulated on social media with increased frequency as Kyiv’s forces turn to UAVs to take down surveillance systems.

But the Sting will be the first drone specifically developed to target the Iranian-designed Shahed drones launched by Russian forces.

Volume of attacks a challenge for Ukraine

Russia is now producing over 6,000 Shahed-style drones at a plant in Yelabuga, in the southeastern Tatarstan region, per year.

Its forces fire between 30 and 80 of the loitering munitions in the direction of Ukrainian cities each day.

The volume of attacks has proven to be a challenge for Ukraine’s air-defence units, which are running low on costly, Western surface-to-air missiles.

“Its average cost is dozens of times lower than that of the Shahed drone,” a Wild Hornet source said of the Sting drone.

It is hoped that by using low-cost suicide drones to destroy incoming Shahed drones, Ukraine will be able to conserve its stockpile of air-defence missiles for what has become a long-range war of attrition with Russia.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month that his country was on pace to build 1.5 million drones this year. He intends to eventually boost production to around four million annually.

‘New era’

Earlier this year, Ukraine launched an Unmanned Systems Force, the world’s first military branch dedicated to drone warfare.

Kyiv has secured billions of dollars of funding from its Western allies for the purchase and production of drones.

But Wild Hornets says it still needs more cash in donations from the public if it is going to be able to produce enough drones to tackle the Russian-launched Shaheds.

Ihor Lachenkov, a Ukrainian influencer with more than 1.5 million followers on the Telegram messaging app, who is helping raise funds, said: “This marks a new era in the development of air defence technologies worldwide.

“To support the capabilities of Ukrainian manufacturers, we are striving to involve as many people as possible in fundraising efforts. Currently, Russia is increasing its capabilities with the help of allied states, particularly Iran and North Korea.

“We must resist – there is no other choice. That is why it is crucial to support Ukrainian funds involved in FPV drone development through donations.”

Ukraine warned of a “huge” escalation risk on Saturday as hundreds of elite North Korean troops were predicted to enter the battlefield within days in support of Russia. 

Around 10,000 of Pyongyang’s soldiers are preparing to join Moscow’s army, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and South Korean intelligence. 

Video released on Friday showed North Korean troops arriving at Russian bases in the country’s far east, picking up military equipment in long queues.

Some 1,500 special forces were transferred to the port city of Vladivostok, with further deployments expected in the near future, the NIS, Seoul’s intelligence service, reported.

Kyrlo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, said around 2,600 soldiers will be sent to fight in Kursk by Nov 1.

North Korea’s Special Operations Forces [SOF] is one of the most secretive units of its kind in the world and an enigma to Western powers, appearing loyal and highly trained but lacking in advanced military equipment. 

The personnel reportedly sent to Vladivostok are presumed to have been sourced from the 200,000-strong ranks of the SOF, which is primarily used to probe and test South Korean defences.

According to the NIS, the troops were issued Russian military uniforms, weapons and fake IDs, and are expected to be deployed to Ukraine once they have completed acclimatisation training.

“This seems to be an effort to disguise the fact that they are North Korean troops by making them appear as Russian soldiers,” the spy agency said.

Andriy Sybiga, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia carried a “huge threat of further escalation” on Saturday. 

Though fiercely loyal to Pyongyang, it is unclear what role the non-Russian-speaking special forces will fulfil on Ukraine’s eastern front, which has slowly become a war of attrition – hardly a traditional arena for covert missions. 

Mike Turner, a Republican member of the House of Representatives and chairman of its intelligence committee, wrote to Joe Biden complaining about the lack of further detail from the White House on North Korean troop movements.

“The administration has not briefed the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence…of any assessments by US intelligence agencies or the department of defence regarding these troop movements,” he wrote, calling for an immediate briefing on the matter.

Founded around 1968, the SOF is perhaps best known for a disastrous attempt at raiding the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence, that year, which ended in the death of 29 out of the 31 operatives involved. 

Unlike the SAS or Israeli Mossad, little else is known about the intelligence service’s exploits, though some of its troops took part in a rare public event in 2017 that involved marching in formation alongside regular army soldiers.

In images broadcast by North Korean state TV, SOF troops were seen wearing black camouflage paint and dark sunglasses. They also carried what state media described as a new rifle fitted with a grenade launcher, and were clad in helmets with night vision goggles.

Several news reports at the time noted a distinct similarity to the uniforms of South Korean special forces – known as the Black Berets – suggesting they may have been modelled directly after them.

A report by Maxwell Goldstein, an analyst at Grey Dynamics, the London-based intelligence consultancy, in July described the SOF as aspiring to be “highly trained troops equipped with the best gear available for dangerous but essential missions”.

He said the SOF possesses 12 light infantry brigades, three reconnaissance units for operating behind enemy lines, three airborne divisions and three general sniper units, in addition to sniper brigades attached to air force and naval forces.

The SOF’s estimated size of 200,000 men is unusual in comparison to other international special forces units. The British SAS is believed to have as few as 500 active soldiers at any given time, while the US Delta Force contains some 2,000 operating members.

A 2021 report by the US Defence Intelligence Agency described the SOF as highly trained, highly motivated and fitted with the best equipment available to a pariah state such as North Korea, including chemical and biological agents.

However, it also observed: “Compared with the equipment of other worldwide SOF units, North Korea’s equipment is rudimentary and North Korean SOF probably lacks such sophisticated items as burst communications equipment, advanced signal-processing equipment, and specialised explosives.”

Ahmed Hassan, the CEO of Grey Dynamics, stressed that SOF were deemed “special” by North Korean army standards and not the criteria for Nato or Russian special forces.

“If there is a ranking between one and ten, and let’s say one is a basic soldier and ten is let’s say Delta Force or the SAS, then the NK force sits at 5,” Mr Hassan told The Telegraph. “The North Koreans don’t have a similar indication of what special operations mean, such as Nato standards. In North Korean parlance it’s more like, anything outside of a normal soldier.”

The SOF is rumoured to have been deployed to Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad, the country’s dictator, but some evidence suggested the troops were merely North Korean mercenaries.

Prof Hazel Smith, a leading UK expert on North Korea at SOAS University, advised caution over Seoul’s claim that special forces could soon be deployed to Ukraine. She noted that some of its previous intelligence assessments had turned out to be “spectacularly wrong.”

“It is very difficult to ascertain the validity of the South Korean intelligence statement,” she said. 

“If there are soldiers, the only reason they are likely to be special operations soldiers is that North Korea can’t risk sending conscripts as they don’t trust conscripts; their priority would be to defect or disappear. Special operations soldiers are considered to be more loyal to the North Korean government.”

Prof Smith also pointed out that the eastern front in Ukraine was primarily being used as a “meat-grinder” battlefield by Vladimir Putin, where the role of special operations soldiers would be unclear – especially ones who do not speak any Russian.

Bruce W Bennett, an analyst at the RAND think tank, called on the US to begin information campaigns to convince North Korean soldiers sent to Russia to defect to the West.

“It has been reported that six officers from [North Korea] were killed in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, a message that will likely anger their families in Pyongyang and thus should also be broadcast into North Korea,” he wrote this week.

North Korea’s greatest ally – the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – is “currently not that bothered by support for Russia,” according to Ian Garner, a historian and analyst of Russian culture.

On Saturday, the US announced sanctions against Chinese firms linked to the production of suicide drones being used against Ukraine.

But Beijing, which regards North Korea as a buffer zone between itself and the US-allied South Korea, has historically opposed any decisions by Pyongyang that are deemed risky or destabilising to Chinese foreign affairs, notably its trade relations with the West.

“If China does say no [to the final deployment of troops], it won’t happen,” Mr Garner told The Telegraph.

“Russia has very little to offer North Korea compared to what China offers, so if Beijing puts the dampeners on the plan, then those troops may never materialise at the front.”

Indonesia’s outgoing president has used “Machiavellian tactics” to push his son into high office, human rights groups have warned, amid a resurgence of governments led by “nepo babies” in south-east Asia.

After a decade at the helm of the world’s third largest democracy, Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, will hand over power on Sunday – but only after “bending institutions” to cement a dynasty.

Despite limited political experience, reported reluctance and a rule candidates must be at least 40, Jokowi’s 37-year-old son Gibran Rakabuming Raka will become vice-president, in a ticket headed by Prabowo Subianto – a fiery former military commander with a mixed human rights record.

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, was among the VIP guests who attended the inauguration of the new president Prabowo – himself the former son-in-law of the ruthless dictator Suharto – on Sunday.

“Jokowi completely mortgaged his legacy of transparency, probity, and respect for democracy as part of a desperate deal to cling to power via his son Gibran,” said Phil Robertson, the director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates, added that even his supporters have been “shocked by his Machiavellian tactics”.

“What’s particularly sad is how Jokowi, who entered politics as a grass-roots reformer looking out for the little guy, became completely corrupted by the political family succession game,” he said.

Patronage networks in politics are nothing new. But Gibran’s ascent comes as southeast Asia witnesses a “striking resurgence” of “nepo babies”, according to Ben Bland, the Asia director at Chatham House, who said it reflects a failure to build robust institutions.

Six of 11 countries in the diverse region, which is home to more than 670 million people, are now governed by the children of former leaders.

This includes Sonexay Siphandone in Laos, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in Brunei and Hun Manet in Cambodia – a Bristol University graduate long groomed for office, who seems intent on finishing his father’s work to “wipe out” critics, according to Robertson.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines – where 78 per cent of the country’s governors and 73 per cent of congressmen come from families with at least one elected official – the son of Ferdinand Marcos, a dictator toppled in 1986, is now president.

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr was elected in 2022. While his father once wrote in his diary that he feared his son was “too carefree and lazy”, Bongbong spent time as a governor, congressman and senator before joining forces with another political dynasty, the Dutertes, to get to the top. That uneasy partnership has since descended into a bitter feud.

But Indonesia’s Gibran appears a more reluctant “nepo baby”. According to Reuters, he disapproved of his father’s entry into politics so much that he only attended Jokowi’s 2014 inauguration after his grandmother “twisted his arm”.

For a long time afterwards, he stayed out of the limelight, instead focusing on several food businesses – including a company selling pancakes stuffed with chocolate and cheese.

That changed just three years ago when Gibran became mayor of a small city. 

At around the same time his father – who remains popular, and is widely seen as transforming Indonesia’s economy – dropped a campaign to change the constitution to seek a third term in office. Then, in 2023, a court led by Jokowi’s brother-in-law created an exception to the age limit, allowing Gibran to join a ticket before he hit 40.

He partnered with Prabowo, who staged a remarkable transformation to present himself as a “cuddly grandpa”.

After he won a convincing victory in February, Gibran is en route to Jakarta, having packed the toys and collectable figurines he had on display in his mayoral office. 

“Gibran might be reluctant but he said okay, and he danced to the drum,” said Andreas Harsono, an Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It’s not only nepotism, Jokowi ruined many democratic institutions in the country to [make his son vice president].”

Thailand, too, has an inexperienced prime minister. Paetongtarn Shinawatra is the youngest daughter of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire who once owned Manchester City football club.

Thaksin was ousted in 2006 but has retained a strong presence behind the scenes – his sister and brother-in-law were prime ministers at points during his exile.

But Paetongtarn, 37, was thrust into the position after a surprise court ruling removed her predecessor. Many commentators have speculated that this was much sooner than even Thaksin had envisaged, and she was visibly nervous in her acceptance speech in August.

“Compared to Jokowi’s son, I think Paetongtarn might be seen less favourably,” said Tita Sanglee, a research fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute think tank. 

“Paetongtarn held no public office and rose straight to the top without substantial political experience.

“Then there’s the fact that she is a woman. This, coupled with her comfortable lifestyle and apparent preference for high-end fashion brands, makes her an easy target for criticism.”

While being a “nepo baby” does not mean someone is inevitably bad at their job, Sanglee added that the dominance of family dynasties has thwarted competition and warped wealth.

“They can worsen regional disparities since some of these families tend to focus on their own regions or constituencies and not the broader needs of the country. This is a critical point for developing southeast Asian societies,” she said. 

“And without proper checks and balances, these families can shape foreign policy in a way that serves their political and business interests, but not national interests.”

Labour’s employment rights revamp will pave the way for a £5.5 billion wage rise for carers, an analysis has found.

A forecast, drawn up by officials at the Department for Health earlier this year, found that the full cost could come to £24 billion over the course of this parliament.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is committed to establishing a fair pay agreement in the sector, under which state-backed collective bargaining would take place between trade unions and social care providers.

Under the Workers’ Rights Bill, those working in the social care sector will be given the right to collective bargaining on pay.

Senior Labour figures have argued that the policy would increase pay for social care staff and decrease reliance on foreign workers who have been issued visas to fill vast shortages. Should it prove successful, those working on the policy say it could be expanded into other sectors.

The Department for Health’s forecast, which was drawn up before the election, is based on a new salary for carers of £15 an hour, which unions have previously said is the minimum that adult social care workers should be paid.

Last night, the Government distanced itself from the analysis, saying it was based on “incorrect” assumptions and did not reflect its policies.

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, said: “This simply confirms what we already knew. Labour’s bogus black hole is self-created, and that any decision to raise taxes at the Budget will be as a result of their own choices.

“The real scandal is that despite planning these tax rises all along, they didn’t have the courage to admit it to the public during the election campaign”.

Ministers have not stated who would be in line to foot the bill for carers’ pay rise. Local councils – who for much of the country’s social care provision – have long argued that they are already cash-strapped and would not be able to afford it themselves.

David Fothergill, the social care spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said that a fair pay agreement for care workers is “crucial” for attracting and retaining skilled professionals to the sector.

But he added that “any rise in wages must be funded by genuinely new government funding; the cost cannot be handed over to councils when their budgets are already under significant strain and incapable of absorbing such increases”.

“Any new agreements should also come alongside a fully funded workforce strategy for the sector and the resources councils and providers need to reduce their reliance on costly agency staff.”

Huge responsibility

Gavin Edwards, the head of social care at Unison, said: “Until wages rise in social care, the sector will never be able to recruit and retain the numbers of staff needed to meet the growing demands of an ageing population. That’s something employers, families, ministers and unions can all agree upon.

“It will be the responsibility of the new care negotiating body, made up of provider, union and government representatives, to agree on a minimum hourly rate that will help kickstart the long-overdue reform of this most vital service.”

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care said: “These figures are based on an incorrect set of assumptions and do not reflect this government’s policy. No spending decisions have been made.

“We are committed to delivering a Fair Pay Agreement for adult social care workers to properly reward hard-working staff and improve recruitment and retention.

“In order to deliver this, it is vital to first consult widely to ensure the policy is right for workers, providers and people who draw on care and support.”

Peter Mandelson has been accused of “appealing to tribal loyalties” in the race to be the next chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Undergraduate students associated with Oxford’s Labour Club have been campaigning for Lord Mandelson to become the ceremonial head of the university.

Some Labour MPs who are alumni of the university have also been helping to drum up support for the former Cabinet minister, The Telegraph understands.

Undergraduates are not eligible to vote in the election of the new chancellor, which takes place in the week of Oct 28. More than 250,000 graduates are technically eligible to vote, along with academics at the university, if they have registered to vote online.

In their efforts to elect Lord Mandelson, student activists have tried to sign up graduates to vote in order to “make the race more representative” and Labour-friendly. Some have tried to persuade their tutors to support Lord Mandelson.

Labour-supporting undergraduates have also been involved in helping the party grandee to plan events that seek to boost his profile at the university. He has no full-time campaigning team.

But some dons have expressed their displeasure at the 70-year old accepting help from current students to influence the race. On senior academic said: “At a university of all places, Lord Mandelson should be promoting his cause by the strength of his reasons, not by appealing to tribal loyalties.”

Another don said: “The chancellor of Oxford should be above party politics and should strive to represent the whole university. It’s to be hoped that an electorate as experienced and informed as Oxford’s MAs will see through his immature behaviour and vote for a better candidate who understands the chancellor’s role.”

Another said: “It’s so naff for 20-year-olds to be hassling people and asking them to vote. I think it is highly counter-productive.”

Lord Mandelson has said he would draw on his “political links with the new Government to advocate for Oxford and the university sector.”

One student supporting Lord Mandelson said: “What I’ve been doing is reaching out to people, letting them know that this election is happening because it’s almost always been a Conservative chancellor, but we want people to know that this one is different. It’s online and we can make sure it’s more representative.”

Another said: “There are a lot of Labour MPs who were at Oxford, who were previously involved in Labour student politics, who have reached out to the campaign because they want it to be a Labour result.”

Lord Mandelson told The Telegraph: “I have been a two-term chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University and I therefore know how to support a university but, as an alumnus myself, I also know Oxford University is a global university and I have the international connections and networks to help it remain so.

“I welcome the support of people of all political persuasions and none, and I hope everyone who can will cast a vote in this election.”

Candidates for the chancellorship have not traditionally campaigned in the past, instead being elected at a ceremonial gathering of the electorate. But this year’s election is the first to be held online.

Other politicians running for the position include William Hague, the former foreign secretary, who has received an endorsement from the Oxford University Conservative Association. 

In all, 38 candidates have successfully submitted applications to stand in the election. Janet Royall, a Labour peer and former cabinet colleague of Lord Mandelson, is also running for the position.

The Oxford chancellor role has often been held by former Conservative politicians including Lord Patten, who is the outgoing chancellor, and Harold Macmillan, the former prime minister, who served in the role from 1960 to 1986.

Roy Jenkins, once a Labour cabinet minister, held the position when he was an SDP and later Liberal Democrat politician.

Britain’s candidate for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was a favoured legal adviser to Jeremy Corbyn and said British bombing in Syria was unlawful.

Dapo Akande, a professor of law at Oxford, was chosen to run for membership of the court in September with the backing of the Government. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said he was “an outstanding international lawyer and has our full support”.

In 2018, when Mr Corbyn was the Labour leader, the party sought Mr Akande’s legal opinion on the UK’s bombing of Syria. Mr Akande argued that the air strikes did not comply with international law.

The strikes, conducted with America and France, were a response to the Douma chemical attack, for which the Syrian government was later found responsible. They were intended to hinder the Assad government’s ability to deploy chemical weapons.

While the former Conservative government had legal advice that the targeted strikes were “right and legal”, Labour asked Mr Akande for his opinion. 

In his advice, he argued that the government’s action had no basis in international law and claimed its legal advice was “significantly flawed”. Based on this, Mr Corbyn told the Commons that he thought the air strikes were “legally questionable”.

Tom Watson, Labour’s then deputy leader, who had approached Mr Akande on behalf of the Labour Party, described his legal opinion as “expert and impartial advice”. 

Mr Akande has previously provided legal advice to Conservative Attorneys Generals and served as the legal adviser to the all-party parliamentary group on drones from 2017 to 2018.

As part of his work with the group, he co-signed a letter to The Telegraph that said: “When Britain shares its bases, intelligence and personnel with its drone partners, it is currently at risk of acting unlawfully.”

In 2015, he co-authored an academic article in the European Journal of International Law titled Corbyn, Trident, and the Letter of Last Resort: Legality of Use of Nuclear Weapons.

In it, he and his co-author argued in a legal thought experiment that the UK “would not be acting lawfully in retaliating” with Trident after a nuclear attack.

If elected by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council, Mr Akande will sit for at least a nine-year term. 

The ICJ adjudicates on legal disputes between states and gives opinions on the working of international law. South Africa recently used the court to lodge a case of genocide against Israel. That case is still under consideration by ICJ judges.

Candidates for the court must be eligible for the highest judicial appointments in their home countries or display “recognised competence in international law”. Once elected, judges act impartially and independently, not as delegates for their home countries.

Labour’s tax raid on private schools will cost the Foreign Office an extra £1 million this year, the Government has admitted.

Catherine West, the minister for the Indo-Pacific, said the department’s bill would shoot up as a result of the decision to charge VAT on fees.

It is likely to stem from increased compensation paid to diplomatic families who send their children to boarding school in the UK when they are posted abroad.

The Foreign Office currently spends about £14 million per year on placements for the children of staff who may be forced to travel at short notice or move somewhere unsafe, in order to provide stability for their education.

The department has now admitted it expects its costs to rise significantly as a result of the Government’s decision to scrap the VAT exemption for private school fees.

In answer to a written question from Dame Harriett Baldwin, the former Tory minister, the Government said it estimated that the increased cost to the Foreign Office could be about £1 million for 2024-25.

It is predicted this will rise to an extra £2.5 million in 2025-26, with the department continuing to assess the longer-term financial impact. This is “based on an assumption of how schools might apply the increase to parents and the impact on fees”.

The department did not specify why the change would lead to a rise in costs. However, it would follow that an increase in fees for diplomats would need to be compensated as allowances have risen with costs in recent years.

The Telegraph has approached the Foreign Office for comment.

The revelations will fuel concerns that the tax raid on private schools will serve to increase the burden on the taxpayer, with critics fearing an exodus of pupils to the state sector.

‘Ideological politics’

The support for diplomatic and military families is provided through a fund called the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA), which 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. The cost of those placements will now be eligible to increase by 20 per cent VAT under current plans.

There has been speculation that the Government could offer mitigations, such as an exemption from the tax rise, or choose to recalculate the CEA to ensure that families in receipt of the benefit are shielded from the VAT raid. However, nothing has been confirmed, with Rachel Reeves still working on her Budget for Oct 30.

Currently, 4,210 pupils receive support through the scheme, funded by the Ministry of Defence, while a further 514 are assisted by the Foreign Office.

Dame Harriett told The Telegraph: “Labour has now admitted that its education tax is going to cost the Foreign Office millions of pounds every year. In the midst of global danger and insecurity, raiding the Foreign Office budget to pay for ideological politics is unjustifiable.

“Not only is it untenable for Labour to avoid publishing a full impact assessment of their education tax, they must do what is right by those who serve our country overseas by exempting those supported by the Continuity Education Allowance.”

Paul McCartney gave John Lennon a “step by step” plan to help his fellow Beatles star get back together with his wife, Yoko Ono.

The revelation is part of a memoir by Elliot Mintz, a radio host, that describes his close personal relationship with the couple.

In We All Shine On, Mintz describes how in 1974, while Lennon was producing an album for singer Harry Nilsson entitled the Pussy Cats, McCartney turned up at the recording studio.

Lennon was in the midst of his famous “lost weekend”, in which he had separated from Ono and spent 18 months partying in Los Angeles with other stars, including Nilsson.

During this time, Lennon also began his infamous affair with 23-year-old May Pang, who flew to Los Angeles as his personal assistant.

After Lennon expressed his desire to reunite with his wife, Mintz says McCartney reportedly offered to speak to Lennon for Ono and visited his fellow Beatles star at the recording studio. The two had not performed together since the Beatles had split.

“They were all just looking at us, thinking that something big was going to happen. To me, it was just playing with Paul”, Mintz recalls Lennon saying about the encounter.

Sometime afterwards, McCartney sat down with Lennon and “laid out, step by step, what he would need to do to win Yoko back”, the excerpt from The Times reads.

Ono has historically been accused by fans of breaking up the Beatles, and was regularly referred to by some as the “dragon lady”.

But McCartney’s actions in 1974 suggest otherwise, which is only further backed up by his interview with BBC Radio 4 in 2021, where he said that he held Lennon responsible for the band’s breakup.

We All Shine On charts Mintz’s friendship with Lennon and Ono, as well as the couple’s complicated relationship.

Mintz describes in the book how he was so close with the couple that they had a special hotline for him and a red light would flash in his bedroom whenever one of them called.

Lennon and Ono eventually reunited after their 18-month split in November 1974, when she attended an Elton John performance in which Lennon took part as a surprise guest. Later backstage the couple met in a dressing room and re-established their connection.

Lennon continued to live with Pang for a short period, but eventually returned to Ono, telling Mintz: “Let the media know the separation did not work”.

This is the moment a dog walker narrowly misses a landslide as it wipes out several beach huts.

Video footage shows a dislodged tree and other shrubbery tumbling down a cliff towards the seafront at a Bournemouth beach in Dorset.

The dog walker only realises he is in harm’s way at the last moment, escaping the landslide on Saturday morning by seconds.

The force of the impact dislodged 14 huts which were pushed onto the promenade, a popular spot for dog walking.

It is the second landslide to take place at Durley Chine beach, a few hundred yards west of the town’s pier, in the past 10 days.

A large cordon has been placed around the scene by the police and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council (BCP) to protect the public in case of further landslips.

Georgina Humphries, a visitor to the area, said: “We’ve had so much rain lately, it was only a matter of time.

“You’ve got to feel for those with beach huts – they cost a fortune.”

Richard Herrett, the cabinet member for destination at BCP council, said: “Following further heavy rainfall, we can confirm that a cliff slip near Durley Chine took place at 9.45 this morning and has affected access to a number of beach huts and parts of the adjacent promenade.

“This is in the same area of the chine that experienced a cliff slip earlier this month and a wider section has been cordoned off in the interest of public safety while the site is inspected by the council’s flood and coastal erosion risk management team.

“We are informing the licensees of the beach huts and will provide updates once a further assessment has been carried out.”

Dorset Police has been approached for comment.

A former Russian oil executive has been found dead after apparently falling from the window of his Moscow flat.

Mikhail Rogachev was found outside his 10th-story apartment in Moscow with injuries consistent with a fall, Russian media reported.

Russian news agencies said authorities were treating his death as a suicide.

Telegram channels close to the Russian security services said his body was discovered by an agent of the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, who was walking the dog of a senior spymaster in the building’s courtyard on Saturday morning.

The 64-year-old was a former vice-president of Yukos, the oil giant that was broken up and after its billionaire owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky was imprisoned after challenging Vladimir Putin.

He went on to work as executive director of the Onexim group, oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov’s investment vehicle, and later deputy general director of Norilsk Nickel, a mining giant.

He is the latest of nearly a dozen Russian energy executives to die in mysterious circumstances over the past two years.

Leonid Shulman, the head of the transport service at Gazprom Invest, which handles investment projects for state-owned gas giant, was found dead in a cottage north of St Petersburg in January 2022.

Alexander Tyulakov, another executive at Gazprom, was found dead in the garage of his St Petersburg home on February 25 that year, the morning after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian media reported.

Later that year Ravil Magonov, the chairman of Lukoil, an oil giant, died after falling out of the window of a Moscow hospital.

Vladimir Nekrasov, who succeeded him as the chair of the Lukoil board, died in October last year of heart failure.

The Government risks breaching its manifesto promises if it cuts a flagship farming fund at the Budget, critics have claimed.

The Chancellor has been warned that slashing a post-Brexit scheme aimed at incentivising farmers to make nature-friendly choices will put her party’s commitments to British wildlife in jeopardy.

It comes as more than 20 Tory MPs and peers have written to Rachel Reeves and Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, urging them to maintain the initiative after reports suggested its funding could be slashed by £100 million.

The Environmental Land Management Scheme (Elms) pays farmers for environmental goods such as soil health, air quality and reduced water pollution.

It is seen by some as a “significant win from Brexit” as it replaced the old system of EU-style subsidies.

Labour pledged in its manifesto to “make environment land management schemes work for farmers and nature”.

The party also promised to “deliver for nature” by endeavouring to meet the targets in the Environment Act.

The Treasury is seeking £40bn in tax rises and spending cuts to cover measures including a string of workers’ pay rises, costs relating to asylum seekers and more cash for the NHS.

Critics claim that cutting the Elms budget would undermine these pledges, as the scheme plays a “critical role” in protecting Britain’s wildlife.

Global commitment

Separately, the Government has inherited global commitments to protect 30 per cent of its land and seas for nature by 2030, known as 30×30.

A source from the One Nation Group of Conservative MPs told The Telegraph: “This funding plays a critical role in achieving their manifesto promises – they need to increase it, not cut it.

“By cutting it, they are undermining their environmental manifesto promises and paving the road to breaking it.”

They added: “Seventy per cent of all land in the UK is agricultural. Therefore, farmers will play a critical role in nurturing wildlife and encouraging nature restoration and will require financial support.

“Elms fill this critical role: by cutting it, the Government risks putting our nature targets in jeopardy.”

In their letter to the Chancellor ahead of the Budget on Oct 30, coordinated by the Conservative Environment Network, 23 Tory parliamentarians said they were “extremely concerned” about reports that the fund could be cut.

“This threatens the livelihoods of farmers, who are struggling like never before with high costs and the impacts of extreme weather events, and would harm our food security too,” they said.

“It will also cast into serious doubt the Government’s ability to hit the 2030 nature recovery target, which your party has consistently said it supports, with an estimated 239,000 hectares less of farmland under Elms if the budget is cut.”

They added: “At a time of significant financial and environmental pressures, cutting this budget would be a short-sighted act of self-harm.”

The signatories included Claire Coutinho, the former energy secretary, Helen Whately, the former health minister, and George Freeman, the former science minister.

A source at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs did not rule out a cut to the Elms budget, pointing to “difficult decisions” faced by the new Government.

“The Conservatives left Britain facing the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War because they refused to make the tough decisions and spent money that didn’t exist,” they said.

“The Chancellor has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead to repair the colossal damage left by the Conservatives and address the £22 billion hole in the public finances.

“Decisions on how to do that will be taken at the Budget in the round.”

According to The Guardian, which reported the scheme was at risk last month, Civil Service sources said ministers would claim the cut to the £2.4bn fund was justified by an underspend of £100 million per year.

But the parliamentarians said that the previous Tory government “intentionally left room in the budget” to make sure that it could accommodate the maximum possible uptake.

They said any attempt to “frame the £100 million figure simply as an underspend” would “not wash”.

“Ministers’ rhetoric on giving farmers a new deal and protecting the environment will look hollow if you fail to protect the farming budget in full,” they said.

More than 100 fans gathered in central London to pay tribute to former One Direction member Liam Payne.

The large group stood in silence on Sunday afternoon as they displayed pictures of the late 31-year-old singer, as well as handwritten notes, balloons and flowers at the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park.

Directioners, the name given to supporters of The X Factor-formed band, have organised events on social media in Britain and around the world to celebrate Payne, who died on Wednesday.

Tess Hayden, 24, who was on holiday with her brother in Dublin when she heard the news, said she made changes to her schedule so she could be with One Direction’s fans in London.

The tourist, from the United States, said: “Well, my older brother and I had been planning a trip to Dublin for a while, and I knew I was going to try and come to London at some point at the end of the trip, but when I woke up and heard the news, I was like, ‘OK, I’ll just go a day earlier [and] try and figure [it] out.”

Speaking in Hyde Park, Natasha Bradley,  23, reflected on her grief. Ms Bradley said she wanted to be around people who were “feeling the same because your parents, they don’t really understand how much they really meant to you growing up.”

Before the weekend, Payne’s father headed to Buenos Aires to arrange the repatriation of his son’s body.

Geoff Payne visited the Casa Sur Hotel on Friday in the Argentine capital, where the Wolverhampton-born star fell from a third-floor balcony, and read letters and cards from fans outside.

On Saturday, his sister Ruth Gibbins paid a heartfelt tribute to her brother on Instagram saying, “I don’t feel this world was good enough or kind enough to you”, as well as sharing pictures of him.

She also wrote: “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. One last time I need you to know, I’m here if you need anything, I’d drive to the end of the universe to bring you back.”

That same day, Britain’s Got Talent auditions restarted in Blackpool following them being rescheduled after Payne’s death and former One Direction member Zayn Malik announced he would postpone the US leg of his tour.

Mr Malik, who left The X Factor-formed boyband in 2015 before they went on hiatus in 2016, wrote on X that he was making the decision “given the heartbreaking loss experienced this week”.

“The dates are being rescheduled for January and I’ll post them as soon as it’s all set in the next few days,” he added. “Your tickets will remain valid for the new dates. Love you all and thank you for your understanding.”

He is set to perform in the UK in Edinburgh, London, Wolverhampton, Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester throughout the final two months of this year, and a spokesman for the singer confirmed these are unchanged.

Payne died of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage”, a post-mortem examination report said.

Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No 16 said it was investigating the incident as an “inconclusive death”.

It said five witnesses were questioned in order to reconstruct what happened at the hotel.

A joint statement from One Direction said they were “completely devastated” and will miss the singer “terribly”, adding that the “memories we shared with him will be treasured forever”.

Thousands of people protested in holiday resorts in Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday against over tourism which they say prices local people out of the housing market.

Under the slogan ‘Canary Islands has a limit’, residents demonstrated simultaneously in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and El Hierro and called for a change in the tourism model for the islands.

In the Playa de las Americas in Tenerife, protesters appeared on the beach while tourists were sunbathing and chanted: “This beach is ours.”

Activists claimed the arrival of millions of visitors every year depletes limited natural resources like water and damages the environment. At least 8,000 people took part, the Spanish government said.

Between January and September, 9.9 million tourists visited the Canary Islands, according to the Spanish national statistics institute, 10.3 per cent more than in the same period in 2023. The islands’ population was 2.2 million last year.

“We need a change in the tourist model so it leaves richness here, a change so it values what this land has because it is beautiful,” Sara Lopez, 32, told Reuters in Gran Canaria on Sunday.

Tourism-dependent Spain has seen a series of protests against over-tourism this year in Barcelona, and other popular holiday destinations like Mallorca and Malaga.

The Canary Islands regional government drafted a law which is expected to pass this year to toughen the rules on short lets following complaints from locals priced out of the housing market.

Newly built properties will be barred from the short-let market and property owners with a permit will have five years to comply with requirements that include granting neighbours the right to object to these permits.

The Canary Islands decided to crack down on tourist rents after the number of private renters exploded in recent years.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Valencia to call for more affordable housing, saying tourist flats push up prices.

Rachel Reeves has been warned that her planned inheritance tax raid will not raise money and will increase bureaucracy for thousands of bereaved families.

The Chancellor is understood to be considering extending the current “seven-year” rule – under which gifts can be passed on free of inheritance tax – to 10 years.

However, economists from across the political spectrum and analysis from within the Treasury itself, say the move would entail much higher levels of administration which would lower the amount that could be raised for the Treasury.

One said the move was “unlikely to raise additional revenues”.

Ms Reeves has already been warned that other Budget plans – such as reforms to tax on non-doms and increasing capital gains tax too much – will be unlikely to raise cash.

It came as senior Labour figures urged Ms Reeves to go much further and replace inheritance tax altogether with wealth taxes payable over a lifetime.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said such a plan could unite Left and Right if it were replaced by a more progressive property tax.

The Telegraph revealed last week that Ms Reeves wants to use the Budget to raise up to £35 billion in taxes, with another £5 billion or so coming from spending cuts.

The Labour manifesto promised that the party would “not increase taxes on working people” and Ms Reeves now appears to be struggling to raise enough within those constraints.

On Sunday Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, suggested that when Labour said they would not put up taxes on working people, it might not mean those on six-figure salaries.

Several Cabinet ministers have also written to Sir Keir Starmer to complain about the cuts their departments face in the Budget.

On Monday, a major new analysis warns that the Budget risks creating one of the most “anti-growth” tax systems in the developed world.

A joint study by the US Tax Foundation and the UK’s Centre for Policy Studies said that if the Chancellor increases capital gains tax as expected, Britain would have one of the least competitive tax systems in the OECD.

The Chancellor is also expected to target inheritance tax in the budget by attempting to raise £1billion by removing exemptions for businesses and agricultural land.

She is also looking at extending the time a person must survive after giving a gift before it is free of inheritance tax. At present, gifts given to heirs are only charged the tax if the donor dies less than seven years later.

Ms Reeves hopes to raise more money by increasing the time limit to 10 years.

Nullifying the change

However, Maxwell Marlow, director of research at the Adam Smith Institute, said: “Extending the time allowance from seven years to 10 is unlikely to raise additional revenues, as life expectancy amongst higher-income households continues to grow.

“Gift-givers will likely just grant gifts three years earlier than intended, thus nullifying the change.”

It is understood that Ms Reeves is looking at a report from the now-defunct Office for Tax Simplification, which in 2019 laid out a series of ideas on how to reform inheritance tax.

But its report actually warned against an extension of the seven-year rule – saying it should in fact be cut to five years.

It said a cut was required because people do not have records going back as far as even five years, making administering the tax very difficult.

They pointed out that just £7 million of the £4 billion inheritance tax is related to gifts made over five years before death because the percentage of tax the Exchequer takes has also been tapered down.

In addition, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Inheritance and Intergenerational Fairness concluded that while it was likely that many gifts are given more than seven years before death, it was impossible to know how much.

Its chairman, former Tory MP John Stevenson, said: “I would question whether this would raise any additional revenue of any consequence.

“It would create new regulatory burdens because people would have to keep records of these gifts.

“Inheritance tax is already too complicated. This would make it worse when we should be looking to simplify it. We came up with the idea of a lifetime tax which would have eliminated all these requirements.”

Last month, the Institute for Fiscal Studies also cautioned against the move.

Arun Advani and David Sturrock wrote that extending the time allowance could increase the “perceived unfairness” of the tax because wealthier people could simply move their gift-giving to earlier.

In a report published last month, they said: “The look-back period may even increase the perceived unfairness if it extends to a period that covers these major gifts for only some people, depending on how long they survive, both because of the randomness of who ends up paying and because less well-off individuals tend to die earlier and so are likely to have more of their gifts be taxable.”

The Resolution Foundation, a Left-wing think tank, said that extending the period would lead to more red tape and that some of the wealthiest people would find a way to avoid it.

“One option would be to expand this period (say to 10, 15 or 30 years) but this would require more administration and uncertainty – given that it is not known at the time of giving whether tax will be payable or not, and gifts need to be accounted for retrospectively – and would in turn be circumvented by the wealthiest,” they said in a report.

The think tank has also said it wanted the current inheritance tax system to be “ripped up” and replaced with a new one that levies tax on individual heirs, not estates.

Under the plan, there would be a lifetime tax-free gift allowance of £125,000, with 20 per cent tax paid on receipts above that up to £500,000.

After £500,000, the tax rate would be increased to 30 per cent. In addition, there would be an annual gift allowance of £3,000. The plan was drawn up by its former director Torsten Bell, who is now a Labour MP.

Other figures on the left called on the Chancellor to be more radical on inheritance tax.

Mr Burnham said income tax should be replaced with a land value tax – an annual levy based on a percentage of a property’s value.

“We could come up with a proposal where Left meets Right on this,” he said. “You could abolish inheritance tax and replace it with a new system of land and property taxation.

“The Right would welcome the abolition of inheritance tax and the left would welcome people in the largest homes paying council tax based on 2024 property prices rather than 1991 prices.

“The situation at the moment is that you can be paying much more council tax in a Band D house in Greater Manchester than in some of the very wealthiest parts of London.

“This reform could be part of a new system of land value taxation, which could senationale the vast majority of people paying less than they are currently paying in council tax. It would also end land banking, which is slowing down housebuilding.”

Rachael Maskell, a Labour MP, said: “The comprehensive spending review will be the opportunity for Rachel [Reeves] to undertake more in-depth reform.

“There is an inequity about those who inherit an estate or are gifted it in advance, and likewise the thresholds for inheritance tax may well need to be revised if greater revenue needs to be generated.”

It is expected that Ms Reeves will put up employers’ National Insurance contributions in the Budget.

On Sunday, Mr Streeting said Labour had not ruled that out during the election campaign and that it would not be a breach of the manifesto.

He said: “I don’t know if that’s going to be in the Budget but we did not rule out that, or a number of other things, because we were very clear in our manifesto that every single promise we made was a promise we could keep and the country could afford, and we’re going to deliver every single bit of that manifesto.”

Asked about the definition of working people, Mr Streeting, who earns almost £159,000, told Trevor Phillips on Sky: “When I’m thinking about this Budget and its consequences, I’m actually not thinking about people on my salary or your salary. Even though we’re both at work, we’re working people.

“I’m thinking about people like my mum, who’s a cleaner, or my dad, who’s a car salesman.”

Ms Reeves is also expected to hit aristocrats and other wealthy property owners with her inheritance tax raid.

She will reform business relief, a loophole which allows the rich to halve their inheritance tax bills; as well as agricultural property relief, designed to help farmers pass land on but has increasingly been used by the wealthy to the levy.

The Treasury will promise exemptions for small businesses and family farms, amid fears from agricultural groups over the future for British farmers.

The Chancellor will say abolishing the loopholes is the “fair way” to raise money on the wealthy. Aristocrats will be affected the most, as they own 30 per cent of the land.

On Saturday, the Country Land and Business Association said the changes, if not applied carefully, could “endanger our rural way of life, and the nation’s food security”.

Members of grooming gangs should face whole life prison sentences, Robert Jenrick has said.

The former immigration minister and Tory leadership contender said the current maximum sentences for group-based child sexual exploitation and sexual assault should carry a minimum whole life term, which would mean convicted offenders would never be released from jail.

Currently, the maximum sentence for grooming under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act carries a minimum of 14 years.

But grooming gang members can receive sentences as low as four years for offences such as raping girls as young as 13.

Mr Jenrick also proposed automatic deportations for any non-British offender involved in grooming gangs, criminal penalties for officials who failed to report such offences and permanent tagging for any released from jail.

He said victims of the grooming gangs in Rotherham should also be consulted about a monument to them in the town to serve as a reminder to the country and authorities of the injustice.

‘A stain on our nation…’

The Alexis Jay report found that at least 1,400 children were groomed in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, an estimate which it described as “conservative”.

Seven sexual predators in Rotherham have been sentenced to a total of 106 years, with one receiving only six years, for committing sexual offences against two girls, one of whom was aged 11.

“Some of the reforms that Suella Braverman brought forward as home secretary during the last government have worked well. The dedicated grooming gangs task force led to the arrest of over 550 suspects in a single year,” said Mr Jenrick.

“This is a good start, but the truth is that we need to go much further. Anyone who thinks these crimes are no longer happening is delusional.

“That view, sadly widespread across the most powerful people in Britain, is condemning more working-class girls to these savage and life-ruining crimes. The Telford Report is clear that this exploitation “still exists today, and is prevalent across the country as a whole”.

“Every second this atrocity continues is a stain on our nation’s moral conscience. That is why I am calling for mandatory whole life sentences for any grooming gang member. Anyone who has read the Jay report would support locking up these disgusting predators for life.”

The Alexis Jay report found that a number of public servants felt cowed by the perception that they would be perceived as racist leading to under-reporting of the scale of the grooming. They would face criminal penalties and lifetime bans under his proposals.

A “blacklist” would be created that would stop any official who failed to report these crimes from working in any part of the public sector ever again.

Mr Jenrick said many grooming gang criminals had been released back into the community where they committed their crimes. This meant victims saw their attackers on the high streets of the town in which they were abused.

Under his proposals, anyone who had committed grooming crimes would be permanently tagged and given a lifetime injunction from going anywhere near their victims, even if that meant they could not live in the town where they committed their crimes.

Ambulances are increasingly dumping patients in corridors at A&E units without proper handover, the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned.

Dr Adrian Boyle, the most senior A&E doctor in the country, said “unilateral” action being taken by ambulance trusts was putting the most vulnerable patients at risk.

He said paramedics should be working with nurses in casualty units to ensure that key clinical information is passed on, and not leaving patients unsupervised.

But he claimed that increasing numbers of ambulance trusts had lost patience with long waits at A&E and embarked on a high-risk strategy of “drop and go”.

“We have got patients who are ill and vulnerable and need to be properly cared for, and we are putting the work on to overstretched departments and overloaded nurses and inevitably this is putting the patients at risk,” Dr Boyle said.

“With drop and go, at 45 minutes, they will put a patient onto a trolley. They’ll let a nurse know this patient is there and then they will go,” he added, highlighting policies being introduced by a number of ambulance trusts.

“Our concern is that the handover between ambulance services and trusts is not as complete or safe as it should be,” the senior medic continued, saying units were being treated as though they had “elastic walls”.

‘An admission of defeat’

Dr Boyle said too often ambulance services were taking decisions that were “target-driven” to improve their own performance on handover delays, and response times.

“Leaving a patient without proper handover to meet a target is unsafe,” he said. “My fear is that they are hitting the target, but missing the point.”

Dr Boyle also said too many A&E patients were being left in corridors, where crucial signs of deterioration could be missed. He accused health officials of “an admission of defeat” in tolerating such practices.

As part of its winter planning, NHS England published a document for hospitals called “principles for providing safe and good quality care in temporary escalation spaces”.

Dr Boyle accused health officials of “basically just accepting a very, very abnormal situation”.

“It’s not as if our emergency departments aren’t dangerous places at the moment, and corridor care, which is where a lot of these patients get put, we know is very bad for patients,” he explained.

“Essentially, what we’re finding is that every emergency department has an additional medical ward of people waiting to be admitted.

“Corridor care is undignified. These patients, who need to be in hospital beds, do not receive the same level of observation and care as they would in a cubicle space or inpatient bed. Routine medications can be missed and signs of deterioration can be missed by overstretched nurses.”

Dr Boyle is particularly worried about 12-hour waits in A&E, which have been closely linked to excess deaths.

Last month an independent investigation into the NHS by former health minister Lord Darzi noted that such waits are likely to be causing an additional 14,000 deaths a year – more than double all British Armed Forces’ combat deaths since the health service was founded in 1948.

Latest monthly figures show 129,012 12-hour waits at A&E units across England in September, higher than last year.

Research by the RCEM suggests that this would mean around 1,800 extra deaths in one month alone.

Dr Boyle suggested hospitals are simply too crowded to operate safely – with occupancy reaching 93.1 per cent in September, long before winter sets in.

He is also concerned that health officials are focusing on performance against the four-hour A&E target – which Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has vowed to hit within a first term in power – to the neglect of the target to cut 12-hour waits.

“There is much more harm attached to performance on 12-hour waits,” said Dr Boyle, noting that NHS England’s winter planning letter made no reference to such delays.

The latest published data for England shows a slight improvement in four-hour waits, while 12-hour delays are worsening.

In January 2023, a leaked letter revealed that London Ambulance Service was asking for all patients waiting more than 45 minutes for handover to be “handed over immediately to ED (emergency department) staff allowing the ambulance clinicians to leave and respond to the next patient waiting in the community.”

Dr Boyle said: “Drop and go is a poor and unilateral response to a chronic lack of capacity in the emergency care system. We understand the importance of getting ambulances back on the road as quickly as possible, but the lack of commitment from NHSE to tackling 12-hour stays is creating intolerable crowding in our emergency departments. If 12-hour stays were tackled we would not need drop and go.”

Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of London Ambulance Service said: “The safety of our patients is paramount, and the risks to patients waiting extended periods of time at home for an ambulance are well known. A fundamental element of the care we provide is ensuring we can get to people who need us quickly.

“Before agreeing this new approach with NHS England and all London hospitals, our crews were regularly losing up to 600 hours of time waiting to hand over patient care at hospitals every day. That is approximately 15 per cent of our ambulances out of action for the whole day, and is time that could have been spent responding to, and caring for, patients. That number of time lost is now almost half what it was.

“While the whole of the emergency and urgent care system is under pressure and demand for our services is high, we need to work collaboratively to ensure our patients get the care they need. Our staff will only follow the 45-minute handover policy when it is safe for the patient to do so.”

‘Emergency handover process’

South Central Ambulance Service Trust’s winter plan says it is considering the introduction of “immediate handover” processes within 30 minutes.

The trust said the process had been developed with hospitals and was only implemented at times of extreme pressure on 999 services.

A spokesman said: “Once implemented, all patient handovers are carried out by the ambulance crew with the nurse in charge or other hospital clinician. Patients are not simply left by the crew with no handover.”

South East Coast Ambulance Service has an “emergency handover process” which “should be considered when queues are forming and there is no immediate plan in place to address the delays quickly”.

The trust said its approach had been developed in partnership with hospitals, meaning that at 45 minutes an operational commander would attend and inform the hospital that it would implement the emergency handover process, with immediate handover of patients who had waited this long, followed by those who had waited more than 30 minutes.

Anna Parry, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) said: “To ensure the best possible care for patients receiving urgent and emergency care services, close collaboration between ambulance service and emergency department colleagues is imperative.

“Hospital handover delays continue to be a top priority for AACE and its members, as they have been for a number of years. The evidence is clear that when emergency department admissions increase, so do the number of 12-hour stays in emergency departments, and there is a knock on effect on hospital handover delays and the ambulance response to emergencies in the community.”

King Charles’ latest royal carriage, complete with electric windows, has been made public for the first time.

It could be the last royal carriage of its kind as its master craftsman is, like the King, battling cancer.

Jim Frecklington, 74, has spent almost every day for the last six years working on the masterpiece at his warehouse in Sydney.

He has previously created two royal coaches – the first in London in 1972 – but said this would be his last, if not the last, because it has become a dying art.

“If I didn’t make it, no one else in the world would,” he told the Sun on Sunday.

“Nobody else knows how to and it’s my best yet. I wanted to do something special to honour King Charles.”

The design of the 3250kg coach is inspired by Rolls-Royce limousines and is due to be completed this year.

Mr Frecklington is hoping King Charles, 75, and Queen Camilla, 77, will pay it a visit on their current tour Down Under.

Mr Frecklington’s prostate and bowel cancer has now spread to his lungs, which means his work has “slowed down a bit” because of both the illness and fortnightly chemotherapy sessions.

He said he corresponds with King Charles about his progress and had gone to great lengths at his own expense to turn it into a “time capsule”.

The gold leaf crown on top of the carriage is made from 1,000-year-old timber donated in 2019 by the Dean of Westminster from Westminster Abbey.

The roof is decorated with 56 bronze flowers representing every Commonwealth country’s national flower, with Australia’s golden wattle placed above the door.

The undercarriage is made from Australian hardwood, the cabin from aluminium panels, the door handles are acquired from Sydney Opera House, and steel has been donated from Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It is painted in black and royal claret and embossed with the King’s insignia and cyphers and a floral pattern.

The wheels have red hubs with a gold crown logo that do not rotate with the wheel, inspired by Rolls-Royce cars.

The animal symbols of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are all present on panels, while four brass lanterns are one of the final items to be installed.

The coach stands at 5.8m long and 3.4m high and will be pulled by six horses when it makes its way to London.

It has hydraulic stabilisers and thick rubber tyres to stop the body rocking, which is a similar suspension design to the previous royal carriages — the Australian State Coach finished in 1989 and Diamond Jubilee State Coach, in 2013.

Mr Frecklington prioritised the coach’s ride because Queen Elizabeth II claimed the Gold State Coach had made her feel “travel sick” at her Coronation in 1953.

“The reason why I built this one like this is that Her Late Majesty said she didn’t like the ride on the Golden State Coach.

“The Queen told me how horrible it was as it oscillated. She said it should never be used and should be put in a museum.”