The aircraft-carrier Ark Royal set sail for the Gulf and 1,500 reservists were called up. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said in a speech to a conference of more than 100 British ambassadors that Britain should remain the closest ally of the United States. ‘The price of British influence is not, as some would
A third of families entitled to working family tax credits are not claiming them; 604,000 low-income families are missing out on £1.4 billion, an average of £42 a week each. The Tories are looking for ways to cut taxes, according to Mr Howard Flight, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury; ‘It could be up
January. Twelve countries of the European Union adopted the euro as their common currency. Lord Birt was asked by Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, to draw up a report on transport. Rail fares went up and drivers went on strike. Connex South-East found it could get more passengers on trains by abolishing lavatories. Peggy
The purchase by Miss Cherie Booth, Mrs Tony Blair, for a total of just over half a million pounds of two flats in Bristol, one for her son Euan to use when attending university, set off a lively game of hunt the issue. Someone called Mr Peter Foster was found to have acted on her
The government announced that 700 health workers and servicemen would be vaccinated against smallpox, and that it was buying more vaccine so that the whole population could be vaccinated if necessary; the action was said by the Prime Minister’s spokesman not to be in response to any specific threat. Mr David Blunkett, the Home Secretary,
The Fire Brigades Union and employers’ representatives agreed to a deal on a 16 per cent pay rise, in the early hours of the morning on which an eight-day strike was to begin. But the office of Mr John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, said nothing could be done till 9 a.m., and in any
Three men of north African origin were arrested under the Terrorism Act, and some newspapers said that a plot to spread poison gas in the London Underground had been foiled. The government denied this was so; Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said: ‘If there is a specific threat against a specific target, we of
Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, in a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, said that ‘hardly a day goes by without some new piece of intelligence coming via our security services about a threat to UK interests’; ‘This is a new type of war, fought in a different way by different means,’ he said.
Mr Iain Duncan Smith noted that ‘a small group of my parliamentary colleagues have decided consciously to undermine my leadership’; he concluded: ‘My message is simple and stark, unite or die.’ His statement came the day after eight Tory MPs defied a three-line whip and voted in favour of a government amendment to the Adoption
Miss Estelle Morris resigned as Secretary of State for Education, saying she was not up to running a big department. She was replaced by Mr Charles Clarke, who was replaced as Labour party chairman by Mr John Reid, who was replaced as Northern Ireland Secretary by Mr Paul Murphy, who was replaced as Welsh Secretary
The Fire Brigades Union announced a 48-hour national strike from 29 October, the first of a series of stoppages in pursuit of a 40 per cent pay rise. About 19,000 servicemen were put on alert to fill in for the firemen, with the help of 827 Green Goddess fire engines. Mr Bob Crow, the leader
Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, told the House of Commons: ‘Some say that we should fight terrorism alone and that issues to do with WMD [weapons of mass destruction] are a distraction. I reject that entirely.’ The Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended and government of the province was resumed by Westminster a week after
Police raided the offices of Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly building at Stormont and several private addresses before charging Sinn Fein’s head of administration at Stormont with passing on documents that could be ‘useful to terrorists in planning or carrying out acts of violence’; two others were also charged. The action came after
Mrs Edwina Currie, the former Conservative minister, revealed that she had had a four-year affair from 1984 with Mr John Major, the former Conservative prime minister. The Chestnut Grove School in Balham, south-west London, began to offer the morning-after pill to 11-year-olds. After thousands of A-level students’ results were found to have been manipulated, Sir
The government published its long-awaited dossier on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. It claimed that he has the capability to launch a chemical or biological attack within 45 minutes and could have a nuclear weapon within two years. Parliament was recalled to discuss the Iraq question. The Prime Minister said, ‘Disarmament of all weapons
The House of Commons was recalled for a day’s debate on 24 September on the approaching war against Iraq, but no substantive vote will be allowed. Dr George Carey, in his last address as Archbishop of Canterbury to the Anglican Consultative Council, warned that unilateral action ‘by dioceses and individual bishops’ over homosexuality was driving
Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, lent his support to President George Bush of the United States in preparing for war against Iraq. Mr Blair flew to Camp David in Maryland for a three-hour meeting with Mr Bush to agree their strategy. On his return he took up an engagement to visit the Queen at
Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said at a press conference in Sedgefield that a dossier on Iraq’s chemical, biological and nuclear weapons development would be published. ‘I hate war. Anyone with any sense hates war,’ he said. ‘We are in absolute agreement that Iraq poses a real and an unique threat to the security
Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, called for a written constitution for the European Union; but in a speech to Scottish businessmen he played down the significance of the demand: ‘The Conservative party has a constitution,’ he said, ‘and so do golf clubs in Scotland.’ Dr Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, said that the situation
Mr John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, on being asked about British support for American action against Iraq, said: ‘There is no serious division inside the Cabinet and there are debates inside the Cabinet.’ A school caretaker, Ian Huntley, aged 28, was charged with the murder of two ten-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman,