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A round-up of the top UK news
Boris Johnson promised new measures to boost home ownership and defended his record in office as he faced MPs for the first time since being wounded by a revolt by Tories against his leadership.
The Prime Minister insisted he is getting on with the job despite 148 of his own MPs saying they have no confidence in him.
Mr Johnson said the Government will be “expanding home ownership for millions of people” and “cutting the costs of business”.
The Prime Minister is expected to use a major speech this week to set out housing plans, with speculation that the Right to Buy could be extended for housing association residents and a wave of modular or “flatpack” homes could also be built.
The move will form part of a plan by Mr Johnson to reassert his authority after surviving Monday’s confidence vote despite the revolt by 41% of his MPs.
Mr Johnson said his administration will create “high-wage, high-skilled jobs” for the country.
“And as for jobs, I’m going to get on with mine,” he told the Commons in a rowdy session of Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Prime Minister was greeted with cheers by supporters but, in the first question, Labour’s Dame Angela Eagle said Mr Johnson is “loathed” – including by his own party – and asked him to explain “if 148 of his own backbenchers don’t trust him, why on earth should the country?”
Mr Johnson replied that he had “picked up political opponents all over” because “this Government has done some very big and very remarkable things which they didn’t necessarily approve of”.
“And what I want her to know is that absolutely nothing and no-one, least of all her, is going to stop us with getting on delivering for the British people.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer focused on the NHS during his exchanges with Mr Johnson, seizing on the blue-on-blue spat between Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and senior Tory Jeremy Hunt during Monday’s confidence vote.
Ms Dorries, a Johnson loyalist, claimed that Mr Hunt, a critic of the Prime Minister, had left the country “wanting and unprepared” for the Covid-19 pandemic during his long tenure as health secretary.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford likened Mr Johnson’s reaction to surviving the confidence vote to the black knight in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, who claimed his mortal injuries were just flesh wounds.
Sir Keir also quoted from former minister Jesse Norman’s no confidence letter to Mr Johnson in which he said the Government “seems to lack a sense of mission”.
In a raucous Commons chamber, with Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle forced to intervene to calm proceedings, Sir Keir told Mr Johnson: “Pretending no rules were broken didn’t work. Pretending the economy is booming didn’t work. And pretending to build 40 new hospitals won’t work either.”
The Prime Minister defended his record, telling MPs: “We are making colossal investments in our NHS, we are cutting waiting times, raising standards, paying nurses more, we are supporting our fantastic NHS.”
Bid to halt rail strike
Talks are to be held in a bid to avert strikes by railway workers after the scale of disruption to services by the planned industrial action became clear, it has been revealed.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail and 13 train operators will walk out on June 21, 23 and 25, in the biggest outbreak of industrial action in the industry in a generation. The RMT also announced another 24-hour strike on London Underground on June 21.
National treasure Sir David Attenborough, has been awarded his Knight Grand Cross honour by the Prince of Wales.
The 96-year-old broadcaster collected his Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to TV broadcasting and conservation.
Fuel retailers failing to pass on the fuel duty cut could be named and shamed after the largest daily jump in petrol prices for 17 years, Downing Street has indicated.
There is concern in Government that the 5p cut implemented by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in March is not being reflected in pump prices.
The PM’s official spokesman said: “Transparency may have an important role to play.”
A strike by Italian aviation workers is causing more misery for UK travellers.
Dozens of flights between the UK and Italy were cancelled on Wednesday, with easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways among the airlines affected.
EasyJet axed 20 flights from Gatwick, including departures to Bologna, Milan, Naples, Rome and Venice. Some 14 flights between London airports and Milan were cancelled by BA, while Ryanair scrapped some flights between Italy and Stansted.
Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein is facing two criminal charges of indecent assault against a woman in London in 1996.
The Crown Prosecution Service said on Wednesday that it had authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge the 70-year-old following a review of evidence gathered by the force.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS special crime division, said: “Charges have been authorised following a review of the evidence.”
One dead as man drives car into shoppers
At least one person was killed and nine others injured when a man drove a car into pedestrians in a popular Berlin shopping district, rescue services have said.
The man drove into people on a street corner at around 10.30am before getting the car back on the road and then crashing into a shop window a short distance away, police spokesman Thilo Cablitz said.
Five people sustained life-threatening injuries and another three were seriously injured, fire service spokesman Adrian Wentzel told n-tv television. Police said more than a dozen people had been injured.
Police would not confirm media reports that those killed and injured were part of a school group, but said they “appeared to belong together”.
The driver was apparently detained by passers-by before being arrested by a police officer who was near the scene, Mr Cablitz said. He added that officers were trying to determine whether he had deliberately driven into pedestrians or whether it was an accident, possibly caused by a medical emergency.
Police tweeted that the driver was a 29-year-old German-Armenian who lived in Berlin.
Large numbers of rescue vehicles and first responders were at the scene.
Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey tweeted that she was “deeply shocked by this incident”.
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