Author: SKYNEWS

Former sub-postmaster and lead campaigner Alan Bates has called for the Post Office to be sold to the likes of Amazon for £1 as he described it as “a dead duck”. He led a group of 555 sub-postmasters who took the Post Office to the High Court over the scandal, which was settled in December 2019. Despite the public outcry after recent ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office, and government action, compensation schemes for victims of the Horizon IT scandal have not become speedier or fairer, he said.Appearing before MPs on the Business and Trade Committee on Tuesday,…

You might not trust the Post Office with your parcels but one thing it seems the disgraced organisation can still deliver is drama.After ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office did what a decade of investigative journalism could not – and made the public and politicians give a damn about wrongly convicted postmasters – we had a Westminster sequel. Staged by the business and trade select committee and starring some of the real-life characters behind the television version, it saw current and former directors of the Post Office shred each other’s reputations while Alan Bates and his peers looked on.Call…

The machine digging HS2’s longest tunnel has completed its 10-mile journey under the Chiltern Hills, almost three years after it started.Dubbed Florence – after the nurse Florence Nightingale – the machine was greeted with fireworks and cheers from hundreds of HS2 workers on Tuesday. Florence was launched in May 2021 near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, and set off on a 10-mile journey underground before emerging in South Heath, Buckinghamshire. Image: Pic: PA Image: Pic: PA It finished one of a pair of tunnels – at a depth of up to 80 metres – that will be used for HS2 trains travelling between…

The ousted Post Office chairman has insisted it was the company’s chief executive who was the subject of an internal investigation, not him.Former chair Henry Staunton was dismissed last month by business secretary Kemi Badenoch who said bullying accusations had been made against him. But on Tuesday, Mr Staunton told MPs on the Business and Trade Committee that it was the CEO Nick Read who was being investigated.Politics latest: Ex-chair stuns MP with CEO claimMr Staunton said the Post Office boss “fell out” with the business’s [human resources] HR director and said that his own behaviour was only referenced once…

Sony has revealed plans for 900 job losses across its Playstation division, with the company’s operations in the UK among those affected.The Japan-based firm notified staff in an email that the Playstation London studio was to be closed under the proposals. There would be job losses too at its Firesprite Studio in Liverpool, bought by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) in 2021.Money latest:’Major uncertainty’ among borrowers as mortgage rates riseHunt urges Shein boss to pursue blockbuster London floatOther UK workers across various functions would be impacted, the division’s outgoing chief executive said in an email to staff. Jim Ryan, who is…

The former home of music legend Freddie Mercury is up for sale – on the market for offers in excess of £30m.Garden Lodge in Kensington, west London, is set in a quiet enclave in the borough, and used to be described by Mercury as “his country house in central London”. Image: The house is in Kensington, west London. Pic: Nils Jorgensen/Shutterstock Image: The citrus yellow dining room. Pic: Knight Frank Built in the Neo-Georgian style in 1907, features include a double-height dining room, a fully mirrored dressing room, a bar, library, and a Japanese-style garden with water features and a…

The investment firm which owns Waterstones has returned with a second offer for Currys, the electrical goods chain, amid investor hopes of a rare bidding war for a London-listed company.Sky News has learnt Elliott Advisors has tabled a marginally improved bid that insiders said was highly likely to be rebuffed by Currys’ board. City sources said on Tuesday that the revised proposal valued Currys at between 65p and 70p-a-share, compared with an initial 62p-a-share bid worth £700m.One shareholder in Currys questioned Elliott’s logic in submitting an offer of less than 70p after analysts and shareholders suggested that only a range…

The BBC has apologised to the family involved in the Huw Edwards scandal over the way it handled their complaint.The BBC faced accusations it did not respond quickly enough to complaints from the family of a young person, after it took seven weeks for allegations of inappropriate behaviour to be put to Edwards. Image: Pic: BBC Edwards, who was the BBC’s highest-earning newsreader, was accused of paying a teenager thousands of pounds for sexually explicit photos.In July 2023 the BBC commissioned a review of its non-editorial complaints policies and processes, which promised to “assess how some complaints are red-flagged up…

Jeremy Hunt has held talks with the boss of Shein, the Chinese-founded fast fashion giant, in a bid to persuade the company to commit to what would be one of London’s biggest-ever corporate flotations.Sky News can exclusively reveal the chancellor met Donald Tang, Shein’s executive chairman, this month as part of British regulators’ and government officials’ efforts to convince it to list in the UK. Insiders confirmed the two men had held “productive” discussions about a London initial public offering amid signs its initial target of a New York flotation is faltering.Sky News revealed Shein’s deliberations over a London listing…

Music fans attending Niall Horan’s gig at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow this week are being warned by venue bosses not to camp out ahead of the show.Those planning to head to the former One Direction star’s gig on Wednesday are being reminded that queuing and camping overnight at The SEC (Scottish Event Campus) is not permitted. The SEC includes the OVO Hydro, SEC Armadillo and SEC Centre.It comes after fans of The 1975 braved freezing temperatures earlier this month to camp out for two nights in an attempt to secure a spot at the front of the stage.Camping out…