Is Boris On His Bike Back To Westminster?

Time Is Running Out For Boris To Stand As MP

Updated: 12:13pm UK, Wednesday 23 April 2014

By Sophy Ridge, Political Correspondent

After months (and months) of speculation, is the time finally here?

According to reports, Boris Johnson is poised to announce he will stand as an MP at the next election.

Apparently, he is worried that Conservative backbenchers are sick of his perceived dithering and think he needs to come clean about his intentions.

Well, there's not much sign of the dithering stopping just yet.

Confronted by Sky News on his way into work, the Mayor of London merely said he was just "getting on with my job". Not exactly a definitive answer.

The Mayor may be refusing to confirm his plans, but time is running out if he does want to run.

First off - he needs to secure a seat.

Secondly, if he announces he is running in the autumn or later he will be open to accusations of scuppering David Cameron's chances of a 2015 victory by overshadowing the campaign.

Of course, there is an alternative theory: that Boris will wait until after the next General Election to run as an MP.

But if he harbours hopes of being the next Conservative leader, that could be too late.

If David Cameron fails to win a majority, the knives will be out and the search for a new leader will begin.

Candidates such as George Osborne, Theresa May, Michael Gove or even Sajid Javid are all perfectly placed to begin their campaigns instantly.

Boris Johnson - trapped in City Hall - will not be.

So ignore Boris Johnson's bashfulness over his ambitions: the smart money is on a summer announcement.

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Eight Renewable Energy Projects Get Go-Ahead

Plans for eight renewable energy projects - expected to generate enough clean power for three million homes - have been approved by the Government.

Contracts for schemes including offshore wind farms and the conversion of coal-fired power stations to run on biomass, are set to support 8,500 jobs and attract up to £12bn in private investment.

Once built, the projects will contribute around 4% of the nation's total energy supply.

The schemes - five of which are offshore wind farms - are being taken forward under the Government's Contracts for Difference (CfD), under which generators and developers receive a fixed price for the electricity they produce for 15 years.

These contracts aim to give investors the guaranteed income they need to pay the up-front costs of major new construction projects.

Government measures are set to increase household bills by 2%, but energy secretary Ed Davey said the policy would bring down overall costs.

He told Sky News: "It's a real boost to green energy and will help ensure we have green energy too."

"It will really add to our electricity supply, we reckon about 4% of our total capacity. So it is really helping to ensure we can keep the lights on and do it in a green, affordable way."

Mr Davey has also confirmed that the Government is looking at changing trespass laws to enable companies to carrying fracking under private land.

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1,000 Pupils Caught With Weapons In Schools

By Afua Hirsch, Social Affairs and Education Editor

Almost 1,000 pupils were caught with weapons including guns, axes and a meat cleaver in schools in the last three years, a Sky News investigation has found.

New figures show 981 children have had weapons confiscated on school premises since 2011.

They include at least 80 primary school children, the youngest of whom was an eight-year-old caught with a knife.

Some 36 pupils were found with an assortment of guns, including two hand guns, seven air-powered weapons and 27 BB guns.

Of those found with weapons, 329 caught with items including an axe, a cut-throat razor and a stun gun were charged with a criminal offence.

One 18-year-old, who is taking part in a young offender's programme in London, said: "I carried a weapon ... but only because of the environment I was in.

"My generation is a bit wild ... so it's a normal thing to carry a weapon because you know everyone else is. It's making it fair, basically."

Campaigners warned the scale of the problem is likely to be much worse, as 21 of the UK's 52 police forces did not supply figures requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Data from West Midlands Police, which alone recovered weapons from 538 people during the same period, was not included because it also accounts for colleges and universities.

The figures raise questions about whether schools and the Government have failed to tackle the problem.

Jayne Walmsley, whose son Luke was murdered at a Lincolnshire school in 2003 aged 14, said: "Something is happening to the society we live in.

"We need to think and educate these kids. It's got to stop. We've got to do something about it."

Patrick Regan, CEO of charity XLP, which was founded in response to a school stabbing, added: "There's a culture of fear that needs to be broken down."

The Government said it had given teachers powers to take action if they suspect a pupil has brought a weapon into school.

"Teachers can now search pupils without consent, confiscate prohibited items and use force to remove disruptive pupils from the classroom when necessary," a spokesman for the Department for Education said.

"We've also given heads the final say on expulsions by removing the right of appeal panels to put pupils back in the classroom."

However, Chris Douglas, a youth worker with St Giles Trust, which engages with young people caught up in crime, warned the use of weapons is a growing problem.

"We're not hearing about stabbings because they're becoming more common," he said.

Last year, a study by UCL and charity Kids Company found half the young people working with the organisation had seen someone shot or stabbed in their community in the past year.

In 2009, the then-Government announced new measures to curb the problem of weapons in schools after a spate of attacks against children.

There were plans to introduce airport-style metal detectors as part of a violent crime action plan.

But campaigners are concerned the issue has disappeared from public discourse, leaving children vulnerable.

"Sometimes it's a bit like banging your head on a brick wall," Mrs Walmsley said.

"Schools won't admit to the problem because all they want is more pupils for more money."

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Dying Teen's Fundraising Page Passes £1m

A terminally ill 19-year-old has raised £1m after his final wish went viral.

Stephen Sutton, from Burntwood in Staffordshire, was diagnosed with incurable colorectal cancer at the age of 15.

Last year he was told it was inoperable, prompting him to write a bucket list of 46 things he wanted to achieve.

One of his goals was to raise £1m for Teenage Cancer Trust, and he has been using the internet to help.

His JustGiving page has since gone viral, and he hit his target just after 11am on Wednesday.

Celebrities have been retweeting it on Twitter, and the funds keep on coming. 

Piers Morgan tweeted: "What a remarkable, inspiring, courageous young man ... please help him achieve his total."

Stephen has posted pictures on his bucket list on his Facebook page

Stephen also has the backing of comedian Jason Manford, who said on Twitter: "Woohoo we got it trending #stephensstory. Well done everyone. Now keep going, we are so close."

Stephen posted on his Facebook page on Monday about his deteriorating condition, saying: "Currently I am in a very vulnerable position and do not know what will happen next.

"My right lung has collapsed and I am very weak (I'm finding it hard to type this message)

"I will fight as hard as I can, but if the worst happens I just want to say thank you all for sharing the journey with me- it's been wonderful."

On Tuesday, he posted an update saying he was signing off.

"It's a final thumbs up from me! I've done well to blag things as well as I have up till now, but unfortunately I think this is just one hurdle too far," he wrote.

Stephen's just giving page

"It's a shame the end has come so suddenly - there's so many people I haven't got round to properly thank or say goodbye too. Apologies for that.

"That's it from me. But life has been good. Very good.

"Thank you to my mum and the rest of my family for everything.

"Thank you to my friends for being amazing. Thank you to my medical team for the hard work and effort they've continually they've put towards me. And thank you everyone else for sharing this wonderful journey with me. I love you all.  x"

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Blair Warns Of 'Growing' Radical Islam Threat

Former prime minister Tony Blair has told Sky News the West must work with countries like Russia and China to combat the growing threat of radical Islam.

The ex-Labour leader also stressed the importance of taking sides in what he described as a "war", and warned there were consequences to not intervening.

Earlier, in a speech in London, he said the crisis in Ukraine had pushed the situations in the Middle East off the agenda, despite the chaos in the region.

The Ukraine crisis has pushed the Middle East off the agenda, said Mr Blair

The Middle East envoy branded the turmoil in Syria "an unmitigated disaster" and pressed for an agreement to be reached with President Bashar al Assad, "repugnant though it may seem".

And Mr Blair called for further Nato involvement in Libya, warning the country's disintegration would threaten to destabilise the entire region.

He argued the root of the crisis lay in "a radicalised and politicised view of Islam".

Stressing the need to engage in the Middle East, he said: "The threat of this radical Islam is not abating. It is growing. It is spreading across the world.

"It is destabilising communities and even nations. It is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-existence in an era of globalisation."

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Blair said: "This rising threat of Islamism is a threat that we share in common - West and East.

"Whatever our differences on Ukraine and indeed other issues, it's very important on this particular issue given the turmoil that is happening in the Middle East at the moment, that we work with those that share a common interest in defeating Islamism.

"But none of that should alter in any way our position on the Ukraine."

Mr Blair also argued the case for intervention in Syria, which he said was a "country in disintegration".

The ex-PM has urged an agreement be reached with Syria's Bashar al Assad

He told Sky News: "Yes, I still believe that it is necessary, if we have to, to get to the negotiating table, to be prepared to create some sort of no-fly zone, some sort of area of Syria that is protected for the opposition."

"It's important we take sides. Just as there is a cost to intervention, there is a cost to non-intervention.

"I understand why our public wants to stay out of all this, doesn't want anything to do with it, but I am afraid this battle is real, it's continuing now, and it's not possible just to stand aside from it.

"In this battle we shouldn't be neutral. We should be taking a side."

In his earlier speech, Mr Blair had concluded: "This is not a conventional war. It isn't a struggle between super powers or over territory. But it is real. It is fearsome in its impact. It is growing in its reach.

"Engagement does not always mean military involvement. Commitment does not mean going it alone. But it does mean stirring ourselves. It does mean seeing the struggle for what it is. It does mean taking a side and sticking with it."

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Budget Deficit Drops By 6% In Last Year

The UK budget deficit has fallen to its lowest level since the financial crisis five years ago.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the shortfall in tax revenues over Government spending fell to £107.7bn in the 12 months to the end of March.

The figure showed a drop in the deficit of 6.42%, from £115.1bn the year before.

It was slightly lower than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, in the March Budget delivered by Chancellor George Osborne.

The ONS said borrowing in March dropped by 41% to £6.7bn, amid a plan by the Government to eliminate the deficit entirely by 2017-18.

The latest figures exclude the impact of the Royal Mail pension scheme since the postal service was privatised in October.

It also does not take into account the Bank of England's liquidity boosting scheme, known as quantitative easing.

The ONS says Britain's net public sector debt now stands at £1.27bn, which equates to 75.8% of gross domestic product (GDP).

The figures come as the European Union's statistical agency, Eurostat, said governments across the 28-country bloc recorded lower budget deficits in 2013.

This was due to lower spending and a partial economic recovery that shored up revenues.

Eurostat said budget deficits across the 18-nation eurozone fell from 3.7% of annual GDP in 2012 to 3% last year.

For the entire EU, which also includes non-euro currency members such as Britain, the agency said deficits shrunk from 3.9% to 3.3%.

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Madeleine Police Probe Five New Assault Cases

By Rachel Younger, Sky News Correspondent

British police are looking at five new cases in which young British girls were sexually abused during holiday home break-ins by an intruder in the Algarve.

One of these assaults took place on a 10-year-old girl in Praia da Luz, from where Madeleine McCann vanished two years later.

These new cases are similar to some of the originally identified twelve offences where a male intruder gained access to holiday villas occupied by British families in the Western Algarve.

Scotland Yard recently made an appeal to trace the intruder which lead to 500 people contacting them with new information.

Madeleine disappeared from her bed in Praia da Luz in 2007

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said today: "We have now identified a further five sexual assaults and one near miss. None of those six matters we were aware of prior to our appeal.

"In this new tranche of information we have got one crime which is very clearly in the heart of Praia da Luz in 2005, on a young, white, 10-year-old girl.

"Clearly the fact that we've now got an assault that is in the heart of Praia da Luz, very close to where a previous matter had been reported, means that we are even more interested in this as part of the inquiry."

In four of these incidents the man sexually assaulted five white girls, aged between seven and 10, while they were in their beds.

Although Portuguese police have turned down requests for a joint investigation, British police added they are poised to begin operations in Portugal following an official agreement from Portuguese police later this week.

Police are still keen to trace a man seen near Madeleine's appartment

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said he is "cautiously optimistic" Portuguese and British officers can act soon.

"I am cautiously optimistic that in the not-too-distant future we are going to start to see activity," he said.

Officers have so far identified a series of 18 crimes committed between 2004 and 2010 where a male intruder entered villas occupied by UK families on holiday in the Western Algarve.

Twelve of these are assaults which took place between 2004 and 2010, although the vast majority happened before Madelaine's disappearance. All involved girls aged between 6 and 12 years old.

Police believe the suspect may have been in the villas for some time before being disturbed by parents or a child waking up - and he remained calm even when interrupted.

The noise of a bin collection lorry was heard nearby on two occasions.

The suspect is described as having tanned skin with short, dark, unkempt hair.

Police are still hunting a man seen carrying a girl fitting Madeleine's description on the night of her disappearance.

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Blair Blames Inquiry For Iraq Report Delay

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

Tony Blair has told Sky News that "the people who run the inquiry" are to blame for a delay in the publication of the Chilcot report.

The Iraq Inquiry, to give it its official name, was launched almost four-and-a-half years ago.

The inquiry, headed by Sir John Chilcot, was originally supposed to report its findings two years ago, but it has been repeatedly delayed and there is still no set publication date.

The inquiry's remit, as defined on its website, is to examine "the UK's involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish, as accurately as possible, what happened and to identify the lessons that can be learned".

It has been delayed because of disagreements over what can and can't be published.

Tony Blair, who has faced heavy criticism over Iraq, gave evidence

The committee wants the option to include transcripts of conversations between Mr Blair and then US president George W Bush, and also minutes from Cabinet meetings at the time.

This is being resisted by the Cabinet Office and some believe that is partly on the instruction of Mr Blair.

Writing in the Daily Mirror, former Labour MP and attorney general in Blair's government, Lord Morris, describes the delay in publication as a "national scandal", and called for it to be published "immediately".

But Mr Blair has repeatedly defended his involvement, and played down his influence.

He said: "I've made it absolutely clear, when the report is published is entirely up to them, it's not my decision at all."

When pressed by Sky News Presenter Sarah Hewson over who was responsible for the hold-up, he replied: "It is the responsibility of the people who run the inquiry."

The American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 continues to divide opinion

It will take many months at best before the report can be published.

First, a deal has to be reached between the Cabinet Office and inquiry committee.

Once that happens, the Maxwellisation process will begin.

This is the confidential exercice of allowing anyone facing criticism in the report to make representations to the inquiry, if they disagree with parts of the document.

That is expected to take some time.

It will then be presented to the Prime Minister before final publication.

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Murder Probe As 'Disabled' Children Found Dead

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after three young children were found dead at a house in southwest London.

Officers discovered the bodies when they were called to a large, semi-detached home in Thetford Road, New Malden, at around 9.30pm on Tuesday.

Sky sources say the three children - a four-year-old girl and two three-year-old boys - were disabled and had "life-limiting genetic conditions".

The 42-year-old woman arrested was taken to hospital with minor injuries and later discharged. She is in custody at a south London police station.

Gary Clarence and his sons, and their Victorian house in Thetford Road

Chief Superintendent Glenn Tunstall told a news conference on Wednesday afternoon officers are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

He said specialist detectives are providing support to the family.

Sky's Joe Tidy, at the scene, said a South African couple - named locally as Gary and Tania Clarence - moved into the house with their four children around six months ago.

They moved in after the £1.2m property was redeveloped with mobility equipment, including a lift.

Mr Clarence, a director at Investec Bank, and his eldest child are abroad, and are travelling back today.

His company said in a statement: "Gary Clarence is a valued colleague and has worked with us for many years.

Flowers and toys have been left outside the house

"We do not know the facts at this time but our thoughts are with the Clarence family.  We are doing all that we can to help Gary and his eldest child and ask that their privacy is respected."

Officers removed evidence bags from the property this morning. It is unclear whether the children's bodies are still inside the house.

Post-mortem examinations are to take place later.

Neighbour Michele Bacchus, 38, said two "very, very upset" women had asked to use her toilet last night, an hour after four police cars and an ambulance arrived.

The women, one in her 30s and the other in her 50s, said they were relatives of the Clarence family and had come from Cobham, Surrey.

Police are investigating the incident in New Malden

One had a South African accent and the other was too upset to speak, she said.

Another neighbour, retired nurse Joy Devis, 86, said she had been in the house "once or twice" and described the Clarences as a "delightful couple".

"They'd got every kind of equipment they could possibly get for those children," she told Sky News.

"One I never saw out of a wheelchair; she was in her buggy. The other two were moving about with difficulty."

She said the family had help from a nanny and a maid.

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Moyes Breaks Cover On Manchester United Exit

David Moyes has spoken out on his sacking by Manchester United, saying he is "proud" to have managed the club but frustrated about the team's results.

While he expressed gratitude to Sir Alex Ferguson and the club's fans and coaching staff, a reference to United's players was conspicuous by its absence.

"To have been appointed as manager of Manchester United, one of the biggest football clubs in the world, was and remains something of which I will always be incredibly proud," said a written statement.

"I remain proud to have led the team to the quarter finals of this year's Champions League."

But the League Managers Association, which issued the statement on his behalf, said it was "very disappointed" and "sad" about the way Moyes was axed.

Ryan Giggs, 40, is manager until the end of the season

The Scot was sacked on Tuesday after a series of defeats left the team with no hope of qualifying for the Champions League next season, and languishing in seventh place in the Premier League.

"Performances and results have not been what Manchester United and its fans are used to or expect, and I both understand and share their frustration," says Moyes.

The 50-year-old admits the job was "immense" and a "significant challenge" but that he "never had a second thought about taking (it) on".

Moyes' side lost 2-0 at his former club Everton at the weekend

His failure to say thank you to the players comes after a series of rumours during the season of disquiet among some of the club's top talent over his tactics and training methods.

The League Managers Association made no bones about its views on the sacking.

Chief Executive Richard Bevan said: "The LMA is very disappointed with the nature of David's departure from Manchester United and to read extensive reports in the press, confirming David's sacking, before David himself had been spoken to officially by the club.  

"(Moyes) has conducted himself with integrity and professionalism ... It is therefore sad to see the end of David's tenure at United being handled in an unprofessional manner."

Moyes was hand-picked by outgoing boss Sir Alex Ferguson after 11 years at Everton, where he guided the team to five top-six finishes.

Carlo Ancelotti is one of the favourites to take over at Old Trafford

But the burden of expectation seems to have weighed heavy and the team have lost 11 league games this season - including six losses at home and lacklustre defeats to bitter rivals Manchester City and Liverpool.

Moyes signed a six-year contract but is now set for a pay-off of around £4m - a year's salary - after less than a year in charge.

United legend Ryan Giggs has taken the reins until for the last few games of the season but Louis van Gaal, manager of the Dutch national side, is the bookies' favourite to land the full-time job.

Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti is also tipped as one of the leading contenders.

Manchester United's American owners, the Glazer family, are thought to be ready to bankroll a summer spending spree of £150m or more as the club pushes for a swift return to the top of the game.

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