UK medical regulator warns against buying weight-loss jabs from social media channels
Losing weight may be a common new year resolution but health experts have warned against buying medications for such purposes from social media sellers or other illegitimate channels.Jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have become hugely popular for weight loss, with trials suggesting the latter can help people lose an average of 20% of their body weight after 72 weeks of treatment.However, with demand high, access on the NHS limited, a prescription required and a hefty price tag attached, the black market for such medications is booming.The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a fresh warning to those planning to use weight-loss medications, stressing the importance of only buying them from registered UK pharmacies or legitimate retailers.“People often look for ways to support their health at this time of year but buying medicines from illegal online sellers can put your health at real risk,” said Jenn Matthissen, of the MHRA’s safety and surveillance team.
“Always make sure you are using authorised products from legitimate sources and speak to a healthcare professional for advice on safe, evidence-based options.”The black market for weight-loss medications is big business: in October the MHRA revealed it had seized more than £250,000 worth of counterfeit weight-loss jab products from a factory in Northampton, including injection pens for retatrutide, an experimental drug that is not licensed in the UK.A subsequent Guardian investigation found that the company linked to the products, Alluvi Healthcare Ltd, had continued to advertise replicas of retatrutide on multiple Telegram channels.Banks have warned of scams relating to weight-loss medications, noting that victims lose £120 on average.The MHRA has previously issued warnings about beauty salons, fake pharmacy websites and social media posts selling prescription weight-loss medications without a prescription – an illegal practice.
Key signs to watch out for, the agency notes, are social media posts offering unusually low prices, “miracle results” or “quick fixes”.Among other concerns, the MHRA says products bought from such sellers could be counterfeit, contaminated or contain the wrong doses, while they may also contain unlisted ingredients that could pose a danger to health.Experts have also warned that illicit sellers may not store weight-loss medications correctly, noting that the safety and effectiveness of the drugs could be impaired should they be subjected to extremely cold temperatures or freeze.The health minister Dr Zubir Ahmed said: “As a practising doctor and patient safety minister, I want to be absolutely clear: please do not buy weight loss medications from unregulated sources.These products are made with no regard for safety or quality and pose a major risk to unwitting customers.
“Don’t line the pockets of criminals who don’t care about your health.Safe, appropriate, licensed obesity drugs can greatly benefit those with a clinical need but should be obtained from a registered pharmacy against a valid prescription.”
A defence of Labour was overdue, but Keir Starmer needs to listen to his opponents | Letters
Yes, Polly Toynbee, the Labour government has managed some worthwhile achievements, but its route to those achievements has been convoluted to the point of obtuseness (Let me tell you the good things the government has done in 2025 – because it certainly won’t, 22 December). Keir Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin has noted that Starmer is an iterative problem solver who gets the right solution, eventually.There are three problems with this approach; most importantly, when his starting point is too distant from the right solution he wastes time that could be better put to increase the number of successful achievements; second, he ends up looking weak to parliamentary opposition and the electorate because he’s reversed his position so often; and lastly, he causes anger, frustration and resentment within his own party.In short, Starmer should listen seriously to his opponents in his own party. When his initial instinct is to instead suppress opposition, it is no wonder that it takes him so long to work out when he is in the wrong
Trade unions leader calls on Labour to forge closer relationship with Europe
Keir Starmer should seek out a far closer relationship with Europe, including a possible customs union, the head of the TUC has said.Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, said the British public recognised the need for a vastly improved trading arrangement and said it had become more urgent than ever because of the fickle nature of the relationship with Donald Trump’s United States.In an interview with the Guardian, Nowak said Starmer must relentlessly focus on the cost of living to improve Labour’s standing in the polls, saying it was little surprise there was leadership chatter when the party was doing so badly.But he warned would-be challengers they would “not be thanked” by the public for distracting the government from its core focus on the economy.He also cautioned Starmer and the home secretary Shabana Mahmood not to be “Nigel Farage-lite” when it came to the migration crackdown, saying trade unions were worried about reforms to indefinite leave to remain
UK ministers urged to cap political donations to ‘rebuild voter confidence’
Ministers should legislate to cap political donations to “rebuild voter confidence” in democracy, campaigners have said before the introduction of a landmark elections bill.The government is being urged to show more ambition as it prepares to publish legislation early next year that will extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds.In a letter sent this week to Steve Reed, the communities secretary, and Samantha Dixon, the democracy minister, 19 civil organisations said “a donations cap is the best way to protect our democracy and to rebuild voter confidence in the system”.Its signatories include the Electoral Reform Society, Transparency International UK, Hope not Hate and the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition.The call comes weeks after Nigel Farage’s Reform UK declared it had received £9m from the Thailand-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne, the largest donation made by a living person to a British political party
Outdated furniture fire safety rules putting people at risk, MP warns
The UK is still using extremely outdated furniture fire safety rules, putting people at risk from toxic materials, an MP has warned.Bob Blackman, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on fire safety, said the government has failed to update rules that date back to 1988, leaving millions of households exposed to materials that exacerbate the release of dangerous fumes when they burn.“We have been lobbying ministers for years, yet there is still no clear plan to modernise these standards,” Blackman said.A number of chemical groups are used in upholstered furniture – mostly as flame retardants applied to foams, fabrics and backing materials to help furniture meet the UK’s stringent ignition tests. Many of these substances have been linked to toxicity, persistence in the environment and health concerns, with the use of several restricted over time
Farage criticised for £400,000 job promoting physical gold as pension investment
Nigel Farage has been criticised over his £400,000-a-year second job promoting the idea that people should buy physical gold and put it into their pension pots.Farage is paid more than four times his MPs’ salary for the four-hour-a-month job at Direct Bullion, where he has featured in Facebook and YouTube videos.These include reels where Farage explains “how you can protect and grow your wealth with tax-efficient gold” by putting it into self-invested personal pensions.However, not all of the Reform UK leader’s videos include disclaimers that the value of gold can go down as well as up, or that his comments should not be considered investment advice. He also does not mention storage costs or flag that gold does not bring in a regular income in interest or dividends
UK politics: Government says it is ‘fully committed to free speech’ after campaigners’ US visa ban – as it happened
Good morning. Christmas is the time of peace on earth and goodwill towards all men. But there is not much sign of that in US/UK relations this morning, where the Trump administration has just sanctioned two Britons, among others, for supposedly trying to suppress free speech in the US, and that has led to the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey engaging in a Twitter spat with a senior figure in the US state department.Let’s start with the sanctions. Yesterday Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued this statement saying:The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose
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