Watchdog takes over running of home for adults with learning disabilities
The charity watchdog has taken control of a learning disability care home in Northamptonshire that is under investigation after residents’ families raised concerns over its management, including payments of £1m to a trustee.The Charity Commission has appointed an interim manager to run William Blake House, which faces potential insolvency in three weeks’ time if it cannot head off a winding-up order brought by the tax authorities over £1.6m in unpaid tax bills.The move, which freezes out the current board of trustees, is a victory for an activist group of families whose adult children are residents at the home.They campaigned for change after discovering the parlous state of the charity’s finances last autumn.
They began to get political traction in February after the Guardian revealed the scale of the financial concerns.Earlier this month the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, accused a William Blake House trustee of “embezzlement” at prime minister’s question time in the House of Commons.William Blake House in Northamptonshire is one of only a handful of specialist residential homes in England for adults with profound and complex learning disabilities.The residents are mostly non-verbal and require round-the-clock support.The appointment of an interim manager over the heads of the existing board happens when the commission considers the consequences of not acting would be a major risk of harm to the charity’s finances, assets, services, beneficiaries or reputation.
Davey has convened a meeting between the families and HMRC next week to discuss the possibility of delaying the winding-up order until plans to bring in a new organisation to run the home for its 22 residents can be brought to fruition.“We’re very relieved an independent manager has been appointed by the Charity Commission,” the families said in a statement.“Now we have to move quickly to secure the future for our loved ones.The meeting with HMRC will be critical to that.”The families have proposed setting up a non-profit company to manage William Blake House.
They are determined to ensure the survival of what they see as their loved ones’ “home for life” and maintain its therapeutic approach based on the philosophical and spiritual teachings of Rudolf Steiner.A cross-party letter from nine MPs, organised by the local Conservative MP Sarah Bool, has urged the commission to consider the families’ proposals.“We believe that a transition supported by the families offers the most sustainable path forward and provides the long-term viability the residents deserve,” it said.The families raised the alarm after learning last year they had been kept in the dark about multiple court appearances by the charity over unpaid taxes, sales of property and payments totalling £1m to a company solely owned by its chair, Bushra Hamid, in recent years.Hamid told the Guardian the two current trustees – himself and Paula Allen – would remain on the board “during the transition process”.
He said the commission’s intervention was “an excellent decision to progress matters in the best interests of the organisation and mission”.The charity had blamed its financial challenges on high agency staff costs and below-inflation contract fees.It relies on £3m a year in council and NHS funding.
Sadiq Khan urges Labour to campaign on rejoining EU at next election
Labour should go into the next general election promising to rejoin the EU, Sadiq Khan has said.The mayor of London has repeatedly made the case for joining the customs union and single market, but went much further on Wednesday night by suggesting the party should promise full membership at next ballot.“We should, as a Labour party, fight the next general election with a clear manifesto commitment, a vote for Labour means we would rejoin the European Union. I think it’s inevitable,” he told the Italian publication La Repubblica.Khan cited the time that had passed since the referendum and the economic instability caused by Donald Trump since Labour was elected in July 2024 as reasons why it would be desirable
Angela Rayner’s allies say HMRC inquiry set to be resolved before May elections
For months there has been an apparently insurmountable obstacle to Angela Rayner going for the Labour leadership, should Keir Starmer find himself facing a contest.The investigation by HMRC into the former deputy prime minister’s tax affairs has hung heavily over her since she was forced to resign last September over underpayment of stamp duty on her seaside flat.But now Rayner’s allies are increasingly confident that the inquiry will be resolved before the May local elections – a moment of high peril for the prime minister – paving her way for a full return to frontline politics.The Guardian understands that outstanding legal issues over the tax investigation are being ironed out by lawyers and the HMRC process is now approaching its conclusion.Rayner is also on course to make about £100,000 from speaking engagements since she left government and her memoir, meaning she has earned enough to pay off her outstanding tax bill
Starmer plans to ease impact of immigration policy changes after backlash from Labour MPs
Keir Starmer is hoping to soften the impact of his government’s changes to the immigration system after a backlash from Labour MPs and a dramatic intervention from his former deputy Angela Rayner.The prime minister is considering exempting large numbers of people from the proposed changes, which would make it harder to achieve settled status in the UK, as he attempts to keep his restive party onboard.Under the plans, most people would have to wait 10 years to qualify for settled status, rather than the existing five-year period. But proposals included in a government consultation could involve migrants working in the public sector excluded from the changes, as well as those who are on the verge of being settled.Ministers are now debating how far they want to extend those exemptions but Downing Street said on Wednesday they would not cover everyone who had already arrived in the country, as demanded by Rayner and others
Gerry Adams tells high court he was stunned by 1996 Docklands bombing
Gerry Adams has told the high court he was stunned by the 1996 Docklands bombing as he denied being at the nerve centre of the IRA’s operations.The former Sinn Féin leader also denied having any prior knowledge of the bombing of the commercial district of east London, which shattered a 17-month-old ceasefire.Adams, 77, is accused in the civil trial of being a member of the IRA, having sat on its army council and being culpable for the Docklands bombing, the Manchester bombing in the same year and the 1973 bombing of the Old Bailey in central London.On Adams’s second day on the witness stand, Max Hill KC, acting for men who were injured in the three bombings, suggested to the defendant that he had been behind the Docklands bombing as a way to bolster Sinn Féin’s political strategy.“You shared the frustrations you described others holding and the need, in light of those frustrations, to perpetuate the armed struggle to bring the British government to the table,” he said
Reeves speech had a giant hole: the sky-high cost of energy for industry | Nils Pratley
We’ll have closer trade relations with the EU, be the fastest adopters of AI in the G7, shift some tax revenues to the regions and squash the nimbys if they stand in the way of growth “corridors”. It’s a plan. Or, at least, it’s a sketch of a plan since the EU will surely have its own ideas on what it wants from trade renegotiations. Still, Rachel Reeves’ big resetting speech this week set a direction.But then one comes to the elephant in the room: the sky-high cost of energy for UK industry
Memory loss strikes down Starmer and Badenoch at an infuriating PMQs | John Crace
There’s something weird going on in Westminster. A mutant pathogen in the water maybe. Whatever it is, Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch appear to have been struck down by it.Both have had parts of their memory wiped. At times they now sound like the living dead
BoE delivers message Britons don’t want to hear as inflation – and rates – look set to rise
Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75% and signals rise is possible within months
PwC partners who fail to embrace AI have no future at firm, US CEO warns
BP to sell German oil refinery as part of $20bn cost-cutting plan
UK pay growth sinks to five-year low as younger workers hit by hiring slowdown
UK to double steel tariffs to 50% to save plants from collapse