Rachel Reeves ‘to give go-ahead’ for £1bn military helicopter deal
Rachel Reeves is to approve a £1bn deal to build military helicopters in Yeovil, saving about 3,000 manufacturing jobs, according to reports,The chancellor is expected to sign a contract with Leonardo – the Italian owner of the former Westland factory in Yeovil, Somerset – to build the new battlefield helicopters, after months of speculation as to whether the historical site would survive,Workers had feared the company would follow through on threats to close the facility at the end of March if the government failed to place an order for new helicopters in time,Leonardo was the only bidder for the UK’s £1bn “new medium helicopter” contract that was launched in February 2024, after the US aerospace company Lockheed Martin and Europe’s Airbus pulled out,The new aircraft will replace the Royal Air Force’s ageing fleet of Puma helicopters, which had been in service since the 1970s.
The decision to agree the contract, first reported by the Financial Times, came just before Leonardo’s offer was set to expire on Sunday.The contract decision appeared to come after a last-minute reversal from the Treasury.A source with knowledge of the matter said that even until early Friday afternoon, it had appeared the contract would be rejected.John Healey, the defence secretary, was even forced to cancel a trip to the Yeovil factory on Thursday, they said, amid last-minute uncertainty over whether the Treasury would approve the deal.By Friday afternoon, Treasury officials were saying the chancellor would give it the green light.
“Rachel cares about keeping the country safe and driving jobs in the UK because our security and economic growth are fundamentally connected,” one told the FT,The Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the contract was “a tremendous victory for Unite members in Yeovil and across the aerospace sector”,She added: “However, it took way too long to get this done, and we still have to question why workers were left in the dark until the 11th hour,”It had faced repeated delays as the Ministry of Defence tussled with a huge funding gap, which has also held up the publication of a key military spending plan that was due last year,Manufacturers have become increasingly frustrated with the wait for the defence investment plan (DIP), which will show how the government will fund its strategic defence review, the blueprint for transforming the UK military amid growing threats from Russia and rising commitments to Nato.
An MoD spokesperson said: “The UK’s new medium helicopter programme is ongoing and no final procurement decisions have yet been made.That outcome will be confirmed in due course.”In November, Leonardo’s chief executive, Roberto Cingolani, told investors he was negotiating with the MoD to try “to boost the collaboration with the UK government”, while in December he wrote to the defence secretary, John Healey, and threatened to scrap all investment in Britain.At the time, Cingolani described the new medium helicopter contract as “a cornerstone” of the Italian company’s UK strategy and added: “Any delay or cancellation in the programme award … would force a re-evaluation of Leonardo’s UK presence, including investment in electronics and cybersecurity divisions.”Leonardo declined to comment.
Diagnosing mental health conditions need not be a case of yes/no | Letters
Lucy Foulkes explores the possibility that the rising numbers of young people receiving a diagnosis of mental illness or ADHD are subjects of overdiagnosis (Are we really overdiagnosing mental illness?, 22 February). She posits that changes in terminology, increasing societal awareness and reductions in stigma are all factors in the increase in diagnoses.However, there is another way of looking at this issue. If we treat ADHD as binary (you have it or you do not), we are missing the possibility that we all lie somewhere on a continuum with diagnosed ADHD towards one end (and perhaps an ability to focus and concentrate at the other). A diagnosis of ADHD then depends on where the line is drawn
‘Violent bully’ who broke partner’s neck and left her paralysed jailed for 16 years
A “violent and controlling bully” who broke his partner’s neck, leaving her paralysed and her life “destroyed”, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.Robert Easom, a landscape gardener, violently assaulted Trudi Burgess, a schoolteacher and former singer, when she threatened to leave him after enduring eight years of coercive, controlling behaviour.A court heard that Easom, 57, pinned Burgess down in a rage and pushed her head into her body until her neck snapped. He denied a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but was found guilty after 27 minutes of deliberation by a jury at Preston crown court in November.He had admitted causing the injury but denied intending to cause her serious harm
European girls aged 13-15 have world’s highest rate of tobacco use for age group
Teenage girls in Europe have the highest rate of tobacco use in their age group around the world, while one in seven adolescents across the continent use vapes and e-cigarettes, figures show.The data, based on analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that Europe is on course to maintain its status as the world’s biggest consumer of tobacco up to 2030, and reveals “particularly concerning” trends of tobacco use among women and young people.Four in 10 adult female smokers around the world – about 62 million women – live in Europe, while 4 million teenagers aged 13 to 15 across the continent use tobacco products.For vapes and e-cigarettes, Europe has the highest prevalence of teenage regular users, at 14.3% of children aged between 13 and 15
Vegetarians have ‘substantially lower risk’ of five types of cancer
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Kinship carers in England to be given financial support in government pilot
Grandparents who step in to provide full-time care for their grandchildren to prevent them being taken into care will be given guaranteed financial support under a government pilot scheme.Charities welcomed the trial as groundbreaking and said if fully rolled out across England it had the potential to transform the lives of tens of thousands of children looked after under “kinship care” arrangements.Kinship carers are grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings or close family friends who take on full parental responsibility when a child loses their birth parents as a result of death, a family court order, severe illness or imprisonment.Campaigners have fought for more than two decades to establish financial recognition of the role and personal sacrifices that kinship carers make. Some carers say they have felt ignored and exploited as a “cheap option” despite saving the state billions it would otherwise have had to spend on foster or residential care
Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts
Hospitals and care homes in the UK face “an impending car crash”, experts have warned, as research shows the number of overseas nurses and carers has collapsed.Analysis of Home Office quarterly data reveals the number of overseas nurses granted entry to the UK has fallen by 93% over three years. Just 1,777 overseas nurses were granted entry in 2025, compared with 26,100 in 2022.Visas for workers in the caring personal service occupations category – which includes care workers, but also nursing auxiliaries, ambulance staff and dental workers – had the steepest decline in new workers from overseas in absolute terms.The figure fell from 107,847 workers granted entry in 2023 to just 3,178 in 2025, a 97% decline over two years
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