This week Sir Ed was confirmed as the new Lib Dem leader, seeing off rival Layla Moran in a one-sided race to take over the party reigns from Jo Swinson, who stood down following the party's horror general election last year. With both candidates vowing to energise the Lib Dems, the polls opened at the end of July, before Sir Ed was crowned the winner with 63.5 percent of the vote. But in a desperate blow, it has since emerged that only around 57 percent of Lib Dem party members opted to vote in the election, the worst among the last leadership contests for the UK's three main parties.
According to Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson successfully secured his win in the Conservatives' leadership race, a whopping 87 percent of Tory members turned out to vote.
In the recent Labour contest, which saw Sir Keir Starmer take over from Jeremy Corbyn, approximately 73 percent of members cast their vote in the poll.
Despite claiming to enjoy record numbers of members, which the party reported was up to more than 120,000 in July 2019, the number voting fell dramatically by 15 percent, when compared to the last Lib Dem leadership race just over 12 months ago.
Upon hearing of the poor polling numbers, LBC host Iain Dale questioned both candidates' mandates, with the Brexiteer calling out "wokery" as a potential pitfall.
Writing in Conservative Home, he said: "So we now have two party leaders who we have to call Sir. (Can it really be long before we all have to imagine the words, ‘Arise, Sir Ian Blackford’?)
"After an interminable leadership campaign, the Liberal Democrats announced yesterday that Ed Davey has been elected their new leader, walloping Layla Moran by 43,000 votes to only 25,000.
"It’s interesting to note that while 88 percent of Conservative members voted in the 2019 leadership contest, only 57 percent of Lib Dems could be bothered to vote for either Davey or Moran.
A seven-year-old boy and his mother have been found dead at their home in east London.
The bodies of 35-year-old Yulia Gokcedag and her son Timur were discovered after police officers forced their way into the property in Tower Hamlets following concerns about their welfare.
The pair, who lived on the Isle of Dogs, were reported missing the day before by family members.
The mother and son were found unresponsive and were pronounced dead at the scene in the early hours of 13 August.
A post-mortem determined the boy had died from drowning.
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The Metropolitan Police have said they are not seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths, and an investigation has been launched by their specialist crime command unit.
Inquests into the deaths have been scheduled for 16 December and will be held at Poplar Coroner's Court.
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The Met's directorate of professional standards has been informed of the deaths.
A referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which referred it back to the local professional standards unit which is currently investigating.
Sir Ed Davey won the race to become the new leader of the Liberal Democrats on Thursday. However, his tenure as leader has already suffered a rough start after BBC Breakfast viewers ruthlessly mocked the new party leader during his appearance this morning. Sir Ed faces a tough challenge in rebuilding electoral support, with the party only achieving single digit support in the the latest opinion polls.
The Liberal Democrats have just 11 MPs, and recent opinion polls have put them on between 5 and 10 percent of the vote.
Viewers mocked Sir Ed's repeated claim on the BBC that the Liberal Democrats would now "listen" to the British people.
The BBC's Naga Munchetty asked the new leader about his time in the coalition: "You have said you will listen. I am going to ask you then, as you are listening, and we all learn through experience, do you regret your voting choices in the coalition?"
He replied: "Not everything was got right. However we did do a huge amount. We stopped the Tories cutting welfare benefits by another £12million. We introduced free school meals. We took millions of low paid out of tax."
However Sir Ed added: “We’ve not been seen, by the British people, as on their side. I am determined that by the next election, the people know that we are their voice. We are standing up for ordinary people."
Naga Munchetty said: "You've said you will be listening. As you are listening, do you regret voting choices you made in coalition with the Conservatives?"
He responded: "We were in a coalition with the Conservatives, which was very difficult. I agree with that.
"We had very difficult decisions and not everything we did was right.
"We stopped the Tories cutting welfare benefits by £12bn and we introduced free school meals.
"This current government has made so many mistakes. Our economy has shrunk faster with more job losses than any other G7 country."
In an email to party members on Thursday, Sir Ed claimed he would launch a "national listening project" to help make the Lib Dems "relevant again".
One viewer remarked: "Ed Davey saying he is going to listen to the British people and then never stops talking."
Another added: "Unable to answer simple questions just waffle, waffle, waffle."
One person simply asked: "Is this man serious?"
The result comes eight months after the Lib Dems' former leader, Jo Swinson, stepped down from the role after losing her seat in 2019 election.
Sir Ed secured 63.5 percent of the vote, compared to 36.5 percent for his competitor, fellow MP Layla Moran.
Polling guru professor John Curtice recently said that the Liberal Democrats' popularity "remains at rock bottom".
Leading MEP Guy Guy Verhofstadt tweeted his congratulations to Sir Ed, saying: "The radicalised Tory party of 2020 chooses isolationism & anti-European dogma over cooperation.
"As an internationalist with conviction, I know you & your party have the chance to change this!"
Missing boy, 7, is found drowned alongside his hanged banking analyst mother, 35, in suspected murder-suicide after police forced their way into their £687,000 home in east London
Yulia Gokcedag, 35, and son Timur, 7, were both reported missing on August 12
Met Police officers forced their way into Tower Hamlets home the following day
Mother and son found dead with causes of death given as hanging and drowning
Detectives say they are not looking for anyone else in connection with tragedy
Anyone seeking help can call Samaritans free on 116 123 or visit Samaritans.org
A missing seven-year-old boy has been found drowned at home alongside his hanged mother in a suspected murder-suicide.
Banking analyst Yulia Gokcedag, 35, and her son Timur had been reported missing to the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday 12 August.
Police grew increasingly concerned about their welfare and broke into the £687,000 flat in Lockesfield Place, Tower Hamlets the next day at 3.20am.
Ms Gokcedag and her son Timur were found dead inside the property, with a post-mortem giving their causes of death as hanging and drowning.
She was married to an investment banker, according to online profiles.
They wed in 2011 and Ms Gokcedag had shared Facebook photos of days out with her husband in London. It is not clear if they were still together prior to her death.
Yulia Gokcedag, 35, (pictured) and her seven-year-old son Timur had been reported missing to the Metropolitan Police on 12 August
Timur is pictured in a Facebook album under his name that was posted on Ms Gokcedag's Facebook page after he was born in 2013
Ms Gokcedag was a banking analyst who had won awards while working at Barclays. She shared pictures of her and her husband enjoying life in London
Ms Gokcedag worked in banking as a data analyst at Moody's Investors Service and had won awards while working as a community banker at Barclays, according to her Linkedin account.
She gained a finance and economics degree at the Moscow Financial University before doing an academic English course at the London School of Economics.
Ms Gokcedag, a British national, had previously worked at two financial services companies in south-east Russia.
She was listed on Companies House as a director of an educational services company and another involved in renting Housing Association properties.
Inquests into the deaths are set to be held at Poplar Coroner's Court on December 16.
The Metropolitan Police said that its directorate of professional standards (DPS) was informed.
A referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which referred it back to the local professional standards unit which is currently investigating.
A Met spokesman said: 'As is routine, the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) was informed.
'A referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) who referred it back to the local professional standards unit who are currently investigating.'
An inquest has been scheduled and a file prepared for the coroner which will take place at Poplar Coroners’ Court on Wednesday, 16 December.
Anyone seeking help can call Samaritans free on 116 123 or visit Samaritans.org
Ms Gokcedag and her son Timur were found dead inside the property, with a post-mortem giving their causes of death as hanging and drowning
Police grew increasingly concerned about their welfare and broke into the flat in Lockesfield Place, Tower Hamlets at 3.20am on Thursday (file photo)
According to forecasters’ predictions, this Bank Holiday Monday could be the coldest on record for some areas of the country. Showers on Thursday brought significant road disruptions in areas such as Kingston, south-west London, and London Road in Glasgow.
Heavy downpours could bring further localised flooding and travel disruption.
A yellow warning for heavy rain for north-east England is expected to last until 10am on Friday.
Thunderstorms are expected in regions of southern England and South Wales between 11am and 8pm.
Meteorologist Emma Salter said: "There will be quite heavy, isolated downpours and there is potential for flash flooding.
"But not everywhere will see torrential rain, just a few localised communities will see torrential downpours."
Speaking of the upcoming weekend, Ms Salter said: "We'll see an improving picture throughout the weekend but it will be quite chilly, as far as August is concerned, particularly in the north.
"Sunday will be dry with a good spell of sunshine."
This Bank Holiday, Ms Salter said the mercury could reach 19C in London.
Commenting on the torrential rains to come for areas of southern England, the Met Office said: "Areas of heavy rain will continue to move eastwards across southern parts of England, bringing up to 1.1 or 1.5 inches (30 or 40mm) in five or six hours in a few areas - enough to cause a lot of surface water and some flooding on roads.
"Conditions drying up across the west of the warning area later.”
Thunderstorm warnings have been issued for areas of the UK for Friday, too.
The Met Office writes: "Heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop quite quickly later on Friday morning, but peaking during the afternoon for many, before probably becoming more restricted to the southeast and south coastal counties towards evening.
A "strikingly low" 1% of these 651 children and young people - six in total - had died in hospital with Covid-19 compared with 27% across all other age groups, the study found.
Only 18% had needed intensive care.
And the six who had died had had "profound" underlying health conditions that had often been complex and themselves life-limiting.
Children with such conditions remained vulnerable to the virus and must take precautions, the researchers said.
But for others, the risk was extremely low.
"There have been no deaths in otherwise healthy school-age children," said study author Prof Calum Semple, from the University of Liverpool.
"There is no direct harm from children going back to school," he added.
Co-author Dr Olivia Swann, from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, in Edinburgh, said she hoped the findings would be "extremely reassuring for parents across the UK".
The most common symptoms in children admitted to hospital were a fever, cough, nausea or vomiting and shortness of breath.
Older children were more likely to have stomach pain, headache and a sore throat.
Of the 651 children in the study, 42% had an underlying health condition - the most common ones being illnesses affecting the brain and nervous system (11%), cancer (8%) and asthma (7%).
But having asthma - unlike being obese - had not made the children more likely to need intensive care.
These 52 - none of whom died - were more likely than the others to be older, about 10, and from ethnic minorities.
And they were five times more likely to be admitted to intensive care, where they responded well to treatment.
'Higher incidence'
Based on their study, the definition of this syndrome could now be broadened to include symptoms such as fatigue, headache, sore throat and muscle pain, the researchers said, on top of the symptoms already listed by the World Health Organization.
Dr Liz Whittaker, of Imperial College London, said the findings echoed other studies of Covid-19 in children.
"Very low numbers of children have been admitted to critical care and the researchers reported a very low death rate - particularly in comparison to adults but also in comparison to the death rate due to other infections, influenza, chicken pox, meningitis, group-A-strep[tococcus] sepsis et cetera, and other causes of childhood death - for example, road traffic accidents)," she said.
The fact black children were more commonly affected by the very rare inflammatory syndrome "reflects the higher incidence of coronavirus infection in these communities", Dr Whittaker added.
