Boris Johnson's lawyers are "confident" of winning their application to cancel a county-court judgement against the prime minister, Downing Street says.
The court order was registered against Mr Johnson over an unpaid debt of £535, official records show.
No details of the creditor or nature of the debt were included in the online record of the CCJ, which appeared to have taken No 10 by surprise.
But it has now emerged the case relates to defamation allegations.
The official records show an "unsatisfied record" for the unpaid debt was registered to Mr Johnson at "10 Downing Street", with the judgement dated 26 October last year.
'Without merit'
An additional file shows the claim, for "defamation" and "committed repeated defamation", was made by an Yvonne Hobbs against "The Rt Hon Boris Johnson".
Downing Street says the allegations are "totally without merit".
It is not clear how the case led to a CCJ being issued, as defamation cases are normally heard in the High Court.
But the CCJ was issued by the online civil-claims court, which used to be known as the small claims court.
CCJs are issued in England and Wales when people fail to repay money they owe.
"If you get a judgement, this means that the court has formally decided that you owe the money," according to a government website.
It is likely letters about the alleged debt were sent to 10 Downing Street and not answered, and therefore no defence offered, which would eventually have led to a CCJ being issued by default.
"An application will be made for an order to set aside the default judgement, to strike out the claim and for a declaration that the claim is totally without merit," Downing Street said in a statement.
The UK government "profoundly regrets and is truly sorry" for the events surrounding Ballymurphy in 1971, the NI secretary has told Parliament.
Brandon Lewis said this also extended to the families for the "additional pain" they have had to endure and at how investigations were handled.
An inquest found 10 people, who were shot in the wake of an Army operation in Belfast, were "entirely innocent".
Mr Lewis said the PM was writing to the families.
He said there was "no doubt what happened on those awful few days in Ballymurphy fuelled further violence and escalation, particularly in the early years of the Troubles".
"This government profoundly regrets and is truly sorry for these events, at how investigations after these terrible events were handled and for the additional pain that the families have had to endure in their fight to clear the names of their loved ones, since they began their campaign almost five decades ago," Mr Lewis said.
On Wednesday, Downing Street said Boris Johnson had apologised to Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers in a phone call.
But some victims' families said the remarks should have been made in public.
On Thursday, Mr Lewis told Parliament that he wanted "to put on record the government's acknowledgement of the terrible hurt" caused to the Ballymurphy families.
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Among the Ballymurphy victims were a priest who was trying to help the wounded, a mother-of-eight and a former soldier who had lost his hand in World War Two.
Nine of the 10 victims were killed by the Army, the coroner said.
However, Mrs Justice Keegan said she could not definitively rule who shot the tenth victim, former World War Two soldier John McKerr.
Mr Lewis said the events at Ballymurphy should never have happened.
"The families of those who were killed should never have had to experience the grief and trauma of that loss," Mr Lewis said.
"Above all, they should not have had to wait nearly five decades for the judgement this week, nor have been compelled to relive that terrible time in August 1971, again and again in their long and distressing quest for truth."
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He added that the desire for families of victims to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones was "strong and legitimate".
"Mr Speaker, this government wants to deliver a way forward in addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland, which will allow all individuals or families who want information, to seek and receive answers about what happened during the Troubles, with far less delay and distress," he said.
"We want a path forward which will also pave the way for wider societal reconciliation for all communities, allowing all the people of Northern Ireland to focus on building a shared, stable, peaceful, and prosperous future."
A number of MPs, responding to Mr Lewis, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson should have delivered the apology to Parliament.
The Downing Street statement on Wednesday said the prime minister "apologised unreservedly on behalf of the UK government for the events that took place in Ballymurphy and the huge anguish that the lengthy pursuit of truth has caused the families of those killed".
'Where is the prime minister today?'
Shadow NI Secretary Louise Haigh said the fact that families have had to wait for so long is a "profound failure of justice" and one to be learned from.
"In the aftermath of the Bloody Sunday inquiry, David Cameron came to this House and apologised in a statemenyt. He took full responsibility," Ms Haigh said.
"Where is the prime minister today and why has he not publicly apologised to the Ballymurphy families and to this House?"
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Gregory Campbell asked the secretary of state to ensure that the Ballymurphy families, or those of IRA killings, do not "suffer the ignominy of hearing about an amnesty".
Based on details of the plan leaked last week, it is proposed that all prosecutions prior to 1998 and related to the Troubles will, in future, be banned under a statute of limitations.
Amnesty is a word which dare not cross the lips of government as it sets out its latest change of approach around the legacy of the Troubles.
There has yet to be a clear, public enunciation of what is proposed.
But it is this: a statute of limitations which would ban all prosecutions related to the Troubles.
Not just future cases, but potentially, those already in train.
It would apply across the board - to army veterans and former paramilitaries - on everything which happened before the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The plan is the outworking of the government's pledge to protect soldiers who served in Northern Ireland.
Initial talks have taken place with political parties and meetings are planned with victims' groups.
Sources have told BBC News NI that there were many questions but very few detailed answers from the Secretary of State Brandon Lewis.
The plan has been met with loud opposition.
Already, many are jumping ahead to whether the government, with the numbers at Westminster, will legislate regardless.
The legacy plan would involve some form of investigations for families of the bereaved.
But they would be investigations for the purposes of information recovery, not prosecutions.
The government believes this is the key.
Mr Lewis it is important that the state takes accountability for what happened, but that it is important that "we get to the heart of what happened".
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Ballymurphy deaths were "sheer bloody murder".
"Will the secretary of state ask the prime minister to come out of hiding, come with me, meet the Ballymurphy families and tell them to their faces why he wants to protect the killers?"
Mr Lewis said the government will be considering the report in more detail to "reflect properly".
The prime minister raised concerns over a spike in cases of the variant first detected in India (Picture: Getty)
Scientists fear a surge in cases of the highly transmissible Indian Covid variant could jeopardise plans to ease lockdown, according to reports.
Boris Johnson told Parliament today that the subtype of the ‘double mutant’ variant, called B.1617.2, is of ‘increasing concern’.
It is understood members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have been called for an emergency meeting on Thursday to asses the threat of the increasing number of cases.
According to the i, UK cases of the variant have more than tripled in the past week and experts are concerned the spike could throw the government’s lockdown plans off course.
Two weeks ago, 202 cases of the variant were identified across the UK. Those figures doubled to 520 last week.
New figures from the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, which tracks and identifies new variants, has since reportedly recorded 1,723 cases.
Cases are said to have tripled of the B.1617.2 variant (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
A Sage member told the paper that although the next stage of easing lockdown restrictions will go ahead on Monday, a ‘delay is possible’ to the fourth and final step planned for June 21.
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, said the new variant is ‘really taking off’.
He pointed out that in the last week, there has been a 12% increase on the previous seven-day period.
Prof Hunter said this was the largest week-on-week increase since early January and suggested the new variant could be behind it.
He told MailOnline: ‘There has been a lot of debate about when and if a further wave of infection will happen in the UK. The reports today suggest that this wave may have already begun.
‘That hospitalisations have yet to increase would be consistent with the view that the vaccine is still effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and gives hope that this new wave, if it indeed continues, will be less damaging to the NHS.’
Health officials in Bolton have ramped up efforts to curb the spread of the virus (Picture: Shutterstock)
And almost half of the detected cases of the variant were related to travel, or contact with a traveller, said PHE.
Health officials in Bolton have ramped up efforts to control the spread of the virus in the town with surge testing and a strengthened vaccination campaign.
Bolton Council’s director of public health, Dr Helen Lowey, said: ‘There is no evidence these variants cause more severe illness, there is some evidence that the Indian variant spreads more easily than other Covid-19 variants so it is the one that we want to stop and contain.
‘We are working closely with our partners across the community to identify people who have the virus, to increase the numbers of our eligible residents having the vaccine and to remind us all that Covid has not gone away.’
The Indian variant was reclassified as ‘concerning’ after scientists found evidence it is at least as transmissible as the variant detected in Kent last year – which was 70% more contagious than other known strains at the time.
The Kent strain became the dominant Covid-19 variant in the UK in a matter of weeks, causing the third wave of the pandemic and leaving hospitals struggling.
UK cases of the highly transmissible Indian variant have more than tripled in a week, new figures are expected to confirm on Thursday, as scientists advising the government fear the final stage out of lockdown could be delayed due to the surge.
Boris Johnson has warned that the strain, B1617.2, one of three mutations fuelling the devastating epidemic in India, is “of increasing concern here in the UK”.
Public health officials and ministers are stepping up efforts to curb infections of the variant in areas where there have been the greatest increases, including Bolton, Greater Manchester, where secondary school pupils could be told to continue to wear face masks after the policy is dropped for the rest of England from next Monday. Members of Sage have been called to an urgent meeting on Thursday to assess the threat.
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A member of the government’s scientific advisory committee, Sage, told i that while next Monday’s step 3 of easing of restrictions in England would go ahead, concerns over the Indian variant might increase ahead of the fourth and final step on 21 June and that “a delay is possible”.
The consortium of scientists tracking new variants, COG-UK, has identified a total of 1723 cases of B1617.2, and while some of these will be duplicates, if the figure is confirmed by Public Health England in its weekly update this would be more than three times last week’s number of 520.
B1617.2 was designated as a variant of concern a week ago, and two weeks ago there were 202 cases. Scientists believe the variant could be more transmissible than the Kent variant, but that it will also not be resistant to vaccines.
Ministers have not ruled out introducing local lockdowns in areas where the Indian variant is increasing. Besides Bolton, there are clusters in Blackburn and evidence of rising community transmission in parts of London.
Secondary school pupils in Bolton could be told by their teachers to continue wearing their facemasks after 17 May, with figures suggesting transmission is greatest among teenagers and people in their 20s.
Schools and colleges in the Greater Manchester town will be told they can direct children to continue wearing masks, although public health officials say the decision will rest with school heads rather than being an instruction.
Dr Helen Lowey, Bolton’s Director of Public Health, said: “We don’t just want to focus one intervention. Test, trace and isolate and the vaccine programme are the most important, but if school and colleges want to continue with face coverings, we will support them and we can explore whether it is something we want to do across Bolton.”
A spokesman for Bolton Council said officials were “in dialogue with schools and central government on the use of face coverings in schools from Monday”.
Addressing the Commons on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said despite progress against the virus “the threat of this virus remains real and new variants pose a potentially lethal danger, including the one first identified in India which is of increasing concern here in the UK. So caution has to be our watchword”.
Across the UK the weekly average of all coronavirus cases rose for the third day running, with 2284 new cases reported. There were 11 further deaths.
Asked whether local lockdowns could return, Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News: “We can’t rule anything out but our plan that has been set out by the Prime Minister and the reason we are being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown is because we want this to be the last.”
Police are continuing their search for a body at a cafe in Gloucester linked to a girl feared to have been murdered by serial killer Fred West.
Mary Bastholm, 15, who worked at the cafe, went missing in the city on 6 January 1968. She has never been found.
On Friday, documentary-makers called officers to The Clean Plate, where West was a regular customer in the 1960s.
His wife Rose's former lawyer Leo Goatley said it "wouldn't surprise me if a body was found there".
"Fred West was known to frequent the cafe and Anne McFall - his first victim - worked there and Mary Bastholm worked there," he said.
"I've spoken to witnesses who have said that they may have seen Rose West there."
He said that when he asked her about Ms Bastholm, her comment was: "Well that was before my time".
But, he added that he was "quite certain that Rose West knows an awful lot more about many of these atrocious acts".
The film crew told police last week they had found evidence that a body could be buried within the property.
Gloucestershire Police have said officers could be at the site "for a number of weeks" and excavation work is yet to begin.
In 1994, West admitted murdering his daughter Heather. The confession came as police began to search 25 Cromwell Street, where they found the bodies of nine girls and young women.
He and his wife Rose were jointly charged with nine murders and he was charged with a further three.
Chris Ford, Ms Bastholm's friend, said it was thought at first that the teenager had "just left home" and run away.
"But she [Mary's mother] said she was worried about her because she said 'all she has got on her was what she was stood up in'," Ms Ford said.
"She said to me 'I'm going to always leave the light on in the hall for Mary to come, home to'."
'Absolutely amazed'
City journalist John Hawkins said "it had been speculated on for many years that police should look at that cafe".
Mr Hawkins started working in the city as a 16-year-old "cub reporter" a few months before Ms Bastholm disappeared.
He said he was "absolutely amazed" to hear that police were searching the cafe after being asked to previously and refusing each time.
"Of course it [Mary's disappearance] turned out to be perhaps the biggest mystery story I was ever involved in and certainly one of the biggest stories Gloucester's ever had," he said.
"Not until the early 1990s, when the West case came to light, did we start to put two and two together.
"For those who stretch back a bit and remember those times in the 90s, they might be thinking, 'suddenly, we've got this all going on again'."
West's biographer Geoffrey Wansell said: "[West] liked very young women, he liked naive ones. It would be fair to say Mary was naive, vulnerable, she was only 15, and she would have been lulled into a false sense of security by West.
"He was terrifically good at making you feel at home, he would have charmed the birds off the trees and he would charmed Mary Bastholm."
Mr Wansell said although West never admitted to police that he had killed her, he allegedly confessed to his solicitor, who was then sacked.
He said West belongs "amongst the pantheon of British evil" and had "stained humanity in a way that is unforgivable and should never be forgotten".
Ms Bastholm's family are aware of recent developments and have asked for privacy.
West took his own life in prison while awaiting a trial in 1995.
A county court judgement has been registered against Boris Johnson's name for an unpaid debt of £535.
The court order, which names Mr Johnson, of 10 Downing Street, was made on 26 October, according to a database of judgements.
The creditor and nature of the debt are not included in the database record, which was first reported by Private Eye magazine.
Downing Street has been contacted for a comment.
County court judgements are issued in England and Wales when people fail to repay money they owe.
"If you get a judgment, this means that the court has formally decided that you owe the money," according to a government website.
A bailiff "may visit your home if you do not pay your debts", the website warns.
Banks and loan companies can also use the information to decide whether to issue credit or loans.
"If you're late with your payments, you could be taken back to court and you may have to pay extra costs," the website adds.
Flat renovations
The prime minister's personal finances have been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks.
In particular, he has faced questions about how renovations to the flat, above 11 Downing Street, that he shares with fiancee Carrie Symonds were paid for.
He has insisted he personally paid for the work, but has declined to say whether he received an initial loan.
The Electoral Commission is investigating whether any spending on the flat falls within its remit, and whether any donation to the Conservative Party was properly declared.
A nine-year-old boy who died after apparently being struck by lightning on a football field in Blackpool has been named as Jordan Banks.
Police officers were called shortly after 5pm on Tuesday to fields near to School Road after reports a child had been injured.
Emergency services attended and the boy was taken to hospital but died a short time later.
It is believed the boy was struck by lightning, although inquiries are still ongoing.
The boy's family have been informed and are being supported by officers.
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Tributes have been paid to Jordan and flowers and gifts have been left at the scene of the incident.
Jordan's best friend CJ Campbell told Sky News: "I started crying straight away as soon as I heard [the news] because he is my very best friend in my class at school.
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CJ Campbell described Jordan as his best friend in school
"I was so shocked, you wouldn't expect to hear that news."
He left flowers and a football with a message written on it in memory his friend.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page, Jordan's team Clifton Rangers Junior Football Club said: "It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart we announce that the tragic incident yesterday involved one of our own players.
"Jordan of our U9 Bees, tragically passed away yesterday evening doing what he loved.
"Jordan was a shining light and an inspiration to everyone that he met. A strong, determined and courageous young man, who will be missed by everyone.
Image:Groups have gathered to mourn the nine-year-old who was struck by lightning while playing football
"The world has truly lost an extraordinary young man, who had done so much good in his community."
The club said they would be working to support those with Jordan at the time of the incident and his family.
The statement finished with: "Fly high young man, sleep tight and god bless."
Before he died Jordan was raising money for mental health services in honour of his uncle who took his own life in 2018.
He raised £2,500 by running 30 miles in ten days.
His efforts attracted the attention of his hero Liverpool footballer James Milner, who sent him a video congratulating him on his "incredible" work.
In the clip, Milner said: "Just remember you never walk alone, all the boys are behind you… well done bud you should be very proud."
Detective Superintendent Nick Connaughton of Lancashire Police said: "This is a truly devastating incident and our thoughts are wholeheartedly with the family and friends of the young boy, who has passed away, at this very sad and distressing time."
Road closures in place following the incident have now been lifted.
Anybody with information about the incident, or who witnessed it and has not yet spoken to police is asked to get in touch on 101, quoting log 1169 of 11 May.
