Southampton's match against Preston this evening has been postponed after a fire broke out next to St Mary's Stadium.
Fire crews are tackling the blaze which broke out just after 1pm this afternoon affecting four industrial units in Marine Parade, Southampton.
It isn't clear what caused the fire.
Southampton FC had been due to play Preston this evening in the Championship, as the Saints continue in their push towards promotion.
Image:Crews respond to the blaze next to Southampton FC's stadium
The football club said the fixture had to be postponed because the fire had caused "significant disruption" to the area.
They said the decision had been made after discussions with local authorities and emergency services.
They added: "We are grateful for the cooperation of Preston and the EFL [English Football League], and while we appreciate the disappointment fans may feel, we hope they will understand the need to put the safety of supporters and staff of both clubs first.
"The game will be postponed to a new date, which will be announced in due course, and all tickets for tonight's match will be valid for the rearranged fixture."
Several nearby roads have been shut and people have been advised to keep their windows closed to avoid smoke.
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Footage showed the large fire sending black smoke billowing far above the neighbouring football stadium.
• A new levy on vaping products • Help for first time buyers, such as 99% mortgages • A tax on air passenger duty for business class travel • Cutting back plans to increase departmental spending to save money
Labour said that whatever is announced, it won't be enough to "undo the economic vandalism of the last decade" - and the tax burden is still set to rise to a record high.
With Sir Keir Starmer's party ahead by around 20 points in the polls, some Tory MPs want Mr Hunt to go further and cut personal income tax with an election approaching.
This is seen as a more headline-grabbing measure that benefits more voters, including pensioners.
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But the chancellor is said to have decided against this after forecasts from the UK's fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), gave him less fiscal headroom than hoped.
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0:37
Patel: 'Budget should back working people'
'Conservatives know lower tax means higher growth'
A 2p cut to income tax would cost around £14bn, whereas the 2p cut to NI will cost around £10bn.
Combined with the 2p cut to NI announced in November, the move will save 27 million workers £900 on average.
In comments released by the Treasury on Tuesday night, Mr Hunt said: "Of course, interest rates remain high as we bring down inflation.
"But because of the progress we've made... delivering on the prime minister's economic priorities, we can now help families with permanent cuts in taxation.
"We do this not just to give help where it is needed in challenging times. But because Conservatives know lower tax means higher growth. And higher growth means more opportunity and more prosperity."
Image:Jeremy Hunt prepares his budget. Pic: Flickr
Mr Hunt added that growth "cannot come from unlimited migration", but "can only come by building a high-wage, high-skill economy".
He also took aim at Labour, claiming a government under Sir Keir Starmer would "destroy jobs" and "risk family finances with new spending that pushes up tax".
Hunt's task is not just to get voters on his side - but his MPs too
This week, as Jeremy Hunt was putting the final touches to his budget, a poll dropped putting the Conservatives on their lowest level of support in 40 years. MPs are desperate for the chancellor to give them something this week that just might pull them back up.
The final budget before the general election will put personal tax cuts at its heart. The chancellor is set to announce a two percentage point reduction in national insurance that will benefit 27 million workers. Add it to the cut announced last November and the average worker will be getting back about £900 in tax.
It is, insist those who have been working on the statement, as much as this chancellor is able to do against the economic backdrop he's dealing with.
In Downing Street, there is a chancellor and PM determined to show they can be trusted with the economy after the Truss debacle and who are eyeing this fiscal event with an eye on what comes next.
Energy bills are set to fall in April, while inflation could hit the Bank of England's 2% target in May or June, which could lead to interest rate cuts and lower mortgages. All of this is playing perfectly into the "plan is working" slogan Rishi Sunak desperately wants the country to buy into.
But when you're 20 points behind in the polls, even after 18 months of trying, your party is going to want more than "proof points" that your economic plan is on track when the country has written you off.
Mr Hunt has an enormous task today - not just to get voters to look again, but keep his fractious party on side.
Tories 'overseeing 14 years of economic failure' - Labour
But shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Labour is "now the party of economic responsibility" as she accused the Tories of overseeing "14 years of economic failure" with the overall tax burden still rising.
She said: "The Conservatives promised to fix the nation's roof, but instead they have smashed the windows, kicked the door in and are now burning the house down.
"Taxes are rising, prices are still going up in the shops and we have been hit by recession. Nothing the chancellor says or does can undo the economic vandalism of the Conservatives over the past decade.
"The country needs change, not another failed budget or the risk of five more years of Conservative chaos".
Image:Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves preparing for Wednesday's budget. Pic: PA
How will Hunt pay for Budget 2024 giveaway?
Experts have warned that a 2p national insurance cut would not be enough to stop the tax burden rising because of previously announced freezes to personal tax thresholds.
There are also questions about whether Mr Hunt can afford to pay for the measure.
He has said he will not pay for tax cuts with borrowing, meaning a combination of spending cuts and tax rises elsewhere will be necessary.
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'Tax at highest level since WWII'
Revenue-raisers Mr Hunt is said to be considering include reducing the scope of non-dom tax relief, which Labour has said it would scrap to fund services such as the NHS.
A new levy on vaping is on the cards, as is a tax on air passenger duty for business class travel and a tax crackdown on those who rent out second homes for holiday lets.
The chancellor is also considering cutting back plans to increase departmental spending by just 0.75% a year, instead of 2%, to raise around £5bn.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey - who will be targeting Mr Hunt's "Blue Wall" seat at the election - described the Conservatives as "the great tax swindlers" and said they should be prioritising the NHS.
He said: "Rishi Sunak has led the economy into a recession and forced families to pick up the tab. They have no shame.
"The Conservatives must put the NHS at the heart of the budget. It is no wonder the economy isn't growing when millions of people are stuck on NHS waiting lists, unable to work."
Watch Sky News's coverage of the Budget live from 11am.
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Birmingham City Council has signed off a deal to impose tax hikes of 21 per cent and devastating cuts to public services over the next two years.
Europe’s largest local authority was forced to declare effective bankruptcy last September, and is seeking to make an unprecedented £300m in savings – with the council warning of a “fundamental change” in how it delivers services.
While councils are typically prevented from raising tax by more than 5 per cent without holding a referendum, Birmingham has received special dispensation from communities secretary Michael Gove to hike rates by 10 per cent in each of the next two years, in light of the council’s exceptional financial difficulties.
The full council voted on the increase on Tuesday, which totalled around 21 per cent over two years – equivalent to a rise of around £280 on a typical Band A property, and £840 on a Band H home – in addition to the range of proposed spending cuts.
Speaking during the meeting of Birmingham City Council on Tuesday, Conservative group leader Robert Alden said: “Lord Mayor, this is an important budget, it’s a budget that shows just how badly Birmingham Labour have made a mess of the council’s finances and how they haven’t got a real plan to fix that mess.
“Instead all Birmingham Labour have to offer is a double whammy of higher taxes and fewer services.”
John Cotton says the council has ‘no alternative than to face these challenges head on’
Accusing Birmingham’s council leader and its cabinet of living “in a fantasy land”, Mr Alden added: “Since Birmingham Labour took control of the council 12 years ago, every time people look at their council tax bill, it’s gone up – car park charges have gone up.
“And yet despite all these tax and fee rises, Labour has still effectively bankrupted the council.”
Cuts include dimming street lights, making bin collections fortnightly instead of weekly, and raising burial costs. Up to 600 council jobs are also expected to be axed, with cuts proposed in social care, the arts, highways maintenance and public spaces.
Councils’ spending power has plummeted since austerity was imposed in 2010, and Birmingham is merely one of eight local authorities forced in the past six years to issue a section 114 notice, which is in effect a declaration of bankruptcy. Prior to 2018, the last time a council had been forced to do so was in 2000.
Birmingham was left unable to balance its books after a botched rollout of updated IT systems, with the council also identifying a further £760m outstanding in equal pay claims following a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2012 which saw the council forced to pay £1.1bn to workers who alleged women were being paid less.
But the council’s Labour leader John Cotton has also blamed a “national crisis in local government finance” caused by “a combination of austerity and underfunding”. Councils across the country also hard-pressed by inflation and rising demand for services “are facing some of the biggest budget challenges in living memory”, he warned.
Europe’s largest local authority announced it was effectively bankrupt in September
Mr Gove has given four councils permission to raise taxes by 10 per cent in the next financial year, and Nottingham City Council on Monday approved hundreds of job losses and cuts to social and youth services in a bid to reduce its £53m deficit.
In comments last month as Birmingham’s budget proposals were published, Mr Cotton said: “I want to apologise unreservedly for both the significant spending reductions and this year’s substantial council tax increase.
“We have no alternative than to face these challenges head on. And we will do whatever is necessary to put the council back on a sound financial footing.”
The BBC reported that Labour councillor Liz Clements was brought to tears at Birmingham council’s cabinet meeting last week as a result of the plans to almost entirely cut the city’s arts funding.
“Arts aren’t a luxury. They are actually what makes life worth living in this city and they are a reason to keep going,” said Ms Clements. “So I, personally, I’m really devastated about that.”
George Galloway, the firebrand veteran British politician, made a triumphant return to Westminster’s House of Commons on Monday after securing a thumping by-election victory in northwest England last week, largely as a result of his opposition to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Galloway, who represents the hard-left, fringe Workers Party of Britain, which he founded in 2019, took the constituency of Rochdale with 12,335 votes or 39.7 percent of the vote.
The constituency was formerly held by Labour’s Sir Tony Lloyd, whose death in January triggered the by-election. In the 2019 general election, Lloyd won 53 percent of the vote in Rochdale. But on February 12, the Labour Party withdrew support for its candidate, Azhar Ali, after he was accused of making anti-Semitic comments and it emerged he had suggested that Israel had deliberately allowed the October 7 attack by Hamas to happen. The shunned Ali, who stood for election anyway, went on to poll just 7.7 percent.
In his victory speech after his headline win last Thursday, the Scottish-born legislator, who has a fondness for fedora hats and cutting put-downs, signalled local voters’ disillusion with the mainstream parties when he labelled the United Kingdom’s Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour’s opposition leader, Sir Keir Starmer, “two cheeks of the same backside”.
It was a typically provocative statement from the four-times married Galloway, who, stridently pro-Palestinian, has campaigned against Israel’s war on Gaza in the Greater Manchester town which hosts a large Muslim minority.
Then-Respect Party member George Galloway, left, with antiwar demonstrators in Manchester on the eve of The Labour Party Conference in September 2006 [Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]
Who is George Galloway?
Galloway, 69, hails from Dundee on Scotland’s east coast. He has long been a thorn in the side of the British political establishment, not least since 2003 when then-UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair expelled him from the party due to his uncompromising opposition to the Iraq War.
Galloway had once been viewed as a Labour Party rising star, having become chair of the Scottish Labour Party at just 26 in 1981. Six years later, he made good on his prospects when he won a UK Parliamentary seat in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, while Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.
However, Galloway soon revealed his taste for the outlandish and the controversial when, still a newly elected member of Parliament, a journalist asked him in September 1987 about his attendance at a charity conference in Greece.
Bizarrely, he responded, “I travelled and spent lots of time with people in Greece, many of whom were women, some of whom were known carnally to me,” responded Galloway, who was then married to his first wife, Elaine. “I actually had sexual intercourse with some of the people in Greece.”
Galloway’s spicy revelations earned him the moniker “Gorgeous George”.
His expulsion from the Labour Party in October 2003 over his strong objection to the war in Iraq did not dim his political ambitions. He served as an MP for the antiwar Respect Party in London’s Bethnal Green and Bow from 2005 to 2010, and Bradford West in northern England from 2012 to 2015.
Whether Galloway’s decision to imitate a cat and nibble from a fellow contestant’s hands in the 2006 edition of the UK’s popular reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother – described in the Times this week as a “temple of vacuousness” – also added to his electoral appeal in Rochdale is unknown.
Why is he so passionate about the Palestinian cause?
Galloway attributes his commitment to the Palestinian cause in part to a visit to war-torn Beirut in 1977. He would later recall of the trip, “Although it was a difficult decision for me to make the journey back to Scotland, barely a week after my return, I made a pledge in the Tavern Bar in Dundee’s Hawkhill District, to devote the rest of my life to the Palestinian and Arab cause, whatever the consequences for my own political future.”
He kept his word and, in 1980, was involved with the twinning of his native Dundee with Nablus in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank.
He has spent time in the Palestinian territories, meeting then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in 2002.
In August 2014, Galloway was assaulted on a street in west London by a man wearing a shirt with an Israeli military logo, leaving him needing hospital treatment for cuts and bruises to his head and ribs. His assailant, Neil Masterson, was jailed later that year for 16 months.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, welcomes British Member of Parliament and peace activist George Galloway, May 8, 2002, in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah [Hussein Hussein/PPO/Getty Images]
What highly controversial positions has he taken?
In 1994, Galloway met then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and, in front of the TV cameras, stated, “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.”
Galloway later claimed that he was saluting the people of Iraq, not Saddam Hussein himself. But his comments prompted the politician’s many political detractors to accuse him of supporting an oppressive Iraqi regime. It also heralded the arrival of “indefatigability” – a hitherto rarely used word – into the British public mainstream where, for many Britons of a certain age, it retains a somewhat comical link to Galloway.
In his 2004 book, I’m Not the Only One, Galloway appeared to defend Iraq’s claim over Kuwait, describing the state – which was invaded by Saddam in 1990, sparking the first Gulf War – as “clearly a part of the greater Iraqi whole stolen from the motherland by perfidious Albion”.
Galloway’s interest in Iraq led to him being accused by the US Senate of profiting from Iraqi oil sales. The Briton, never one to shirk a challenge, faced down his accusers in 2005 when he appeared before a Senate Subcommittee, and declared, in a clear nod towards Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist witch-hunt of the early 1950s, “I am not now nor have I ever been an oil trader and neither has anyone on my behalf.”
In recent years, he has been forced to refute allegations that he is an “Assad apologist” regarding his perceived support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
How did Galloway secure such a resounding victory in Rochdale?
Galloway’s decision to campaign on his opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza, and to call out the UK’s staunch support for the Israeli regime, was, it seems, a galvanising factor for many voters in Rochdale where, in the 2021 census, some 19 percent of residents describe themselves as Muslim
The Scot’s success was also undoubtedly boosted by current disarray in the Labour Party, which withdrew support for Ali, despite him remaining a Labour candidate on the ballot.
An election board encouraging people to vote for candidate George Galloway, leader of the Workers Party of Britain, before the Parliamentary by-election in Rochdale [Phil Noble/Reuters]
What has the reaction to Galloway’s election victory been?
Galloway’s win was enough to prompt Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to give an impromptu speech outside his Downing Street residence last Friday in which he equated the legislator’s election to a rise in “extremism” in the UK.
Galloway – who has been accused of anti-Semitism by supporters of Israel, such as in 2014 when he called for Bradford to be declared an “Israel-free zone” – replied that he “despised” the British prime minister.
Labour leader Keir Starmer maintained that “Galloway only won because Labour didn’t stand a candidate.”
He added, “I regret that we had to withdraw our candidate and apologise to voters in Rochdale. But I took that decision. It was the right decision.” Some commentators, however, said that Galloway’s win will place Starmer under yet more pressure to take a tougher stance on Israel.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Labour’s position on the conflict has been seen as too lenient towards Israel by many Muslim voters and Labour Muslim politicians. Across the country, more than 60 Labour councillors have resigned in protest. In November 2023, 56 Labour MPs defied the party leadership to back the SNP’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism sounded alarm at Galloway’s victory, saying he had “an atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community”.
It added, “Given his historic inflammatory rhetoric and the current situation faced by the Jewish community in this country, we are extremely concerned by how he may use the platform of the House of Commons in the remaining months of this parliament.”
The UK must hold a general election by January 2025, but many expect one to be called later this year.
A 10-year-old girl who died at a house in the West Midlands has been named as Shay Kang. Her primary school described her as a “bright and fun-loving girl”.
Shay was found at a property in Rowley Regis at about 12.10pm on Monday and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 33-year-old woman, who West Midlands police said was understood to be known to the girl, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody.
Shay was a pupil at Brickhouse primary school in the town, which said in a statement: “Our school is deeply saddened by the tragic death of one of our children.
“Shay was a bright, happy, fun-loving child who was well liked by all, and she will be very sadly missed by everyone. School is the heart of the community and we have already begun working with our children and staff to support them following this devastating news.”
Police said they were not looking for anyone else as part of the investigation, and that a cordon remained in place around the house while inquires continued. A postmortem would be held in due course to establish the cause of death, the force added.
“A young girl has tragically lost her life and our thoughts are with her loved ones and all those impacted by this terrible passing,” said DI Dan Jarratt, who is leading the investigation.
“We are working hard to establish what happened and our investigation has made good progress. The community has understandably been left shocked by what’s happened, and we’ll continue to have a police presence and offer our support in the area over the coming days.”
Rishi Sunak has suffered his heaviest defeat in the House of Lords after the archbishop of Canterbury and former Conservative ministers joined forces with the opposition to force through five amendments to the Rwandan deportation bill.
The string of government setbacks, most passed by unusually large margins of about 100 votes, means the legislation, which aims to clear the way to send asylum seekers on a one-way flight to Kigali, will have to go back to the Commons.
The prime minister has previously warned the unelected chamber against frustrating the “will of the people” by hampering the passage of his safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill, which has been approved by MPs.
Sunak has made “stopping the boats” a key pledge of his leadership. However, he has been hit by several setbacks including the bill being challenged in the courts. Last week, official auditors said it will cost £1.8m to send each of 300 migrants to Rwanda.
The draft legislation and a treaty with Rwanda are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled deportation scheme after the supreme court ruled the plan was unlawful.
As well as compelling judges to regard the east African country as safe, it would give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions. It has been warned that the legislation is “fundamentally incompatible” with the UK’s human rights obligations and would flout international law.
But Downing Street has said the government remains committed to sending flights to Rwanda “in the spring”.
In all, peers backed five changes to the bill on Monday night, including ensuring it complied with the rule of law and that parliament cannot declare Rwanda to be safe until the treaty with its promised safeguards is fully implemented.
The Lords also supported a move that would allow the presumption the country is a secure haven to be challenged in the courts.
Among those to vote against the government were the Most Rev Justin Welby and Conservative grandees Ken Clarke, Lord Deben and Viscount Hailsham, who have all previously held Cabinet positions.
The size of the defeats raise the prospect of an extended tussle between the Commons and Lords during “ping-pong”, in which legislation is batted between the two houses until agreement is reached.
The barrister and independent crossbencher David Anderson said the provision in the bill requiring Rwanda to be treated as safe “takes us for fools”.
Proposing an amendment that would allow the presumption to be challenged in the courts, Lord Anderson added: “If Rwanda is safe as the government would have us declare, it has nothing to fear from such scrutiny.
“Yet we are invited to adopt a fiction, to wrap it in the cloak of parliamentary sovereignty and to grant it permanent immunity from challenge. To tell an untruth and call it truth. Why would we go along with that?”
Welby said international human rights law had developed following the horrors committed by Nazi Germany, to act as a “fallback” and “stop” on governments. “We are not in any situation remotely like that, let’s be clear,” the archbishop added.
“The government is not doing something on the scale of what we saw at that stage, but the government is challenging the right of international law to constrain our actions.
Lord Clarke, the former chancellor, said he hoped there would be a legal challenge to the bill if it was passed. “I cannot recall a precedent in my time where a government of any complexion have produced a bill which asserts a matter of fact – facts to be fact,” he said.
Later, responding to concerns about the mental health support asylum seekers would receive in Rwanda, the Home Office minister Andrew Sharpe said: “It would be far in the best interests, mental health interests of those seeking asylum, and who are victims, to seek asylum in the first safe country they came to.”
The government faces the threat of further defeats on Wednesday when the bill is again before the Lords.
The UK and France are planning to establish a new customs partnership designed to disrupt the supply chain of small boats in the Channel.
James Cleverly, the home secretary, hosted a meeting in Brussels on Monday of the Calais Group of northern European countries. They plan to disrupt the supply chain of boat parts including engines and building materials.
