Heathrow Airport has urged the government to reopen the UK economy to fully vaccinated travellers from the European Union and United States by the end of the month after revealing coronavirus crisis losses of almost £3bn to date.
The company said expensive COVID-19 testing requirements were hampering an effective reopening of the skies while it also reported that the UK was falling behind its EU rivals in international trade by being slow to remove restrictions.
Heathrow said that fewer than four million people travelled through the hub airport during the first six months of 2021 – a level that would have been surpassed by 18 days’ worth of traffic in pre-pandemic times.
It posted a loss before tax of £868m compared to a figure just above £1bn for the same period last year, as demand for international travel slumped in the face of the first lockdowns Europe-wide.
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Costly tests for travelling to low-risk countries ‘completely unnecessary’
The figure took its cumulative losses to £2.9bn, Heathrow said, adding: “Recent changes to the government’s traffic light system are encouraging but expensive testing requirements and travel restrictions are holding back the UK’s economic recovery and could see Heathrow welcome fewer passengers in 2021 than in 2020.”
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It said that cargo volumes remained 18% down on pre-pandemic levels while rivals, such as Frankfurt and Schiphol, were up by 9%.
“Britain is losing out on tourism income and trade with key economic partners like the EU and US because ministers continue to restrict travel for passengers fully vaccinated outside the UK,” the statement continued.
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“Trade routes between the EU and the US have recovered to nearly 50% of pre-pandemic levels while the UK remains 92% down.”
It said that unless the government acted, the sector must be continue to be supported through an extension of the furlough scheme beyond September and business rates relief – the latter worth almost £120m to Heathrow.
Chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “The UK is emerging from the worst effects of the health pandemic, but is falling behind its EU rivals in international trade by being slow to remove restrictions.
“Replacing PCR tests with lateral flow tests and opening up to EU and US vaccinated travellers at the end of July will start to get Britain’s economic recovery off the ground.”
Image: Queues mounted at Heathrow over the weekend as people had to show their COVID vaccine passes despite online checks
He was speaking following a weekend in which COVID checks were blamed for long queues at Heathrow’s arrivals halls on what was its busiest day of the year so far.
Significant waiting times were reported at airports more widely and also attributed to staff shortages as a result of the so-called ‘pingdemic’ that has forced personnel to self-isolate if identified as a close contact by the NHS COVID app.
The first Post Office Capture conviction has now been formally referred to the Court of Appeal, marking a major milestone in the IT scandal.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) made the decision to refer the case of sub-postmistress Patricia Owen back in July.
Mrs Owen was convicted of theft by a jury in 1998, based on evidence from the faulty IT software Capture.
She was given a suspended prison sentence and fought to clear her name afterwards – but died in 2003.
Capture software was used in 2,500 branches between 1992 and 1999.
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The first Capture conviction was sent for appeal in July
It is the first time a conviction based on Capture – the predecessor to the Horizon system at the centre of the wider Post Office scandal – has reached the Court of Appeal.
It comes after Sky News revealed that a damning report into Capture, which could help overturn convictions, had been unearthed after nearly 30 years.
An investigation found the Post Office knew about the report at the time and continued to prosecute sub-postmasters based on Capture evidence.
Mrs Owen’s family submitted an application to the CCRC in January 2024 – her case has now been referred on the grounds that her prosecution was an “abuse of process”.
A ‘touchstone case’ for victims
Lawyers have said that if Mrs Owen is exonerated posthumously in the Court of Appeal, it may “speed up” the handling of others.
The CCRC is also continuing to investigate more than 30 other “pre-Horizon” convictions.
CCRC chair, Dame Vera Baird, also told Sky News in the summer it could be a “touchstone case” for other victims.
Juliet Shardlow, Mrs Owen’s daughter, has been fighting to clear her mother’s name for years.
She told Sky News the family were “so pleased” her case had finally been referred.
“This has been a very long journey for us as a family and we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
“It’s just sad that mum isn’t here to see it.
“The good news is that once mum’s case is heard in the High Court, it will pave the way for all the other Capture victims.”
The Post Office has previously said it is “determined that past wrongs are put right and continue to support the government’s work in this area as well as fully co-operate with the Criminal Cases Review Commission”.
Britain’s hopes of becoming a critical minerals superpower have been dealt a severe blow after one of its leading companies abandoned its plans to build a rare earths refinery near Hull.
Pensana had pledged to build a £250m refinery on the banks of the Humber, to process rare earths that would have then been used to make magnets for electric cars and wind turbines.
The plant promised to create 126 jobs and was due to receive millions of pounds of government funding.
However, Sky News has learnt that Pensana has decided to scrap the Hull plant and will instead move its refining operations to the US.
Pensana’s chairman, Paul Atherley, said the company had taken the decision after the Trump administration committed to buying rare earths from an American mine, Mountain Pass, at a guaranteed price – something no government in Europe had done.
“That’s repriced the market – and Washington is looking to do more of these deals, moving at an absolute rate of knots,” he said.
“Europe and the UK have been talking about critical minerals for ages. But when the Americans do it, they go big and hard, and make it happen. We don’t; we mostly just talk about it.”
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Can Trump win the mineral war?
The decision comes at a crucial juncture in critical minerals and geopolitics. China produces roughly 90% of all finished rare earth metals – exotic elements essential for the manufacture of many technology, energy and military products.
Pensana had been seen as Britain’s answer to the periodic panics about the availability of rare earths. The site at Saltend Chemicals Park was chosen by the government to launch its critical minerals strategy in 2022.
Visiting for the official groundbreaking, the then business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “This incredible facility will be the only one of its kind in Europe and will help secure the resilience of Britain’s supplies into the future.”
He pledged a government grant to support the scheme. That grant was never received because Pensana never built its plant.
Image: Paul Atherley and Kwasi Kwarteng at a groundbreaking ceremony for the plant in July 2022. Pic: Pensana
Mr Atherley said he is optimistic about another project he’s involved with, to bring lithium refining to Teesside through another company, Tees Valley Lithium.
But, he said, rare earth processing is far more complex, energy-intensive and expensive, making it unviable in the UK, for the time being.
The decision is a further blow for Britain’s chemicals industry, which has faced a series of closures in recent months, including that of Vivergo, a biofuels refiner based in the same chemicals park where Pensana planned to locate its refinery.
Producers warn that Britain’s record energy costs – higher than most other leading economies – are stifling its economy and triggering an outflow of businesses.
The mastermind of a £5bn Chinese investment fraud was found with a device containing £67m of cryptocurrency in a secret pocket of her jogging bottoms when she was arrested after years on the run, a court has heard.
Prosecutors are setting up a compensation scheme after Yadi Zhang, 47, conned around 128,000 Chinese investors into fraudulent wealth schemes between 2014 and 2017.
Zhang, who is also known as Zhimin Qian, admitted money laundering charges after police discovered more than 61,000 Bitcoin, now worth more than £5bn, in digital wallets, in the UK’s biggest ever cryptocurrency seizure.
She arrived in the UK on a false St Kitts and Nevis passport in September 2017 before coming to the attention of police after trying to buy some of London’s most expensive properties.
Image: Zhang rented a £17,000-a-month house in Hampstead, north London. Pic: CPS
Zhang vanished after police raided her £5m six-bedroom rented house near Hampstead Heath in north London in 2018, but was finally arrested in York last year.
In written legal arguments, Martin Evans KC representing the Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson, said a ledger and passwords were found in a purpose-made concealed pocket in the jogging bottoms she was wearing.
She revealed the access code for two wallets during interviews in prison, leading investigators to cryptocurrency worth around £67m.
The stash has been added to the £5bn Bitcoin hoard, which has reportedly been earmarked by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to help plug the hole in the public finances.
The fortune is at the centre of a High Court battle between the UK government and thousands of Chinese victims, who want to recover their investment and say it should reflect the huge rise in the value of Bitcoin.
Law firm Fieldfisher, which is representing around 1,000 victims, said some have lost their life savings and many are old and vulnerable.
The court heard the DPP is also setting up a compensation scheme for the victims not represented in court, although no further details have been given.
The judge, Mr Justice Turner, will make orders on the case at a later date.
Zhang pleaded guilty to charges of possessing criminal property and transferring criminal property on or before the 23 April 2024 last month and is in custody awaiting sentencing in November.
Her trial heard that Wen, who previously worked in a Chinese takeaway, was not involved in the alleged fraud but acted as a “front person” to help disguise the source of the money.
The court heard how the two women travelled the world, spending tens of thousands of pounds on designer clothes, jewellery and shoes.
Seng Hok Ling, 47, is said to have replaced Wen as Zhang’s “butler”, organising helpers and booking Airbnbs, including in Scotland, for the fugitive while she was on the run.
Image: Seng Hok Ling. Pic: Met Police
Police found Zhang after carrying out surveillance of Ling and seized assets including encrypted devices, cash, gold and cryptocurrency.
Ling, a Malaysian national from Matlock in Derbyshire, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to entering into a money laundering arrangement with Zhang on or before 23 April 2024 and will be sentenced alongside her.
Prosecutors said Zhang masterminded a scam in China, before converting the money into cryptocurrency to get it out of the country.