UK weather: ‘Snow showers’ set to hit parts of UK as Met Office issues yellow warning for ice
“A mix of snow showers and sleet” is forecast for parts of the UK as a yellow warning for ice comes into effect in the early hours of today, the Met Office has said.
London and the South East are covered by the warning that comes into force at 4am until 10am today.
The forecaster warned of ice patches, wintry showers and “temperatures near zero” which are likely to affect roads and train services in parts of Greater London, Kent, Surrey, East Sussex and West Sussex.
A few places – mainly the North Downs in Sussex – could also see 1-3cm of snow as showers turn heavy.
It comes as an amber cold-health alert for the North West of England, West Midlands, East Midlands and South West of England is also in place through to noon on Friday.
See the latest weather forecast for your area
Issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office, it means “cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service for an extended period of time”.
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for ice and snow this morning
Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, said it is important to check the wellbeing of those “most vulnerable to the cold” over the next week.
Anyone with pre-existing medical conditions, or over the age of 65, has been warned to be especially cautious of the cold weather and to “heat the rooms where you spend most of your time”, the UKHSA said.
Many are still struggling to recover from the aftermath of Storm Henk last week, which caused widespread flooding and two deaths.
The River Thames overflowing in Chertsey
The Environmental Agency has warned that more than 1,800 properties have already flooded, with more properties expected to be affected.
Around 160 flood warnings and 150 flood alerts remain in place for England and Wales.
High waters impact family home
Debbie Carling, who lives in a cottage by the Thames in Chertsey, told Sky News she is increasingly worried about how high water levels are impacting her family home.
She has lived in the town for 17 years and said three out of four instances of heavy flooding have occurred in the last two years.
Debbie Carling, who lives near the Thames, has spent her own money to install a flood water pump at her property
In 2014, the basement of her house completely flooded and she has since spent “a considerable amount of money” on an automated system to pump out flood waters.
The system has been pumping non-stop for over a week, she said.
Read more:
‘My home is ruined’
Forecasters expect freezing temperatures
UK Floods: Special Programme
“We’re at the top level now and we need it to start to recede quite quickly,” she added. “We’ve already put a lot of things into storage over the last few days.”
Government ‘asleep at the wheel’
On Sunday, Labour accused the government of being “asleep at the wheel” over flood warnings, with leader Sir Keir Starmer vowing to make flood defences “fit for purpose”, writing on social media that “people’s lives shouldn’t be upended by extreme rain”.
But Rishi Sunak defended the government’s record on flood protection, saying 49,000 people had avoided potential ruin.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sunak speaks to reporters in Oxford
“We have over 1,000 Environment Agency personnel on the ground in local communities helping, over 200 pumps have been deployed,” he said, after travelling to Oxfordshire to meet members of the public who have been affected.
“We’ve invested £5.2bn in flood defences over the period in question, that’s a record sum, far more than we’ve done (previously), in the future that’s contributed to protecting over 300,000 homes.”
It followed the announcement of a new government financial package for eligible areas of the UK that have faced exceptional localised flooding.
Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage might be polar opposites when it comes to politics – but they do have one thing in common.
The pair are both cutting through in a changing media landscape when attention is scarce and trust in mainstream politics is scarcer still.
For Farage, the Reform UK leader, momentum has been building since he won a seat at the general election last year and he continues to top the polls.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Badenoch doesn’t want to talk about Farage
But in the six weeks since Polanski became leader of the Greens, membership has doubled, they’ve polled higher than ever before while three Labour councillors have defected. Has the insurgent firebrand finally met his match?
“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and disagree with him on almost everything,” Polanski tells Sky News.
“But I think his storytelling has undoubtedly cut through and so yes there has been a huge part of us saying ‘If Farage can do that with a politics of hate and division, then it’s time for the Green Party to do that with a politics of hope and community’ and that’s absolutely what I intend to keep doing.”
Polanski was speaking after a news conference to announce the defections of the councillors in Swindon – a bellwether area that is currently led by a Labour council and has two Labour MPs, but was previously controlled by the Tories.
It is the sort of story the party would previously have announced in a press release, but the self-described “eco populist” is determined to do things differently to grab attention.
He has done media interviews daily over the past few weeks, launched his own podcast and turbocharged the Greens social media content – producing slick viral videos such as his visit to Handsworth (the Birmingham neighbourhood where Robert Jenrick claimed he saw no white people).
Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors
Polanski insists that it is not increased exposure in and of itself that is attracting people to his party but his messaging – he wants to “make hope normal again”.
“I’m not going to be in a wetsuit or be parachuting from a helicopter”, he says in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.
“I think you only need to do stunts if you don’t have something really clear to say and then you need to grab attention.
“I think when you look at the challenges facing this country right now if you talk about taxing wealth and not work, if you talk about the mass inequality in our society and you talk about your solidarity with people living in poverty, with working-class communities, I think these are the things that people both want to hear, but also they want to know our solutions. The good news is I’ve got loads of solutions and the party has loads of solutions. “
Some of those solutions have come under criticism – Reform UK have attacked his policy to legalise drugs and abolish private landlords.
Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA
Polanski is confident he can win the fight. He says it helps that he talks “quite quickly because it means that I’m able to be bold but also have nuance”. And he is a London Assembly member not an MP, so he has time to be the party’s cheerleader rather than being bogged down with case work.
As for what’s next, the 42-year-old has alluded to conversations with Labour MPs about defections. He has not revealed who they are but today gave an idea of who he would welcome – naming Starmer critic Richard Burgon.
Like Burgon, Polanski believes Starmer “will be gone by May” and that the local elections for Labour “will be disastrous”.
He wants to replace Labour “right across England and Wales” when voters go to the polls, something Reform UK has also vowed to do.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Is Zack Polanski squeezing the Labour vote?
Could the Greens be kingmakers?
Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, says this reflects a “new axis of competition” as frontline British politics shifts from a battle of left vs right to a battle of process vs anti-establishment.
Farage has been the beneficiary of this battle so far but Tryl says Polanski is “coming up in focus groups” in a way his predecessors didn’t. “He is cutting through”, the pollster says.
However, one big challenge Polanski faces is whether his rise will cause the left vote to fragment and make it easier for Farage to win – something he has said he wants to avoid at all costs.
👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈
And yet, asked if he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out of power in the event of a hung parliament, he suggested he would only do so if Sir Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister.
“I have issues with Keir Starmer as prime minister,” he says. “I think he had the trust of the public, but I would say that’s been broken over and over again. If we had a different Labour prime minister that would be a different conversation about where their values are.”
He adds: “I do think stopping Nigel Farage has to be a huge mission for any progressive in this country, but the biggest way we can stop Nigel Farage is by people joining the Green Party right now; creating a real alternative to this Labour government, where we say we don’t have to compromise on our values.
“If people wanted to vote for Nigel Farage, they’d vote for Nigel Farage. What does Keir Starmer think he’s doing by offering politics that are similar but watered down? That’s not going to appeal to anyone, and I think that’s why they’re sinking in the polls.”
A former paratrooper accused of murdering two civilians in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland 53 years ago has been found not guilty.
Soldier F – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was accused of killing James Wray and William McKinney during disorder after a civil rights parade on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
The veteran was also found not guilty of five attempted murders at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.
He had denied all seven charges.
Thirteen people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment on the day in question.
Soldier F did not give evidence, but the court heard about previous statements from two paratroopers – known as G and H – who were in Glenfada Park North along with F.
The prosecution said their testimony was direct evidence that the defendant had opened fire in the area.
Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John “Jackie” Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John
However, the defence argued that they were unreliable witnesses as their statements were inconsistent with each other and with other witnesses who gave evidence.
The trial was held in Belfast in front of a judge, not a jury.
Delivering his judgment, Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell well short of what was needed for conviction.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the latest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
Two people have died and five others were taken to hospital following a fire in Glasgow.
Emergency crews were called to the blaze at a property in Hughenden Lane in Hyndland at about 10.20pm on Monday.
Police Scotland said a man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene.
The force said their next of kin have been informed.
Five others were taken to hospital for the effects of smoke inhalation.
Read more from Sky News:
Paratrooper known as ‘Soldier F’ not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders
Three arrested on suspicion of assisting Russian spy agencies
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “The fire is not believed to be suspicious, and no criminality has been established.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024