The Italian government sent an ambulance in a military plane to remove a newborn baby from a hospital in Bristol in a highly unusual move after the boy’s parents said doctors were unable to do anything more for the child.
The infant, less than a month old, has not been named. Sky News understands his parents are from mixed Italian and Nigerian backgrounds but are UK residents.
The Italian government says the child has a “very serious cardiac malformation” and that it intervened after the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children was unable to offer further treatment.
Italian lawyer and former senator Simone Pillon told Sky News the hospital was at the cusp of legal proceedings with the parents over ending treatment but halted before any High Court hearing could take place, in favour of cooperating with the Italian offer.
Mr Pillon, who has previously intervened to help other parents take their children to Italyfor treatment, called this a significant case in paediatric care.
He said it paves the way for children to be offered treatment abroad without parents being taken to court, as we have seen in previous high-profile cases.
“I believe that if we find a way to cooperate in the best interests of the children we are all winning; there are no losers,” he told Sky News. “We thank the hospital and the British doctors. The family want to say thank you too.”
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He added: “The decision is important to guarantee the security of the baby. I believe today we have written a good page in the relationship between Italy and the UK and between Italian and UK doctors in the best interest of children.”
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust said: “We worked with Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital to support the safe transfer of a newborn patient to Rome. Due to patient confidentiality, it would not be appropriate to go into specific details regarding a patient’s care.”
Mr Pillon said Italian doctors began operating on the baby on Wednesday and that surgery was due to continue on Thursday.
The Italian Prime Minister’s Office said an Air Force flight C130 landed in Ciampino Airport just outside of Rome at 6.30pm on Tuesday 23 April with “a newborn of Italian citizenship, born a few days ago in the United Kingdom”.
The baby has been transferred to the Bambino Gesu Paediatric Hospital in Rome.
Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has been named by investigators in Bangladesh who allege she was involved in the illegal allocation of land to members of her family while serving as an MP.
Sky News has obtained an affidavit – or legal written statement – filed by the anti-corruption commission in Bangladesh that accuses Ms Siddiq and others of being involved in fraudulently obtaining plots in the diplomatic zone of a development near to the country’s capital Dhaka.
The document states: “While serving as a Member of the British parliament, it is known that [Ms Siddiq] exerted pressure and influence on her aunt, the former prime minister, to take measures for the allotment of plots in the same project in the names of her mother, Mrs Rehana Siddiq, her sister Ms Azmina Siddiq, and her brother Mr Radwan Mujib Siddiq.”
The director general of the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission Akhtar Hossain told Sky News: “Tulip Siddiq and former prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina misused… power to take the plot from the Purbachal New Town Project.”
Investigators allege that planning officials were bribed and pressured into fraudulently allocating land.
A Labour source said Tulip Siddiq totally refutes the claims and had not been contacted by anyone on the matter.
The source also said no evidence had been presented for the allegations.
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Tulip Siddiq is asked if she will step down but gives no indication one way or the other.
Tulip Siddiq had already been named in Bangladeshi court documents, also seen by Sky News, relating to alleged embezzlement from a nuclear power project in the country.
Labour sources suggested the accusations were not genuine.
That court claim was made by Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Ms Siddiq’s aunt – the former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Ms Hasina fled Bangladesh in August and resigned her post amid weeks of deadly protests.
The new government has since accused the previous Awami League administration of crimes and corruption while in office.
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Shadow chancellor calls on PM to sack minister
Tulip Siddiq has come under increasing pressure over her links to her aunt’s political party, with Sky News revealing she boasted about her connections to the Awami League in blog posts from 2008 and 2009.
The anti-corruption minister has also been found to have lived in several London properties with links to alleged allies of her aunt’s regime.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has since called for her to be suspended as a minister.
The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition has also said Ms Siddiq should step aside from the money laundering and economic crime brief she currently holds.
“The clear conflict of interest surrounding Tulip Siddiq presents a key test for the new government… as anti-corruption experts, it is clear to us that she should not hold responsibility for these sensitive areas in her portfolio”, said Peter Munro, senior coordinator at the anti-corruption coalition.
August was the month which saw the highest number of speeding offences on 20mph roads, with 15,284 breaches recorded across Wales.
The Welsh government said the change in speed limit would reduce serious collisions and save lives, pointing to international evidence where the limit was reduced, such as in Spain.
In the first quarter of 2024, there were 316 road collisions on 20 and 30mph roads in Wales – 25% lower than for the same period in 2023, according to Welsh government figures.
Other parts of the UK have also introduced a similar change. In 2020, Glasgow City Council voted to cut the speed limit on its residential streets. In London, a number of major roads have also seen a 20mph limit introduced.
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The policy faced significant opposition from some quarters in Wales, including a record-breaking petition on the Senedd‘s website.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said grooming gang perpetrators are “peasants” from “sub-communities” in other countries.
She has now met survivors after revealing last week she had not met any while calling for a new national inquiry into the scandal that saw thousands of mainly white girls being abused by men of mainly Pakistani origin.
Ms Badenoch said she was shocked by their stories and an inquiry needs to look at “cultural issues”.
“There is a systematic pattern of behaviour not even just from one country, but from sub-communities within those countries, people with a particular background, particular class background, work background,” she told GB News.
“You know, people [who are] very, very poor, sort of peasant background, very, very rural, almost cut off from even the home origin countries that they might have been in.
“They’re not necessarily first generation. The jobs that they were doing… allowed them to exhibit this predatory behaviour.”
She also said there is another issue of the “culture of silence, the culture of ‘computer says no’, the culture of ‘move along, nothing to see here’, the culture of ‘this is not our problem’, which is on the side of the state”.
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Grooming gangs: What happened?
The Tory leader said a national inquiry needs to look at both “cultural issues” at the same time.
She has repeatedly clashed with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as she calls for a new national inquiry.
The government has said another national inquiry is not needed after a seven-year inquiry was published in 2022 by Professor Alexis Jay.
It has said the focus should instead be on implementing the 20 recommendations made by Professor Jay, and is in favour of locally-led inquiries.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk brought the issue to international attention as he attacked Sir Keir for his involvement in prosecuting grooming gangs while he was chief prosecutor from 2008-2013. The prime minister has pushed back against Mr Musk’s claims.
Ms Badenoch said a national inquiry would shine a light on the truth and hold people to account.
“This is about those victims who deserve justice,” she said.
“The survivors who deserve justice by making sure that every single perpetrator we can find is caught and brought to justice, and those who failed in their duty to protect their children are held to account and exposed.”
Her comments came as the Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, but led locally.