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Pressure is growing to renegotiate or leave an international convention blamed for slowing building projects and increasing costs after a judge warned campaigners they are in danger of “the misuse of judicial review”.

Under the Aarhus Convention, campaigners who challenge projects on environmental grounds but then lose in court against housing and big infrastructure have their costs above £10,000 capped and the rest met by the taxpayer.

Government figures say this situation is “mad” but ministers have not acted, despite promising to do so for months.

The Tories are today leading the call for change with a demand to reform or leave the convention.

In March, Sky News revealed how a computer scientist from Norfolk had challenged a carbon capture and storage project attached to a gas-fired power station on multiple occasions.

Andrew Boswell took his challenge all the way the appeal court, causing delays of months at a cost of over £100m to the developers.

In May, the verdict handed down by the Court of Appeal was scathing about Dr Boswell’s case.

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“Dr Boswell’s approach is, we think, a classic example of the misuse of judicial review in order to continue a campaign against a development… once a party has lost the argument on the planning merits,” wrote the judges.

They added: “Such an approach is inimical to the scheme enacted by parliament for the taking of decisions in the public interest,” adding his case “betrays a serious misunderstanding of the decision of the Supreme Court” and “the appeal must therefore be rejected”.

Another case – against a housing development in a series of fields in Cranbrook, Kent – was thrown out by judges in recent weeks.

The case was brought by CPRE Kent, the countryside challenge, to preserve a set of fields between two housing developments alongside an area of outstanding natural beauty.

John Wotton, from CPRE Kent, suggested it would have been hard to bring the challenge without the costs being capped.

“We would’ve had to think very carefully about whether we could impose that financial risk on the charity,” he told Sky News.

After his case was dismissed, Berkeley Homes said the situation was “clearly absurd and highlights how incredibly slow and uncertain our regulatory system has become”.

They added: “We welcome the government’s commitment to tackle the blockages which stop businesses from investing and frustrate the delivery of much needed homes, jobs and growth.

“We need to make the current system work properly so that homes can actually get built instead of being tied-up in bureaucracy by any individual or organisation who wants to stop them against the will of the government.”

‘Reform could breach international law’

Around 80 cases a year are brought under the Aarhus Convention, Sky News has learned.

The way Britain interprets Aarhus is unique as a result of the UK’s distinctive legal system and the loser pays principle.

Barrister Nick Grant, a planning and environment expert who has represented government and campaigns, said the convention means more legally adventurous claims.

“What you might end up doing is bringing a claim on more adventurous grounds, additional grounds, running points – feeling comfortable running points – that you might not have otherwise run.

“So it’s both people bringing claims, but also how they bring the claims, and what points they run. This cap facilitates it basically.”

However, Mr Grant said that it would be difficult to reform: “Fundamentally, the convention is doing what it was designed to do, which is to facilitate access to justice.

“And it then becomes a question for the policymakers as to what effect is this having and do we want to maintain that? It will be difficult for us to reform it internally without being in breach of our international law obligations”

In March, Sky News was told Number 10 is actively looking at the convention.

Multiple figures in government have said the situation with Britain’s participation in the Aarhus Convention is “mad” but Sky News understands nothing of significance is coming on this subject.

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Jenrick's leaked recording on 'coalition' with Reform UK
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‘The country faces a choice,’ says Robert Jenrick

The Tories, however, want action.

Robert Jenrick, shadow justice secretary and former housing minister, said the Tories would reform or leave the convention.

He told Sky News: “I think the country faces a choice. Do we want to get the economy firing on all cylinders or not?

“We’ve got to reform the planning system and we’ve got to ensure that judicial review… is not used to gum up the system and this convention is clearly one of the issues that has to be addressed.

“We either reform it, if that’s possible. I’m very sceptical because accords like this are very challenging and it takes many many years to reform them.

“If that isn’t possible, then we absolutely should think about leaving because what we’ve got to do is put the interest of the British public first.”

Mr Jenrick also attacked the lawyers who work on Aarhus cases on behalf of clients.

“A cottage industry has grown. In fact, it’s bigger than a cottage industry,” he said.

“There are activist lawyers with campaign groups who are now, frankly, profiteering from this convention. And it is costing the British taxpayer a vast amount of money. These lawyers are getting richer. The country is getting poorer.”

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Two children and mother who died in Northern Ireland shooting named

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Two children and mother who died in Northern Ireland shooting named

Two children and a woman who died in a shooting in County Fermanagh have been named.

Vanessa Whyte, 45, and her two children, Sara Rutledge, aged 13, and 14-year-old James Rutledge, died in the shooting on Wednesday morning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.

A man, who is a member of the same household, was seriously injured in the shooting in the village of Maguiresbridge, about 75 miles (120km) southwest of Belfast.

Police launched a murder investigation, and Detective Chief Inspector Neil McGuinness asked people with information about the shooting incident to contact police.

The scene in the Drummeer Road area of Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh, after two people died and two people been seriously injured in a shooting incident. Picture date: Wednesday July 23, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wire
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The scene in the Drummeer Road area of Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh, after three people died in a shooting. Pic: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wire

“I am particularly keen to hear from anyone who had spoken to Vanessa, Sara or James over the last few weeks. If you are someone that Vanessa, Sara or James may have confided in, please come and speak to us,” he said.

“Any information, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem could prove crucial to our investigation.”

Police don’t anticipate any arrests being made at this stage, Superintendent Robert McGowan, district commander for Fermanagh and Omagh, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Emergency services were called to the Drummeer Road area of Maguiresbridge at around 8am on Wednesday following a report raised from the property.

Two people were found dead at the scene, and two others were seriously injured.

One patient was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, by air ambulance and the other to South West Acute Hospital by ambulance. Supt McGowan said the third person died at the South West Acute Hospital.

Maguiresbridge
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Maguiresbridge

A local Gaelic football club said the victims were all “active and beloved” members of their club.

Sara and James Rutledge also used to be part of a local cricket club, which said in a statement that it was “extremely saddened by the tragic events”.

“Both of them turned out to be talented young cricketers and two absolutely lovely-natured children,” the statement read.

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Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn said: “The news from Maguiresbridge is tragic and deeply distressing.

“My thoughts are with the victims, their relatives and the local community in Fermanagh.”

The scene in the Drummeer Road area of Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh, after two people died and two people been seriously injured in a shooting incident. Picture date: Wednesday July 23, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wire
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The scene was cordoned off by police following the shooting on Wednesday morning. Pic: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wire

Sinn Fein MP Pat Cullen has expressed her deep shock over the shooting.

“I’m also thinking of all the wee school friends of those two wee children and what that must feel like for all of them and how the next few days and weeks will be for everyone, particularly just at the beginning of the school holidays,” she said.

DUP MLA Deborah Erskine, who represents Co Fermanagh in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said that the community was “stunned” by the shooting in “a rural, quiet area”.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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Welfare versus warfare: Sir Keir Starmer’s unresolved question – and why the PM’s pinned his hopes on economic growth

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Welfare versus warfare: Sir Keir Starmer's unresolved question  - and why the PM's pinned his hopes on economic growth

Welfare versus warfare: for decades, it’s a question to which successive prime ministers have responded with one answer.

After the end of the Cold War, leaders across the West banked the so-called “peace dividend” that came with the end of this conflict between Washington and Moscow.

Instead of funding their armies, they invested in the welfare state and public services instead.

But now the tussle over this question is something that the current prime minister is grappling with, and it is shaping up to be one of the biggest challenges for Sir Keir Starmer since he got the job last year.

As Clement Attlee became the Labour prime minister credited with creating the welfare state after the end of the Second World War, so it now falls on the shoulders of the current Labour leader to create the warfare state as Europe rearms.

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Be it Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, arguing last year that Europe had moved from the post-war era to the pre-war era; or European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen calling on the EU to urgently rearm Ukraine so it is a “steel porcupine” against Russian invaders; there is a consensus that the UK and Europe are on – to quote Sir Keir – a “war footing” and must spend more on defence.

To that end the prime minister has committed to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, raiding the overseas development aid budget to do so, and has also committed, alongside other NATO allies, to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2035.

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What is NATO’s 5% defence spending goal?

That is a huge leap in funding and a profound shift from what have been the priorities for government spending – the NHS, welfare and education – in recent decades.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Carl Emmerson said the increase, in today’s terms, would be like adding approximately £30bn to the 2027 target of spending around £75bn on core defence.

Sir Keir has been clear-eyed about the decision, arguing that the first duty of any prime minister is to keep his people safe.

But the pledge has raised the obvious questions about how those choices are funded, and whether other public services will face cuts at a time when the UK’s economic growth is sluggish and public finances are under pressure.

This, then, is one of his biggest challenges: can he make sure Britain looks after itself in a fragile world, while also sticking to his promises to deliver for the country?

It is on this that the prime minister has come unstuck over the summer, as he was forced to back down over proposed welfare cuts to the tune of £5bn at the end of this term, in the face of a huge backbench rebellion. Many of his MPs want warfare and welfare.

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“There’s been a real collision in recent weeks between those two policy worlds,” explains Jim Murphy, who served both as a welfare minister under Tony Blair and shadow defence secretary under Ed Miliband.

“In welfare, how do you provide for the people who genuinely need support and who, without the state’s support, couldn’t survive? What’s the interplay between that and the unconditional strategic need to invest more in defence?

“For the government, they either get economic growth or they have a series of eye-watering choices in which there can be no compromise with the defence of the state and everything else faces very serious financial pressures.”

He added: “No Labour politician comes into politics to cut welfare, schools or other budgets. But on the basis that defence is non-negotiable, everything else, unfortunately, may face those cuts.”

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‘There are lines I will not cross’

While the PM sees this clearly, ask around the cabinet table and ministers will admit that the tough choices society will need to take if they genuinely want to respond to the growing threat from Russia, compounded by the unpredictability of Donald Trump, is yet to fully sink in.

There are generations of British citizens that have only ever lived in peace, that do not, like I do, remember the Cold War or The Troubles.

There are also millions of Britons struggling with the cost of living and and public satisfaction with key public services is at historic lows. That is why Labour campaigned in the election on the promise of change, to raise living standards and cut NHS waiting lists.

Ask the public, and 49% of people recognise defence spending needs to increase. But 53% don’t want it to come from other areas of public spending, while 55% are opposed to paying more tax to fund that defence increase.

There is also significant political resistance from the Labour Party.

Sir Keir’s attempts to make savings in the welfare budget have been roundly rejected by his MPs. Instead, his backbenchers are talking about more tax rises to fund public services, or even a broader rethink of Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules.

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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma

Anneliese Dodds, who quit as development minister over cuts to the overseas aid budget, wrote in her resignation letter that she had “expected [cabinet] would collectively discuss our fiscal rules and approach to taxation, as other nations are doing”, as part of a wider discussion about the changing threats.

In an interview for our Electoral Dysfunction podcast, which will be released later this summer, she expanded on this idea.

She said: “I think it’s really important to take a step back and think about what’s going to be necessary, looking 10, 20 years ahead. It looks like the world is not going to become safer, unfortunately, during that period. It’s really important that we increase defence spending.

“I think that does mean we’ve got to really carefully consider those issues about our fiscal rules and about taxation. That isn’t easy… nonetheless, I think we will have to face up to some really big issues.

“Now is the time when we need to look at what other countries are doing. We need to consider whether we have the right system in place.”

Minister for Women and Equalities Anneliese Dodds arrives for a Cabinet meeting in central London. Picture date: Friday February 7, 2025. PA Photo. See PA story POLITICS Cabinet. Photo credit should read: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire
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Anneliese Dodds quit the government over cuts to the overseas aid budget. Pic: PA

For the Labour MP, that means potentially reassessing the fiscal rules and how the fiscal watchdog assesses government spending to perhaps give the government more leeway. She also believes that the government should look again at tax rises.

She added: “We do, I believe, need to think about taxation.

“Now again, there’s no magic wand. There will be implications from any change that would be made. As I said before, we are quite highly taxing working people now, but I think there are ways in which we can look at taxation, not without implications.

“But in a world of difficult trade-offs, we’ve got to take the least worst trade-off for the long term. And that’s what I think is gonna be really important.”

Those trade-offs are going to be discussed more and more into the autumn, ahead of what is looking like an extremely difficult budget for the PM and Ms Reeves.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the launch of the 10-year health plan in east London. Pic: PA
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are facing difficult choices. Pic: PA

Not only is the chancellor now dealing with a £5bn shortfall in her accounts from the welfare reform reversal, but she is also dealing with higher-than-expected borrowing costs, fuelled by surging debt costs.

Plus, government borrowing was £3.5bn more than forecast last month, with June’s borrowing coming in at £20.7bn – the second-highest figure since records began in 1993.

Some economists are now predicting that the chancellor will have to raise taxes or cut spending by around £20bn in the budget to fill the growing black hole.

Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt
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Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt says Labour’s U-turn on cuts to welfare risk trapping Britain in a ‘doom loop’

Jeremy Hunt, former Conservative chancellor and now backbencher, tells me he was “massively disappointed” that Labour blinked on welfare reform.

He said: “First of all, it’s terrible for people who are currently trapped on welfare, but secondly, because the risk is that the consequence of that, is that we get trapped in a doom loop of very higher taxes and lower growth.”

‘This group of politicians have everything harder ‘

Mr Murphy says he has sympathy for the predicament of this Labour government and the task they face.

He explained: “We were fortunate [back in the early 2000s] in that the economy was still relatively okay, and we were able to reform welfare and do really difficult reforms. This is another world.

“This group of politicians have everything harder than we had. They’ve got an economy that has been contracting, public services post-COVID in trouble, a restless public, a digital media, an American president who is at best unreliable, a Russian president.

“Back then [in the 2000s] it was inconceivable that we would fight a war with Russia. On every measure, this group of politicians have everything harder than we ever had.”

Over the summer and into the autumn, the drumbeat of tax rises will only get louder, particularly amongst a parliamentary party seemingly unwilling to back spending cuts.

But that just delays a problem unresolved, which is how a government begins to spend billions more on defence whilst also trying to maintain a welfare state and rebuild public services.

This is why the government is pinning so much hope onto economic growth as it’s escape route out of its intractable problem. Because without real economic growth to help pay for public services, the government will have to make a choice – and warfare will win out.

What is still very unclear is how Sir Keir manages to take his party and the people with him.

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Jay Slater inquest resumes after final effort to trace witnesses – all you need to know

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Jay Slater inquest resumes after final effort to trace witnesses - all you need to know

An inquest into the death of teenager Jay Slater is due to resume today after being adjourned two months ago.

The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared on the Spanish island of Tenerife after attending the NRG music festival on 16 June 2024.

He was reported missing and, after an extensive search and rescue mission and significant media attention, his body was found a month later on 15 July.

An inquest into the teenager’s death began in May at Preston Coroner’s Court, but was adjourned the same day, to the disappointment of Mr Slater’s mother Debbie Duncan.

Dr James Adeley, a senior coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, made the decision after a number of witnesses who had been asked to give evidence could not be traced or were unable to attend.

After making a final effort to trace key witnesses, the inquest will now resume on 23 and 24 July. Here is all you need to know.

What happened to Jay Slater?

On 17 June 2024, just days into his first holiday without his family, Mr Slater was reported missing.

The night before, he is believed to have left his friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas and made an hour-long drive to a modest Airbnb in the tiny village of Masca, with two people he had met on the holiday.

Phone data reveals Mr Slater’s last known location was the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous area popular with hikers.

The 19-year-old’s disappearance sparked a huge 29-day search effort – with emergency services, local volunteers and Mr Slater’s family combing a large mountainous area of the island searching for any trace of the teenager.

Within days, Facebook groups dedicated to the case had also been set up – with some quickly attracting hundreds of thousands of members.

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July 2024: Where was Jay Slater found?

The Spanish civil guard released a statement on 15 July to say they had “located the lifeless body of a young man in the Masca area after 29 days of constant search”.

What happened during the first inquest hearing?

Mr Slater’s mother Debbie Duncan, stepfather and other family members gathered at the inquest in Preston Coroner’s Court on 21 May.

Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said Mr Slater’s injuries were “entirely consistent” with a fall from a great height and gave an official cause of death as a head injury.

“The injuries were so severe I have no doubt he would have been instantly unconscious from the moment of that blow to the head. Death could well have been instant, the injury was so severe,” Dr Shepherd said.

Pic: Reuters
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The search and rescue mission was launched a day after Jay Slater was reported missing. Pic: Reuters

He said there was no suggestion that the teenager had been assaulted or restrained.

Toxicology expert Dr Stephanie Martin said traces of MDMA and MDA, commonly known as ecstasy, along with cocaine and alcohol, were also found in Mr Slater’s body.

Detective Chief Inspector Rachel Higson, from Lancashire Constabulary, told the court that messages from Mr Slater’s friends advising him to go home were found on his phone

Pic: Reuters
Guardia Civil agents and police officers organise the search for the young Briton Jay Slater in the Masca ravine, on the island of Tenerife, Spain, June 26, 2024. REUTERS/Borja Suarez
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Civil Guard agents and police officers in the Masca ravine. Pic: Reuters

Officers were flanked by specialist sniffer dogs from Madrid

DCI Higson said at 8.35am on 17 June, his friend Ms Law sent him a message saying: “Before it gets boiling get back to wherever you have come from.”

At 8.50am there was the last known outgoing communication from Mr Slater’s phone, a 22-second call from him to Ms Law in which he is believed to have said he had cut his leg on a cactus, he was lost in the mountains and his phone battery was on 1%.

A view of Preston Coroner's Court, Lancashire, at the opening of the inquest into the death of Nicola Bulley, who disappeared on January 27
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The inquest is taking place at Preston Coroner’s Court. Pic: PA

Who are the missing witnesses?

The witnesses that the court tried to trace the first time included Bradley Geoghegan, Brandon Hodgson and Lucy Law, who were all with Mr Slater in Tenerife.

At the time of the first inquest it is believed they were not in the UK and were unable to attend.

Read more from Sky News:
How search for missing teenager captured nation’s attention
Inside the valley where Jay Slater’s body was found

The two men who were staying at the Airbnb property Mr Slater travelled to before his disappearance – Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas – were unable to be traced, despite summonses being issued.

Mr Slater’s mother Ms Duncan told the court in May that she wanted “these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn’t come back, so there’s questions we need to ask”.

Coroner Dr Adeley said he would adjourn the inquest in an effort to find the witnesses and give Ms Duncan the “answers you want”, but it remains unknown if the key witnesses will appear at the inquest on Thursday and Friday.

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