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Senior Labour and Reform UK MPs tore into Sir James Cleverly after he quit the shadow Cabinet to run for Mayor of London.

Sir James' decision to seek to be the Conservative contender for City Hall effectively triggered the start of the mayoral race even though the election is in May 2028.

Announcing his move, he launched a series of attacks on Sir Sadiq Khan.

“Under Sadiq Khan’s Mayorship London’s reputation has been allowed to slip, at home and abroad, while too many of its problems have been left to fester," he said.

Angela Rayner is pressing ahead with a major reform to planning rules to make it easier for thousands more homes to be built near Tube and rail stations.

The Housing Secretary published an updated National Planning Policy Framework which includes default approval for new homes within “reasonable walking distance” of well-connected Underground, rail and tram stations.

Reasonable walking distance is defined as 800 metres or around ten minutes.

As culture shocks go, they were pretty seismic. When rising US soul sensation Jalen Ngonda first left his Maryland home to study music in Liverpool in 2014, he flew via Dublin, where he required a 24-hour stopover. “I’d never seen vast amounts of Irish people, going from, like, a black and Latino neighbourhood in Maryland to seeing just white people. That’s a shock but in a very inviting way,” the 32-year-old explains. “I just felt so enamoured. I was, like, ‘Oh man, I’m in a different part of the world. I’m out of America.’”

The decline of the British high street over the last few years has meant that many stores have been forced to shut certain branches, or go under completely. And it's sadly not showing any signs of slowing down, with several companies announcing closures over the past week or so.

A popular Marks and Spencer store has confirmed it will close for good next month. However, locals are not "letting it go without a fight" with a petition launched to save the supermarket.

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