Labour MP Wants Miliband To Bring Back Mandy

Ed Miliband has been urged to bring back Lord Mandelson as Labour's spin doctor as he faces renewed criticism from within his party.

Prominent backbencher Graham Stringer, a former whip, accused the top of the party of adopting an "almost deafening silence" over the summer.

And he joined other critics in expressing concern that Labour's policies on housing, welfare or education are still unclear.

The intervention comes after shadow health secretary Andy Burnham warned that Labour must "shout louder" and "put its cards on the table" or face defeat in 2015.

It also ignored a plea from a fellow backbencher to end public criticism of the leadership after a series of attacks in recent weeks.

Another comeback? Lord Mandelson

John Mann wrote on Twitter: "Time for iron discipline amongst Labour MPs. Stop whinging. Message to Ed: give them the boot."

Mr Miliband returns from a two-week holiday in France on Monday and will face calls to get his restive party under control after a difficult couple of months.

Mr Stringer told the BBC there was no challenge likely to his leadership but expressed concern at Labour's decision not to target the coalition over the summer.

"The real worry is the almost deafening silence there has been from the shadow cabinet in a time of the year which is traditionally a ripe time for the opposition to attack the government," he said.

"While the government are on their holidays and thinking about other things, the opposition has always used that as a way to put policies into the public's mind and to have a go at anywhere the government has failed.

"I think the party is genuinely worried about the lack of activity in the shadow cabinet."

He also condemned a "lack of coherence and cogency" on policy.

"It's not quite clear what our policies on welfare are, what our policies on housing are, what our policies on education are," he said.

The MP warned there are a "lot of different views and there is serious concern across the parliamentary party about what our policies should be".

'We must shout louder': Andy Burnham

Mr Miliband is thought to be planning a reshuffle before the party conference next month and Mr Stringer suggested Lord Mandelson should return to a key election strategy role.

"There's no doubt that when Peter Mandelson held that kind of position in the past the Labour Party was more cogent and coherent in getting its message across," he said.

"Whether a) he is willing or b) is the right person now, I don't know. But somebody of his abilities needs to be in that position."

Whip Jon Ashworth insisted that Labour was attacking the Government but agreed the party needed to work harder.

He said: "I entirely concede that over the next 20 months as we run up to that 2015 general election, it is now time for us to start coming out with further radical, bold, eye-catching policies."

The autumn conference would be used to set out the "direction of travel", he vowed.

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HIV Home-Testing Kits: Law Change Proposed

HIV Mother Case Study

Updated: 10:29pm UK, Monday 04 March 2013

Sky News talks to a mother with HIV in the wake of the apparent cure of an HIV-infected baby in Mississippi.

Following a routine sexual health check-up in January 2010, Amanda Mammadova discovered that she was HIV Positive.

She had no reason to believe that she had contracted the disease and merely thought it was time to get checked out.

When she was told she was positive, she was convinced she would never have children again. So when she fell pregnant she said that whilst she was overjoyed, she was also filled with fear.

"As a mother the last thing you ever want to do is pass HIV onto your child or cause your child any harm," she said.

But after doctors advised her how to minimise the risk to the baby, and told her that the chances of the child being positive were minimal, she felt more comfortable.

However, Ms Mammadova thinks the latest news from America could potentially have a huge impact on those diagnosed as HIV positive and their attitudes to having a family.

"It's going to make a huge difference to people, the fact that this baby has come back as negative, as potentially cured. It means that you can still have a family, that you can still have a happy life have children … it's a huge thing," she said.

Ms Mammadova and her husband, who is HIV negative, hope that results from the US case will not only change the outlook of those who are HIV positive, but also go some way to address the social stigma that she says surrounds the disease.

"I see so many people who think their life is over … they're young and they can't have children because of their HIV. So this story will go some way to show them they can have children and they can have whatever they want."

The couple now face an agonising wait until April, when their daughter Saabira will be tested to see whether she is HIV positive or not. 

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High Street Housing Plans Come Under Fire

Store Vacancies Hit New High Level

Updated: 11:50am UK, Monday 20 May 2013

A surge in shopping centre vacancies means almost one in every eight British stores is now empty, according to a new survey.

Empty shops now account for 11.9% of retail space, after failures including Comet and Jessops knocked holes in the shopping hubs and out-of-town retail parks.

The percentage of UK shop vacancies in April worsened from 10.9% in January and was the highest rate since the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Springboard survey began in 2011.

It said high streets have been "vastly outperforming" malls and retail parks, boosted by a 5% increase in evening drinkers, diners and clubbers.

The retail sector has been battered by a wave of failures this year, with entertainment retailer HMV and camera chain Jessops both entering administration in January.

Electricals retailer Comet slumped into administration in November.

BRC director general Helen Dickinson said: "It's a major concern that the vacancy rate has reached a record high, driven by increases in almost every part of the UK, with some regions like the South West seeing a significant leap in empty shop numbers."

But rising temperatures lifted April footfall 1% on a year earlier, a marked improvement on the 5.2% fall in March, as more shoppers ventured out compared with a rainy April 2012.

Ms Dickinson added: "The unsettled weather at the start of the month seems to have created pent-up demand, which brought many of us out to shop when more spring-like weather finally made an appearance."

High street footfall was up 3.4%, the strongest performance since December 2011, but shopping centre visitors fell 3%.

Greater London was the strongest-performing region with footfall rising 4.2% and just 7.4% of its shops vacant.

Footfall in Northern Ireland slumped 6.4% in April, while its shop vacancy rate hit 18.1%. In Wales, shoppers were down 2.1%, with a vacancy rate of 17.9%.

The South West saw footfall slide 1.3% and shop vacancies hit 14%.

The UK's surging vacancy rate follows recent downbeat sales figures from the BRC, which showed retail sales slumped at the fastest rate for a year in April as the timing of Easter and a freezing start to the month offset improvements in fashion and beauty.

Like-for-like sales fell 2.2% in April from a year earlier, with the early Easter hitting food sales in particular, it said.

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Wages: UK Workers In Europe's Bottom Four

Warning Over High Charity Wages

Updated: 10:36am UK, Tuesday 06 August 2013

Six figure salaries for staff at Britain's taxpayer-funded foreign aid charities risk bringing the industry into disrepute, the Charity Commission's chairman William Shawcross has warned.

Some 30 people working at the 14 leading UK charities that make up the 50-year old Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) are paid more than £100,000 a year, according to new figures. 

A Daily Telegraph investigation into charity industry salaries showed British Red Cross CEO Sir Nick Young earns £184,000 a year. 

James Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, earns £163,000, while the charity's chief operating officer Anabel Hoult earns £168,653.

Mr Shawcross told the Daily Telegraph: "It is not for the commission to tell charities how much they should pay their executives. That is a matter for their trustees.

"However, in these difficult times, when many charities are experiencing shortfalls, trustees should consider whether very high salaries are really appropriate, and fair to both the donors and the taxpayers who fund charities.

"Disproportionate salaries risk bringing organisations and the wider charitable world into disrepute."

Three years ago, 19 staff members at the DEC charities, which are mandated to raise funds quickly for crisis-struck parts of the world, earned more than £100,000.

DEC says it has run 62 appeals and raised more than £1.1bn since launching in 1963.

The charities involved with DEC include Action Aid, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of charity leaders organisation Acevo, said the intervention by Mr Shawcross was "deeply unhelpful".

The average salary for a charity chief executive was £58,000, he said and added: "The big national and international charities are very demanding jobs and we need to attract the best talent to those jobs and that's what we do."

Sir Stephen denied that the high salaries could put off donors.

He said: "This simply isn't an issue for donors. Donors are more concerned about the outcomes, the performance and the efficiency of these organisations.

"To keep talent, really strong people, at the top of these organisations they need to be paid properly. These are still not excessive salaries when you compare them to the public and private sectors."

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Mobiles: Phony Chargers Spark Safety Concerns

By Rhiannon Mills, Sky News Reporter

Mobile phone users are being warned about the serious risks of buying fake chargers as safety experts fear a growing number are ending up in UK homes.

The Electrical Safety Council (ESC) says the counterfeit chargers are now one of the main fake electrical products entering the UK and have given some people electric shocks or even started fires.

"There is possibly going to be an increase in the problem due to them agreeing to sell mobile phones without the chargers in the box and that's to comply with European mandate to reduce electrical waste," Steve Curtler, from the ESC, told Sky News.

"This is why we're working with the mobile phone operators and doing as much as we can to raise awareness of the situation to ensure that people aren't lured into purchasing substandard and counterfeited products."

A charger being tested at a lab

New mum Katie Vines, from Bristol, paid less then £5 for a phone charger online.

It was plugged in close to her baby's cot when it exploded. The seller sent her a replacement but the second charger was also faulty and blew up.

She told Sky News: "I plugged it into my socket in my bedroom, I went off to the bathroom, my boyfriend was changing the baby at the time and I heard a loud bang and went to see what it was and unfortunately the phone charger had exploded into the socket."

According to the ESC, more than four million counterfeit goods were seized in the UK last year - with mobile phone chargers now one of the top electrical fakes.

A cheap charger bought online for a few pounds

Figures from Intellectual Property show just under 10,000 phone accessories were taken in by Trading Standards but it's suspected there are many more being sold and used.

Some have damaged expensive gadgets, electrocuted people and even started fires.

Bristol Trading Standards has been dealing with a growing number of these cases over the past 12 months, but said that because many of the products come from abroad it isn't easy to stop the trade.

Spokeswoman Sarah Saunders said: "It is very frustrating for Trading Standards to see these on the market. It's worrying for us also. There is legislation that controls plugs and sockets and that's there for a reason.

"It's there to protect the UK consumers and those that are in the EU. When these products are bought from outside of the EU it makes it very difficult for the regulatory authorities to do much about it."

This week Apple announced plans to run a type of amnesty reducing the price of their chargers if shoppers hand in a fake.

It comes after a woman in China was electrocuted and died using her phone while it was plugged in to a counterfeit charger.

The ESC has produced a 'Safe Shopping' guide which gives advice on what to look for when buying third party electrical goods. They advise checking the voltage and the packaging of the item.

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Perseids Meteor Shower To Shimmer Over UK

This year's Perseids meteor shower promises up to 60 shooting stars an hour being visible in the skies over the UK.

The spectacle is expected to peak between late Monday evening and early Tuesday morning.

And the prospects for this year's showing are deemed to be particularly good, especially for stargazers in the UK, according to the Royal Astronomical Society.

The natural phenomenon - the result of the cosmic pollution created by the comet Swift-Tuttle which last passed near the Earth in 1992 - is expected to be visible to the unaided eye.

"Comet Swift-Tuttle won't be visiting our neck of the woods again until the year 2125, but every year we get this beautiful reminder as the Earth ploughs through the debris it leaves in its orbit" said Professor Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen's University Belfast.

The Perseids meteor shower in the Republic of Macedonia, August 2011

"Every meteor is a speck of comet dust vaporising as it enters our atmosphere at 36 miles per second. What a glorious way to go."

Meteors, commonly known as shooting stars, are the result of small particles entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed.

These heat the air around them, causing the characteristic streak of light seen from the ground.

They mostly appear as fleeting flashes lasting less than a second, but the brightest ones leave behind trails of vaporised gases and glowing air molecules that may take a few seconds to fade.

The Perseids meteor shower is active each year from around mid-July to late-August, but for most of that period only a few meteors an hour will be visible.

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RBS Sell-Off Unlikely Until 2018 - Cable

Business Secretary Vince Cable has signalled that the Government is unlikely to sell its stake in Royal Bank of Scotland for another five years.

Mr Cable claimed it was "pretty unrealistic" to expect the bailed-out bank to be back in private ownership before the current parliament ends in 2015.

And the senior Lib Dem went on to suggest that the Government would probably retain its 82% stake for most of the next parliament.

"I don't think it would be sensible for the Government to set a rigid timetable, but given where we start from I think it is pretty unrealistic to think of RBS going back into private ownership this Parliament or probably within five years," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

His comments conflict with remarks by David Cameron, who earlier this year said the holding should be sold "as soon as possible".

'Pretty unrealistic': Vince Cable

RBS chairman Sir Philip Hammond has also suggested the sale process could start as early as next year.

It indicates the two coalition parties will go into the next general election with different visions about how and when RBS will return to the private sector.

The Government spent £45bn on keeping RBS afloat in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis, buying shares at 502p each. After Friday trading, the price was 325.6p.

The prospect of a lengthy spell in private ownership will increase the pressure on the bank to be broken up.

Assets such as Ulster Bank and the RBS commercial property book, which is worth £63bn, could be hived off and recapitalised separately.

Investment bank Rothschild has been tasked with reviewing whether the 81% state-owned lender should be split into a "good" and "bad" bank.

Mr Cable said: "I think there is a very strong argument for saying that the bank got too big and indeed that was the source of its undoing.

"But we are having to balance the benefits of breaking up the bank (and) the potential benefits for competition (with) the significant costs, particularly in terms of disrupting IT systems.

"My colleagues in the Treasury are doing very detailed work on that cost-benefit calculation, because there is no simple yes or no answer."

Asked if RBS would be better as a UK-focused retail and corporate bank, he added: "The Chancellor and I have the same view about this. We are not nationalists and of course there is an argument for international banking.

"But we do need to have strong UK banks, particularly supporting our business community. At the moment that market does not function well."

If the Government does keep its stake in RBS for longer, it would be able to increase pressure on the bank to lend more.

Speculation about the company's future has intensified after it announced earlier this month that it had returned to profit.

The firm made a half-year pre-tax profit of £1.37bn, compared to a £1.68bn loss in the same period last year, and has now seen its first two quarters of consecutive growth since the crash.

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Murder Arrest As Man Dies In Stab Attack

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a stabbing in Bristol.

The 41-year-old was held after police were called to an address in Egerton Road, in the Bishopston area of the city, amid reports a 24-year-old had been attacked.

The victim was taken to hospital on Friday evening but later died.

A police spokeswoman said: "A 41-year-old man from the local area has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

"He is being held in police custody."

Forensics officers were still at the scene of the attack on Sunday morning.

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Labour Attacks Tesco Over Foreign Staff

Labour has ignited a row with supermarket giant Tesco by planning to attack the chain for employing foreign workers.

Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant is due to condemn Tesco and other leading companies for being "unscrupulous" and pursuing cheap labour from Eastern Europe.

In a speech on Monday, he is expected to claim Tesco moved its distribution centre to Kent where a "large percentage" of the staff are from the eastern bloc.

The firm has already hit back, denying having a distribution centre in the county and insisting it does not actively seek to recruit abroad.

A spokesman said: "It is wrong to accuse Tesco of this. We work incredibly hard to recruit from the local area and have just recruited 350 local people to work in our Dagenham site."

The company is also understood to be writing to Labour to complain about the "unfair" slight.

Controversial: Frontbencher Chris Bryant

Mr Bryant's speech appears to be the Opposition's latest attempt to wrestle back the initiative on immigration, which is a top concern for British voters.

The party is also battling to get on the front foot after a quiet summer which has seen their poll lead slip and Ed Miliband face internal criticism for failing to set the agenda.

Mr Bryant will admit immigration can have a negative effect on labour markets, according to extracts from the draft speech reported in The Sunday Telegraph.

"The biggest complaint I have heard, from migrants and settled communities alike, is about the negative effects migration can have on the UK labour market. And I agree," he is due to say.

"It is unfair that unscrupulous employers whose only interest seems to be finding labour as cheaply as possible will recruit workers in large numbers in low-wage countries in the EU, bring them to the UK, charge the costs of their travel and their substandard accommodation against their wages and still not even meet the national minimum wage.

"That is unfair. It exploits migrant workers and it makes it impossible for settled workers with mortgages and a family to support at British prices to compete."

He will claim Tesco had recently decided to move its distribution centre in Kent but slashed pay for existing staff, penalising Britons.

"The new centre is larger and employs more people, but the staff at the original site, most of them British, were told that they could only move to the new centre if they took a cut in pay," he will say.

"The result? A large percentage of the staff at the new centre are from [the] Eastern bloc."

As well as highlighting the recruitment of hundreds of local staff, Tesco made clear that the distribution centre is in the east London borough of Barking and Dagenham and was formerly in Essex, not Kent.

Next is also criticised for allegedly seeking out Polish staff

Mr Bryant's address is also set to target high street chain Next, who he accused of printing leaflets in Polish to attract workers from the country.

Extracts from his speech say: "Look at Next Plc, who last year brought 500 Polish workers to work in their South Elmsall warehouse for their summer sale and another 300 this summer.

"They were recruited in Poland and charged £50 to find them accommodation. The advantage to Next? They get to avoid Agency Workers Regulations, which apply after a candidate has been employed for over 12 weeks, so Polish temps end up considerably cheaper than the local workforce, which includes many former Next employees."

The MP's speech will make clear that neither firm has broken the law.

After the extracts emerged, Next admitted using Polish agency workers to help fill slots during the summer sale but vehemently denied it was done to cut costs.

A spokesman said: "We are deeply disappointed Mr Bryant did not bother to check his facts with the company before releasing his speech.

"In fact agency workers from Poland cost us exactly the same as local agency workers, and our existing employees.

"The only reason we seek the help of people from Poland is that we simply can't recruit enough local people to satisfy these spikes in demand for temporary work."

The firm also made clear the nationality of workers had no effect on their rights under Agency Workers Regulations.

"We very much hope that Mr Bryant, being apprised of the facts, will reconsider his claims when he comes to make his speech," it said.

Tesco, which is the third largest retailer in the world, has 3,146 stores in the UK and employs more than 300,000 staff here.

Next has more than 500 shops across the country, employing around 54,000 people.

Tory MP for Harlow Robert Halfon attacked Labour for allowing "uncontrolled immigration" during its time in office, but also joined the row against Tesco.

On Sky News, he accused the supermarket chain of behaving "disgracefully" towards staff when it closed its distribution centre in his constituency.

"They said they were building a new Dagenham plant and the Harlow plant in my own constituency would be alongside it," he said.

"The moment the plant was built it was suddenly announced the Harlow plant would close. They then said to the British Harlow workers yes, they could have jobs in Dagenham, but it would be at lower pay after transitional costs had been taken in.

"As a result the majority of them couldn't afford to work in Dagenham and had to take redundancy. Tesco in my view behaved quite disgracefully and quite ruthlessly."

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Missing Teen Erika Kacicova: Suspect Bailed

Detectives looking for a 13-year-old schoolgirl who vanished from her home have received a number of reports of possible sightings.

Police, who believe Erika Kacicova is with people she knows, made a direct appeal to the teenager on Sunday afternoon, calling on her to return to her "distraught" family.

She was last seen leaving her home in the Darnall area of Sheffield at around 4pm on Monday, August 4.

Police have been conducting house-to-house inquiries there, and have expanded their search to Bradford.

A 22-year-old man from Bradford was released on police bail earlier after being arrested on suspicion of child abduction.

He approached police on Friday, the day officers made an urgent appeal for information about Erika's whereabouts.

Detective Inspector Helen Tate said: "Please remember she is a young girl who has never been away from home for this long before and we want her to return safe and well."

Erika's home in Poole Road, Darnall, in Sheffield

She added: "Erika, if you are reading this, please let us know you are okay. You're not in any trouble."

She said members of the public had come forward with information and reports of sightings but that "time was of the essence" as they search for the teenager.

Her disappearance was described as "out of character".

Erika is described as being slim and around 4ft 11ins tall. She has long, dark-brown, straight hair and brown eyes.

She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a pink polo-style shirt and a silvery-grey coloured jacket.

:: Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101.

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