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A woman who appeared as a younger version of one of the Spice Girls in one of the group's videos nearly 30 years ago, has told Sky News she is still hoping to get all five of them back together after a previous attempt failed.Sharna D'Rosario played Baby Spice and appeared in the video for the group's hit, Mama, aged just three years old, along with four other youngsters who played the group's other singers. Sharna made contact during the…

An ambulance worker has been jailed for 20 years after she tried to kill her boss with a hammer, before texting "oppsie xx!" to a friend, police said.Stacey Smith waited outside her manager's home before attempting to murder her in what Greater Manchester Police (GMP) described as an "unprovoked and frenzied hammer attack". The 46-year-old was said to be "filled with rage after a prolonged row over work shift patterns", the force added.Smith was said to have arrived at her…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will promise to "invest, invest, invest" in Labour's first budget for 15 years.Ms Reeves - who is set to stand up in the Commons just after 12.30pm on Wednesday - will also give a pledge that "working people won't face higher taxes in their payslips". However, she will clarify that Labour's manifesto promise to keep national insurance unchanged only applies to employee contributions - paving the way for an increase in tax for employers.Warning of 'biggest tax-raising…

'Everyone in cabinet' knew the Rwanda deportation bill would not work, according to Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick.Speaking to the Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, the former Home Office minister implied that every senior government minister in the last administration didn't think the plans to send asylum seekers to Kigali would work. Mr Jenrick resigned from Rishi Sunak's government at the end of 2023, saying he did not believe the plans went far enough.Politics latest: Countdown to budget nears finaleSpeaking…

The minimum wage for those aged 21 years and over will rise by 6.7% to £12.21 - with pay for those aged 18 to 20 set to go up by 16.3% to £10 an hour.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed the increases ahead of Wednesday's budget, and they will take effect from April 2025. The government says a full-time worker aged 21 and older will earn an extra £1,400 a year with the increase to what is known as the national…

Budgets are all about numbers.In the coming 24 hours, we'll be engulfed with all sorts of figures - about the state of the economy, about the size of the deficit, about the fiscal rules the new chancellor is planning to introduce in the coming months. But in fact most budgets, this one included, can really be boiled down to the difference between two big numbers.Politics live blog: Budget 2024 latest developments Total government spending and total government receipts.Right now the…

The teenager accused of stabbing three girls to death in Southport now faces two further charges.Axel Rudakubana, 18, from Lancashire, faces one charge of the "production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974".He also faces a terror charge of possession of information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000".This came after police said they found…

A teenager accused of murdering three young girls in Southport has now been charged with a terror offence and the production of the deadly poison ricin.The terror charge relates to 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana allegedly possessing a military study of an al Qaeda manual.Police have said the 29 July mass stabbing attack in Southport is not currently being treated as a "terrorist incident". Image: Axel Rudakubana when he was younger So why have they said this?Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy…

Andy Burnham has said single bus fares in Greater Manchester will continue to cost £2 for the whole of 2025 despite the maximum that can be charged across England rising to £3.The region's mayor said he was able to cap single fares at £2 because of steps he took to regulate the system and bring buses back into public ownership from last year. In a lengthy intervention, Mr Burnham said from 5 January, "we will proceed with our plan to…

Small businesses have called for the government to "significantly increase" the employment allowance to prevent them from having to shut down following the budget.Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to raise national insurance contributions paid by employers - despite promising not to increase the tax "for working people" - to help fill a £40bn black hole during the Labour government's budget on Wednesday. The government has also already announced the national living wage, the minimum someone aged 21 and over can…