Woking Lib Dem MP Will Forster to stand down from council roles
The newly elected MP for Woking in Surrey has stepped down from his roles as borough and county councillor to "stand up for the community in Parliament".Will Forster MP has resigned from his role as Woking Borough councillor for Hoe Valley and Surrey County Council member for Woking South, with two by-elections for the vacant seats taking place in July, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.The long travel times between his Woking constituency, Parliament and county hall in Reigate led him to conclude residents would be better served by new councillors.He said he was "incredibly proud" of his decade and a half in the council chambers but that the time had come to call it a day.
Mr Forster said: "It has been the honour and privilege to serve my community as a Surrey county councillor for the past 16 years and as a Woking borough councillor for the last 14 years."Now, as Woking's first and new Liberal Democrat MP, I am continuing standing up for our community – both locally and in Parliament."However, this means I must step down as a councillor."The by-elections will take place on 10 July.Whoever wins will only have a short time in the position as the two councils are expected to be merged into a new mega authority within two years as part of the government's devolution plans.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
11 minutes ago
- Sky News
Rachel Reeves is about to make huge spending decisions - these could be the winners and losers
A week today, Rachel Reeves presents the spending review; how the budget is divided between government departments between 2026 and 2029 - the bulk of this parliament. It's a foundational moment for this government - and a key to determining the success of this administration. So, what's going to happen? The chancellor did boost spending significantly in her first year, and this year there was a modest rise. However, the uplift to day-to-day spending in the years ahead is more modest - and pared back further in March's spring statement because of adverse financial conditions. Plus, where will the £113bn of capital - project - spending go? So, we've done a novel experiment. We've taken Treasury documents, ministerial statements and reports from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. We put them all into AI - into the deep research function of ChatGPT - and asked it to write the spending review, calculate the winners and losers and work out what goes where, and why. It comes with a health warning. We're using experimental technology that is sometimes wrong, and while ChatGPT can access up-to-date data from across the web, it's only trained on information up to October 2023. There are no answers because discussions are still going on. Think of it like a polling projection - clues about the big picture as things move underneath. But, critically, the story it tells tallies with the narrative I'm hearing from inside government too. The winners? Defence, health and transport, with Angela Rayner's housing department up as well. Everywhere else is down, compared with this year's spending settlement. The Home Office, justice, culture, and business - facing real terms squeezes from here on in. The aid budget from the Foreign Office, slashed - the Ministry of Defence the beneficiary. You heard about that this week. Health - a Labour priority. I heard from sources a settlement of around 3%. This AI model puts it just above. Transport - a surprise winner. Rachel Reeves thinks this is where her capital budget should go. Projects in the north to help hold voters who live there. But, could this spell trouble? Education - down overall. Now this government will protect the schools budget. It will say 'per pupil' funding is up. But adult education is at risk. Is this where they find the savings? So much else - Home Office down, but is that because asylum costs are going down. Energy - they're haggling over solar panels versus home insulation. Justice should get what it wants, I am told. This isn't about exact percentages. But you can see across lots of departments - things are tight. Even though Rachel Reeves has already set the budgets for last year and this, and only needs to decide spending allocations from 2026 onwards, the graphs the Treasury will produce next week compare what will be spent to the last set of Tory plans. This means their graphs will include the big spending increases they made last year - and flatter them more.
Finextra
42 minutes ago
- Finextra
BCP launches British pound stablecoin
BCP Technologies has launched the first British pound-backed stablecoin from an FCA-registered crypto issuer. 0 BCP's tokenised GBP (tGBP) is backed 1:1 by reserves held in a segregated account at a UK-regulated financial institution and is fully redeemable for sterling at any time. BCP says the stablecoin is now live after more than a year-long review process, including a month in the FCA's regulatory sandbox. As the stablecoin market heats up, the firm is hoping to take advantage of the fact that GBP options have so far been limited, typically issued by offshore entities with low liquidity. It says that tGBP uses the reliability of UK financial infrastructure for the minting and redeeming process and has the flexibility and speed of blockchain technology. Benoit Marzouk, CEO, BCP Technologies, says: "tGBP supports a broad range of use cases: GBP self-custody for retail and corporates to bring an alternative from banks (and their inherent fractional reserve risk), cross-border payments, institutional collateral management, a GBP option for DeFi lending protocols and a GBP on-chain access for bitcoin-backed loans. "It might also be used in the future as the main GBP rail for settling tokenised assets like bonds, securities, or real estate."
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Doctor warns of 'highly toxic' effect of popular natural remedy - after it puts toddler in a coma
Ingesting tea tree oil could result in life-threatening organ damage, seizures and even a coma, a GP has warned. According to Dr Sermed Mezher, a UK based doctor, swallowing tiny amounts of the essential oil can result in serious poisoning 'within a minute'. In an Instagram video that has so far been viewed over 2.1million times, Dr Mezher explained the risks in response to a video of a young boy who ended up in a coma after swallowing it. Dr Mezher said: 'Swallowing tea tree oil can be highly toxic due to its potent chemical composition, which includes terpinen-4-ol, cineole, and other volatile compounds.' Terpinen-4-ol is the most abundant compound in tea tree oil—extracted from the Melaleuca alternifolia tree—which posses antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties. However when ingested, the oil can rapidly affect the nervous system, leading to drowsiness, loss of coordination and seizures. In 2022 alone, the US poison control centre treated more than 2,200 cases of toxicity linked to tea tree oil. 'One of them was a 23-month-old boy who drank just 10mls which put him in a coma for five hours until he thankfully recovered,' Dr Mezher explained. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sermed Mezher (@drsermedmezher) He added that its supposed benefits for skin health may also be bogus. 'Tree oil has been sold as a miracle cure to multiple skin conditions, and yet there's very little evidence that it works,' he said. A 2023 study found that tea tree oil has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that helped treat teenage and adult acne—though researchers cautioned it was not possible to draw conclusions on its safety. The poison control centre treated twice as many cases of toxicity caused by tea tree oil compared to any other essential oil, including cinnamon, clove and eucalyptus oil. 'I don't know about you, but I am not keeping this at home,' Dr Mezher cautioned. As well as attacking the nervous system, ingesting the 'horrifically toxic' product can also irritate the gastrointestinal tract, causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. 'Tea tree oil is also harsh on the liver,' Dr Mezher added. 'The body struggles to metabolise its toxic components, potentially leading to organ damage with repeated or high-dose exposure.' 'Because tea tree oil absorbs quickly into the bloodstream, poisoning symptoms can appear within minutes to a few hours. 'If ingestion occurs, immediate medical attention is essential to prevent serious complications.' The NHS warns against trying to make someone who has swallowed something poisonous and is unconscious sick, and recommends instead putting them in the recovery position until an ambulance arrives. Tea tree oil, a common ingredient in many skincare products, has previously been linked to a number of superbug infections including MRSA—a type of bacteria that is resistant to treatment and causes life-threatening infection. US scientists discovered that repeated low-dose use of the essential oil made the MRSA bacteria, as well as and salmonella, more resistant to antibiotics. Professor David McDowell, from the University of Ulster, warned that people who use tea tree oil on their skin repeatedly to treat acne, could be 'stressing' the bacteria on the skin rather than killing it—increasing their resistance to antibiotics. 'Although tea tree oil may be an effective antimicrobial agent when appropriately used at high concentrations, its application at low concentrations may contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens,' he warned.
