The Times

Mark Cavendish’s hopes of claiming the outright record for Tour de France stage victories have been dealt a heavy blow after he was left out of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s team for this year’s race. Cavendish took a share of the record with Eddy Merckx on 34 stages wins last year with four victories in the three-week grand tour, but at the age of 37 the British rider’s omission this year may deny him the chance to pull clear of the Belgian. Cavendish had already been left out of Quick-Step’s prov

Andrea Leadsom has placed her experience in the City at the centre of her candidacy to become prime minister Ben Cawthra/London News Pictures Ltd Andrea Leadsom has no experience as an investment banker despite claims from her backers that she managed billions of pounds’ worth of funds, The Times can reveal. Mrs Leadsom, who has never held a cabinet role and has only been a minister since April 2014 and an MP since 2010, has placed her experience in the City at the centre of her candidacy to b

In lifting the Italian Open trophy on Sunday, Novak Djokovic registered his 1,001st Tour-level victory. In reaching four figures the previous day, with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Casper Ruud, he became only the fifth man to reach 1,000. Only the Serbian’s two great rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the American Jimmy Connors and the Czech-American Ivan Lendl are in that select group. A victim of his career coinciding with arguably the two other greatest players in the sport’s history, Djokov

Mark Cavendish continued his late-career renaissance by winning a Giro d’Italia stage for the first time in nine years. The 36-year-old sprint specialist pulled away to take the third stage in Balatonfured, Hungary, by a wheel ahead of the second-placed Frenchman, Arnaud Démare. The win continues a remarkable comeback for Cavendish, who won four stages of last year’s Tour de France, having not won a stage at any grand tour — the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France or Vuelta a España — since 2016. “

For nearly three decades, Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday shared a unique quirk of English knockout football. Never before or since had the same sides contested the League Cup and FA Cup finals in one campaign, as they did in 1992/93, until Liverpool and Chelsea repeated the feat this year. The duo are still in a bracket of their own. After Arsenal prevailed 2-1 in the 1993 League Cup final, the rematch ended 1-1. That meant an FA Cup final replay, the last of its kind, which the Gunners also e

The menopause is universal, but the shortage of HRT is a uniquely British problem.

(Mentions and cites the original Gaudie article by Anttoni on the same topic.) Alex Salmond has accused trans rights activists of launching a “sinister” attack on free speech after he was barred from entering university premises. The former first minister was set to address supporters of his Alba Party in the MacRobert Building at the University of Aberdeen on Friday. His booking was withdrawn at the last minute, however, prompting Salmond to make his speech beside a car park. Trans students had objected to his presence. They insist Salmond and his party are “transphobi

Teenager Henry Arundell’s sensational solo try was not enough for London Irish as they lost 19-18 to Toulon in their European Rugby Challenge Cup quarter-final at the Stade Félix Mayol. With his side trailing by six and seven minutes remaining, Arundell, 19, ran the length of the pitch and beat six Toulon players to cross, but Paddy Jackson’s unsuccessful conversion meant the French side held on. Though it was ultimately meaningless, the replacement full back’s score, which saw him receive the

Mark Cavendish continued his late-career renaissance by winning a Giro d’Italia stage for the first time in nine years. The 36-year-old sprint specialist pulled away to take the third stage in Balatonfured, Hungary, by a wheel ahead of the second-placed Frenchman, Arnaud Démare. The win continues a remarkable comeback for Cavendish, who won four stages of last year’s Tour de France, having not won a stage at any grand tour — the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France or Vuelta a España — since 2016. “

A teenager tipped to be one of the stars of athletics over the next decade has become the fourth fastest man ever over 200 metres. Erriyon Knighton, 18, ran 19.49sec in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Saturday — joining an elite band who have run under 19.50. Only Usain Bolt (19.19) and Yohan Blake (19.26) of Jamaica, and the American Michael Johnson (19.32), have ever gone faster. Knighton’s time was the quickest since Bolt and Blake ran 19.32 and 19.44 respectively in the London 2012 Olympic fina

Leinster wing James Lowe was undoubtedly player of the week with four tries, two assists, 68 metres made, seven carries and a 100 per cent tackle success against Connacht. He was the standout player in a typically impressive Leinster performance. His tries showcased versatile finishing ability, particularly his second score, where he caught the ball at full speed, stepped inside one Connacht tackler before making another three look foolish with a gorgeous dummy. Elsewhere, the 29-year-old’s su

NHS bosses have attacked the country’s leading private mental healthcare chain for failing to keep patients safe, The Times has learnt, as an investigation reveals the Priory Group has been criticised for failings in the care of 30 patients who have died.

It was meant to be a night of celebration, the match of a lifetime for many of those attending. Instead, thousands of ticketless fans, many fuelled by drugs and alcohol, were able to storm Wembley stadium, fighting with ticket holders and forcing young families to fear for their safety and leave their seats. The Football Association has publicly acknowledged a single breach of security where “a small number of people” got into the stadium but a Times investigation reveals just how widespread th

Drug companies have been handed record fines totalling more than £260 million for ripping off the NHS after colluding to pump up the price of a life-saving medicine, which rose from 70p to £88 per packet. Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK used a loophole in NHS pricing rules to increase the price of hydrocortisone tablets by up to 12,500 per cent and overcharge the health service for almost a decade. The drug, which treats adrenal insufficiency including life-threatening conditions like Addison’s

From failing to safeguard young people against sexual exploitation to allowing children access to drugs and knives, dozens of children’s homes opened during the pandemic have been found to be putting those in their care at risk. Ofsted suspended routine inspections in mid-March last year as the country went into lockdown and only began making regular in-person visits again nearly six months later. Reports published by the regulator reveal the catalogue of failings at homes opened in the first f

It was, Boris Johnson promised in the spring, the route out of lockdown and the best way of “getting our country back on its feet”. A nationwide system of testing and tracing to identify infections and stop the virus spreading; requiring a small minority to quarantine so that we could “release 66 million people” and allow Britain to return to something approaching normality, Mr Johnson said. Instead, six months later, the country is back in lockdown and NHS Test & Trace, set up at great expens

Landlords are making millions of pounds a year housing children and vulnerable adults in tiny bedsits squeezed into former office buildings. The developers have exploited a change in planning rules to convert offices into hundreds of flats without any minimum size requirements, prompting claims from experts that they are building “some of the worst homes in Britain” and the “slums of the future”. Flats costing £800 a month are as small as 14 square meters (150 sq ft), barely bigger than the si

Top businesswomen attending an annual gathering of global leaders in Davos face being “routinely harassed” by wealthy men, with predatory behaviour so common some were warned by organisers not to attend events alone. The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting draws leading politicians, business figures, charity heads, royalty and celebrities to the Swiss ski resort. It aims to tackle some of the biggest global problems, including gender inequality. However, an undercover investigation by The Ti

Millions of pounds in British aid money is funding hospitals in south Asia that have been criticised for overcharging or turning away coronavirus patients. A private Indian hospital that was formally censured by the local government for failing to offer beds to people with Covid-19, and another in Pakistan charging hundreds of pounds a day for rooms with ventilators, have been given British development funding. CDC Group, the government’s development finance division, has made investments wort

The former landlord of Matt Hancock’s local pub won government orders worth at least £30 million for supplying vials for coronavirus tests. Alex Bourne, 36, switched his food carton company Hinpack to supplying millions of plastic tubes filled with saline solution for use in the government’s testing laboratories. He is an acquaintance of the health secretary and admitted contacting him by Whatsapp with an offer to help to respond to the coronavirus pandemic but denied that this played any role

A company that previously raised the price of a bipolar drug stands to make millions from the NHS after it withdrew a cheaper alternative despite concerns that this could lead to manic episodes in patients. Essential Pharma, which was recently bought by a Swiss private equity firm, owns the rights to two brands of lithium carbonate tablets, a drug widely used to treat bipolar disorder and depression. The price of one version has risen 2,600 per cent from £3.22 to £87 a packet under Essential P

Ministers wasted at least £150 million buying masks with the wrong kind of straps from a little-known family investment company, The Times can reveal. Health officials signed a £252 million contract to buy masks for frontline healthcare staff from Ayanda Capital in April in a deal brokered by a government adviser who also advises the company’s board. The contract included 50 million high-strength “FFP2” medical masks costing an estimated £150 million to £180 million and amounting to the entire

Sir Philip Green’s retail empire is exploiting furlough rules to cut pay while taking tens of millions in government handouts, leaked documents show. An executive at Arcadia Group told staff that it needed to take “every penny we can get” of public money. The company owns several high-street fashion brands including Topshop and has accepted tens of millions of pounds to pay furloughed staff. The money is part of a government scheme designed to protect jobs and Arcadia has indicated to staff t

Pfizer, one of the world’s largest drug companies, pushed ahead with a deal under which the price of anti-epilepsy pills rose by more than 2,000 per cent despite staff concerns that it would be unethical and risk patient safety, internal emails reveal. The company struck a deal with the small British group called Flynn Pharma in 2012 that led to the price of phenytoin sodium capsules rising overnight from £2.83 to £67.50. The price increases have cost the NHS an extra £150 million over the past

Aspen Pharmacare began a continent-wide effort to drive up the price of five cancer medicines after buying the rights from the British company GlaxoSmithKline GETTY IMAGES Staff at one of the world’s leading drug companies discussed destroying supplies of life-saving cancer medicines in a battle to impose massive price rises across Europe, The Times can reveal. The proposal was raised at Aspen Pharmacare during a dispute with the Spanish health service in 2014 over attempts to increase the pri

HSBC has been embroiled in a criminal investigation into a £134 million suspected tax evasion scheme created by the bank, The Times can reveal. Three former employees at HSBC’s London office have been interviewed under caution for their role in devising a tax scheme that sought to help wealthy backers save millions of pounds in tax. HSBC earned fees of about £2 million for licensing the scheme, which involved the sale of film rights, to the finance company Zeus Partners in 2008. Ten defendants

The owner of the high street chemist Boots charged the NHS as much as £1,500 for single pots of moisturiser that others have sold for less than £2. Boots sent a £1,579 bill to the health service for one 500ml tub of a specially made cream for patients with skin problems in 2016, according to payment records seen by The Times. It had bought the medicine from BCM Specials — a supplier that was owned at the time by Boots’s parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance. The same quantity of the same mi

A billion-pound loans company is allowing customers to manipulate affordability checks and is “aggressively” pursuing court action against thousands who miss payments, an investigation by The Times reveals. Amigo Loans, which has just been listed on the London stock market and is worth £1.3 billion, is exploiting vulnerable borrowers, former staff claim. It offers loans of up to £10,000 at an annual interest rate of 49.9 per cent. Borrowers, who often have a poor credit history, are required to

Forged court orders have been used in an attempt to deceive Google into removing hundreds of links. A British businessman’s name appears to be among dozens of instances where the documents have been served on the search engine to try to force it to remove damaging information from search results. Last week two fake documents were sent to Google in an attempt to censor a Times article revealing concerns about an online pharmacy run by an alleged internet spammer. The documents, including an ord

A third of British billionaires have moved to tax havens after an exodus over the past decade, a Times investigation has found. They are among 6,800 Britons controlling 12,000 UK firms from low-tax jurisdictions. The Exchequer is denied billions a year but many of the bosses still reap the benefits of British assets. Some have bankrolled political parties while living offshore as successive governments have failed to enact a law passed in 2009 that would have banned large donations from anyone