A former Foreign Office diplomat has spoken about his encounters with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who served as a trade envoy for the government, revealing staff were left treading on eggshells

Advertisement

A former Foreign Office diplomat has talked about the five occasions he met Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – revealing one “uncomfortable” detail that stood out immediately.

The disgraced former prince served as a trade envoy for the government between 2001 and 2011. It was in this capacity that he crossed paths with Simon Wilson, who held the position of deputy ambassador to Bahrain from 2001 to 2005.

Reflecting on his dealings with the late Queen’s son, Simon remarked: “I have to say I was a little bit surprised about how sort of cocky he was.”

He suggested there was initial optimism when Andrew first accepted the unpaid role as a trade envoy, with those within the Foreign Office believing it would help unlock opportunities with royal families across the Gulf.

However, according to Simon, matters “started to go wrong from the word go”. He told 60 Minutes Australia: “We started to get reams of instructions about his likes and dislikes in terms of food, that he didn’t drink, alcohol, tea or coffee, but would drink still water, room temperature, no ice,” reports the Mirror.

“One thing that was noticeable, which I didn’t encounter with any other visit of a Royal Family, they always went very smoothly anyway, was that his staff seemed to be petrified of him.”

He noted this was unusual because typically, when he’d worked with private secretaries of other senior royals, they appeared visibly “very proud” to be serving them.

Simon revealed those individuals enjoyed their overseas jaunts, but regarding Andrew’s staff, he added: “You really got the impression that they were really uncomfortable all the time, treading on eggshells, didn’t want to put a food wrong and of course that transferred in the wider picture to us, the embassy who were organising things, we were treading on eggshells.”

Simon pointed out that while the position wasn’t salaried, the reality was Andrew travelled with a substantial entourage who required payment.

He further alleged the former prince refused to fly commercially, even in first class, and that he demanded private aircraft instead.

The ex-diplomat also claimed Andrew turned down stays at ambassadorial residences, which came at no cost, opting instead for the island’s most luxurious hotels.

He said he was “surprised” Andrew remained in his position for a decade given that “so much went wrong”.

Simon was involved in arranging three visits for Andrew, and he recently told the i Paper he was “rude and arrogant” before disclosing his unflattering nickname. He said: “The term ‘His Buffoon Highness’ was used among diplomats.”

British police are seeking to extradite a German man to stand trial in the UK in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The man, identified by local media as Christian Brueckner, was released in September 2025 after serving a seven-year sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005.

However, Met Police said at the time that the 49-year-old remains a suspect in the Madeleine case – with Portuguese and German authorities also probing the three-year-old girl’s disappearance.

Scotland Yard are now hoping to bring him to the UK to stand trial relating to the suspected abduction and murder of the young girl, according to the Telegraph.

Brueckner has consistently denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

The mystery of what happens to the young girl remains unsolved. Her body has never been found.

Here is a reminder of the events of the case.

Madeleine disappears from her bed on 3 May, 2007

The story began when the McCanns – doctors Kate and Gerry, their three-year-old daughter Madeleine and her two-year-old twin siblings Amelia and Sean – joined a group of seven family friends and their five children on holiday at the Ocean Club in the village of Praia da Luz on the southwestern tip of Portugal on 28 April 2007.

After a pleasant spring break by the sea, the adults in the party went out for dinner at the resort’s open-air tapas bar on 3 May, gathering at 8.30pm. The children were left behind sleeping in their respective apartments with the doors unlocked and a rota system in place among the parents to ensure that someone returned every half-hour to check on them.

When Kate McCann took her turn and returned to her apartment at 10pm, she raced back to the restaurant screaming “Madeleine’s gone! Someone’s taken her!” The police were quickly called and 60 staff and fellow guests searched the complex, calling out the girl’s name in vain until daybreak the following morning.

Border police and airport staff were put on alert and hundreds of volunteers joined the efforts to find the missing girl over the coming days, the case fast becoming a sensation.

The Portuguese authorities would later attract criticism over their conduct in the crucial earliest hours of the investigation when the trail might still have been warm, accused of making rudimentary mistakes like failing to conduct a house-by-house search of every local residence or interview all of the other guests at the resort, acting slowly to erect roadblocks and potentially compromising forensic evidence at the crime scene.

The police initially stated that they believed Madeleine was still alive and had been abducted from the room by a stranger as the parents described their “anguish and despair” over her vanishing, a worst fear realised for any parent.

The search continued as the summer progressed amid a wild media circus and with huge fundraising activities underway, the McCanns setting up Madeleine’s Fund on 15 May to raise cash to support further investigation and keep the profile of the case high, attracting generous donations from celebrities like Richard Branson, Simon Cowell, JK Rowling and Coleen Rooney.

A local man, Robert Murat, subsequently became its first suspect and had his house and car searched, his swimming pool drained and his electronic devices confiscated but no evidence was found to link him to Madeleine and the matter was soon dropped.

By June, the Portuguese police admitted that they had failed to protect potentially useful evidence at the scene as frustration with the lack of developments grew and the media began to question whether the McCanns themselves had been involved in the matter.

In July, British police sent over two springer spaniel sniffer dogs to search for DNA.

Spotlight turns to Madeleine’s parents in September 2007

Relations with the local authorities would ultimately sour as the latter came to resent British intrusion into a Portuguese inquiry, according to Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan’s book Looking for Madeleine (2014).

By August 2007, Madeleine had been missing for 100 days and police admitted for the first time that she may never be found. They also told the McCanns that they were no longer considering the matter an abduction case but, rather, a murder inquiry.

The McCanns themselves were interviewed as “arguidos” (suspects) by Portuguese police in September 2007, with the parents told that the dogs had discovered DNA evidence from the missing girl in the boot of their holiday rental car, lines of inquiry that had already been leaked to the British press. They vehemently denied having any part in her disappearance.

Despite being listed as suspects (a designation that would linger until the following July), the McCanns were allowed to return to Britain on 9 September.

A day later, chief inspector Tavares de Almeida of the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao signed a nine-page report claiming that Madeleine had died in the apartment along with a series of other unproven allegations.

On 2 October, chief inspector Goncalo Amaral was removed from the case and transferred after alleging that the British police were only interested in pursuing leads favourable to the McCanns.

He would later publish a book, Maddie: The Truth of the Lie, the following summer, resulting in a lengthy libel battle with the McCanns that would run back and forth through the courts until March 2017. Their claim against Mr Amaral was unsuccessful.

Back in Britain, Gerry McCann issued a video that November in which he speculated that his family had been watched by a “predator” during their stay at Praia da Luz. His wife had come to believe that a potential perpetrator could have seen a note in the resort’s guest book visible to all in reception noting their dining arrangements on the evening of Madeleine’s disappearance.

The couple followed up on 20 January 2008 by releasing a sketch of a “creepy man” they said other holidaymakers had said they had seen loitering at the Ocean Club.

In April, a month before the one-year anniversary of the fateful night, Portuguese police travelled to Leicestershire to conduct further interviews with the McCanns’ friends.

McCanns are cleared in July 2008, Scotland Yard picks up the case

Then, on 21 July 2008, Portugal’s attorney general, Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, announced that there was no evidence to link either the McCanns or Robert Murat to the disappearance and closed the case, unsolved.

With the trail cold and no closure in sight, the McCanns continued to publicise their cause, issuing computer-generated images of how Madeleine might look now that she had aged on 3 November 2009 and condemning the release of previously unseen Portuguese police files – detailing possible sightings of their daughter – to British newspapers in March 2010.

The McCanns published a book of their own about their ordeal in May 2011, entitled simply Madeleine, which was serialised in The Sun as the newspaper led a campaign calling on then British prime minister David Cameron to launch a new inquiry. He did so.

Commenced by then-home secretary Theresa May, the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Grange would be led by commander Simon Foy and comprise a team of three detective inspectors, five detective sergeants, 19 detective constables and six civilian staff.

It began to yield results in 2013, with Scotland Yard formally announcing a new investigation in July and saying in October it had identified 41 potential suspects. That same month, BBC Crimewatch released an e-fit image of a man of particular interest who had been seen in Praia da Luz with a child matching Madeleine’s description in May 2007.

Detectives arrived in Portugal in January 2014 promising new arrests and finally searched the village in June, interviewing four people the following month but without unearthing new information. The quartet would be definitively ruled out in April 2017, before the UK government said it would continue to fund the investigation until 2020, having already admitted it had cost £10m in its first four years of operation.

That investment had enabled detectives to have tens of thousands of documents translated, investigate over 8,000 potential sightings, take 1,338 statements, collect 1,027 exhibits and investigate 650 sex offenders and 60 persons of interest, all without definitively establishing the truth.

New suspect shoots case back into the spotlight in June 2020

The Madeleine McCann case lay dormant before suddenly exploding into life in June 2020 when German media revealed that Brueckner, a 43-year-old prisoner with a track record of child abuse and drug trafficking, had been identified as a new suspect by the public prosecutor of the German city of Braunschweig.

He had reportedly been living in a Volkswagen camper van in the Algarve at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance and one woman has since come forward to suggest she saw a girl that might have been Madeleine speaking German in a supermarket in Portugal in 2017.

German investigators classified their probe into his movements as a murder inquiry, saying they were working on the assumption that Madeleine is dead and reporting in July 2021 that they had found an abandoned cellar beneath his former allotment near Hanover where she could, theoretically, have been held captive.

Hans Christian Wolters, the prosecutor leading the investigation into Brueckner, has said he was “very confident” the inmate is responsible for kidnapping her.

“If you knew the evidence we had you would come to the same conclusion as I do but I can’t give you details because we don’t want the accused to know what we have on him – these are tactical considerations,” he told the BBC.

Portuguese police formally made Brueckner a suspect in relation to the case on 21 April 2022.

Following their unsuccessful libel claim against Mr Amaral, the former chief inspector who had investigated the disappearance, the McCanns applied to the European Court of Human Rights on the ground that the Portuguese legal system had breached their right to be presumed innocent. But on 19 September 2022, the Court rejected their claim.

In February 2023, a Polish woman called Julia Faustyna made headlines by claiming she was Madeleine, using the Instagram name @iammadeleinemccann. Ms Faustyna, 21, did not provide any supporting evidence but sought DNA tests to prove her origins. The results ultimately revealed that she was entirely of Polish origin, with no British heritage, disproving her claims.

In April 2023, a court in Braunschweig dropped a rape charge against Brueckner, unrelated to the McCann case, concluding it did not have jurisdiction, while police in Germany continued to claim they had“concrete evidence” that Madeleine is dead.

McCanns mark 16 years since Madeleine’s disappearance in May 2023

On 2 May 2023, Madeleine’s parents posted a statement on the Find Madeleine website marking the latest anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance, reiterating their hopes of being reunited with her one day.

“The police investigation continues, and we await a breakthrough. Thank you to everyone for your support – it really helps.”

Portuguese police also reportedly apologised to the parents offor the way detectives investigated the case and treated the family.

Later that month, the case unexpectedly lurched back into life in when investigators launched a major search operation at a reservoir in the Algarve, with Mr Wolters saying they were acting on “certain tips” from Brueckner, whom the prosecutor said he remains “very confident” holds the key to Madeleine’s disappearance.

With help from Portuguese police and with Scotland Yard detectives watching on, German investigators carried out a thorough examination of the Barragem do Arade beauty spot in Silves.

They combed the shoreline and surrounding grasslands with sniffer dogs, rakes, spades and pickaxes and inspected the water in a rigid-hull inflatable boat. A no-fly zone was put in place in the skies overhead to allow police drones to survey the region undisturbed.

The site is located approximately 30 miles northeast of the Ocean Club resort, from which the missing girl first disappeared.

Brueckner cleared of further charges in October 2024

Brueckner was acquitted of rape and sexual abuse charges against separate children in Portugal between 2000 and 2017 following an eight-month trial.

Brueckner had been serving a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of a woman in Portugal’s Algarve region, in the area where Madeleine went missing.

In January 2025, Braunschweig Chief Public Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters admitted there was no current prospect of charging Brueckner over Madeleine’s disappearance, as police were still trying to secure forensic evidence linking Bruekner to the case.

Then in March, Wolters confirmed to The Independent that Brueckner had filed a motion for early release.

German police launch new search in June 2025

German police were in June been granted permission to undertake a widespread search of key areas in Portugal in a hunt for evidence, including Madeleine’s body.

The search, running from 2 June to 6 June, focused on an area around the spot where Brueckner had been living at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Brueckner released from prison in September 2025

The main suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance left the high-security prison in Sehnde near Hanover on 17 September.

According to German media, he will have to wear an electronic tag, report to probation staff and give up his passport.

He will be required to take up a fixed residence and cannot move home without permission, although his lawyers are expected to appeal against the conditions.

Prosecutors believe he is still dangerous, following a recent psychiatric report that concluded he is likely to commit further crimes after he failed to undergo any therapy while in custody, according to reports.

After his release, he was placed under close monitoring including being tagged and subject to travel restrictions. He lashed out at camera crew when he was tracked down by ITV to a forest in northern Germany in September 2025. He was reportedly moved from his woodland tent to a new town in February 2026 after anger from local residents, according to the broadcaster.

Scotland Yard ‘seeks extradition’

A senior Scotland Yard official is now seeking to bring Brueckner to Britain to stand trial for Madeleine’s disappearance, according to The Telegraph.

“Next year marks 20 years since Madeleine McCann went missing. If the evidence is strong enough to extradite the prime suspect and try him here, that is what we would seek to do,” a source at the force told the publication.

“Clearly, there are numerous hurdles but our priority at the moment is to amass the strongest evidence we can against that prime suspect.”

According to the publication the Met Police believes it can gather strong enough evidence to enable the Crown Prosecution Service to press charges.

Coronation Street have revealed the line up of official suspects in the ‘whodunnit’ that saw Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) bashed over the head before being thrown off some scaffolding in the climax of ‘murder week’.

Danielle Silverton (Natalie Anderson) the deeply scorned ex-wife, George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley) the father figure of Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) who Theo had been viciously abusing for close to a year and his girlfriend, Christina Boyd (Amy Robbins), Gary Windass (Mikey North), Theo’s former best friend and resident bully-buster, Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby), the adoptive daughter of Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) who Theo killed, and, of course, Todd himself, make up the suspect list.

While it is completely plausible and, more than likely, possible, that one of the above bumped monstrous Theo off, there is a chance that the killer is somebody else entirely. Cast your minds back to EastEnders’ mammoth ‘whodunnit’ event, ‘who killed Lucy?’, in which it was revealed that her little brother, Bobby Beale (Eliot Carrington), had done the deed, without ever having been announced as a possible culprit.

In the vein of ‘keeping it in the family’, a few Coronation Street fans have surmised that Theo’s killer isn’t a part of the official line up and that the reappearance of an infrequent character last week is a confirmation of guilt: Theo’s son, Miles (Lewis William Magee).

Who is Miles Silverton?

Miles has been pretty estranged from his dad since their family collapsed, with Theo leaving his wife and Miles’ mum, Danielle, to set up home with Todd.

Though Theo possessed very few positive traits, one was his dedication to his children.

In the aftermath of Theo choosing to be with Todd, Miles was understandable hurt, confused, and completely blind sided, having had no idea about his dad’s sexuality, with Theo having undergone sick ‘conversion therapy’ previously to ‘cure’ him of his homosexuality leading to him repressing it.

Things erupted violently at a family dinner, with Miles landing a punch on Todd. Stepping into the melee, Theo accidentally ended up hitting Miles himself, and things got even worse between father and son.

Billy later discovered Miles handing out leaflets promoting the conversion therapy alongside Noah Hedley (Richard Winsor), the man who’d practiced said therapy on Theo, and had recently gotten into a relationship with Danielle.

Billy tried his hardest to get through to Miles, who’d begun being poisoned by Noah’s anti-gay ramblings and when Billy wound up on the floor as a result of Miles and Noah’s response, he reported Miles to the police, resulting in him being interviewed and let off with a caution.

Could Miles have killed Theo?

Don’t miss a Soaps scoop! Add us as a Preferred Source

As a loyal Metro Soaps reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for stories. We have all the latest soaps news, spoilers, videos, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.

Click the button below and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.

Add us as a Preferred Source

Advertisement

In Miles’ recent reappearance, Theo tried, above anything else, to mend things between he and his son, but new enemy Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) put an end to that, insinuated that he’d slept with Theo the previous night in the back of his van in front of him.

This somewhat random reappearance of Miles has got the cogs whirring in fans minds. Could it have been more than just a brief return? Could yet another clash with his dad have finally driven him to extreme measures?

Ange certainly thinks so, and she’s not the only one!

There’s some very interesting points made. Despite Theo being truly evil, a murder won’t go unpunished by the soap Gods. Would Coronation Street really be willing to part with any of the main suspect line up?

Are Miles, or even Danielle, more expendable to the show? Absolutely.

Still, the exact circumstances of the death are still unknown. Could the final blow have been delivered in self defence, making Theo’s death an accident rather than cold-blooded murder?

Either way, we’re in for one hell of a ride as we try and out-sleuth the Weatherfield coppers!

MORE: Coronation Street’s Lisa is on the Theo case – but is torn between two suspects

MORE: Coronation Street confirms six characters who could have killed Theo as murder hunt begins

MORE: Coronation Street star confirms Todd’s future after Theo’s death

“I’m just a daft lad who wants to come to the North West and ride a motorbike and take in the atmosphere,” says British Superbike star, Storm Stacey as he prepares to make his debut on the Briggs Equipment North West 200’s 8.9 mile Triangle course this week.

The announcement that the 23 year old is to race a V4RR Superbike-spec Ducati at Portrush for Michael Rutter’s Bathams AJN Racing team has been met with great excitement by road racing fans.

“I think there is maybe a gap in the market at the North West for Storm Stacey,” he smiles. The rising star had his first taste of the event as a spectator 12 months ago.

“I like the Irish fanbase and I love how passionate they are for motorbike racing,” Stacey smiles. “You can see they really believe in it and I want to be part of that, in amongst it.”

Does he have any particular goal or expectation from his North West debut?

“Everyone has hidden expectations in their head and if I’m feeling comfortable and I’m up for it who knows but I also think it is perfectly OK to say that I am nervous as well. It is quite a big thing to take on, isn’t it? So, we will see how we get on.”

Stacey paid a recent fact finding visit to the north coast where the young racer was given a guided tour by former British Superbike (BSB) champion and NW200 veteran, Josh Brookes, in the company of fellow 2026 newcomer, Franco Bourne.

“We had a good look around with Josh but the biggest struggle for me was seeing the roads as a race circuit, imagining riding a motorbike around it,” Stacey reflected.

“I kept thinking we were driving to the supermarket! It was nice of Josh to show us around and I trust what he says. He said we would all be on different bikes.

“It is up to us to understand what we feel and he showed us what to look out for – the bumps, the manholes, grip levels and stuff like that. It is just going to be about finding that feel myself. The road surface looks amazing and I can’t wait to get out there.”

Stacey will be in full race mode as he arrives at Portrush direct from the opening BSB round of the 2026 season at Oulton Park. He intends to retain at least some of that approach for the North West.

“I am really looking forward to coming into the chicanes,” he smiled. “Big heavy braking, backing it in sideways and seeing how quickly I can get through them without messing up! Coming past the church and under the railway bridge looks amazing too.”

“There’s not really one part of the course that you can pin down and say I can’t wait for that bit. I can’t wait for all of it! I’m glad I’ve come today, it has been a worthwhile visit. Sitting at home you just think I’ll go there and just get on with it but I’ve a few different things to think about now with the bike that are different to BSB.”

Slated to ride only the fearsome Ducati on his North West debut, the young BSB star admitted to some nervousness alongside his excitement to get going.

“Everyone says that after five laps you’ll know where you are going and that looks pretty true but seeing it this morning brought me back down to earth,” Stacey said.

“It’s getting close and it will be a baptism of fire on a Superbike. It’s going to be a fast first practice session round there on a Superbike. It might have been good to have had a Supersport bike for the first few laps but that’s the way it goes.”

Balancing his nervousness, the young star talked up the reassurance that comes from having the vastly experienced Michael Rutter in his corner at Portrush this year.

The 14 times North West winner has competed in 100 races around the famous Triangle circuit, and Stacey says he will rely upon his mentor’s steadying influence

“Michael is a big influence and I sponge up his knowledge. He knows the place inside out and I knew that if I was going to do the North West, now is the time because I know he has my best interests at heart.

“I want to go home having achieved my first appearance at the North West with a nice safe ride, no crashes and not having given my Mum too much of a heart attack!”

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the latest sports news, headlines and top stories

The EU’s Entry Exit System has resulted in long waits at passport control across Europe

Politicians in the Canary Islands have called for the Spanish government to suspend the Entry/Exit System (EES) at airports across the archipelago. It’s the latest destination to speak out against the European Union’s new border checks.

It comes as non-EU travellers have faced long queues at passport control as a result of the EU’s new entry restrictions which came into force on April 10. Under the EES, third-country nationals – which includes Brits – must provide biometric data which includes fingerprints and a photograph which creates a digital record that is valid for three years.

The system is designed to replace passport stamping and will monitor visa-free travellers to ensure that they do not stay any longer than 90 days within any 180-day travel period. Initially rolled out gradually in October last year, it was fully launched in April, but the system has been plagued with issues.

Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter

Airports across the Schengen Area have struggled to cope with additional administration, which has even resulted in some passengers missing their flights. Now ahead of the busy summer season destinations across Europe have called for the EU to suspend the EES during peak travel times.

Greece has already suspended checks until September, and it is understood Portugal is waving passengers through when the queues are too long. Italy is understood to be following soon.

The Partido Popular in the Canary Islands has announced that it will take a proposal to the regional parliament calling on the Spanish government to suspend the EES across the islands, Canarian Weekly reports. David Morales, the PP’s tourism spokesperson in the Canary Islands Parliament, has questioned the implementation of the system.

Mr Morales has said the EES is not meeting expectations and is impacting airport operations, as passengers face long wait times and overcrowding at the border. He argues that both tourism business organisations and police representatives have previously warned that the system is “at risk of saturation” if “introduced without adequate preparation”.

He also states that the border queues damage the islands’ image for tourists. The Partido Popular is citing EU Regulation 2025/1534, which allows Member States to temporarily suspend the EES at specific border crossings in cases of technical failures or where excessive traffic leads to significant delays. The proposal is set to be debated in the regional parliament, where the PP is seeking formal backing to press Madrid for action.

For more of today’s top stories, click here.

A police helicopter was seen circling above Plymouth last night after a man in his 20s was found dead at a property – a 57-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder

Police have launched a murder probe after a man in his 20s was found dead at a property in Plymouth.

Multiple residents spotted a police helicopter circling above the city last night as police confirmed a “serious incident” was ongoing in the area. Emergency services were called at around 8.20pm to reports of a serious assault of a man on Embankment Road.

Despite the best efforts of paramedics, a man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed and Devon and Cornwall Police said they are being supported by specially trained family liaison officers.

Officers said “immediate searches” were carried out last night which led to a 57-year-old man being arrested on suspicion of murder, reports Plymouth Live.

Det Supt Rachael Bentley from the force’s Major Crime Investigation Team said: “This is a tragic incident in which a man has sadly lost his life. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this extremely difficult time.

“A thorough investigation is underway to understand the full circumstances surrounding what has happened.

“We carried out immediate searches last night which resulted in a 57-year-old man being arrested on suspicion of murder and he is currently in police custody. A cordon remains in place this morning, and officers will be in the area throughout the day.

“Police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the incident, or who was in the area at the time, to come forward.”

Det Supt Bentley added: “At this stage, this is believed to be an isolated incident with no wider risk to the public. We are not seeking anyone else in connection with the incident.

“We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who was in and around the area of Embankment Road yesterday evening and may have seen or heard anything suspicious. Even information that may seem small could be vital to our investigation.”

Officers have asked residents and drivers to check any CCTV, doorbell, or dash‑cam footage they may have from the area at the time. Anyone with information is asked to contact police via 101 or online quoting reference number 794 of 04/05/2026.

Information can also be reported anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

This is a Breaking News story. You’ll be more likely to see our stories when any big news breaks in future by simply by clicking this link. You can also join The Mirror’s WhatsApp Community or follow us on Google News, Flipboard, Apple News, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads – or visit The Mirror homepage.

The possibility of holding the 2027 London Marathon across two days – Saturday and Sunday – is still being explored.

Brasher previously said the idea would be to hold the elite women’s race on one of the days, alongside other women to have gained entry through their previous marathon times – and wheelchair races.

The men’s equivalents would take place on the other day, with mass races across both days.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Brasher said he hoped it would be confirmed by the end of May.

“This is for one year only. We are engaging, and have been engaging for a long time, with a lot of stakeholders,” he said.

“Rightly, they want us to go through a process to ensure what we do is appropriate. People will get disrupted – it’s never happened before on a Saturday.

“There are lots of plans and mitigations that we’ve got and we would have do some unique things.

“But I think this shows the desire, the need, for the country. More than £400m of economic and social benefit would happen as a result of the two days, and we believe more than £150m would be raised for charities.

“It would be a one-off. We hope to get there – we’re not there yet. I’m positive it’s the right thing to do.”

A measles outbreak is sweeping across the UK in 2026, with 477 laboratory-confirmed cases recorded between January and late April

Brits are grappling with a surge in measles cases, with nearly 500 confirmed infections this year as the Victorian-era illness continues its spread.

Figures from the UK Health Security Agency reveal 477 laboratory-confirmed cases between January 1 and April 27, representing a significant jump in infections and extending a concerning pattern observed in recent years.

The highly infectious disease, which transmits through coughs and sneezes, had been largely controlled through vaccination programmes.

However, falling rates of MMR jab uptake have been associated with the recent comeback, and the most recent figures show that cases have risen progressively since the beginning of the year.

There were 106 infections in January, climbing to 142 in February and 140 in March, before dipping marginally to 89 cases in April so far. Authorities warn that April’s total is expected to increase further owing to reporting delays, reports the Mirror.

Youngsters are shouldering the heaviest burden of the outbreak. Roughly two-thirds of all cases – 317 out of 477 – have been identified in children aged 10 and under. A further 28 per cent have been detected in people aged 15 and above.

London has become the focal point of the outbreak, representing 58% of all cases. The West Midlands comes next with 23%, while the North West has logged 8%. Every region across England has reported at least one case this year. At local authority level, Enfield has recorded the highest number of infections, with 98 cases – accounting for more than one in five of the national total. Birmingham has logged 74 cases, while Islington has confirmed 44. Other London boroughs, including Haringey, Camden, Barnet and Hackney, have also experienced significant clusters.

Latest figures indicate the virus continues to transmit. In the four weeks from March 30 alone, there have been 101 confirmed cases, although officials caution this is probably an underestimate owing to lags in data reporting. London once more represented the bulk of these, accounting for 66% of cases.

Despite the rapid transmission, no fatalities linked to measles have been reported in England so far this year.

The present surge comes after a turbulent spell for measles infections. Throughout 2024, England recorded 2,911 confirmed cases – the highest yearly figure since 2012. While numbers dropped to 959 in 2025, the disease has not been eradicated and remains in circulation.

Public health experts have repeatedly cautioned that measles can resurge rapidly when vaccination coverage drops beneath the threshold required for herd immunity, generally around 95%. The illness can trigger severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation and, in rare instances, death.

The UKHSA has emphasised that vaccination remains the most effective method of preventing infection and containing outbreaks. The MMR jab, which guards against measles, mumps and rubella, is administered to children in two doses, though uptake has fallen in certain communities.

Officials have also pointed out that the figures remain provisional and are subject to change. Case numbers may be revised as additional testing takes place and some suspected cases are either confirmed or dismissed. The agency provides weekly updates on its measles surveillance data throughout April, before shifting to fortnightly reporting thereafter. The next update is expected on May 14.

Public health teams continue to keep a close eye on the situation, especially in regions experiencing the highest levels of transmission. While no deaths have been recorded so far this year, the extent and reach of infections highlight the danger of a disease many believed to be a thing of the past staging a significant resurgence.

Supported by: