Neil Gray said that decisions on how best to tackle the fire were taken on an “evidence basis” and the government “takes its lead from the emergency services in terms of our response.”

He said: “We’ve been very clear that all resources that could possibly be committed are being committed by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Gray added that the government had also approached the military to ask for additional helicopters having “exhausted all commercially available helicopters” but had not yet had a response.

The cabinet secretary continued that two helicopters were available on Saturay, and further helicopters would be available on Sunday.

He said these were coming from the commercial sector, and were covered by a contract that was led by the government body NatureScot.

The fire broke out near the village of Glenmore on Wednesday last week, and led to residents and campsites being evacuated.

It covered about six square kilometres of heather and small trees at its height, with more than 500 firefighters tackling it.

“More!?!” bellows the incredulous, pompous Mr Bumble, and a chase ensures through the dining room, Oliver running along the wooden trestle tables and scrabbling among the legs beneath them. “Catch him, snatch him, pick him up and bounce him…”

Mr Bumble, the workhouse master, marches Oliver through the dining room after he asked for more

It is a scene that could have played out in the dining room of the Ripon Workhouse Museum which reopened this week after a £2.8m redevelopment.

Dining room, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

With “God is Good” shouting down from the Ripon walls, there are wooden tables on the echoey flagstone floor, and separate doors through which the different classes of paupers entered – old male paupers, young male paupers, old women paupers, young women paupers.

Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

While they shuffled gratefully in from their doors on the side walls, in the middle of the longest wall is the most important door: the one with “master” and “matron” marked on it. You can imagine Harry Secombe regally entering through it, cane in hand, and looking down on the poor, the sick, the widowed, the orphaned, the elderly and the poverty-stricken on the tables before him.

Dining room, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

A plate in the museum’s display tells what an old woman (that’s over 60 years of age) would have tucked into: one pint of tea and four ounces of bread for breakfast; one pint of soup and six ounces of bread for dinner, and one pint of porridge and four ounces of bread for supper.

“We want people to go round and imagine what it would be like to live here,” said community curator Dr Laura Allan.

“The stories of the real people who lived through extraordinary hardship challenge us to think about fairness, dignity and opportunity, both in Victorian Britain and today,” said Alexa Vernon, director of Ripon Museums Trust. “This was the Victorian solution for poverty: you worked 10 hours a day for no pay and were separated from your family in the hope that you would prefer to live a fine upstanding life outside.

“This is one of the most complete surviving workhouses in the country, and it is not just a local story: there were workhouses up and down the country.”

The gatehouse, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

From the late 16th Century, parishes were given the responsibility of looking after the poor, and Ripon’s first workhouse was built on the Allhallowgate site in 1776, with room for 30 people.

In 1834, the New Poor Law encouraged parishes to band together to create “union workhouses”, but Ripon refused to have anything to do with the new ideas from London until some extraordinary events in May 1852. In drink, John Adams, the master of the workhouse assaulted his wife, Jane Mary, the matron, and threatened to kill her.

Ripon Workhouse Museum

He was locked up in the House of Correction and she was ordered to leave their home in the workhouse grounds. She refused, and resisted when two Overseers of the Poor and the parish constable tried to evict her.

According to several Yorkshire newspapers, there were “disgraceful” scenes as her supporters gathered outside the workhouse gates. After 90 minutes, Jane Mary was physically thrown out but as she suffered injuries to her arm and neck, she prosecuted the three officials for assault. After a lengthy hearing, magistrates let the three men off but also dismissed the charges of violence against two of her supporters.

With the workhouse in chaos, Ripon had to adopt the new model of workhouses and built the institution that is now the museum – “erected AD1854” shouts the brickwork on the gatehouse at the visitor as they arrive.

The gatehouse also greeted the poor who, unable to cope in the outside world, threw themselves at its door in hope of relief.

“This was a place of last resort,” said Dr Allan. “To come here was utterly shameful. Only people who had no choice came here because it was the only form of government support.”

They were divided into paupers, who were local people who had fallen on hard times, and “vagrants” – the poor from elsewhere who lived their lives on the road.

The vagrants’ bathroom, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

Vagrants were given a bath (water changed every third wash) and two nights in a cell, overseen by a Tramp Major, with gruel and labour, before being turfed out to wander onto the next workhouse, possibly Northallerton.

The vagrants’ cells, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

Local paupers were admitted to the workhouse. They were held in quarantine for several days, to prevent them passing on germs, and passed through the “deinfestor”: they were washed and scrubbed, and their clothes were “stoved”, or baked, to kill off any lice.

Then they were separated into their classes, by age and gender, and sent to their wing.

Workhouses were there for the “deserving poor” – children, widows, orphans, disabled – but conditions were so tough that the “undeserving poor” – the able bodied who didn’t work for reasons including alcoholism, mental problems, learning difficulties, army veterans or “moral degeneracy” – would not want to go in.

They were overseen by a board of guardians, composed of local male bigwigs, and as the cost was borne by local ratepayers, who were largely local male bigwigs, budgets were meagre.

“They wanted to spend as little money as possible and it was about managing the problem rather than helping people escape from poverty,” said Dr Allan.

A woman’s work, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

For 10 hours a day, they did their tasks: breaking stones for road-mending, chopping wood, picking oakum – taking the strands out of old rope so they could be re-wound into new. Men worked in the garden and the piggery while women helped in the laundry and mended uniforms.

They came together at mealtimes, entering the dining room through their different doors, but even families were not allowed socialise.

The master’s house flanked by the wards and dormitories of the residents at Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

In the middle of the workhouse complex was the master and matron’s house – a comfortable middle class abode with its own garden and a piano (which museum visitors are encouraged to play). It’s rather when the contestant has lost at the end of the TV quiz show Bullseye when the curtain is pulled back to reveal the star prize that they could have won had the lottery of life dealt the cards differently – the happy notes of someone else’s piano drifting across the oakum-pickers in the day yard must have been especially galling.

An accident of history has meant that Ripon’s workhouse has survived almost intact – although £2.5m from the National Lottery and other grants have been necessary to save its fabric and interpret its stories – and also its registers survive, allowing tantalising insights into the lives of the working class people who used it.

“Workhouses are complex places, they are not all good, they are not all bad,” said Dr Allan, who hails from Spennymoor. “There are stories of hardship and poverty but there are also stories of resilience and hope.”

The classroom where children got three hours of education a day before going to work at Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

In July 1900, most newspapers, including The Northern Echo, told the story of Hannah Wade who had died aged 95 after spending 60 or so years in the workhouse.

Research suggests that she was actually born Ann Wade in 1803, and she regularly features in the registers, where she is described as an imbecile or a lunatic who costs three shillings a week to maintain.

The 1864 register describes her as “an idiot, not dangerous to herself or others, not of dirty habits, and has been of unsound mind from birth”, although the D&S Times’ obituary in 1900 is more kindly, saying “she had a retentive memory, and being bright and cheerful, was always ready to entertain visitors with old stories of Ripon”.

The workhouse archives also show how they evolved over the course of the 19th Century.

“In the 1880s, the first women were allowed to become guardians and we can see a change,” said Dr Allan. “In the 1890s, the children said they were sick of eating porridge and Mrs Lee proposed giving them bread and jam. The male guardians said no but the other female guardians voted for it.”

Ripon Union Workhouse female inmates

Workhouses faded out in the 20th Century as the first pensions were introduced and labour exchanges were set up to help people find work.

“These changes meant the only people in here were elderly and sick, especially as workhouses were seen as not the right place for young children who were sent to orphanages, and so conditions begin to soften with more leisure time and central heating,” says Dr Allan. “In 1930, the board of guardians was abolished and the workhouse became known as the ‘public assistance institution’. It becomes more like a care home, although it is still run by a master and matron until 1948 when the NHS is introduced.”

In the kitchen, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

Ripon’s workhouse was council offices until in 2017 it was bought by the Ripon Museum Trust and this week’s reopening marks its transformation into a visitor attraction. The independent trust also runs the police and prisons museum and the courthouse museum, which volunteers saved when the working lives of the Victorian buildings came to an end.

In the cellar with the carcase drop and the butchery table, Ripon Workhouse Museum, by Sarah Caldecott

This means the city has a unique triumvirate of museums that tell the story of poverty, crime and punishment which is to be found in the family tree of nearly all of us, and many of the inhabitants of the workhouse would also have been familiar with the courthouse and the prison.

“People are really interested in these stories of ordinary people,” says Dr Adams. “Dickens brought these stories to life in Oliver Twist – they are a bit grimy and dark in places but they fascinate people.”

• The museums of Ripon are open from 10am to 4pm daily. Admission to all three for a year is £19 for an adult, or to just the new workhouse is £11. Full details at riponmuseums.co.uk

By JOE ROSSITER, REPORTER

Published: 16:55 BST, 25 July 2026 | Updated: 18:56 BST, 25 July 2026

Andy Burnham was out for a jog near his northern home today as more migrants crossed the Channel two days after 165 arrived on a single boat.

Clad in a yellow Adidas Boston Marathon T-shirt from 2019, the new Prime Minister bobbed along the road near his home in Warrington, Cheshire, as pressure mounted on him to break his immigration silence.

More than 500 small-boat migrants arrived in the first week of Mr Burnham’s premiership, according to Home Office data released during the PM’s unveiling of his No10 North ‘gimmick’ 300 miles away from Westminster.

Today two men thought to be migrants arrived in the UK after rowing a tiny dinghy across the Channel.

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Pictures showed the boat arriving at the Border Security Command compound in Dover, Kent, after it was reported they were rescued by the RNLI during their attempt.

Their crossing came two days after a record 165 migrants crossed the water in a single boat, dubbed a ‘mega-dinghy’.

Estimated at around 13m (42ft) long, it was the same length as a standard bus.

Border Security Command towed the boat as it arrived in Dover on Thursday afternoon.

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Andy Burnham was out for a jog near his home in Warrington, Cheshire, on Saturday

But he faced mounting pressure to break his silence on immigration after migrants continued to flood in from the Channel during his first week in office

A dinghy used by people thought to have been migrants lay on the quayside at Border Security Command in Dover, Kent

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Some 103 people arrived on Friday after crossing in two boats on Friday, bringing the year’s total to 13,110.

Mr Burnham has been criticised for his failure to mention immigration once during his first week in No10 despite the issue topping a string of recent voter priority polls.

Instead he has focused on lowering bills and bus fares while calling the launch of his Northern Whitehall operation the ‘best day of my life’.

But Reform UK leader Nigel Farage branded the Labour leader ‘open borders Burnham’ and said he ‘will do nothing to stop the illegal and dangerous invasion of our country, he won’t even mention it’.

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Labour peer Lord Glasman called on the new Prime Minister to take a more ‘aggressive’ approach on the Channel crisis.

He said: ‘What’s happening here is absolutely outrageous. I’ve been in favour for a long time of putting the Royal Navy in the Channel and literally stopping the boats… we’ve got to have a much more aggressive policy towards the French government.’

The arrivals came after figures showed small-boat migrants accounted for just 7 per cent of deportations last year, suggesting most are not deported.

More than 500 small-boat migrants have arrived in Burnham’s first week, with one 13m-long ‘mega-dinghy’ carrying 165 people

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The number of arrivals so far this year – more than 13,000 – is over 40 per cent down on last year

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Wednesday’s tally of 172 migrants came on three boats, as did Thursday’s total of 366. That means on Thursday, a staggering average of 122 people were packed on each of the three vessels.

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But the 165 packed on to the ‘mega-dinghy’ smashed the previous single-boat record of 128.

More than 77,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel since Labour’s election victory in July 2024. Since records began in 2018, arrivals total more than 200,000.

While the number of arrivals so far this year – more than 13,000 – is over 40 per cent down on last year, experts believe crossings could go up again.

Wednesday’s crossings were the first recorded since July 10, which experts said was partly because of windy weather and choppier waters.

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A Home Office spokesman said yesterday: ‘Removals of small-boat migrants are at record levels and asylum claims down by 12 per cent.’

Liverpool and Sunderland meet in the US in a pre-season clash ahead of the new Premier League campaign

The Andoni Iraola era at Liverpool gets up and running tonight when the Reds take on Sunderland in a pre-season friendly.

Arne Slot’s title defence did not go to plan last season and Anfield chiefs decided to part ways with the Dutchman, just 12 months after he lifted the Premier League trophy.

Former Bournemouth boss Iraola is the man charged to bring back winning ways on Merseyside and his first test of the summer comes against the Black Cats in Tennessee.

He will do so without three big players, with Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate having left the club during the off season.

The Reds will round off their American tour with games against Leeds United and Wrexham before Anfield matches against Monaco and Como.

But first it’s the Wearsiders, who kicked off their own summer campaign with a 5-1 win over York City.

Here is everything you need to know.

What time is Liverpool v Sunderland?

Liverpool v Sunderland kicks off at 11pm BST on Saturday, July 25, at Geodis Park in Nashville, Tennessee.

Olivia Attwood gets a tattoo on her ring finger after posting about her ‘up and down year’ on Instagram on Friday following ex Bradley Dack‘s outing with new romance. 

The former Love Island star, who split from footballer Bradley in January, threw a lavish party on the roof of her building to launch her new drink venture. 

And during the bash, Olivia had a tattoo artist on hand and asked for an inking on her wedding ring finger. 

She was filmed during the inking and said while pointing to herself: ‘Who has a tattoo artist on their penthouse launch for their own drinks launch?’

Elsewhere on social media after the bash, Olivia said she is ‘grateful’ for the support as she opened up about her ‘up and down year’ following her marriage split. 

She wrote: ‘I’m exactly who I wanted to be when I grew up. After such a weird up and down year everything feels like it’s just starting to fall into place. 

‘Thank you so much to everyone who came out to party and for all of you for always getting in my corner. Grateful.’ 

The former Love Island star, who split from footballer Bradley in January, threw a lavish party and had a tattoo artist on hand and asked for an inking on her wedding ring finger

Olivia’s bash came as her ex Bradley Dack was pictured with his ex-girlfriend, bringing fresh fuel to claims he was unfaithful during their marriage. You can read Katie Hind’s full story here.

In a recent Instagram post, Olivia shared that she is plotting ‘world domination’ after launching her drinks brand. 

She also has partnerships with Maybelline, Garnier, Tatti Lashes and LOOK Fantastic to name a few. 

Her podcast, Olivia’s House, is also generating its own revenue stream with episode sponsorship. 

As for TV, she is said to have earned £350,000 for each of her series with ITV, which includes Getting Filthy Rich, The Price Of Perfection and Bad Boyfriends.

Olivia shared an insight into her everyday life on Instagram on Monday, declaring she ‘works herself to death’. 

She said: ‘Let me tell you a secret. I don’t like getting up at 5am, I don’t like going to the gym at 6am but I do it because it makes me less of a c***.

‘And as you girls can see, I’m actually attempting world domination at the moment, so I need to be as less of a c*** as physically possible.

‘I’m back shooting with Maybelline today, which also just feels like a dream come true. Like, how am I shooting with Maybelline? Is this real life?’

She added: ‘My baby Savano launched this week, it’s a canned cocktail company and you guys have been selling us out already so we’re going to get more stock, it’s going to come back into Sainsbury’s but right now you can shop it online on Amazon.

‘So this week, to celebrate the birth of my first child, I’m going to celebrate with a party. Of course, it’s what I do, have a party every other week.

‘Watch this space because I think I’ve taken on slightly more than I can f****** chew. And speaking of taking on more than I can chew, I work myself to death so my dog can have a paddling pool on the roof of her penthouse.’

Elsewhere on social media after the bash, Olivia said she is ‘grateful’ for the support as she opened up about her ‘up and down year’ following her marriage split

Olivia finished: ‘I do need to get an early night because tomorrow is another day of shooting, scheming world domination which I need to do on a full night’s sleep.’

Just last year, Olivia revealed she received multiple offers from US bosses, making her plans to crack America possible.

She told the Daily Mail: ‘Love Island is huge in America, the UK one, so I feel really lucky there was already quite a large US audience on my Instagram, they are definitely happy to have the shows available, also in Australia as well. 

‘I’m very happy with my career as it is right now. I mean I’ve had offers, I’m not looking to jump ship right now, but yes, at some point I’m sure we’ll do something over there.’

Pete Wicks, 37, set the internet ablaze last week when he made his relationship with Olivia Instagram official with a string of loved-up snaps from their trip together.

Olivia has joked that she and Pete were the ‘worst kept secret’ after they were caught kissing and cuddling on several occasions, following her split from her ‘husband’ Bradley Dack at the start of the year. 

And just hours later, Pete posted loved-up pictures of them all over each other on their holiday, marking the first time he has ever publicly shared a relationship online. 

Selby firefighters went to the aid of a person who had fallen inside  a property and couldn’t get up at 8.40am. Crew members used their strength to lift the uninjured person who was left in the care of family members.

In Tadcaster, crews put out a fire in a skip using a hose reel jet at Station Road at 9.30am.

In Ripon, a fire alarm activation at 9.43am turned out to be a false alarm at Boroughbridge Road due to a fault in the system.

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Multiple signals had been received, but on investigation, it was found to be a false alarm.

A Whitby crew helped a person who had fallen behind a door in a property on Byland Road, and was able to get back up just after 11am.

They gained entry using small tools and bolt cutters and helped the person, who was then left in the care of carers.

In Sherburn in Elmet, Tadcaster firefighters assisted the Yorkshire Ambulance Service with the difficult extrication of a casualty, who was left in the care of paramedics.

In Scarborough, a wooden board that had blown from nearby scaffolding hit the roof of a ground-floor kitchen on North Marine Road.

The board was removed, and advice was given to the homeowners.

A report of black smoke in the open in Stainsacre, Whitby, turned out to be controlled burning, which had been extinguished before the fire service’s arrival.

In Blenheim Terrace, Scarborough, numerous people raised the alarm about a fire to grass measuring approximately 5m x 5m was extinguished by crews. The cause of the fire is believed to be deliberate.

In William Plows Avenue, York, a fire alarm activation in a residential property was found to be a false alarm due to cooking fumes.

In Tadcaster, a fire in the open at the rear of a property, measuring approximately 10m x 5m, was extinguished by crews using a hose reel jet.

Appleton’s Butchers was founded in the historic cathedral city in 1867 and has become particularly renowned for its traditional Yorkshire pork pies.

The business began when 19-year-old Thomas Appleton started working at Smithson’s butchers on Kirkgate.

Following Mr Smithson’s death in 1872, the shop passed to Thomas and was renamed T. Appleton and Son.

Appleton’s Butchers in Ripon (Image: TRIPADVISOR)

It later moved to its landmark black-and-white timbered building on Ripon Market Square in 1936, where the business continues to trade today.

With its distinctive frontage and windows filled with pies and other savoury produce, the shop has become a familiar sight for residents and visitors exploring the city centre.

Appleton’s describes itself as a “traditional pork butcher and pie maker, combining more than a century of history with a modern range of meats, baked goods and prepared dishes”.

At the centre of the business are its Yorkshire pork pies.

Made with carefully selected pork, flaky pastry and the traditional addition of jelly, the pies have attracted praise from customers travelling from across Britain, and even further afield.

The company says it mainly uses Large White cross pigs selected by the Piercy family of Easingwold. The Large White is widely known as the Yorkshire pig and is valued for producing high-quality pork.

Beyond its pork pies, Appleton’s sells fresh pork, beef, lamb, poultry and game, as well as sausages, bacon, gammon, cooked meats and a wide selection of savoury products.

Its current range includes steak pies, chicken, ham and leek pies, quiches, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs and traditional savoury ducks.

The business changed hands in 2010 when husband-and-wife team Anthony and Isabel Sterne took over.

It has since expanded beyond Ripon, opening in Wetherby in 2014, Boroughbridge in 2017 and Knaresborough in 2020.

Appleton’s now operates four shops across the North Yorkshire market towns, with click-and-collect also available.

However, it is the Ripon shop and its pork pies that appear to make the greatest impression on visitors.

Appleton’s has a rating of 4.7 out of five on Google at its Ripon branch, with customers repeatedly praising the pork pies, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs and friendly service.

One reviewer asked whether they were the best pork pies in Yorkshire before concluding they were “definitely up there”.

Another customer went further, declaring them the “best pork pies in England”.

The reviewer said they travelled from Australia to visit Ripon and made sure to buy several pies whenever they returned.

Another visitor bought a pork pie to take home for their mother and described it as “utterly perfect”.

For some visitors, buying a pie and eating it in the Market Square has become part of the experience.

One customer said they purchased two small pork pies and ate them on a seat beneath Ripon’s obelisk during a sunny visit.

They were so impressed that they immediately returned to the shop and bought two more.

The shop has also been described as the “crown jewel of Ripon marketplace”, while several reviewers have praised the pork pies’ light, crisp pastry.

“A request has been made today to the UK Government for military assistance in aerial support.”

The First Minister has asked for military aid from the UK Government as residents in the highland village of Nethy Bridge are “angry and frustrated” amid evacuation orders due to a nearby wildfire.

More than 500 firefighters have been tackling the blaze which has raged in the Cairngorms National Park for the past 10 days and forced the evacuation of homes in the remote region.

First Minister John Swinney has said the blaze remains a “major and serious” incident but that they were seeing an “improved picture” on Saturday afternoon.

He said: “A request has been made today to the UK Government for military assistance in aerial support that can be used to supplement existing resources that are being deployed to tackle the Cairngorms wildfire and we await a response.”

The military is not currently conducting any aerial firefighting operations in the area.

Sandy McCook, chairman of the Nethy Bridge and Vicinity Community Council, said residents of the Cairngorms village could see large plumes of smoke from the wildfire on Friday before they were evacuated.

Speaking to the Press Association on Saturday, Mr McCook said: “Apocalyptic is the word for the pall of smoke that was on the go yesterday.”

The smoke has changed direction, and on Saturday at midday he said it was blowing towards Aberdeenshire and the North Sea, but the flames were still “very plain to see” from the outskirts of Nethy Bridge.

Evacuations and smoke advisories are still in place after Police Scotland declared a major incident as emergency services battled the wildfire in the Cairngorms National Park.

Emergency services previously said significantly changed weather conditions, including stronger winds, have contributed to the unpredictable behaviour of the blaze.

In an update on Saturday morning, Police Scotland said residents in a small area of properties north-west of Dorback Lodge (Lain Thatchan) had been evacuated as a precaution.

The Scottish Government said a fire break around the village was established overnight, and new breaks are being constructed as Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) deploys additional resources.

A smoke advisory is also in place for Tomintoul, where residents have been advised to keep windows and doors closed due to smoke from the wildfire.

“If you are affected by smoke, stay indoors where possible, keep windows and doors closed, and avoid strenuous outdoor activity,” SFRS said.

The service also requested more heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, to help with the response.

“Operators who can provide suitable plant machinery to support the ongoing multi-agency response are asked to report to the Village Hall in Nethy Bridge,” SFRS said.

On the ground, Mr McCook said there was a major increase in firefighting units from the SFRS in and around the village, plus multiple wildfire response units.

“I think a lot of people are running on adrenaline,” he said.

“A lot of people are upset, angry and frustrated at the ongoing situation because the Scottish Government said a week ago [on Wednesday] that they had enough resources to deal with it, and they said on Thursday that the fire was contained.

“My argument with that is, if you said the fire was contained and you had enough resources last Wednesday and Thursday, why are we still fighting it 10 days later and it’s still running out of control? It is still not controlled in any way shape or form.”

On Saturday, emergency services said there were nine fire appliances at the scene, supported by specialist wildfire resources.

SFRS said it has maintained a “significant operational response” since the wildfire was first reported on July 15.

More than 500 firefighters have tackled the blaze over the last 10 days, alongside specialist wildfire appliances, all-terrain vehicles, helicopter water-bombing operations and partner agencies.

The update came after First Minister John Swinney chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room (SGoRR) on Friday night.

The meeting was attended by several ministers and representatives from emergency services, including SFRS and Police Scotland.

On Friday, the First Minister told the Press Association: “I would obviously ask people in the region to follow all of the advice that is available and to respect the exclusion zone that’s been put in place.

“This is an incident that we felt was moving in a positive direction earlier this week, but with the change of weather circumstances – which is an illustration of just the scale and difficulty of the situation that we are managing – it has moved in the other direction.”

His comments came as smoke from the wildfire near Glenmore drifted as far as Aberdeen due to changing wind conditions.

The fire, which broke out near the village of Glenmore on Wednesday last week, led to residents and campsites being evacuated.

It covered about six square kilometres of heather and small trees at its height.

Evacuated residents are being directed to a dedicated respite centre at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort.

Members of the public are asked to avoid affected areas in the Cairngorms National Park. SFRS said the area remains unsafe due to firefighting operations, rapidly changing fire conditions and helicopter activity.

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By JONATHAN MCEVOY, SPORTS WRITER AND DAILY MAIL’S MOTOR RACING WRITER

Published: 17:03 BST, 25 July 2026 | Updated: 18:09 BST, 25 July 2026

Lewis Hamilton’s title hopes were rocked when he was demoted three places down the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion will start fifth on Sunday, with his chief rival for the title Kimi Antonelli third. They were previously going to start second and fourth respectively.

Hamilton, who is 45 points back from Mercedes Antonelli, was penalised for inadvertently blocking McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during qualifying.

He had, at one stage, seemed to have taken pole. He pulled into parc ferme next to the marker with No 1 on it, but that honour was snatched from him by Lando Norris with a late and skilled ambush. And so Hamilton’s three-year wait for a pole start drags on. 

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Norris was still out on track and piecing together his smooth assault on the top, a chance he was gifted by Hamilton being unable to improve on his first run that had temporarily put him first – the head shake.

Barely any driver was conjuring extra speed in the final stages, bar Norris, who pipped Hamilton by 0.012sec to claim the first pole of his title defence. The No 1 marker was moved by officialdom in front of the world champion’s McLaren. No 2 was placed by the red car.

Now that the stewards have intervened to bung him down to fifth, Hamilton’s chances of winning Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix have taken a dent. But not all hope is lost. , It is a track he loves and where he has prevailed a record eight times. His car is fastest, a point he believes he could have underlined other than for Ferrari’s wonks sending him out early.

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Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated after having pole position snatched away at the 11th hour – and then he was bunged down to fifth with a grid penalty

Reigning champion Lando Norris roared through to claim his first pole of the year by 0.012s

‘We have been doing a great job all weekend,’ he said, slow to raise much cheer in the immediate aftermath. ‘I felt solid throughout qualifying and, for some reason, we went out first, which I don’t think was the right call.

‘And for some reason the grip wasn’t there on that last lap.

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‘We’re obviously competitive but I think tomorrow is going to be a hard day.’

In a boost to the British veteran, who lies second in the drivers’ standings, 45 points behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, the Silver Arrows looked a shadow of their formerly dominant selves.

Indeed, this was the first time this campaign that neither of the Mercedes had set the qualifying pace. Instead, Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc was third fastest with Antonelli fourth. They have, of course, benefited from Hmailton’s grid penalty. 

George Russell, in the other Mercedes, was only seventh quickest, his championship dream increasingly bleak. Fifty points off the top, he had to abandon his car, a water leak having sprung his latest dose of bad luck.

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Aston Martin showed a glimmer of hope in their long road back from a start to the season team principal Adrian Newey called a ‘complete nightmare’.

They brought 16 upgrades to Budapest. The rest of the grid have 21 between them, a measure of Aston’s kitchen-sink approach to finding a solution. It resulted in Fernando Alonso managing to break the team’s 2026 duck by progressing into Q2 and qualifying 16th. His team-mate Lance Stroll, however, was only 20th fastest, just ahead of the two Cadillacs.