Edward Heath: Five Police Forces Investigate

Five police forces have confirmed they have received allegations of child sex abuse involving the former prime minister Sir Edward Heath.

Police in Jersey, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Kent and London are all investigating allegations involving the former politician. 

Late last night, the Hampshire force was the latest to confirm it is looking into allegations made against the former PM.

Earlier, police in Jersey said they were investigating claims that he would take children from care homes for a ride in his yacht.

Wiltshire Police, meanwhile, disclosed it has received a number of calls to a helpline it set up appealing for potential victims and witnesses.

Kent Police said it had received a report of a sexual assault against Sir Edward in East Kent in the 1960s.

Detectives are making initial inquiries and will get a full account of the complainant's story.

Finally, the Metropolitan Police is looking into accusations by a man, now aged 65.

He claims he was raped at the age of 12 by Sir Edward, in Mayfair, London.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "In April 2015 an allegation of rape was made to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

"An officer from Operation Fairbank interviewed the complainant that same month and obtained a full account. Support services were offered.

"However, after a full assessment of the allegation there were no lines of inquiry that could proportionately be pursued by the MPS."

He would not say anything more about why the decision had been taken.

It's also claimed the politician was seen by a Met Police detective going into a north London property where boys were abused in the '70s.

The first allegation against Sir Edward emerged on Monday.

Wiltshire Police disclosed the force was being investigated for failing to handle an apparent allegation made against the politician in the 1990s. 

PM Demands Timetable On Chilcot Iraq Inquiry

David Cameron has issued a fresh call for a timetable making clear when the Chilcot report into the origins of the war in Iraq will be published.

The Prime Minister told reporters during his recent Asia trip that he wanted to see the report "as soon as possible", adding: "Right now I want a timetable".

He said: "More important than anything is thinking of the parents who lost loved ones in Iraq."

Mr Cameron spoke of meeting a woman earlier this year, who had lost her son near Basra in 2007.

"The most powerful conversation I've had about this was a mother who said to me at the Staffordshire Arboretum, when we were commemorating the Bastion Memorial Wall for Afghanistan was just, you know, it's the parents and the families who want answers.

"And for their sake, as well as for the sake of the public, we've got to get on with this.

"I can't make it go faster because it's a public inquiry and it's independent, but i do want a timetable and i think we deserve one pretty soon."

Sky News Political Correspondent Sophy Ridge says the Iraq war is still a “very controversial subject” in Westminster.

That controversy extends to the role played by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in power when Britain went into Iraq in 2003.

She said Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn was asked if Blair should be tried for war crimes and he replied: “If he’s committed a war crime, yes. Everyone who has committed a war crime should be.”

In July the chairman of the inquiry into what took Britain to war in Iraq in 2003 was still unable to say when the report would be released.

Sir John Chilcot has said the inquiry is making "significant progress" but he could not yet set out a timetable, further frustrating No 10's attempts to hasten the publication.

The head of the Civil Service Sir Jeremy Heywood said he had repeatedly offered to help with the process in an attempt to speed up the release of the report, which was set up in 2009 and has cost the taxpayer £10.3m.

In a letter to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Sir John says the inquiry is making progress through Maxwellisation, which gives those criticised in the report the right to respond.

Tony Blair has dismissed suggestions that he is responsible for the delays.

In June, the Prime Minister wrote to Sir John expressing his disappointment there was no timetable for the release of the report.

He said for six years "those who served in Iraq or lost loved ones in the conflict have been awaiting your work".

What Happens If Jeremy Corbyn Wins?

Veteran Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn seems to be stealing the march on his Labour leadership rivals.

This week he has been out campaigning and so far has had supporters rallying out on the streets of London and crowds out in Leeds as he presents his 2020 Vision for Britain.

In it he has set out his plans for the North to combat George Osborne's "Northern Powerhouse" - essential for bringing back some of that core Labour support that deserted under Ed Miliband.

His team is getting ever slicker and his campaign is gathering momentum. Polls have put him in the lead - by some way.

So if team Corbyn triumphs come 12 September, what could happen?

1) The Labour Party splits

There have been threats that a Corbyn victory would lead to a 1980s-style spilt within Labour - the right of the party potentially joining with the Lib Dems or forming their own party.

While many frontbenchers such as shadow chancellor Chuka Umunna, shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper have said they would refuse to serve under him, a spilt seems unlikely.

If Mr Corbyn, receives a large share of the membership vote, he will have a mandate.

Labour is a tribal party and Liz Kendall may well have summed up that loyalty when she said she could no more leave the Labour party than "her own family".

2) The party shifts significantly to the Left

Often described as a left-wing militant, Mr Corbyn will certainly put radical socialist ideals at the core of the Labour Party.

Mr Corbyn opposes continued austerity, arguing for higher levels of public spending, nationalisation of the railways and opposes renewing Trident.

He also wants the removal of the £93bn worth of corporate tax relief and subsidies. 

On his rivals, he says: "They are not offering a clear enough alternative on the economic strategy and austerity, and our attitude to welfare expenditure."

3) More control by the Unions

It was the unions wot won it.

If Mr Corby wins, the unions will have played a significant part in his victory, he currently has the backing of the RMT, ASLEF, Unison and the UK’s largest union Unite.

Unite said Mr Corbyn won its backing "in recognition that his policies were most closely aligned with those of Unite".

And while the unions are expected to have less influence on this year's contest, because the party has moved to a one member, one vote system for choosing its leader, having signed up tens of thousands of members, their support could prove crucial.

Calais Crisis: Smugglers Put Up Prices For UK

Tighter security around Calais has prompted criminal gangs to charge even more to take migrants through to the UK, Sky News has learned.

Prices have risen sharply in recent days according to an aid volunteer who works every day with those living in the makeshift town nicknamed "The Jungle" on the edge of Calais.

Maya Konforti has helped people there seven days a week for the past 18 months.

She told Sky News: "It makes the smuggler's day. People don't realise that the harder the border is to cross, the more the smuggling rings develop, find ways to cross, and they increase their prices.

"Two months ago they were paying €500 (£351) for people to open a truck and to close the door on them and choosing their truck. Now it has gone to €800 (£562) or €1,100 (£772)."

Fortified fences, extra sniffer dogs and enhanced surveillance equipment are now in the process of being installed in northern France, particularly around the Eurotunnel terminal just outside Calais.

Ms Konforti, who works with the aid group l'Auberge des Migrants, added: "If they keep on building fences we are going to see more deaths ... people still take more risks.

"Calais is like a pressure cooker with the heat on high underneath. If you close the pressure like when you do with fences, all you do is make it explode ... It is clearly not the way to just close borders."

Prime Minister David Cameron, who is currently away on holiday, has warned that the struggle to hold back people trying to enter the UK illegally from northern France may go on for the rest of the summer.

The Government has announced new measures designed to put off would-be asylum seekers, including threatening landlords who fail to evict migrants who do not have the right to live in Britain with a prison sentence of up to five years.

On Monday, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond insisted the Government has a grip on the crisis, as he promised 100 security guards will be sent to Calais.

Osborne Pulls Trigger On £2bn RBS Share Sale

George Osborne has unveiled plans for a £2bn sale of taxpayers' shareholding in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in a symbolic moment that will crystallise a substantial loss on the stake.

Confirming widespread expectations that he would begin the processing of selling the shares this week, the Treasury said after the stock market closed on Monday that it would sell a 5.2% stake in RBS to City investors.

Directors of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the agency which manages the state's 79% stake in RBS, held talks on Monday to sanction the move.

Details of the price obtained in the share sale will be disclosed on Tuesday morning, but bankers working on the deal were said to be confident of achieving a price of between 325p and 330p, representing a modest discount to RBS’s closing share price on Monday.

Investment bankers from Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS are working on the process, known as an accelerated book-build.

A disposal of RBS shares will contain huge resonance in the City, coming nearly seven years after the bank was rescued with more than £45bn of taxpayers' money.

The bailout took place at an average ‘in-price’ of 502p, but the Chancellor said in June that he was no longer prepared to wait for the bank’s shares to recover to that level before beginning the sale process.

Labour warned Mr Osborne against a summer sale of shares in RBS, arguing that it is not "an impossible objective" to recoup the public's investment if a disposal is delayed.

Speaking to Sky News, Chris Leslie, the shadow chancellor, said the Treasury's "haste" would need to be justified if it began selling the Government's stake ahead of a multibillion pound settlement with US regulators for mis-selling securities before the financial crisis.

Mr Leslie said he found it difficult to understand the sense of urgency with RBS shares trading so far below the taxpayers' 'in price' of 502p.

"The Chancellor will need to justify his haste if he sells off a chunk of RBS before the US settlement and when the market is less liquid.

"Taxpayers want their money back and I just don't believe this is an impossible objective," he said.

"Why this rush to sell when the share price is so far below that paid at the time of the rescue? RBS had to be bailed out urgently, but it doesn’t have to be sold off at the same speed."

Mr Osborne announced in his Budget last month that he would offload at least £2bn of the bank's shares by next April.

A Treasury spokesman said: “UK Financial Investments (UKFI) today advised the Chancellor it would be appropriate to conduct the first sale of the Government’s shareholding in the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Chancellor agrees with that advice and has authorised the process to begin.

“The government set out its objectives for its shareholdings in the banks in the Chancellor’s annual Mansion House speech in June 2013 – getting the best value for the taxpayer, maximising support for the economy and restoring them to private ownership – and as set out in that address, the government will only conclude a sale if these objectives are met.

“In his Mansion House speech in June this year, the Chancellor announced his intention to start returning RBS to the private sector in the coming months, following advice from the Governor of the Bank of England.”

Last week, RBS unveiled a half-year loss after taking a string of charges for mis-selling and restructuring, and signalled that dividend payments would not restart until 2017 at the earliest.

Mr Osborne is determined to head off criticism about the sale of an initial tranche of RBS shares at a loss.

In a report he commissioned from Rothschild, the investment bank, his advisers concluded that disposing of the taxpayer's entire stake in the bank would crystallise a £7bn loss if fees paid to the Treasury since 2008 were taken into account.

They added, however, that the Government could make an overall profit of £14bn from its bank rescues, which included the emergency bailouts of Bradford & Bingley, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock.

That view was immediately challenged by Andrew Tyrie, the Treasury Select Committee chairman, who argued that the projected surplus did not include the cost of financing the acquisitions.

"The start of a sale programme can send a strong signal that the bank is making strong progress in its restructuring and is well on the way to recovery," Rothschild said in its report recommending that the Chancellor kicks off the sale.

"Any residual impression amongst investors that the bank may not be run for purely commercial purposes is likely to evaporate very quickly".

Mass Inhalation Of Laughing Gas At Parliament

Protesters inhaled laughing gas outside Parliament to show their opposition to a proposed law on psychoactive substances.

The mass inhalation of nitrous oxide was to protest against the Government's plans to crack down on legal highs.

Some of the protesters erupted into giggles before spreading out across the lawn.

Figures suggest laughing gas is the fourth most used drug in the UK and that 400,000 used it in 2013-14.

Although conventionally used as an anaesthetic during dentistry and child birth and as an aid in the manufacture of whipped cream, the substance can be used as a mood enhancer.

The cause of death of a teenager that had been linked to laughing gas was last week deemed "inconclusive" after a post-mortem.

But the Government wants to include it in a bill that will make it illegal to sell any "psychoactive substances" other than alcohol, caffeine and nicotine.

It comes after several other deaths have been linked to so-called legal highs - drugs that produce a psychoactive response but are not currently classified under the UK's drug rating system.

While possession will remain legal so long as there is no intent to supply, the bill could mean up to seven years in prison for people who provide drugs to others.

The director of the Psychedelic Society, which organised the laughing gas protest, says it is not the job of the Government to tell people what they can and cannot use.

Stephen Reid told Sky News: "This is intended to make a serious point about the bill and the huge infringement of liberty that entails and about the fact that this bill is going to do more harm than good.

"It's going to make it harder for people to access education, it's not going to reduce the number of people taking these things and the sensible solution has to be legal regulation of these drugs."

Professor David Nutt, former drugs tsar and professor of neuropsychopharmacology, said: "It's probably one of the safest recreational substances there has ever been.

"It's been used for over 200 years, largely as an analgesic, a pain killer. It's been used by writers like Coleridge and philosophers like James to get insights into the brain and now it's being used by young people as an alternative to alcohol on the grounds that it's a lot safer than alcohol and a lot shorter acting.

"So this desire to ban it is rather bizarre really."

Addiction therapist Sarah Graham, however, said that it was a potentially addictive drug that needed to be controlled.

She told Sky News: "We do need this psychoactive substances bill because we can have a blanket ban and take down the internet sites and stop them being marketed at young people and so that the police can take some action because this has become a really big problem."