B&Q Boss Warns Over Prices If Scots Vote Yes

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The boss of Britain's biggest DIY retail group has warned that Scottish consumers could face higher prices than their counterparts south of the border if voters back independence in next week's referendum.

Sir Ian Cheshire, who was among hundreds of business leaders urged by David Cameron on Monday to speak out in favour of the union, told Sky News that a 'Yes' vote would almost certainly mean increased costs for a standalone Scottish business that would be passed on to customers.

Sir Ian has previously warned of an investment hiatus in Scotland, where Kingfisher employs approximately 5,500 people at its B&Q division.

"We think there is a real risk in terms of higher costs, the uncertainty about a currency union and the difficulty of making investment decisions," he said on Tuesday.

"Smaller, more complex markets often mean passing higher costs on to consumers.

"Investment decisions would be on pause while we work out what's likely to happen.

"We are not going to pick up stores and move them south of the border but [a 'Yes' vote] would represent real and significant challenge for our business."

Sir Ian's comments about potentially higher prices echo private warnings by some of the big supermarket groups, although retailers have generally been unwilling to make such comments publicly.

Sir Ian is expected to make more detailed remarks on the issue alongside Kingfisher's interim results on Wednesday.

A number of other prominent executives are also expected to speak out on the issue in the coming days as they respond to the Prime Minister's plea to give public backing to a No vote.

The latest opinion polls indicate that the two campaigns are neck and neck, defying the forecasts of those who had predicted an overwhelming win for the No lobby as recently as a few weeks ago.

Concerns about the potential impact of a Yes vote prompted uncertainty in financial markets on Monday, with sterling falling to its lowest level against the dollar for ten months, and companies with significant Scottish exposure experiencing falls in their share prices.

At Monday's Downing Street gathering, Mr Cameron said that preserving the union was an objective in which business leaders had a critical role to play, adding that it was as a United Kingdom that Britain had fought and defeated Hitler.

Some campaigners believe that a recent pro-Union letter signed by more than 130 businesspeople was counterproductive, although further such messages are planned for the No campaign during the next week.

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Ex-Police Chief Had 'No Idea' Of Scale Of Abuse

A former South Yorkshire police boss has admitted he had "no idea" about the scale of child abuse in Rotherham while he was in charge.

Meredydd John Hughes, who was chief constable between 2004 and 2011, told MPs he was "embarrassed" at the failure to act to stop it.

He said he was "distressed" he had not been made aware of the problem and he felt "sick" when he read reports into it over recent days.

He was appearing before a Commons committee as it emerged 25 more victims have come forward since a devastating report was published last month into the Rotherham abuse scandal.

The Jay Report outlined how at least 1,400 children had been subjected to trafficking, rape and other sexual exploitation between 1997 and 2013.

And it also said how their plight had been ignored by range of agencies, including police, councillors and council officials.

Mr Hughes faced some tough questioning from MPs who said child exploitation "on an industrial scale" had taken place on his watch.

David Crompton admits things should have been done differently

There were heated exchanges with Mr Hughes, who told the committee: "I can say with honesty that at the time I was both deputy and chief constable, I had no idea of the scale and scope of this type of organised crime."

He said he had not seen three of four reports being examined by their inquiry until recently.

He said: "Some of those reports ... I frankly felt sick last night when I read them. I am not immune to the ideas that this is a hideous crime and I am deeply embarrassed."

But he was rebuked by the chair of the Commons home affairs committee Keith Vaz.

He told him his denials were "impossible to believe" in the face of "evidence of the most compelling nature" to the contrary.

After a 32-year career with the police, Mr Hughes admitted he had "singularly failed the victims of these victims".

He said he re-iterated his apology and was "devastated that I could be in this position".

His successor, Chief Constable David Crompton, was also questioned by the MPs.

Mr Crompton said: "I accept things should have been done differently in the past."

But he also told the committee: "Things are better now than they used to be."

Mr Vaz had taken the unusual step of requiring the witnesses to swear an oath before the hearing got under way.

More follows...

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Hunnam 'Had Breakdown' Over Fifty Shades Role

British actor Charlie Hunnam has revealed he had "something of a nervous breakdown" before he pulled out of the Fifty Shades Of Grey film.

The Sons Of Anarchy star was cast last year as the lead male character Christian Grey opposite Dakota Johnson, but he pulled out two months later due to scheduling difficulties.

Rumours circulated about why Hunnam left the project, but now the actor has revealed the real reason.

The star has told Moviefone that he was already being stretched thin with his hit television series Sons Of Anarchy and other film commitments when he met the director Sam Taylor-Johnson.

He said he had originally planned to tell her he could not do the film, based on the EL James book, but "fell in love" with it.

"I started talking about this thing and I just got so excited. I fell in love with the character and started seeing him and becoming intoxicated, which is the way I work: I find a character I love and I start thinking about it all the time," he said.

But the work issues had not gone away and the magnitude of the project dawned on Hunnam.

Jamie Dornan took on the role after Hunnam

"I was going to finish Sons at like 11pm Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for Fifty, missing the whole first week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning," he said.

"And I was going to shoot that film, wrap that on the Wednesday and the following Monday I was going to start shooting Crimson Peak in Toronto. I just had like ... frankly, something of a nervous breakdown."

He said making the decision to pull out of the movie was really hard but he realised he "bit off more than I could chew".

"I just said, 'I can't ... I can't ...,'" he recalled.

"To fail on such a grand scale - because Fifty's going to be massive, it's going to be huge. I really didn't want to fail on such a grand scale and I just couldn't transition from Jax Teller to Christian Grey in 48 hours.

"I bit off more than I could chew and it was painful. I loved the character and I wanted to do it."

Hunnam was replaced by another British star, Jamie Dornan, and the film is due out in the UK on February 13, 2015.

The trailer for the film is the most viewed of 2014 so far.

Hunnam will next be seen in Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak and is due to star as King Arthur in Guy Ritchie's new film.

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Ashya Prepares For Proton Treatment On Tumour

Ashya King is undergoing his first tests at a clinic in the Czech Republic as doctors prepare him for specialist proton treatment.

The five-year-old was admitted to the Proton Therapy Centre in Prague on Tuesday morning, and will undergo both MRS and CT scans.

He will also be fitted for a special mask that will be used throughout his treatment.

If all goes according to plan, the youngster could start the proton therapy on Monday.

It will involve 30 visits and will be combined with chemotherapy, which will be carried out by specialist oncologists at Motol University Hospital.

Ashya's father Brett King said: "I am pleased that we are finally here."

The boy's parents were arrested in Spain after they took him from Southampton General Hospital on August 28 without medical permission.

They were released when prosecutors withdrew a European arrest warrant.

Portsmouth City Council, which previously had responsibility for Ashya's welfare, launched family court action against his parents.

But Mr Justice Baker, at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court on Friday, ruled Ashya could be taken to the Czech Republic.

And a further High Court ruling on Monday meant he was no longer a ward of court.

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Diamond Worth Up To £10m Boosts British Firm

A 232.08-carat white diamond, recovered from a mine that produced gems for the Crown Jewels, could fetch a value of up to $16m (£10m).

The estimate was made by analysts after Petra Diamonds, which bought the Cullinan mine in South Africa from De Beers, showed off the rough stone.

Petra's share price soared 7% on the FTSE 250 in the wake of the announcement, even though the company declined to put an estimate on the stone.

The find is not Petra's largest white diamond.

In 2009 it unearthed a flawless 507-carat diamond, also at the Cullinan mine. The diamond was known as the Cullinan Heritage and fetched $35.3m - a record price for the company.

The Cullinan mine is in South Africa

It was from the same mine in 1905 that the largest rough gem diamond was recovered, the 3,106 carat Cullinan Diamond which was cut into stones for the Crown Jewels housed at the Tower of London.

It was made into the First Star of Africa - mounted at the top of the Sovereign's Sceptre - and the Second Star of Africa, a 317-carat polished diamond which forms the centrepiece of the Imperial State Crown.

Petra said it expected the new white diamond, of "exceptional size and clarity", to be sold before the year's end.

Its investors are also awaiting the outcome of the sale of a rare 122.52-carat blue diamond recovered from Cullinan this year.

Analysts have pegged the stone's value at more than $35m (£21.7m).

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Accused Dave Lee Travis 'Had Intense Stare'

A woman has told a court that Dave Lee Travis had an "intense" stare during an alleged assault while she worked on a television show in the mid-1990s.

She said the former Radio 1 DJ approached her in a corridor while she was smoking a cigarette and touched her ribcage while commenting on her "poor little lungs".

The woman, who cannot be named, said she "froze" when the entertainer moved his hands up and squeezed her breasts.

Asked by prosecutor Miranda Moore QC how she felt at the time, the woman replied: "Shocked. I couldn't believe what was happening. It was just unbelievably weird.

"He started to touch the bottom of my ribcage. Without saying anything else, he slid his hand up to my breasts and then kind of left them there and started squeezing.

"I was standing there just looking up. I didn't know what to say. I was kind of pinned against the wall."

The woman said he let go of her breasts after 10-15 seconds.

"I was just kind of looking up at him and thought 'he's not going to say anything'," she said. "I put my cigarette out and kind of backed away really."

The alleged victim, who was in her 20s at the time, said Travis had an "intense" stare during the incident, which she reported to a senior producer on the programme.

"I said; 'Oh my God, Dave Lee Travis just touched my t***'," she said.

"It was absolutely the weirdest thing that happened in my life. It was definitely a deliberate attempt. He held on to my breasts for a long time. He was staring.

"I absolutely know he had some weird sexual thrill from this. I felt like I had been punched. It was that feeling of being violated."

Stephen Vullo QC, defending, told the court his client had "no recollection" of the alleged victim.

Mr Travis, 69, is being retried on two counts - one of indecent assault and one of sexual assault. He faces a further charge of indecent assault.

They relate to separate incidents that allegedly took place between 1990 and 2008.

He denies the allegations.

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Reports: Shark Attack Victim Was British

The Foreign Office has said it is investigating reports that a man killed in a shark attack in Australia was British.

The attack took place at the popular tourist destination of Byron Bay on the country's east coast.

Sky's Harriet Hadfield said the victim, named locally as 50-year-old Paul Wilcox, was reportedly originally from Warwickshire but moved to Australia with his wife some years ago.

This has yet to be confirmed by the Foreign Office, which said in a statement: "We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Australia and are looking into them."

Mr Wilcox was reportedly from England originally. Pic: Refocused Learning

Hadfield said: "The most horrifying thing that we do know about this is that his wife was actually on the beach when it happened and so we understand she may have witnessed the attack.

"There are some really dramatic accounts coming out of Australia now from people who saw it happening, including one man who was paddle-boarding at the time and said it was an incredibly violent scene."

Police confirmed in a statement that the victim was "bitten on the right leg by what is believed to be a shark".

"He was seen floating in shallow water, close to the shore line, and dragged on to the beach," the statement said.

Police have yet to formally identify the man or establish what he had been doing in the water.

Byron Bay is a renowned surfing location near Cape Byron, the most easterly point of the Australian mainland 500 miles (800km) north of Sydney.

Paramedics declared the man dead at the scene

The death is the first blamed on a shark in Australia since April 3 when a 63-year-old woman was killed near the village of Tathra, 210 miles (340km) south of Sydney.

Although sharks are common off Australia's coast, the country has averaged fewer than two fatal attacks per year in recent decades.

Two men were killed in shark attacks off the east and west coasts in the space of a week in November last year. They were the only fatalities in 2013.

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UK To Send Machine Guns And Ammo To Iraq

Britain is sending £1.6m of military kit, including heavy machine guns, to Iraq to help fight Islamic State militants.

Announcing the decision in a written statement, Michael Fallon, the Secretary of State for Defence, said the equipment would be used for "alleviating the humanitarian suffering of those Iraqis" targeted by IS terrorists, also known as ISIL and ISIS.

Mr Fallon said the move followed a request from the Iraq government and would include the Kurdish regional government.

"The Kurdish forces remain significantly less well equipped than ISIL and we are responding to help them defend themselves, protect citizens and push back ISIL advances," he said.

PKK fighters in Turkey last year

However, there have been concerns that the weaponry could end up in the hands of the paramilitary group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a 30-year insurgency in neighbouring Turkey in an attempt to establish a separate Kurdish state.

The PKK is on the UK Government's proscribed list and is also considered a terrorist organisation by the US, the European Union and Nato.

Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cvusolglu, said: "The weapons sent (to Iraq) should not end up in the hands of terrorist organisations. They should not end up in the hands of the PKK."

He added that Turkey had voiced its concerns during the Nato summit in Wales last week and said: "It may not be possible to control where these weapons will go."

The decades-long insurgency in the southeast of Turkey has cost 40,000 lives. 

Iraq's new Prime Minister Haider al Abadi

There had been speculation Britain could join US-led airstrikes against IS fighters in Iraq, however, David Cameron has promised a House of Commons vote before direct military intervention.

On Monday Barack Obama held talks with Iraq's new Prime Minister Haider al Abadi to discuss the fight against Islamic State militants.

Iraq's parliament has now officially named Mr al Abadi as the country's Prime Minister and approved most of his proposed candidates for cabinet roles, including members of the country's minority Sunni and Kurdish communities.

The West has been pushing Iraq for a more representative government that will ease anger among Sunnis who felt marginalised by former prime minister Nouri al Maliki and his administration.

The anger among Sunnis has helped to fuel the seizure of territory by the IS across much of north and western Iraq since June.

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Teenage Boy Charged Over School Knife Attack

A 13-year-old boy has been charged after a teacher and a pupil were hurt during a knife attack at a school.

The teenager, from Malvern in Worcestershire, was arrested by West Mercia Police following the alleged assault at The Chase Technology College.

He was due to appear before magistrates in Redditch, to face a total of 13 charges.

The suspect is accused of causing grievous bodily harm, causing actual bodily harm, threatening a person with a knife, five counts of carrying a knife or bladed instrument in a public place, and five counts of carrying a knife or bladed instrument in an educational establishment.

A male teacher at the school and a 13-year-old female student suffered minor injuries in the attack on Monday morning.

The suspect, who cannot be named because of his age, was arrested on Monday evening.

The school cancelled its after-school clubs on Monday but was open as normal today.

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PM To Miss PMQs In Scotland Campaign 'Panic'

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg will travel to Scotland to campaign for the Union as the fight to keep the UK together was lambasted as "falling apart".

The unprecedented move, which will see all three leaders miss Prime Minister's questions on Wednesday, follows indications in polls that Scottish voters could vote to leave the UK in the September 18 referendum.

Speaking after the joint trip was announced, the Prime Minister denied that it was a desperate move.

He said: "I'll do everything that I can. Let's be frank, there's a lot that the political leaders disagree about but there's one thing that we all agree about passionately and that is that our United Kingdom is better off if we stay together.

"So tomorrow the right place to be isn't Westminster at Prime Minister's Questions, it is being in Scotland, listening to people, talking to people.

"We will all have our own ways, separately, of talking about why we are better together.

The announcement was made on Twitter and Facebook

"But one thing I'm sure we will all say is that it's a matter for people in Scotland to decide, but we want you to stay."

While the leaders will all be in the country, they will not campaign together and will have separate schedules.

But Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said that it had been the day that the Better Together No campaign "fell apart".

The surprise trip follows a pledge made by the former prime minister, Gordon Brown, on Monday that if Scotland were to agree to stay in the Union Holyrood would be given significantly greater powers.

Polls indicate the Better Together No campaign could be in trouble

His promise for a "home-rule bill" was backed by the leaders of Scotland's Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties on Tuesday morning.

They agreed that work towards the transfer of the new powers from Westminster would begin the day after the referendum. Although they were unable to detail what these powers would be they agreed that the Scottish parliament would get greater tax-raising powers.

The Better Together Campaign, headed by former Chancellor Alistair Darling, has been accused of panic measures.

Sky's Deputy Political Editor Joey Jones said the extraordinary move from the three leaders made it "absolutely clear" there was panic in Westminster and the Better Together No campaign and he added that it appeared responses were being "made up on-the-hoof".

Gordon Brown has been out campaigning

A spokesman for Downing Street said the joint trip had been planned on Monday during a meeting between Mr Miliband and the Prime Minister. Mr Clegg was consulted about joining he campaign later in the day.

He added that the Saltire would be flying above No 10 and other Whitehall buildings until after the referendum.

Mr Miliband said he would be taking a simple message to the Scottish people to "stay with us" but dismissed suggestions that if Scotland voted for independence he and Mr Cameron should resign.

Appearing before MPs on the Political and Constitutional Reform select committee  on Tuesday, Mr Clegg dismissed the suggestion that the devolution of powers disclosed by Mr Brown on Monday was a "last minute" decision.

A TNS poll on Tuesday morning put the Yes and No campaigns equal on 41% - backing for the Yes campaign was up from 38% last month, while support for maintaining the union had dropped from 46%.

A YouGov poll commissioned by The Sunday Times suggested the Yes camp was leading the race by 51% to 49%.

As the vote draws closer, Better Together supporters have called on the Queen to intervene, following reports the monarch is growing increasingly concerned over the prospect of a split.

Later on Tuesday, the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, ruled out the possibility of an independent Scotland keeping the pound saying currency union was "incompatible with sovereignty".

The struggle over the pound has been a significant part of the campaigns, with Mr Salmond insisting the country would keep the currency.

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