Luke Alsford

Metro • 25th June 2026

Shady spyware firm linked to hacking journalists held talks with UK officials

British officials held talks with a spyware company whose software was used to target journalists and was later sanctioned by the US, Metro can reveal.
Officials met salesmen from Intellexa, whose surveillance application Predator was used to spy on at least 87 people in Greece and was sold to authoritarian regimes across the world.
Four business executives linked to the spyware developer were found guilty by an Athens court in February of violating the confidentiality of telephone communication...

Metro • 22nd June 2026

Greta Thunberg warns 40°C heatwave about to hit UK 'is only the beginning'

Greta Thunberg has said the UK’s leaders have ‘their heads completely buried in the sand’ over the climate crisis as a 40°C heatwave hits the country.
The climate activist, 23, told Metro that the blistering temperatures – which could break the record for June – are ‘only the beginning’.
The scorching heat is expected to last until at least Thursday after the Met Office issued a four-day extreme heat warning across large parts of England and Wales.
The alert indicates the weather could be a risk...

Metro • 16th June 2026

Anguished voice of British dad 'tortured in Dubai' after new abuse claims emerge

This is the anguished voice of a British father who has allegedly faced torture inside a Dubai jail.
Ryan Pepper, 27, claimed United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials threatened to smash his hands if he didn’t sign paperwork in Arabic, a language he doesn’t understand.
This is the first time Ryan’s voice has been heard publicly since allegations surfaced that he has been beaten, threatened and psychologically abused after he was arrested more than seven months ago.
Metro can now reveal that British...

Metro • 2nd June 2026

MoD logs 45 security breaches a day as ‘terror-target’ devices and IDs missing

More than 40 suspected security breaches are being reported to the Ministry of Defence every day, Metro can reveal.
Close to 19,000 incidents that could have compromised British Defence assets were flagged to officials from January 2025 to February 2026.
This included thousands of reports of lost hardware, such as phones and laptops, as well as assets classed as attractive to terrorists.
Defence personnel also raised questions over dozens of occasions where people were left unaccompanied on site...

Metro • 21st May 2026

Fears over network of UK student societies linked to 'Iranian recruitment hub'

A network of student societies has collaborated with an Iranian-backed broadcaster linked with recruiting agents, a Metro investigation has uncovered.
The campaign wing of the AhlulBayt Society, which has more than 45 branches on British campuses, has worked with PressTV, which the US has said is used by Iranian intelligence to ‘recruit assets’.
AhlulBayt Society groups, known as ABSocs, have also partnered with the Islamic Human Rights Commission, which allegedly has links with the Iranian regi...

Metro • 19th May 2026

Reform's Makerfield candidate said King should open palaces for asylum seekers

Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election wrote about Asian men ‘assaulting white people en masse’ and ‘an invasion of foreign criminals’ on his now suspended X account, Metro can reveal
Robert F Kenyon was selected by Reform to take on Andy Burnham in the critical by-election in Makerfield, Greater Manchester, next month.
Social media commentators noticed within minutes that Kenyon’s X account, Makerfield_RFK, was suspended by X because it violated the rules of the platform.
Metro has...

Metro • 5th May 2026

Iranian exiles fear being on 'pro-regime kill lists' after being doxed on Telegr

An Iranian activist who was doxed by a pro-Regime Telegram channel alongside dozens of other expats has said he now ‘has a target on his back’.
Ali Taranssari’s personal information was published on the ‘Bay of Pigs’ pages that aims to ‘identify overseas traitors’.
The channel has exposed the bank details, contact information, relatives and locations of more than a dozen UK-based anti-Regime campaigners to thousands of followers.
Security sources told Metro the level of detail and professionalis...

Metro • 27th April 2026

Iranian embassy in UK recruiting expats to become martyrs and 'sacrifice life'

The Iranian embassy in London is recruiting expats to become martyrs and ‘sacrifice their lives for the Homeland’, Metro can reveal.
Iranian diplomats called on their country’s diaspora in the UK to ‘lay down our lives’ for a new campaign to ‘defend Iranian land’.
The message, posted on their Telegram channel, directs Iranians to register their interest with the authorities and specifically references recruiting ‘children’.
The call for martyrs has been labelled ‘appalling’ by Shadow Foreign Sec...

Metro • 23rd April 2026

Global drug company AstraZeneca 'hacked' by teenage cyber gang

A global drug company which pioneered the Covid vaccine has been victim of a cyber attack, Metro can reveal.
AstraZeneca was breached by international teenage hacker network Lapsus$, according to multiple posts from the group.
There are fears that confidential software, data and employee records were allegedly stolen.
The ‘cyber incident’ was confirmed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which organisations must report a data breach to if it poses a risk to people’s rights and freedo...

Metro • 19th April 2026

Dad whose entire family died in Air India crash told he can't stay in UK

The Home Office has been branded cruel after a dad whose family was killed in last year’s Air India crash was told he must leave the UK.
Mohammad Shethwala’s wife Sadikabanu and the couple’s two-year-old daughter Fatima were among 260 people who died in the June 2025 disaster.
He was dependent on Sadikabanu for his British visa, after she first arrived in the country as a student.
Mohammad, who has lived in the UK for four years, applied to extend his visa on humanitarian grounds because he has...

Metro • 16th April 2026

'Disgusting' painting put up at British embassy that 'celebrates colonisation'

The Foreign Office has been branded ‘disgusting’ for hanging a painting in Nigeria that celebrates a bloody 19th-century British invasion.
The artwork, installed in the Lagos High Commission after Labour’s election victory, depicts the 1851 naval attack that toppled the region’s King.
Now, diplomats are facing frantic calls to tear it down or risk permanently ‘undermining’ UK relations with the African nation.
British and Nigerian historians and activists said the artwork gives the impression th...

Metro • 31st March 2026

Tories invited Muslims to iftar before shadow minister slammed Ramadan prayers

The Conservative Party hosted an ‘inclusive’ iftar event just weeks before a Tory shadow minister called the same celebration in central London an ‘act of domination’, Metro can reveal.
Nick Timothy sparked fury earlier this month when he wrote that videos of mass prayer during a Ramadan event in Trafalgar Square was ‘straight out of the Islamist playbook’.
Despite calls for him to be sacked, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake both defended him.
Now, Metro has uncovere...

Metro • 9th March 2026

Jeffrey Epstein's brother says bombshell study will prove he didn't kill himself

Jeffrey Epstein’s brother has said expert doctors are about to release a ‘game-changing’ report that will prove the paedophile financier did not commit suicide.
Mark Epstein claimed the findings should spark a murder investigation into his older brother’s death.
The property developer said the findings are due after an independent group of pathologists studied Jeffrey’s autopsy results for months.
Mark spoke out after new reports the guard who found Jeffrey dead received mystery payments, saying...

Metro • 4th March 2026

'3G pitches are exposing children to harmful material - they need to banned'

A leading teachers’ union has called for artificial football pitches to be banned over fears the rubber material in them is causing cancer.
NASUWT said teachers and children are being exposed to harmful chemicals when playing on 3G sports surfaces.
The UK’s other largest teachers’ unions told Metro they are also worried about the health risks and called for further research.
Campaigners and public health experts have long sounded the alarm over carcinogens and chemicals in the rubber crumb infil...

Metro • 25th February 2026

Thousands of Brits snitching on neighbours for watching TV without a licence

Thousands of ‘licence fee snitches’ have ratted out their neighbour for illegally watching broadcast TV, Metro can reveal.
More than 17,000 reports of snitching on people flouting TV Licensing rules have been submitted to the BBC since November 2023.
Anyone is able to report an address they suspect of illegally watching broadcast TV or BBC iPlayer through a form on the TV Licensing website.
But critics have labelled the scheme a ‘deeply unhealthy system that turns neighbours into informants’.
Da...

Metro • 17th February 2026

Life on Russia's kill list: 'I don't touch door handles with my bare hands'

Being poisoned to death is not something most people have to think about.
But for Roman Dobrokhotov and his family, it’s a threat that is part of daily life.
The exiled Russian journalist, 42, fled his homeland through the forest in July 2021 and has been on Putin’s most wanted list ever since.
Speaking after the UK confirmed that opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a deadly frog toxin, Dobrokhotov revealed the precautions he still takes to make sure the same doesn’t happen to him...

Metro • 10th February 2026

'My baby died at six-weeks-old - doctors took his brain and never told me'

‘Why could I not see my baby’s body before his funeral?’
For decades, that question haunted Jane Andrews after her six-week-old son’s death in January 1980.
When she laid him to rest days later, she didn’t know that his brain was missing.
It was another 20 years later that she found out that doctors at Southampton General Hospital had taken and disposed of it without telling her.
Now 81, Jane is telling her story for the first time and told Metro she is still seeking answers about what happened...

Metro • 3rd February 2026

Grooming gang survivors 'betrayed and distressed' after victims panel is axed

Survivors of the grooming gangs scandal feel ‘disrespected’ and ‘voiceless’ after the victims panel at the heart of the inquiry was scrapped by the government, Metro can reveal.
The victims and survivors liaison panel was shelved by the Home Office in January, a month after survivors criticised the appointment of then Labour peer Anne Longfield as chair of the future inquiry.
The decision to disband the panel, first reported by Metro in December, has sparked accusations that they are being ‘igno...

Metro • 19th January 2026

First calls for a boycott of the World Cup over Trump's Greenland threats

Conservative and Labour MPs have become the first voices to call for a boycott of the World Cup this summer after Trump announced new tariffs on the UK.
Simon Hoare and Kate Osborne said the government needed to ‘push every button and pull every lever’ to show its objection to the US president’s threats towards Greenland.
Mr Hoare, a senior Conservative MP, told Metro that could include not going to the World Cup, a day after he called for the King’s state visit to the US to be cancelled.
Labour...

Metro • 6th January 2026

Two Cabinet ministers 'stripped to a bikini' by Grok AI

Two Cabinet members have become the latest victims to be ‘undressed’ by Grok AI on Elon Musk’s X, Metro can reveal.
This newspaper has seen pictures of the senior politicians being shown in revealing bikinis at the request of members of the public.
A government source called the images ‘deeply disturbing’ and welcomed media regulator Ofcom’s announcement that they are in ‘urgent talks’ with X and xAI.
The Cabinet ministers are one of hundreds of examples of Grok generating images of partially-na...

Metro • 18th December 2025

Asylum seeker supporters 'face rape threats' in town that aims to house migrants

If you chance across the East Sussex town of Crowborough on a Sunday morning, you will see hundreds of protesters waving Union Jacks and St George’s flags.
Every week, people have been marching against Home Office plans to house 540 male asylum seekers at a former army training camp just outside it.
The backlash against the arrival of these migrants has been a staple in the media for weeks – but Metro can reveal the darker side to these angry demos.
Those who have spoken out in support of the as...

Metro • 9th December 2025

Survivors panel at centre of grooming gangs inquiry to be scrapped

The survivors panel at the heart of the grooming gangs inquiry will be ditched by the government, Metro can reveal.
The victims and survivors panel will be wound down in January, the Home Office has confirmed, just a year after it was set up to ‘ensure that victims’ voices remain at the very heart’ of the inquiry.
The decision was criticised as ‘disgusting’ by grooming gangs survivors, who said it proved the inquiry would not be victim-led.
The revelation comes on the same day the Home Secretary...

Metro • 20th November 2025

Russian hackers target IVF clinics across UK used by thousands of couples

A prestigious IVF clinic has confirmed Russian hackers broke into their systems used by thousands of couples across the UK after Metro revealed the huge data breach.
The London Women’s Clinic, which offers IVF, egg freezing and other fertility treatments at 17 centres across the country, was compromised by the ransomware gang Qilin.
A number of NHS patients are among those who use the clinic and may have been at risk of having their private medical data exposed.
The ‘concerning’ data breach is b...

Mail Online • 3rd November 2025

Estate agent was NOT to blame for Reeves' house licence fiasco

00:27, 03 Nov 2025, updated

03:00, 03 Nov 2025



By

LUKE ALSFORD
and
CLAIRE ELLICOTT

An estate agent who failed to apply for a licence for Rachel Reeves to let her family home was not responsible for the oversight, his boss has revealed.

The property manager has found himself at the centre of a political scandal after he originally dealt with the Chancellor's case.

But questions were raised about why the agent had left the comp...