Gavin Grey: UK & Europe correspondent on members of One Direction paying tribute to bandmate Liam Payne, wife of Conservative councillor jailed for 31 months, UK cabinet ministers concerned over cuts to their departments

The members of One Direction have paid tribute to their bandmate, Liam Payne. Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles say they are "completely devastated" and "the memories we shared with him will be treasured forever".

Plus, the wife of a Conservative councillor has been jailed for 31 months after calling for hotels housing asylum seekers in the UK to be set on fire. She posted the expletive-ridden message on X on the day three girls were killed in a stabbing incident in NW England.

And, several UK cabinet ministers have written to the prime minister two weeks ahead of the Budget, to voice concerns over the scale of cuts their departments may face.

Steep spending cuts are forecast to plug a £40bn funding gap. In what’s an unusual move some ministers are “going over the head” of the chancellor, to address the prime minister directly.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray UK correspondens with me now, Hikevin Hi there. Yeah,
so we've heard from all of the members now of
One Direction, have we?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes. It was a joint statement that's been put out
by them. There was some commentary about why we hadn't
heard from any of them, but it was signed by
the remaining members of One Direction, Louis Tomlinson, Zame Malick,
Nile Horran and Harry's Styles about the death, of course,
of thirty one year old Liam Payne, the former bandmate
in Argentina. The statement said in time and when everyone

(00:34):
is able to, there will be more to say, but
it just says that they are completely devastated about the
passing of their band member, and earlier Liam Payne's family
said they were heartbroken and paid tribute to the kind,
funny and brave soul, saying we are supporting each other
the best we can as a family and asked for

(00:54):
privacy in space at this awful time. But privacy is
going to be difficult, I say, because the media interest
is absolutely massive in this. It was reported as well
that one crew in Argentina had managed to film the
body being taken away and put that on their website

(01:14):
that was then deleted from their website. So yeah, this
is going to be very difficult for a few days.
I think the Argentinian authorities, having conducted that preliminary postmodel examination,
will of course be conducting a full one, and investigations
continue in Argentina.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, I mean the state his state of mind is
becoming more and more said the more you read about it, right,
because now you've got you've got the Daily Mail reporting
that he was dropped by his record label Universal just
days before his death.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yes, that's right, and also a cease and assist letter
from a former girlfriend's solicitor and he was said to
be contacting her allegedly and that was against the green
they had, so she took out a season to cis letter.
It's being reported as well. And this idea as well,
that he was either semi conscious or completely unconscious when

(02:09):
he fell, I think, as you say, really points to
a very muddled mind, a very sad last few hours
for Liam Payne.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, very tough. Now you guys have got another example
of somebody being jailed for quite a long time for
posting things on social media.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yes, when I read the things as well, I thought gosh,
that seems extraordinary. But the main thing that this woman
wrote was that she wanted hotels housing asylum seekers in
the UK to be set on fire. She's caused a
lot of interest Lucy Connolly because her husband is quite

(02:48):
a senior counselor within one of the councils in the Midlands,
the West Northamptonshire Council. It was an expletive ridden message
on x and that was on the day that those
three girls was after death in Southport in Northwest England.
The forty one year old child mind called for mass
deportation now and added if that makes me racist, so

(03:11):
be it. Well, Lucy Connolly has been jailed for thirty
one months nearly three years on this two and a
half years anyway, and the judge said that the sentence
for these offenses was intended to punish and deter Well, yeah,
I should think that that deterring factor is pretty major

(03:31):
on there. But as you said, pretty pretty severe sentence.
People wondering about that, But it was I think that
sentence about calling for hotels housing asylum seekrets to be
set on fire, which was considered to be very very Ragkevin.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Good to talk to you about Thank you. We'll talk
to you again on Monday. Enjoy the weekend. Kevin Gray
are UK correspondent ration. Ravendra has just brought up his
one hundred and he's pil good. Brought it up with
a four like did it and styled in me and
then he took his helmet off me so everybody could
se his beautiful long hair. So good on him for that.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio