Ex-BBC boss who championed Russell Brand and then lost her job over Sachsgate is released from a confidentiality agreement so she can reveal ALL about what she knew of the under-fire star’s behaviour

• Lesley Douglas has reportedly been freed from a confidentiality agreement 

By Cameron Charters

Published: 17:11 EDT, 24 September 2023 | Updated: 17:28 EDT, 24 September 2023

BUSINESS LIVE: Fears of 3,000 job losses at Port Talbot’s Tata steel plant

By Live Commentary

Updated: 02:51 EDT, 15 September 2023

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A British father has revealed how he and his wife quit his jobs and removed their children from school to travel around the world for a year.

The Taylor family, from Wigan, made the decision after father Steve saw motorhomes while camping and began fantasising about quitting his job and going travelling with his family for 10 months.

Steve had already travelled extensively as a student, but his wife, Jess, also 31, hadn’t, but he knew that a love of adventure was an important quality he wanted to pass onto his children – Isaac, seven, Millie, six, and Poppy, one.

Steve quit his job as a project manager and Jess quit her work as a commercial administrator to set off on the adventure of a lifetime.

Meanwhile they pulled their children out of school for the year, claiming it was ‘much cheaper to live’ and it has helped their kids ‘come out of their shells’.

Explaining his motivations, Steve said: ‘It was a mix of the pandemic and the kids getting to a certain age and wanting to spend more time with them.

‘We went camping with Jess’s family last year. I looked at all the motorhomes and thought, ‘That looks awesome! It’d be amazing to get one and go on an adventure.’

‘But we thought we couldn’t do it because we couldn’t take the kids out of school; we couldn’t quit our jobs, and we couldn’t cover the costs.

‘Then we said if we’re not going to do it, will we look back in 10 years time and think, ‘Why didn’t we go for it?’ And we said, ‘We’ve got to do it then.’

The couple discussed the idea and concluded that they didn’t want to have any regrets down the line, so they bought a van motorhome and went for it.

Steve said the process of taking his children out of school was simple and their teachers were supportive of the adventure.

To help cover the costs, he set up a business as a contract project manager, which he could do remotely and part-time, and that, coupled with the family’s savings, was enough for them to live on after they rented out their home.

He added: ‘Luckily, because of Covid there were so many resources available when it came to homeschooling the children.

‘We had an online tutor one day a week who filled in any gaps that we were missing.’

In terms of costs, the family admitted that it varied, but they found that their outgoings were generally less than half of what they were living at home.

Steve said: ‘It was much cheaper to live. We probably spent less than half our previous outgoings living in the van.’

The family visited nine countries on their 10-month-long adventure – France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Morocco.

What followed was an almost instantaneous positive change in their children, and the family as a whole became a lot closer. 

Steve added: ‘It was a big culture shock for the kids, especially seeing some of the poverty in Morocco. It made them appreciate how lucky they are.’

Steve said: ‘We didn’t have the distractions of day to day life.

‘One of the stand-out things was how little my children were watching screens when we were travelling. My oldest son developed a love for reading.

‘My daughter’s socialisation skills improved. She would have full-blown conversations with adults. It was like a night and day in terms of her coming out of her shell.’

While the family are now back at home, they are already planning their next big trip, and they are thinking about exploring Turkey, more of Africa, and potentially South America.

Steve stressed that they ended up doing a lot more than just seeing the world. 

He added: ‘I know my kids inside out now. Living inside a metal box, you get to know every little personality trait, every little trigger. It’s the same with my wife.

‘Travelling has also given us time with the baby that we never would have had if we’d kept working.’

Steve’s now advising any other families who are considering a big adventure to ‘just go for it’ because the benefits could be life-changing.

He said: ‘There were quite a few occasions where things were tough. We broke down in the mountains in Morocco. 

‘We were stranded at night with three kids, no breakdown cover, cashless, and no idea how we’d get sorted.

‘By then, we’d realised that if you zoom out far enough in terms of timescales, even the biggest problems in the moment seem manageable. We asked ourselves, ‘In six months time, will the problem I’m facing still be a problem?’

‘If it’s a no, then it’s likely you can handle whatever problem you’re facing.

‘It really helped us to keep our cool.

‘Thankfully, we managed to get towed to a garage in the closest city. They got the van fixed and we set off again.’

Retail is in the blood for Nish Kankiwala, the former Hovis boss who has become the first-ever chief executive of the John Lewis Partnership, owner of the department store chain and Waitrose grocery stores.

His family came to the UK from Mumbai, India, in the 1960s.

At first his parents couldn’t afford for Kankiwala and his sister to come to London, so the children stayed with their grandparents who had six sari shops.

‘I used to go to the shops on the way to school,’ he says. ‘I love fabrics.’

It sounds ideal for a man who will be responsible for all John Lewis’ cushions, curtains and beautifully upholstered sofas. Not to mention the fabled haberdashery and dressmaking departments.

Kankiwala originally had a clothes stall on Walthamstow market in east London.

He was also running the family’s shop attached to a Post Office in Tottenham, north London, when his father fell ill, while he was studying for his degree at University College London. ‘I did engineering, but I couldn’t escape my retail destiny,’ he laughs.

Kankiwala finds himself back on the shop floor in one of the hardest jobs in the industry – restoring John Lewis and Waitrose to their former status. The two chains were once synonymous with quality, service and being the undisputed destination of choice for Britain’s middle-class shoppers.

Waitrose, for example, was the first British supermarket to sell hummus – in the 1980s – and sushi – in 1996 – as well as being the first to offer organic produce.

It has its own farm and was the first to have its own vineyard. In a sign of the times it also has the largest value range with more than 900 ‘Essentials’ products.

Though its middle-class credentials still run deep, there is even an ‘Overheard in Waitrose’ satire on social media, poking gentle fun at the pretensions and foibles of the customers. But the business has struggled in the pandemic and the rampant inflation that followed.

Underlying those problems, which hit the retail sector as a whole, the department stores seemed to lose their mojo when faced with tough competition online and elsewhere on the high street.

John Lewis, the largest employee-owned operation in the UK with 74,000 partners, dropped its ‘never knowingly undersold’ policy, a move that would once have been sacrilege. Even its well-heeled customers are more hard up.

‘The Bank of England wants to make people feel a bit gloomier so they spend less, and it is working,’ says Kankiwala pointedly.

‘If you look at previous booms and busts sometimes it goes too far and we tip into recession. The trick is to avoid that. But that is for the bank. I just run shops.’

He says Anyday – the John Lewis ‘entry level brand’ for home and fashion – has ‘grown significantly’ as has the Waitrose Essentials label.

He is also looking at offering Klarna-style payments by instalments, which are often associated with lower income consumers. ‘I think we will develop a buy-now-pay-later product,’ he says. ‘Especially in the younger generation, people expect it.’

Kankiwala, who was a non-executive for two years before becoming chief executive officer, will be working alongside chairman Dame Sharon White to try and restore the partnership’s place in the nation’s hearts.

They have their work cut out. Losses for last year were £234 million and partners have had only one bonus in the past three years.

The hope is that installing Kankiwala as the first chief executive of John Lewis and Waitrose will supercharge the revival. Previously, the two chains had separate bosses, each reporting to the chairman.

‘We have never had a CEO,’ Kankiwala says. ‘In the old days we had two of everything. We have brought together all the functions and they all report to me now.’

Kankiwala’s task is to implement the recovery strategy – called the Partnership Plan – drawn up by White three years ago. The five-year blueprint aims to reduce costs, improve service and branch out into areas such as financial services and high quality rental housing.

The target is to make £200 million profits in the next two years and £400 million by 2025. Along the way, White has pledged to bring back partner bonuses when profit hits £150 million and debt falls.

But given the downturn in the economy since the plan was put in place, is this still realistic?

‘We are midway through it,’ he says. ‘We have had the cost of living, rising utility bills and an additional £180 million of costs.

‘It means we need to go even harder in some areas of the plan where I can bring my skills into play. Number one – I am fixated by customers. Growing up as I did, I can think of a thousand examples of learning from customers because they tell you the truth, though you might not like it.

‘Number two is cost. With all the extra expenditure coming out of the business we really have to make sure we are as productive as possible. In some areas we are not as efficient as other retailers. We need to look at waste and the supply chain.

‘The third area we need to supercharge is technology. We’ve not invested as fast as we should have.’

Despite three years of losses, he believes he can still hit the profit targets. ‘I broadly think they will be achieved by taking out more costs,’ he says.

‘When the previous team did the work, their assumption on inflation was about 3 per cent. We have taken out £300 million of costs already. This year we will probably take out £100 million.’

‘In procurement, we can do better. But we want to do it sustainably, not just slash.’

John Lewis has shut 16 shops since the pandemic, resulting in over 2,000 redundancies. And nine Waitrose shops have been closed, leading to more than 500 job losses. Kankiwala says there are no plans to shut any more shops.

When White talked in March about the possibility that there might be more implications for jobs, she meant by natural turnover. No redundancies were announced.

As for reinstating bonuses, he says staff are more concerned about higher basic wages. Partners have been promised they will be paid at least the Real Living Wage of £10.90 an hour – or £11.95 in London – once profit is over £200 million. Customers may be surprised this was not already the case.

There have been suggestions that the plight of John Lewis had become so desperate that White was prepared to dismantle the partnership model in order to bring in new investment. Kankiwala, however, is adamant that the partnership is safe in his hands.

Kankiwala spent most of his career in the mainstream corporate sector including Pepsico and Burger King. His most recent role was at Hovis, where he negotiated a sale to private equity.

The buyout barons have a hard-headed approach to business that is inimical to the partnership ethos. So is he really wedded to it?

‘I am,’ he insists. ‘I genuinely feel that the partnership model is a better one and will be replicated elsewhere.’

Sadly, his parents have passed away and are not here to see their son take one of the biggest jobs in British retail.

‘My mum and dad would be really proud,’ he says. ‘When I used to sell clothes on the market, we were poor. I am very privileged to be here because I come from nothing. My sister is in India and she would say ‘You have a big shop now’.’

Gogglebox star Sandra Martin has revealed that she’s finally off benefits after landing a job at a funeral parlour.

The TV personality, 61, told in March this year that she was back on benefits after having fallen on hard times – despite claiming that she ‘earned more than anyone else’ during her stint on the Channel 4 show. 

But Sandra has now turned her life around once more and is earning a wage as a cleaner at her friend’s business – a job she started just three weeks ago. 

In a new interview, the bubbly TV star told how she initially rejected a role as a receptionist at the funeral parlour as it would’ve been ‘too emotional’, but is happy to show ‘respect for the deceased’ by keeping the place clean.

She told The Sun: ‘I’m 61 and a grandmother. Three weeks ago I was on benefits and looking for work. Now, I’m going to be cleaning a funeral parlour after a friend opened one in Hastings.’ 

She went on to say that she’s due to begin a training course on ‘confidence and communication’ in a bid to develop new skills should she want to move onto receptionist work, but for now, she felt happier to be a cleaner.

Sandra explained: ‘I don’t want to do the reception work at the start, I think it will be too emotional. 

‘But at least for now I’m happy to keep the place clean out of respect for the deceased. I think it will be respectful.’

Sandra, who lives in Hastings but originally hails from Brixton, has been on and off benefits since leaving Gogglebox in 2018 – which the exception of a brief stint at Midlands’ train station.

The TV star told how she found it difficult to work that as she would be ‘constantly’ stopped for selfies. 

In March, Sandra revealed she was ‘paid more than anyone else’ during her time on the Channel 4 series . 

Sandra and her best friend Sandi Bogle, 58, became one of the most popular duos on the show when it began in 2013.

But in 2017, Sandi left the show to pursue her singing career and was replaced by Sandra’s daughter Chanchez, before she too left show soon after. 

Speaking to The Sun she claimed as ‘star of the show’ she was paid more than any other cast member, allowing her to enjoy a ‘luxury lifestyle’. 

She said: ‘I got more than everybody else, because everybody else was working, but I was on benefits, and I was the best one that was making the show’.

‘I got the contract, and they paid my rent, council tax, TV licence, electricity, gas, all the bills you need’.

Before adding: ‘I was living a luxury lifestyle.’

The fan favourite said she had blown her earnings from the show – thought to be around £1,500-a-month – on takeaways and getting her hair done. 

Earlier that month she revealed she had been forced back onto benefits after hitting hard times. 

Sandra won the British public over with her infectious cackle and love of Pot Noodles during her time on the show but by 2018 she had ended up homeless.

Despite the setback, Sandra revealed that after 50 years they remain friends: ‘No matter what we go through, she’s always got a room here for her, and she’s always got a room for me.

‘We’re besties. We’ve been through, ups, downs, thick and thin, the worst, the wears, the tears, the bumps, the laughs.’

Explaining how she quickly burned through her pay, Sandra previously told Loose Women: ‘The money was coming in. The bank account was big, being in the community, all my friends on the social.’

‘I never got help, but the money was squandering. The money went, taxis, hair, take away, friends that wanted money. The money just went. It was natural to help, I don’t regret it.’

Sandra added that at some points she wished she had never found fame, explaining: ‘I wanted to burn it all and go back to it. I’m not the celebrity person. I do lots of charity work, they don’t pay me, Sandi likes doing the red carpet.’

Gary Neville’s sister heads for Australia as former England coach Tracey lands job with Super Netball’s newest franchise

• Tracey Neville has landed a new job in Australia 
• She will coach Super Netball’s new franchise 
• Neville previously led the England team

By Ollie Lewis For Daily Mail Australia

Updated: 08:00 EDT, 2 August 2023

Burnley put out job advert for a STRETCHER BEARER this season as Vincent Kompany’s side prepare for Premier League return

• Burnley are recruiting for a position that could get fans slightly carried away
• The Premier League side have an open role that involves working with players
• Burnley are recruiting for a Stretcher Bearer to join their team at Turf Moor 

By Ryan Walker For Mailonline

Updated: 19:58 EDT, 1 August 2023

A job advert for a brain cancer surgeon potentially paying as little as £33,000 per year has sparked outrage online. 

Barts Health NHS Trust advertised for a neuro-oncology fellow, accredited by the Royal College of Surgeons. 

The fellowship, which specialises in the management and treatment of brain and spinal cord tumours, was listed for between £33,790 and £53,132. 

However, the 12-month fixed term contract, based at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, is applicable only to those ranked CCT/ST8.  

As an ST8 (specialty trainee year eight) medics have already completed a decade working as a junior doctor following a five-year medical degree. 

Upon graduation, all medical graduates must complete a two-year general training programme before embarking on specialty training — which can take up to eight years. 

As an ST8, candidates will have also completed consultancy exams or are about to complete them. 

A Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), the next level, confirms that a doctor ‘has completed an approved training programme in the UK and is eligible for entry onto the GP Register or the Specialist Register’.

Among the post’s responsibilities include working on-call at the Royal London Hospital, supervising a ST3 trainee — specialty trainee year three — out of hours and attending a weekly multidisciplinary neuro-oncology clinic held at St Bartholemew’s Hospital.

The fellow is also expected to ‘regularly review pre- and post-operative neuro-oncology patients’. 

But taking to social media, Brits shared their outrage at the expected salary requirements in the job ad, which was listed at the end of May. 

In a Twitter post attracting 9.1million views and over 1,000 retweets, one user wrote ‘the UK needs a hard reset’. 

‘Speechless. I hope no-one applies’, responded another user.

‘UK is one of the least attractive countries to work as a doctor’ and I’d like to say I’m shocked. I’m afraid I’m not,’ were among other responses. 

On TikTok, newly qualified medic @Saifs.Space, who will begin as a foundation year one doctor in London shortly, said: ‘This is the person that operates on you or your family member’s brain tumours when you’re so unwell and this is highly skilled and highly specialised work.’ 

In the video watched over 291,000 times, he added: ‘This is just so shameful. This is what we feel our healthcare professionals are worth in the UK.

‘That’s just not it.’

Responding to the TikTok, users expressed their outrage over the salary expectations. ‘I’m so sorry that is ridiculous – this country is a joke’, one responded. 

Another questioned: ‘Is it even worth me starting med school this September?’ 

Barts Health NHS Trust is one of the largest acute trusts in the NHS in England.

Established in 2012, it runs five hospitals throughout the City of London and East London. 

Disgruntled NHS medics say the pandemic has shone a light on how poorly they are valued in the UK, a factor that helped launched a wave of strike action across the UK to boost their pay. 

The British Medical Association (BMA), the organisation behind the action, says the workforce has suffered a 26 per cent real-terms cut to their pay since 2008/09.

Addressing this translates to a 35 per cent pay increase.

If ministers were to accept, some medics would see their salaries increase by up to £20,000.

The BMA’s co-chair Vivek Trivedi has suggested that the BMA are willing to negotiate a deal that would see this restoration completed over a number of years, rather than in one big jump.

However, ministers claim unions’ demands for double digit pay rises are simply unaffordable and would have to come at the expense of patient services.

There are very little signs of any compromise in the future and while the dispute continues NHS waiting lists continue to rise to record levels and more and more staff apply to leave the UK.

The lowest paid junior doctors, in their first foundation year, earn an annual salary of £29,384.

This, the BMA argues, can equate to around £14.09 per hour. But this is dependent on them not working weekends or nights, or earning overtime.

The basic wage of the most senior junior doctor — ST6 to ST8, in their final years of speciality training — is capped at £58,398 per year.

The pay in the job advert that sparked outrage matches the pay-scale for speciality registrars, which begins at £33,790 per year and extends to £53,132. These are still junior doctors, who are training to become consultants. 

Although qualified as consultants once awarded a CCT, some medics find the step-up ‘challenging’, according to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Such fellowships, usually offered on a 12-month basis, ‘help bridge the gap’, it says.

Consultants can be paid upwards of £110,000-a-year. 

As is common across many sectors, junior doctors earn more if they work overtime, overnight, or at the weekend. 

Growing anger among medics over poor pay and working conditions has already seen record numbers of British doctors, nurses and midwives also try to move abroad — with Australia top of their list. 

Almost 25,000 applications to get documents needed to secure a job overseas were made to UK healthcare regulators in 2022. The vast majority represent NHS workers. 

Figures obtained by MailOnline reveal nearly 7,000 doctors applied for documents to support an application to work abroad from the British medical regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), in 2022. This was up from 6,100 in 2019. 

Separate figures for 2023, which only go up until May, suggest this year will see an even bigger exodus, with almost 3,500 applying for their documents so far. 

Rolls-Royce planning job cuts that could see around 3,000 roles slashed as part of a major turnaround

By Daily Mail City & Finance Reporter

Updated: 16:50 EDT, 28 May 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

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While they might be all smiles in the air, two flight attendants have revealed that there are many downsides to their jobs.    

Aja Bailey, who has worked as cabin crew for more than eight years for both commercial airlines and private jets, says some of the tougher aspects of her work include missing every social event and altitude-induced health issues.

Meanwhile Caroline Kneitz, who worked as an Emirates flight attendant for six years, says difficult passengers were a constant stress.

Some of her least pleasant memories include witnessing a drunk man beat his wife and a man who she told to stop smoking blowing e-cigarette smoke in her face. 

Take a flight down to learn more of their insights around what goes on as a flight attendant, behind the scenes.

Health concerns

Aja says being constantly exposed to high altitudes can lead to various health concerns such as dehydration and exhaustion, so it’s ‘important to prioritize your health in this industry.’

She once had to get an IV drip because she was ‘super dehydrated.’ The globetrotter explained: ‘With the job you can be so busy sometimes that you forget to drink water and eat. It’s not like a nine to five job where you get a lunch break. 

‘When you take back to back trips sometimes there is no break in-between. Now I have to tell myself to stop, have a granola bar, have a protein bar… I’ll pack a protein shake and just something to nibble on throughout my journeys.’

Difficult passengers

Caroline says she had a number of difficult passengers during her time as a flight attendant, which made the job very stressful at times. 

Some of her least pleasant experiences included a passenger blowing an e-cigarette into her face after being asked to stop smoking and one time she witnessed a drunk guy beating his wife in the middle of a full flight. 

Then, she remembers many passengers complaining about the food, either ‘expecting restaurant quality meals or recipes that don’t even exists.’

She adds: ‘Once a boy came up to me and demanded to be given a burger!’

The seatbelt sign was ‘another classic’, Caroline says, and ‘by far the highest point of contention between crew and their passengers.’

She explains: ‘A crew WILL have at least one argument per flight about this with a passenger. At our company that meant quite often taking a trip to the manager’s office, reports and possible implications on your record.’ 

Even families can prove difficult in certain situations, Caroline says. 

She recounted one particular incident: ‘One family insisted on a baby stroller service which is only available at our home base. 

‘So after the plane landed and people disembarked, they insisted to the point that they refused to get off the plane. Eventually security needed to be called to remove the family.’

Dealing with peoples’ mess

Many passengers leave lots of mess behind them, the ladies say, but Caroline says the worst she had to deal with was human feces. 

Recalling the unpleasant incident, she said: ‘Once our flight was delayed out from Dhaka, Bangladesh, because certain seats were soiled in feces and we did not have sufficient spare covers. 

‘It was like the entire interior needed an overhaul after a four hour flight. 

‘As people leave lots of mess in their seats, especially crumbs and food debris, it is very common to request for a cover change once passengers have disembarked. It can get pretty gross.’

Heavy workloads and multitasking  

To be a flight attendant, both women say you need to be like a ‘Swiss army knife’, as you are expected to do so many different tasks. 

Caroline added: ‘There’s a term we used as a nickname for air stewardesses, ‘octo stew’, because of the idea we would need octopus arms to get things done.’

Aja says on private jets you have even more responsibilities as often you are working alone. 

She explains: ‘Private jet flight attendants are responsible for a wide range of tasks, including cleaning, stocking, and preparing meals, which can be very physically demanding.’ 

Medical emergencies

Another role both women had to unexpectedly take during their time in the skies was ‘medic.’

Both say they have witnessed lots of medical emergencies. Aja said the most stressful situation she encountered was when a passenger passed out she had to administer CPR. 

Meanwhile, Caroline said she witnessed many old people suffering heart attacks but two of the most traumatic incidents she dealt with was the death of a four-year-old on the way from Dubai to Munich due to a high fever and a lady suffering a miscarriage from Australia to Dubai.

‘She was in dire pain for about 14 hours and bleeding like crazy,’ Caroline said.

One of the more bizarre medical emergencies she encountered was a woman who couldn’t get a ring off her finger as it had swelled so much. As a result they had to perform an emergency landing to save her finger.

Missing big life events

Both women say that due to their work, they missed many social events, from birthdays to weddings to family gatherings. 

Aja says this is something she has accepted but it can be hard at times. 

She mused: ‘I’ve missed every big event due to my career. 

‘I’ve missed weddings, I’ve missed thanksgivings, Christmases, lots of birthdays. It just comes with the job and the territory. 

‘People typically fly on holidays and they want to see their families. So flight attendants and pilots are typically working during those big, special days.’ 

Low and irregular pay

On the pay side of things, both Aja and Caroline say salaries can vary wildly.

According to job side Indeed.com, the average base salary for a flight attendant in the U.S. is $39,448.

When she started out in the industry, Aja said her pay was ‘not livable for the year’ and her training – which took two months – was unpaid. 

Now, on private jets the perks are much better but the shifts can be irregular so she must have cash saved in case jobs don’t come in. 

Meanwhile, Caroline said her salary was much better as she worked for a Middle East airline. 

She revealed: ‘Pay for Middle Eastern airlines is good because it’s tax free and living expenses fully covered. So you’re making about $3,000 a month which isn’t bad.’