12 January – Alastair Campbell, former government advisor, is interviewed by the Chilcot Inquiry, and said he is prepared to defend "every word" of the September 2002 dossier on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction which led to the invasion of Iraq.[4]
18 January – Following the collapse of strike talks late last year, British Airways cabin crew decides to vote again on possible strike action.[5]
20 January – Unemployment falls for the first time in nearly two years, with the national total for November 2009 dipping by 7,000 to 2,460,000. However, some regions of Britain are still enduring a rise in unemployment, and experts say that the slight reduction in unemployment was largely due to an increase in people taking part-time work and work in occupations largely unrelated to their skills and experience.[6]
29 January – Former Prime Minister Tony Blair appears at the Iraq Inquiry and is questioned in public for the first time about his decision to take the United Kingdom to war against Iraq.[8][9]
February
2 February – The Birmingham based confectionery giant Cadbury is taken over by American rival Kraft Foods in an £11.5 billion deal.[10]
3 February – Opinion polls indicate that Labour have reduced the Conservative lead to as little as seven points, increasing the possibility of a hung parliament after the forthcoming general election.[11]
Jon Venables, one of the two boys (then aged 11) found guilty of murdering Merseyside toddler James Bulger in 1993, is recalled to prison after breaching terms of his life licence. Venables, 28, spent eight years in custody before being paroled along with Robert Thompson in 2001.[14]
Birmingham couple Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza receive prison sentences after being convicted of the manslaughter of Ms Gordon's seven-year-old daughter Khyra Ishaq, who died as a result of starvation two years ago. Ms Gordon is sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Mr Abuhamza is sentenced to indefinite imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of seven and a half years.[19]
The Unite union which represents British Airways cabin crew announces two rounds of strike action for three days from 20 March and four days from 27 March.[20]
20 March – The first British Airways strike, set to last for three days, begins. More than 80 planes are grounded at Heathrow Airport alone and numerous flights are reported to have been cancelled, though British Airways officials are confident that 65% of flights will be undisturbed.[21]
30 March – Levi Bellfield, a 41-year-old man two years into a life sentence for murdering two women and attempting to murder a third, is charged with the murder of Surrey teenager Milly Dowler, who disappeared in Walton-on-Thames eight years ago and whose body was found in Hampshire woodland six months later.[24]
April
6 April
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, visits Buckingham Palace to seek The Queen's permission to dissolve Parliament on 12 April, triggering a general election on 6 May.[25]
Minutes later, a car bomb explodes outside the MI5 headquarters in County Down, Northern Ireland. The Real IRA claims responsibility for the bomb shortly after its detonation.[29]The volcanic eruption that inconvenienced many British travellers.
15–16 April – An opinion poll puts the Labour Party at 28%, behind both the Conservatives on 33% and the Liberal Democrats on 30%, the first time since 1986 that a governing party has slipped into third place in an opinion poll.[32]
17–18 April – Another opinion poll shows the Liberal Democrats with a 1% lead, also the first time since 1986 that an opinion poll has shown a third party on top. Two more polls are released in the next few days which show the Lib Dems in first place, and two more which show them tied with the Conservatives.[33]
21 April – The government announces that British airports will reopen and passenger flights will resume, but officials caution that it will take time for flight schedules to return to normal after the six-day shutdown caused by volcanic ash from the 2010 eruptions of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.[34]
The 2010 local elections are also held across England in all 32 London boroughs, all 36 Metropolitan boroughs, 20 Unitary Authorities and 76 Non-metropolitan districts. The Labour Party gains 15 councils to control 36 overall, the Conservatives suffer a net loss of 8 councils, leaving them in control of 65, and the Liberal Democrats suffer a net loss of 4 local authorities, leaving them in control of 13 councils.[38]
8 May – 2010 general election: Liberal Democrat MPs endorse Nick Clegg's decision to negotiate with the Conservative Party in the first instance following the inconclusive result of the general election.[40]
With a coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats still being finalised, David Cameron is appointed Prime Minister by the Queen following Brown's resignation.[43]
12 May
2010 general election: Just after midnight, the Liberal Democrats emerge from a meeting of their Parliamentary party and Federal Executive to announce that the coalition deal had been formally approved "overwhelmingly",[44] meaning that David Cameron will lead a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister.[43]
In forming his new government, David Cameron appoints Sayeeda Warsi as Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet, making her the first Muslim to serve in Cabinet.[45]
The government announces an audit of spending commitments made during the final year of the previous Labour administration, and also announces a reduction in the budget for bonuses to senior civil servants.[53]
20 May – The requirement that house sellers in England and Wales must have a Home information pack produced before putting a property on the market is suspended by the coalition government.[57]
26 May – A 40-year-old man is arrested on suspicion of murder after the bodies of three prostitutes are found in the River Aire in Bradford, West Yorkshire.[59]
Beavers are bred in the wild in Scotland for the first time in 400 years.[64]
1 June – Foreign minister William Hague announces that 41 Britons detained in Gaza are expected to be deported imminently.[65]
2 June – Twelve people are killed and 25 injured after a gunman, identified as taxi driver Derrick Bird, goes on a killing spree in the Whitehaven, Egremont and Seascale areas of Cumbria. He is later found dead, having reportedly shot himself, in woodland at Boot.[66]
3 June – Police release the names of the twelve people who were killed in yesterday's shootings in Cumbria. They include Derrick Bird's 52-year-old twin brother David, the family's 60-year-old solicitor Kevin Commons, and 31-year-old Garry Purdham, brother of rugby league player Rob Purdham.
8 June – Chancellor George Osborne pledges a "fundamental reassessment" of the way the government works as he outlines plans to involve the public in spending cuts.[67]
British motorbike Grand Prix returns to Silverstone.
21 June – Jon Venables, one of the two killers of Merseyside toddler James Bulger, appears in court charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. Venables, now 28, was released on life licence in 2001 with a new identity after serving eight years for the murder, along with Robert Thompson.[71]
22 June – Chancellor George Osborne presents the coalition government's emergencybudget statement to the House of Commons.[72] The most notable changes include a 2.5% increase in VAT to 20% and a 25% reduction in public spending.[73]
3 July – Christopher Brown, 29, is shot dead in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, by a gunman who badly wounds his 22-year-old girlfriend Samantha Stobbart.
4 July – PC David Rathband is badly wounded in another shooting incident in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The gunman is reported to be 37-year-old Raoul Moat, who is also named as a suspect for the incident in Gateshead yesterday. Mr Moat had been released from prison on 1 July after spending nine weeks in prison for assault.[75]
7 July – The country commemorates the fifth anniversary of the 7/7 bombings, which killed 52 people on 7 July 2005.
9 July – Northumbria police are reported to have found an armed man, believed to be murder suspect Raoul Moat, in the local area and are negotiating with him to persuade him to give himself up.[78]
10 July – The week-long police manhunt for Raoul Moat comes to an end after he shoots himself dead following a six-hour stand off with officers in a field at Rothbury, Northumberland.[79]
14 July – David Cameron condemns individuals who have left tributes to Raoul Moat; floral tributes have been left at the scene of his suicide and a Facebook group has been set up in his memory.[81]
16 July
The High Court rules that Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, jailed for life in 1981 for murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others, should never be released from custody. Sutcliffe, now 64, spent the first four years of his imprisonment in a mainstream prison before being declared insane and moved to a secure mental hospital in 1985, where he has remained ever since.[82]
Jon Venables is sentenced to two years in prison after admitting distributing child pornography.[83]
Economic growth stands at a four-year high of 1.1%, in only the third quarter of economic growth which followed a record six-quarters of detraction.[84]
The government announces that, as from October next year, employers will no longer have the right to force workers to leave without paying them off once they turn 65.[87]
Metro Bank opens its first branch, in Holborn, London, the first wholly new high street bank for more than a century.[88]
August
1 August – A scheme which allows parents to check if someone with access to their children is a sex offender, will be extended to cover the whole of England and Wales by spring 2011 after proving successful in four pilot areas.[89]
6 August – During a meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, David Cameron speaks of an "unbreakable" friendship between Britain and Pakistan.[91]
8 August – Government plans to scrap free school milk for under-5s are abandoned by David Cameron amid fears it would remind voters of the "Thatcher, Milk Snatcher" episode of Edward Heath's 1970–1974 government.[92]
9 August – Martin O'Neill resigns after four years as manager of FA Premier League club Aston Villa, despite having guided them to European qualification in their previous three seasons – their best run for over a decade.[93]
11 August – Unemployment falls to 2,460,000 in the sharpest fall in unemployment seen for three years. The number of people in employment has increased by 184,000 over the last three months – the sharpest quarterly rise since 1989.[94]
13 August – The Government announces that the Audit Commission is to be scrapped, with its functions being transferred to the private sector.[95]
16 August – Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to give the £4.6 million advance and all royalties from his forthcoming memoirs, A Journey to a sports centre for badly injured soldiers.[96]
17 August – Lord Pearson of Rannoch announces that he will step down as leader of the UK Independence Party less than a year after being elected to the position, stating that he is "not much good" at party politics.[97]
1 September – Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's memoirs, A Journey, are published, containing criticisms of his successor, Gordon Brown, claiming that Brown could be "maddening" and is "lacking emotional intelligence".[102]
3 September – Annie Turnbull, believed to be the oldest person in Britain, dies aged 111.[104]
4 September – Tony Blair is pelted with missiles when attending a book signing in Dublin, Republic of Ireland; four people are arrested in connection with the attack, which is believed to have stemmed from protests against the Afghan and Iraqi wars.[105]
8 September – Ian Cameron, father of the prime minister, dies in the South of France after suffering a stroke, aged 77.[106]
10 September – The government unveils plans to privatise Royal Mail.[107]
27 September – Labour Party activists at the conference in Manchester condemn the coalition government's proposed public spending cuts as "obscene".[115]
28 September – Ed Miliband makes his first major speech as Labour leader at the party's Annual Conference telling delegates that his "new generation" will return the party to power.[116]
29 September – After losing the Labour Party leadership election to his brother Ed, David Miliband announces that he will not be serving in his brother's shadow cabinet, although he will continue as an MP.[117]
11 October – The inquest begins into the deaths of the 52 people who were killed in the terrorist attacks on London by Al-Qaeda members on 7 July 2005.[120]
A Populus opinion poll shows Labour one point ahead of the Tories on 38% – the first time in three years that a major opinion poll has shown Labour in the lead.[126]
26 October – Independent Print Limited launches i, the first national daily newspaper for a quarter of a century. The 20p paper is aimed at "readers and lapsed readers of quality newspapers".[127]
30 October
An explosive device is intercepted at East Midlands Airport, preventing a potential terrorist bombing of a passenger aeroplane. On the same day, a similar package is found on a cargo plane in Dubai. Al-Qaeda is suspected to have been responsible for both incidents.[128]
Human remains are found in Waterfoot, County Antrim; it is believed that they may be those of Peter Wilson, who was last seen alive in 1973 aged 21 and whose disappearance was linked to the Northern IrelandTroubles.[130]
4 November – The one millionth Range Rover is produced at the Land Rover factory in Solihull, 40 years after the original Range Rover was first produced.[132]
10 November – University students riot outside the Conservative Party headquarters in Millbank, London, in protest against funding cuts and proposals to increase tuition fees.[136]
11 November – The government unveils plans for the biggest shake up of the welfare system since the 1940s.[137]
The UK Government announces they will pay millions of pounds in compensation to around a dozen British citizens who were held in detention overseas, including the camp at Guantanamo Bay, and claim British security services colluded in their torture.[139]
24 November – A second protest in London sees thousands of students demonstrate. Trouble flares in Whitehall, resulting in 17 people being injured and 32 people are arrested. Unrest also spreads into cities including Brighton, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge and Sheffield, with street protests and university building sit-in protests taking place.[141]
25 November
The government unveils an £8bn investment package for Britain's railways.[142]
An icy blast hits North East Scotland with weather forecasts suggesting the rest of the country will be affected in the coming days.[143]
27 November – Ed Miliband launches a two-year review of Labour Party policy, saying that the Party must move beyond New Labour and calling on activists to make it the "People's Party" again.[145]
1 December – Heavy snow and freezing temperatures hit most of the country, with road, rail and air services disrupted and thousands of schools shut. Gatwick and Edinburgh Airports are both closed.[148]
1 December (c.) – Spanish-born Ana Patricia Botín becomes the first woman chief executive officer of a British bank, Santander UK.
2 December – England's bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup fails, having attracted only two votes; FIFA awards the tournament to Russia instead.[149]
A second wave of protests in London by university students against increased tuition fees and reduced public spending on higher education take place in Whitehall, London. A Cenotaph war memorial and statue of Winston Churchill are vandalised, and a car transporting The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall is attacked.[152]
11 December – Scottish Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson resigns amid criticism of his handling of transport chaos brought on by recent heavy snow in Scotland.[154]
13 December – Mark Weston, the first person to face a second murder trial in the United Kingdom following the abolition of the double jeopardy rule in England and Wales, is convicted of killing a woman in Oxfordshire in 1995. He is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 13 years.[156]
15 December – Unemployment has risen to 2,500,000 since October; the first monthly rise in six months.[157]
16 December – The Scottish Government rules out re-introducing tuition fees for Scottish university students, but students from other parts of the United Kingdom attending university in Scotland may face fees of £6,000.[158]
17 December – The British government announces plans to make prisoners serving less than four years eligible to vote.[159]
21 December
The Business secretary, Vince Cable, loses power to rule on Rupert Murdoch's take-over of BSkyB after being recorded stating that he had "declared war" on Murdoch by undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph.[160]
Police in Bristol become concerned about the whereabouts of a woman, Joanna Yeates, who has not been seen since the evening of 17 December.[161]
A breeding colony of the Eurasian spoonbill forms in north Norfolk, the first in Britain for 300 years.[165]
New car sales increase slightly to just over 2 million this year. The Ford Fiesta is Britain's best selling car for the second year running, while the Nissan Qashqai enjoys record sales for a model in the growing crossover market as Britain's tenth best selling car with nearly 40,000 sales.
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