2026 in England


Events of the year 2026 in England.

Events

January

  • 1 January – Convicted murderer Matthew Armstrong and two other prisoners, Daniel Washbourne and Aaron Thomas, abscond from HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire.
  • 2 January –
  • *The Brighton Pier Group announces that it is putting the Brighton Palace Pier up for sale.
  • *The number of flu cases is reported to have fallen, with the latest figures showing 2,676 people were in hospital with the virus, compared to just over 3,000 during the previous week.
  • *HM Coastguard recover the bodies of a man and a woman after the man tried to rescue a mother and her teenage daughter who got into difficulty in the sea at Withernsea, East Yorkshire. A search for the girl is called off the following day. The body of the girl is recovered on 16 January.
  • 3 January –
  • *Damage to a gas pipe causes a gas outage in the Kingsbridge, Malborough and Salcombe areas of Devon.
  • *Aaron Thomas, who escaped from HMP Leyhill on New Year's Day, is recaptured in Bristol.
  • 6 January –
  • * Fresh warnings for snow and ice are issued as Storm Goretti approaches England.
  • * The annual animal count at London Zoo begins.
  • * Jake Fahri, who was convicted of the 2008 murder of Jimmy Mizen, is recommended for open prison by the Parole Board.
  • * A mother has been charged with murdering her four-year-old daughter in a house fire in Manchester.
  • * Staff at two primary schools in Greater Manchester strike over claims their reports of violence and daily assaults are being ignored by senior leadership.
  • 7 January –
  • *Matthew Armstrong and Daniel Washbourne, who escaped from HMP Leyhill on New Year's Day, are recaptured, in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire and Bristol City Centre respectively.
  • *Three schoolchildren are injured after falling through an upstairs window of a double-decker bus in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester.
  • *Former England striker and manager Kevin Keegan reveals he has been diagnosed with cancer.
  • 8 January –
  • *The UK government announces plans to give councils in England greater powers to fine motorists who cause disruption by parking on pavements.
  • *Former English Premier League referee David Coote is sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years over a sexually explicit video of a teenage boy that was found on his laptop.
  • 9 January –
  • *At a hearing at Norwich Crown Court, Rodney Johnston is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 16 years after he was earlier convicted of coercing a woman to have sex with more than 100 strangers over a period of three decades.
  • *At a hearing at Blackburn Magistrates' Court, a 60-year-old man pleads guilty to sending abusive messages over social media to England footballer Jess Carter during the 2025 UEFA Women's Euros.
  • 10 January –
  • *Devon and Cornwall Police confirm that a man was found deceased after a tree fell on a caravan at Helston during Storm Goretti.
  • *Three men are arrested after five emergency responders were struck by vehicles while attending an accident in South Benfleet, Essex.
  • 11 January –
  • * Four people are killed and five are injured in a car crash in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
  • * A cyclist is killed in a road incident in Bristol.
  • * Five people are arrested on suspicion of murder after a man is found dead in Stockton-on-Tees.
  • 13 January – John McDonald, who knocked down and fatally injured Suzanne Cherry at Aston Wood Golf Course in Staffordshire while being pursued by police, is sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison.
  • 14 January – Steve Wright, convicted of the 2006 Ipswich murders, is charged with the murder of Victoria Hall, who disappeared after a night out in Felixstowe in 1999.
  • 15 January –
  • *Jazz Reid, who posed as a fake Deliveroo driver and shot a man and his daughter while they sat in a car with other relatives at Ladbroke Grove in November 2024, is sentenced to 38 years in prison after earlier being convicted of attempted murder of the man and wounding the girl.
  • *Zoe Treadwell, who killed a motorcyclist by mowing him down in a Range Rover in Bournemouth in April 2025, is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years following conviction for his murder.
  • 16 January – A tribunal finds that eight female nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital had their dignity violated after a transgender woman was allowed to use their changing room.
  • 17 January – GPs in England are to be advised to seek a second opinion if a patient remains undiagnosed after three visits with the same symptoms.
  • 19 January –
  • *At a hearing at Northampton Crown Court, imam Ashraf Osmani is sentenced to fifteen weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, for marrying two 16-year-olds in Northampton's Central Mosque in November 2023, several months after the legal age for marriage in England was raised to 18. Osmani had claimed to be unaware of the law change at the time.
  • *Surrey Police begin a murder investigation following the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy in woodland at Guildford.
  • 20 January – Former prison officer Isabelle Dale, who had affairs with two prisoners while working at HMP Coldingley in Surrey and plotted to smuggle drugs into another prison with one of the men, is sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
  • 21 January –
  • *Following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court, mother-of-ten Mandy Wixon is convicted of holding a woman with learning difficulties captive and using her as a slave for 25 years. She is released on bail, and will be sentenced on 12 March.
  • *Following a review, the Office of Road and Rail concludes that it "did not have all the facts" when it decided to not allow passengers on a peak-time train service between Manchester and London.
  • *The body of one of two Christmas Day swimmers who went missing near Exmouth, Devon, is recovered, police confirm.
  • 22 January – An inquest into the death of Paul Lumber, a painter and decorator from Bedminster, Bristol, hears how he suffered fatal injuries after climbing a lamppost to attach a union flag while intoxicated on 22 November 2025, and after watching a football match. The inquest delivers a verdict of accidental death.
  • 23 January –
  • *At a hearing at Winchester Crown Court, former Swindon Borough Councillor Philip Young pleads guilty to a string of charges, including rape, sexual assault, assault by penetration and voyeurism, committed against his former wife over a number of years, taking 27 minutes to enter his pleas.
  • *A BBC investigation finds several hundred illegal rubbish dumps operating throughout England, including eleven "super sites".
  • *Two teenage boys, aged 15 and 16, are charged with the murder of a 15-year-old boy at Guildford on 19 January.
  • 24 January – Parts of Teignmouth Grand Pier in Devon are destroyed in Storm Ingrid.
  • 26 January – At a hearing at Northampton Crown Court, former prison officer Alicia Novas, who admitted to having a relationship with a prisoner at HMP Five Wells and smuggling cannabis into the prison, is sentenced to three years in custody.
  • 28 January – Following a trial at Wood Green Crown Court, singer Ross Wild is convicted of rape and attempted rape.
  • 29 January – At a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court, a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleads guilty to the murder of 12-year-old Leo Ross, who was fatally stabbed as he walked home from school on 21 January 2025 in Yardley, Birmingham.
  • 30 January –
  • *At an Old Bailey hearing, Anthony Gilheaney, who was earlier convicted of murder after killing one person and mowing down four others during a rampage through the West End in the early hours of Christmas Day 2024, is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years.
  • *Manchester Pride is to go ahead in 2026 under new management after the previous organisation managing the event went into administration.

February

  • 1 February –
  • *A fire breaks out in the endoscopy department of Southampton General Hospital forcing the evacuation of 200 patients and the cancellation of operations.
  • *A man is arrested on suspicion of murder following the fatal stabbing of a 50-year-old woman on a street in Willesden, north west London.
  • 2 February –
  • *Resident doctors in England vote in favour of further strike action in their long-running dispute with the UK government over pay and training posts.
  • *Former prison officer Charlotte Winstanley, who had a "substantial sexual relationship" with an inmate while working at HMP Lindholme and smuggled a range of contraband goods into the prison, is sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

Predicted and scheduled events

Holidays

Deaths

January

February

  • 1 February – Tony Pigott, 67, English cricketer, heart attack.