2012 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – David Cameron

  Events

January

• 3 January – After a trial based on new forensic evidence, Gary Dobson and David Norris are convicted of the racist murder of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in April 1993. On 4 January they are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, with minimum term of just over 15 and 14 years respectively.
• 6 January – Mobile phone operator O2 announces plans to provide free internet to millions of residents and visitors in central London by launching Europe's largest free Wi-Fi zone.
• 10 January
• * The Scottish Government announces that it plans to hold the referendum on Scottish independence in the autumn of 2014.
• * Five Muslim men go on trial at Derby Crown Court for calling for gay men to be killed, the first such prosecution under hate crime legislation.
• 20 January – Press TV, an English language news channel owned by the Iranian Government, is forced off air in the United Kingdom after Ofcom revokes its broadcasting licence for breaching the terms of the Communications Act.
• 21 January – Under new guidelines to come into force from 30 April, clinics which charge for pregnancy services including abortions will be able to advertise their services on radio and television after the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice rules there is no justification for barring such advertising.
• 23 January – John Anslow, a prisoner charged with murder following a fatal shooting in 2010, escapes from the van transporting him to a court appearance following an armed ambush near Redditch, Worcestershire.
• 24 January – UK government debt has risen above £1,000,000,000,000 for the first time.
• 25 January
• *Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, sets out the question – "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?" – that he intends to ask voters in a referendum in 2014.
• *Official figures reveal that the UK economy shrunk by 0.2% in the final three months of 2011.
• 31 January – Former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Fred Goodwin loses his knighthood as a result of the near collapse of the bank in 2008.

  February

• February – Ash dieback fungus first found in the British Isles.
• 3 February
• *Secretary of State for Energy Chris Huhne resigns after the Crown Prosecution Service announces it will bring charges against him over claims his wife accepted penalty points on her driving licence for speeding on his behalf.
• *The Football Association removes John Terry as Captain of the England national football team over allegations of racial abuse of opponent Anton Ferdinand during a match.
• 4 February – The Met Office issues a severe weather warning as heavy snow falls across much of the UK, disrupting road and air travel.
• 6 February – Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee, marking sixty years on the throne; only the second British monarch to do so.
• 9 February – The Bank of England agrees to extend its quantitative easing programme by £50,000,000,000, to give a further boost to the UK economy.
• 17 February – Rupert Murdoch announces that a Sunday edition of The Sun newspaper, The Sun on Sunday, will be launched "very soon", effectively replacing the News of the World which was axed last summer due to the phone hacking scandal. Its launch is confirmed on 19 February for the following weekend.
• 23 February – The Together for Trees environmental campaign is first publicly announced.
• 24 February – Falkirk MP Eric Joyce is charged with three counts of common assault after a disturbance at a House of Commons bar.
• 26 February – The first edition of The Sun on Sunday is published.
• 27 February – Singer Charlotte Church and her parents agree damages and costs of £600,000 with Rupert Murdoch's News Group, publishers of the defunct News of the World, after the newspaper printed stories about them from information gained through phone hacking activities.
• 29 February
• *James Murdoch resigns from News International to focus on running News Limited's television business with the News International phone hacking scandal as a factor in the decision.
• *David Rathband, the policeman blinded by gunman Raoul Moat during a 2010 shooting is found dead at his home in Blyth, Northumberland.

  March

• 3 March – A meteor is seen over most of the United Kingdom at about 21:40 GMT.
• 14 March – It is announced that the towns of Chelmsford, Perth and St Asaph are being granted city status to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
• 15 March – Unemployment now stands at a 17-year high of nearly 2,700,000 for January.
• 16 March – Dr. Rowan Williams announces he will retire as Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of the year having headed the Anglican Church since 2003. He will subsequently take up the role of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
• 17 March – Personal documents released from the papers of Margaret Thatcher show the former British Prime Minister held a private meeting with Rupert Murdoch at Chequers weeks before his purchase of Times Newspapers in 1981.
• 18 March – British journalists Gareth Montgomery-Johnson and Nicholas Davies-Jones, detained last month in Libya after being accused of entering the country illegally, have been released the country's Interior Ministry confirms.
• 21 March – George Osborne delivers his 2012 United Kingdom Budget.
• 24 March – The Sunday Times releases a video showing Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas allegedly offering undercover reporters access to Prime Minister David Cameron for £250,000.
• 25 March – Peter Cruddas resigns as Tory Party co-treasurer following the "Cash for Access" revelations.
• 26 March
• *In the wake of the Cash for Access scandal, David Cameron publishes details of Conservative Party donors who have had dinner with him at 10 Downing Street.
• *Fuel tanker drivers belonging to the Unite union vote overwhelmingly to take strike action in a dispute over terms and conditions.
• 27 March – The cost of a first-class stamp will rise from 46p to 60p from 30 April while second class post will increase from 36p to 50p after regulator Ofcom lifts some price controls on Royal Mail.
• 29 March – 2012 Bradford West by-election: Respect Party candidate George Galloway wins, taking the seat from the Labour Party with a majority of 10,140 votes.

  April

• 7 April – The 158th University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is stopped mid-race due to a swimmer in the water. Cambridge go on to win when a clash of oars at the restart leaves Oxford with a broken paddle.
• 12 April – Transport for London bans an advertising campaign due to run on buses by a Christian group; which was suggesting that gay people could be cured by therapy.
• 15 April – Centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is commemorated in Southampton, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and around the world.
• 18 April – In a rare move, television cameras are allowed into the High Court in Edinburgh to film the sentencing of David Gilroy for the murder of Suzanne Pilley.
• 20 April – Belfast MAC, designed by Hackett Hall McKnight, opens in Northern Ireland.
• 22 April – 30-year-old Claire Squires collapses and dies while running the London Marathon, the tenth death in the race's history. She had planned to raise £500 for The Samaritans, but within a day members of the public have donated £219,000. The end of the year would see this total rise to nearly £1M.
• 25 April – Figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate the UK economy has returned to recession after shrinking by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012, bringing about a much-feared double-dip recession.
• 30 April – Figures released by the Met Office show that April was the wettest on record in the United Kingdom.

  May

• 3 May – Local elections held in England, Scotland and Wales.
• *Labour makes gains and wins the largest number of councillors in contested seats in England and Wales and the SNP making gains and winning the largest number of councillors in Scotland. The estimated voting share is: 39% Labour, 31% Conservative, 16% Liberal Democrats and 14% other.
• *Boris Johnson is re-elected as Mayor of London with 51.5% of the vote. Ken Livingstone subsequently says it would be his 'last election'. In the London Assembly, Labour becomes the party with the greatest number of seats, with minor losses for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The British National Party loses its only seat. Of 25 seats, the final tally stands at: Labour 12, Conservatives 9, Liberal Democrats 2, Green 2.
• 5 May – Chelsea win the seventh FA Cup of their history with a 2–1 win over Liverpool in the final.
• 5 May - Wales Coast Path officially launched.
• 13 May – Manchester City win the Premier League title on goal difference ahead of cross city rivals United, their first top division title since 1968.
• 16 May – The Office for National Statistics publishes figures which show that unemployment has fallen by 45,000 in the three months to March to 2,625,000, a rate of 8.2%. Youth unemployment has fallen to 1,020,000, a rate of 21.9%. Average weekly pay, including bonuses, grew by 0.6%. The claimant count dropped by 13,700 in April to 1,590,000, and the March figure is revised to show a fall of 5,400 rather than a rise of 3,600.
• 18 May – The Olympic flame arrives at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall on board a British Airways Airbus A319, with custom gold livery and named "The Firefly" as flight BA2012 from Athens, ready for the torch relay ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
• 19 May
• *the Olympic torch relay begins when members of 771 Naval Air Squadron take the flame from Culdrose to Land's End by Sea King helicopter, Olympic sailing star Ben Ainslie runs the first leg of the relay.
• *Chelsea win the European Cup for the first time in their history, defeating Bayern Munich of Germany on penalties after a 1–1 draw in Munich's Allianz Arena.
• 22 May – The Royal Navy's first female warship commander, Commander Sarah West, takes up her post on HMS Portland at Rosyth.
• 25 May – Millionaire's daughter Laura Johnson, who drove looters around London during the 2011 riots is jailed for two years.