2017 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 2017 in the United Kingdom. This year was the Sapphire Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Theresa May (Conservative)

Events

January 1 January – Kingston upon Hull begins its City of Culture programme. 2 January Rail fares increase by an average of 2.3%, higher than inflation and continuing the trend in rising ticket prices. The government announces proposals to build seventeen new towns and villages across the English countryside. 3 January – Sir Ivan Rogers resigns as UK's ambassador to the European Union. 4 January – Sir Tim Barrow is appointed as the UK's new ambassador to the European Union. 5 January UK car sales are at a record high in 2016 according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which says that 2,690,000 new cars were registered last year, 2% higher than in 2015. The Royal Parks announces that the Changing of the Guard ceremony will be held on fixed days of the week (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays) instead of alternate days for a three-month trial period owing to tightened security. 7 January – The British Red Cross describes the current situation in England's NHS hospitals as a "humanitarian crisis". 8 January – The Trades Union Congress announces that the average UK household owes £12,887 in debt. 9 January A strike by workers on London Underground causes travel chaos and crowding in London, with much of the Tube network shut down. Seven-year-old Katie Rough is fatally asphyxiated and stabbed in the neck near her home in York. A fifteen-year-old female hands herself in to the police immediately after the killing. Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigns. 11 January – The Royal College of Nursing describes conditions in the NHS as the worst they have ever experienced. In a separate move, fifty leading doctors write to the Prime Minister, warning that lives are being put at risk due to mounting pressures on the health service. 12 January Plans for a 1.8-mile road tunnel on the A303 near Stonehenge in Wiltshire are finalised by the UK Government. A government-commissioned review gives backing to a tidal lagoon planned for Swansea Bay in Wales. The £1,300,000,000 project could have a lifetime of 120 years and supply 8% of UK energy. 16 January – The power-sharing government of Northern Ireland collapses following the resignation of Martin McGuinness. 21 January – 2017 Women's March: thousands of people march in London, Belfast, Cardiff, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Shipley, Edinburgh and Bristol – as well as millions more in countries around the world – in protest at Donald Trump's inauguration as 45th President of the United States. 24 January – The UK Supreme Court rules against the Government's Brexit appeal case by an 8 to 3 decision, stating that Parliament must vote to trigger Article 50. 30 January – A petition to stop US President Donald Trump's UK state visit gathers more than 1.8 million signatures.

February 1 February – MPs back the European Union Bill by 498 votes to 114, with 47 Labour rebels voting against. 3 February – The government publishes a white paper setting out its Brexit plans. 6 February – The Queen commemorates her Sapphire Jubilee. 7 February – Plans for building more homes in England are revealed by the government, after ministers say that the housing market is "broken". 8 February A political controversy involving Diane Abbott and David Davis emerges following the Article 50 vote. Labour MP Clive Lewis resigns from the Shadow Cabinet in protest over his party's decision to whip its MPs into voting to trigger Article 50. 15 February – The European Commission issues a "final warning" to the United Kingdom over the breaching of air pollution limits. 18 February – Lincoln City F.C. become the first non-league team to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals for 103 years with a 1–0 victory over Burnley. 21 February – A heterosexual couple, Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, lose their Court of Appeal case in which they sought to be granted civil partnership instead of a traditional marriage. 22 February – Cressida Dick is appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the force's 188-year history. 23 February By-elections are held in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central to fill vacancies arising from the resignation of sitting Labour MPs. Trudy Harrison wins the Copeland seat for the Conservative Party and Gareth Snell retains the Stoke-on-Trent Central seat for the Labour Party. Labour had held the Copeland seat since its creation, and the Conservative win is the first gain by a serving government in a by-election for 35 years. Britain is hit by winds of up to 94 mph from Storm Doris, causing travel disruption and a number of casualties.

March 2 March – New elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are held. The Democratic Unionist Party loses ten seats, while Sinn Féin loses one seat. 5 March – Tens of thousands of people including NHS employees, campaigners and union representatives march in London to protest against "yet more austerity" in the health service. 6 March – The British car manufacturer Vauxhall, along with its German sister firm, Opel, is sold by General Motors to Peugeot-Citroën of France as Groupe PSA agrees to a €2,200,000,000 (£1.9bn) deal to buy General Motors' European operations. 8 March Philip Hammond delivers the March 2017 United Kingdom budget, his first as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Michael Heseltine is sacked from his role as a government adviser following his rebellion against the government on the Brexit Bill in the House of Lords the previous day. 9 March The think tank Resolution Foundation assesses that the UK is in its worst decade for pay growth for 210 years. The Bishop of Burnley, Philip North, turns down a promotion to the position of Bishop of Sheffield after objections to his views on ordaining women as priests. 10 March BT bows to demands by the telecoms regulator Ofcom to legally separate Openreach, which runs the UK's broadband infrastructure. 14 March The British Parliament passes the Brexit bill, paving the way for the UK Government to trigger Article 50; so that the UK can formally withdraw from the European Union. Transgender fell-runner Lauren Jeska is sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of UK Athletics official Ralph Knibbs. Jeska had feared her records and ability to compete in women's events would be investigated due to the unfair advantage she had from being born male. 15 March – Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is forced to make a U-turn on his commitment to raising National Insurance contributions for the self-employed after vast opposition from Conservative backbenchers. 16 March The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill is given Royal Assent by HM The Queen, making it an Act of Parliament. Theresa May formally rejects Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's second Scottish Independence Referendum timetable for Autumn 2018, or at least before Brexit negotiations are concluded. 17 March – It is announced that the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, is to become the editor of the London Evening Standard; prompting extensive criticism. 22 March – Four people die and at least forty others are injured in what is treated as a terrorist attack in London, when a car driver, later identified as Khalid Masood, ploughs through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death at the Palace of Westminster. Police later shoot Masood dead. In response, the Houses of Parliament are placed in lockdown for four hours, as is the London Eye and Whitehall, and the devolved Scottish Parliament suspends a debate on a second Scottish independence referendum. 28 March – The new twelve-sided £1 coin is released. 29 March – The United Kingdom invokes Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, beginning the formal EU withdrawal process.

April 6 April – The number of fatalities in the Westminster attack increases to six as a Romanian woman, rescued after falling into the Thames but with serious injuries, dies in hospital. 18 April – Prime Minister Theresa May calls a snap general election for 8 June. 19 April – The House of Commons formally approves the calling of an early general election with the necessary two-thirds majority in a 522 to 13 vote. 21 April – Britain goes a full day without using coal power to generate electricity for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, according to the National Grid. 29 April – The UK's Anthony Joshua becomes WBA World Heavyweight Champion after beating Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium.

May 4 May Buckingham Palace announces that the Duke of Edinburgh is to step down from carrying out royal engagements in the autumn. Local government elections are held across England, Scotland and Wales. The Conservative Party makes significant gains at the expense of the Labour Party, gaining 500 seats and seizing control of 11 councils. UKIP loses all 145 seats they were defending. The Liberal Democrats lose 41 seats, despite their share of the vote increasing. Labour is pushed into third place by the Conservatives in Scotland, where the SNP is comfortably the largest party despite failing to take control of target councils. The Conservatives win four out of six metro-mayoral areas, including in the traditionally Labour-voting Tees Valley and West Midlands. 5 May An unidentified male jogger pushes a woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge. Paper £5 notes featuring Elizabeth Fry cease to be legal tender in the UK. 12 May – Computers across the United Kingdom are hit by a large-scale ransomware cyber-attack, causing major disruption. 22 May – Manchester Arena is attacked by a suicide bomber following a music concert by American singer Ariana Grande, resulting in multiple casualties. It is the most deadly attack in the UK since the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the first in the North of England since the IRA bombing of Manchester in June 1996. 23 May – general election campaigning from all major political parties is temporarily suspended after the attack in Manchester. 24 May The UK's terror threat level is raised from "severe" to "critical", its highest possible level, for the first time in ten years; meaning not only is an attack being highly likely, it is "expected imminently". As police investigate a "network" relating to the Manchester Arena attack, up to 5,000 military personnel are deployed onto the streets of Britain. Seven people are arrested, including the bomber's 23-year-old brother. The suicide bomber is confirmed to have been 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who lived in the city and was the son of Libyan immigrants. 25 May – Police investigating the Manchester bombing reveal they have stopped sharing information with the US, following leaks to the media. 27 May British Airways experiences a global IT system failure, causing severe disruption to flights worldwide. In football, Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 to win the FA Cup for a record thirteenth time.

June 3 June Seven people are reported killed and 48 injured in an attack by three Islamist extremists at London Bridge. A hit-and-run vehicle on the bridge is followed by knife attacks at Borough Market. All three perpetrators are shot dead by police within eight minutes. Reynhard Sinaga, an Indonesian student living in Manchester is arrested on one count of rape. Later investigations reveal him to be a prolific rapist in British legal history, having poisoned and raped up to 200 men. 4 June – General election campaigning is suspended by most major political parties for a day following the previous evening's attack in London. Prime Minister Theresa May confirms the general election will go ahead as scheduled on 8 June.