Billy Kenber

Senior Investigations Reporter at The Times. I can be reached on Twitter @billykenber

Selected recent stories

The Times •

Wembley under siege: how England fans stormed the Euro 2020 final

It was meant to be a night of celebration, the match of a lifetime for many of those attending. Instead, thousands of ticketless fans, many fuelled by drugs and alcohol, were able to storm Wembley stadium, fighting with ticket holders and forcing young families to fear for their safety and leave their seats.

The Football Association has publicly acknowledged a single breach of security where “a small number of people” got into the stadium but a Times investigation reveals just how widespread th
The Times •

Drug firms Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK fined £260m for inflating price of life-saving medicine

Drug companies have been handed record fines totalling more than £260 million for ripping off the NHS after colluding to pump up the price of a life-saving medicine, which rose from 70p to £88 per packet.

Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK used a loophole in NHS pricing rules to increase the price of hydrocortisone tablets by up to 12,500 per cent and overcharge the health service for almost a decade.

The drug, which treats adrenal insufficiency including life-threatening conditions like Addison’s
The Times •

Care firm charging £14m let girl walk out to take lift with stranger

From failing to safeguard young people against sexual exploitation to allowing children access to drugs and knives, dozens of children’s homes opened during the pandemic have been found to be putting those in their care at risk.

Ofsted suspended routine inspections in mid-March last year as the country went into lockdown and only began making regular in-person visits again nearly six months later. Reports published by the regulator reveal the catalogue of failings at homes opened in the first f
The Times •

Test and trace: Where did it all go wrong?

It was, Boris Johnson promised in the spring, the route out of lockdown and the best way of “getting our country back on its feet”.

A nationwide system of testing and tracing to identify infections and stop the virus spreading; requiring a small minority to quarantine so that we could “release 66 million people” and allow Britain to return to something approaching normality, Mr Johnson said.

Instead, six months later, the country is back in lockdown and NHS Test & Trace, set up at great expens
The Times •

Landlords make millions from flats the size of a parking space

Landlords are making millions of pounds a year housing children and vulnerable adults in tiny bedsits squeezed into former office buildings.

The developers have exploited a change in planning rules to convert offices into hundreds of flats without any minimum size requirements, prompting claims from experts that they are building “some of the worst homes in Britain” and the “slums of the future”.

Flats costing £800 a month are as small as 14 square meters (150 sq ft), barely bigger than the si
The Times •

Private equity drugmaker, Essential Pharma, increases prices by 400%

A private equity-owned pharmaceutical company has raised the price of five medicines by up to 400 per cent shortly after acquiring the drugs.

Essential Pharma, which was bought out by a Swiss private equity company in 2020, has significantly increased the prices of three antidepressants and two drugs used to treat heart conditions.

It is the sole UK supplier of the sugar-free liquid medicines, which it acquired in a deal with another drugmaker in late November. The price paid by the NHS for a
The Times •

The dark side of Davos: a den of prostitution and predators

Top businesswomen attending an annual gathering of global leaders in Davos face being “routinely harassed” by wealthy men, with predatory behaviour so common some were warned by organisers not to attend events alone.

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting draws leading politicians, business figures, charity heads, royalty and celebrities to the Swiss ski resort. It aims to tackle some of the biggest global problems, including gender inequality.

However, an undercover investigation by The Ti
The Times •

Leadsom admits ‘misleading’ claims on CV for top job

Andrea Leadsom has placed her experience in the City at the centre of her candidacy to become prime minister Ben Cawthra/London News Pictures Ltd

Andrea Leadsom has no experience as an investment banker despite claims from her backers that she managed billions of pounds’ worth of funds, The Times can reveal.

Mrs Leadsom, who has never held a cabinet role and has only been a minister since April 2014 and an MP since 2010, has placed her experience in the City at the centre of her candidacy to b
The Times •

Sir Philip Green grabs furlough millions while axing staff on the cheap

Sir Philip Green’s retail empire is exploiting furlough rules to cut pay while taking tens of millions in government handouts, leaked documents show.

An executive at Arcadia Group told staff that it needed to take “every penny we can get” of public money.

The company owns several high-street fashion brands including Topshop and has accepted tens of millions of pounds to pay furloughed staff.

The money is part of a government scheme designed to protect jobs and Arcadia has indicated to staff t