2000 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Tony Blair
• Parliament – 52nd

  Events

January

• Japanese carmaker Nissan adds a third model to its factory near Sunderland: the new version of the Almera hatchback and saloon, which goes on sale in March.
• 1 January – Millennium celebrations take place throughout the UK. The Millennium Dome in London is officially opened by HM The Queen.
• 4 January – Catherine Hartley and Fiona Thornewill become the first British women to reach the South Pole.
• 10 January – Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, is fined for not having a valid train ticket with her on a journey from Blackfriars to Luton. She claims to have had only Portuguese currency with her at the time and to have been unable to find a machine where she could use her credit card.
• 11 January – A Scottish trawler, the Solway Harvester, sinks in the Irish Sea, killing seven sailors.
• 12 January – Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet: It is announced that former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, is to be deported after the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, accepts "unequivocal and unanimous" medical evidence that Pinochet is unfit to stand trial in Spain on charges of torture.
• 22 January – The Rugby league 2000 World Club Challenge is won by Melbourne Storm who defeat St. Helens 44 – 6 at the JJB Stadium in Wigan.
• 31 January – Dr. Harold Shipman is sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murdering fifteen patients in Greater Manchester between 1995–98. He is also sentenced to four years in prison, to run concurrently, for forging the will of one of his victims. The subsequent enquiry considers him to have killed at least 215.

  February

• 3 February – At the Ceredigion by-election, Simon Thomas holds the seat for Plaid Cymru.
• 11 February
• * The Royal Bank of Scotland succeeds in the hostile takeover battle for its larger English rival, NatWest Bank, successfully defeating a rival offer made by the Bank of Scotland.
• * Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended
• 15 February – Waterhouse report into the North Wales child abuse scandal published.
• 25 February – Murder of Victoria Climbié in London after torture and neglect by her guardians, her aunt Marie Therese Kouao and Kouao's partner Carl Manning; local authority social services departments will be severely criticised for their shortcomings in the case.
• 28 February – The chief of British Nuclear Fuels resigns over a safety scandal at Sellafield.

  March

• 2 March – Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet: The UK deports Augusto Pinochet to his native Chile where he will face trial for human rights violations.
• 14 March – All stores of furniture retailer World of Leather and its parent Uno plc close.
• 15 March – BMW announces plans to sell the Rover Group, with London-based Alchemy consortium emerging as favourites for a takeover.
• 25 March – David Trimble wins the leadership election of the Ulster Unionist Party.
• 31 March – Myra Hindley, who has spent 34 years in prison for her role in the Moors murders, loses a third High Court appeal against a Home Office ruling that her life sentence should mean life.

  April

• April – The Ministry of Defence publishes a booklet Soldiering – The Military Covenant which introduces the term into public discourse referring to the mutual obligations between the nation and its armed forces.
• 1 April
• * An Enigma machine is stolen from Bletchley Park Museum.
• * Section 27 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 comes into force allowing recovery of fees from the losing party in civil actions, extending the availability of conditional fee arrangements.
• 3 April – The Immigration and Asylum Act means that all asylum seekers in England and Wales will now receive vouchers to cover the cost of food and clothing.
• 4 April – Charlie Kray, one of the infamous Kray brothers, dies in a hospital on the Isle of Wight after suffering a heart attack in Parkhurst Prison at age 73.
• 12 April – The Royal Ulster Constabulary is presented with the George Cross by The Queen.
• 14 April
• * Kenneth Noye, the so-called "M25 killer", is sentenced to life imprisonment.
• * Clark v University of Lincolnshire and Humberside decided in the Supreme Court determining that actions by universities established by statute are subject to judicial review, though the courts will not adjudicate on questions of academic judgment.
• 19 April – Tony Martin is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a sixteen-year-old burglar, Fred Barras, he shot dead at his Norfolk farmhouse eight months ago; he is also convicted of the attempted murder of Brendon Fearon, the burglar wounded when Martin opened fire.
• 29 April – At Murrayfield Stadium, the 2000 Challenge Cup rugby league tournament culminates in the Bradford Bulls' 24 – 18 win in the final against the Leeds Rhinos.

  May

• 1 May – May Day riot in Central London by anti-capitalist protestors. The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square and the Cenotaph in Whitehall are daubed with graffiti.
• 3 May – The London Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Börse announce plans to amalgamate.
• 4 May – London mayoral election: Ken Livingstone, standing as an independent, becomes the first directly elected Mayor of London defeating Steve Norris, the Conservative Party candidate in second place; and Frank Dobson, the Labour Party candidate in third place.
• 4 May – At the Romsey by-election following the death of Conservative MP Michael Colvin, the Liberal Democrat candidate Sandra Gidley wins the seat.
• 9 May – BMW sells the bulk of the Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium, while it retains the rights to the Mini marque, and sells Land Rover to Ford.
• 11 May – Introduction of services on Croydon Tramlink, the first trams in London since 1952.
• 12 May
• * The Tate Modern art museum is opened to the public in London.
• * Ford announces that production of cars at the Dagenham plant will be discontinued when the Fiesta is replaced in 2002.
• 17 May – Royal Marines Alan Chambers and Charlie Paton become the first British people to reach the Geographic North Pole unaided.
• 20 May – Chelsea beat Aston Villa 1–0 to win the last FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium before the old stadium is rebuilt.
• 24 May – National Botanic Garden of Wales opens to the public in Carmarthenshire.
• 25 May – National Waste Strategy, covering England and Wales, first published.

  June

• June – Celtic Manor Wales Open European Tour golf tournament first played.
• 7 June – Tony Blair receives a hostile reception during a speech at the Women's Institute, where he is heckled and slow hand-clapped by furious members.
• 10 June – The much-anticipated Millennium Bridge across the Thames in London opens to the public, but has to close after it starts swaying.
• 12 June–20 June – The England national football team participates at Euro 2000, jointly hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium. Despite beating Germany, England are eliminated in the group stage after two defeats.
• 21 June – Repeal in Scotland of controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which prevented local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Section 28 is not repealed in the rest of the UK until 2003.
• 22 June – At the Tottenham by-election following the death of Labour MP Bernie Grant, the Labour candidate David Lammy holds the seat.
• 30 June – David Copeland is found guilty of causing the three nail bomb attacks in London last year. He is sentenced to life imprisonment and the trial judge recommends that he should serve at least thirty years before being considered for parole, meaning that he is likely to remain in prison until at least 2029 and the age of 54.

  July

• July – Vauxhall launches the all-new Agila city car.
• 5 July – Colin Fallows, driving the Vampire turbojet-propelled dragster, sets a British land speed record, a mean, at Elvington, Yorkshire.
• 14 July – Reality television game show Big Brother first airs in the UK.
• 17 July – Murder of Sarah Payne: a 6-year-old Surrey girl is found dead in West Sussex, having gone missing sixteen days earlier. On 23 July, the News of the World starts a campaign for Sarah's Law, a child sex offender disclosure scheme.
• 18 July – Alex Salmond resigns as leader of the Scottish National Party.
• 20 July
• * Production of the Ford Escort, one of Britain's most successful and iconic motoring nameplates, finishes after 32 years.
• * Rioting breaks out in Brixton following the fatal shooting of Derek Bennett, a 29-year-old black man, by armed police in the area. 27 people are arrested and three police officers are injured.
• 28 July – The final eighty prisoners leave Maze Prison in Northern Ireland as part of the Northern Ireland peace process.

  August

• 3 August – Rioting erupts on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth after more than 100 people besiege a block of flats allegedly housing a convicted child sex offender, the latest vigilante violence against suspected sex offenders since the beginning of the "naming and shaming" campaign by the News of the World.
• 4 August – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother celebrates her hundredth birthday.
• 26 August – Gangster and murderer Reggie Kray, in the thirty-second year of his life sentence at Broadmoor Hospital, is released from prison on compassionate grounds by Home Secretary Jack Straw due to bladder cancer from which he is expected to die within weeks.

  September

• September – Ford unveils its all-new second generation Mondeo large family car, which is due for sale towards the end of this year.
• 8 September – UK fuel protests: Protesters block the entrances to oil refineries in protest against high fuel prices. Panic buying by motorists, leads to nationwide petrol shortages, with between 75–90% of all UK petrol stations closing due to low supplies in the following week.
• 14 September – After beginning the year 20 points behind the Labour government in the opinion polls, the Conservative opposition's hopes of winning the next election are boosted when they come two points ahead of Labour on 38% in a MORI opinion poll.
• 15 September–1 October – Great Britain competes at the Olympics in Sydney and wins 11 Gold, 10 Silver and 7 Bronze medals.
• 18 September – Survivors of the Southall and Ladbroke Grove rail disasters criticise Railtrack for putting costs ahead of safety and causing a series of blunders which led to the tragedies.
• 21 September – William McCrea of the Democratic Unionist Party wins the South Antrim by-election from the Ulster Unionist Party.
• 23 September
• * Earthquake in Warwickshire.
• * Rower Steve Redgrave wins his fifth consecutive gold medal at the Olympics.

  October

• October – Ford launches the all-new Mondeo with a range of saloons, hatchbacks and estates.
• 1 October – Reggie Kray dies from cancer at a hotel in Norwich aged 66.
• 3 October – Approximate start of Autumn 2000 Western Europe floods, particularly affecting England, the worst nationally since the winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom, precipitated by the most rainfall since 1766.
• 4 October – After forty-one years, production of the Mini ends at the Longbridge plant owned by MG Rover in Birmingham. The new model will go into production next spring at the Cowley plant in Oxford that is owned by German carmaker BMW.
• 7 October – Wembley Stadium closes after seventy-seven years. It is set to re-open in 2003, following a complete reconstruction that will see its seating capacity raised to 90,000 all-seated. In the final game at the old stadium, the England football team loses 1–0 to Germany in their opening qualifying game for the 2002 World Cup and manager Kevin Keegan resigns after eighteen months in charge.
• 16 October – The BBC's main evening news programme moves to 10:00pm; the following year ITV1 will move its news programme back to the same time slot and broadcast in direct competition.
• 17 October – Hatfield rail crash: A Great North Eastern Railway InterCity 225 train derails south of Hatfield station, killing four people.
• 23 October – After the fuel protests has been resolved, support for the Labour Party has been restored, according to the latest MORI opinion poll which shows them 13 points ahead of the Conservatives with an approval rating of 45%.
• 26–27 October – Following the death of Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish is selected to be First Minister of Scotland by the Scottish Parliament, and is officially appointed by The Queen.
• 26 October – House of Lords delivers judgement in White v White, a landmark case in redistribution of finances and property on divorce.
• 30 October – Sven-Göran Eriksson, the 52-year-old Swedish coach of Italian side Lazio, accepts an offer from the Football Association to take charge of the England football team for five years commencing next July. Eriksson will be the first foreign manager to take charge of the England national team, but until his arrival, the England team will be jointly managed by interim coaches Peter Taylor and Howard Wilkinson.

  November

• 7 November – The theft of £350,000,000 worth of diamonds from the Millennium Dome is foiled by the police.
• 16 November – Actor Michael Caine receives a knighthood from the Queen.
• 18 November – Marriage of American actor Michael Douglas and Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.
• 20 November – Judith Keppel becomes the first person to win £1,000,000 on the television programme Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
• 21 November – Dennis Canavan MSP for Falkirk West, resigns as the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West, triggering a by-election.
• 23 November
• * Double by-election held in Glasgow Anniesland to elect successors to Donald Dewar's seats in both the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament. Labour holds both seats with swings to the SNP of 6% and 7%.
• * The Preston by-election is won by the Labour Party candidate Mark Hendrick.
• * The West Bromwich West by-election is won by the Labour Party candidate Adrian Bailey.
• 26 November – Rio Ferdinand, the 22-year-old England national football team defender, becomes the nation's most expensive player in an £18,000,000 transfer from West Ham United to Leeds United.
• 27 November – Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old boy originally from Nigeria, is stabbed to death on his way home from school in Peckham, London. On 2 December two teenagers and a 39-year-old man are released on police bail after being arrested in connection with the murder.
• 30 November – Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 provides for regulation of political parties, elections and referendums, including limits on national expenditure by parties in elections.

  December

• 3 December – The Church of England introduces the Common Worship series of service books.
• 8 December – The Equitable Life Assurance Society closes to new business in the aftermath of the legal case Equitable Life Assurance Society v Hyman.
• 21 December – Falkirk West by-election results in Eric Joyce retaining the seat for Labour, though with a majority reduced to just 705 votes in the face of a swing of 16.2% to the SNP.
• 22 December – American pop star Madonna, 42, marries 32-year-old British film producer Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle in the Scottish Highlands.
• 29 December – Arctic weather conditions blight Britain, with heavy snow and temperatures as low as −13 °C plaguing the country, causing extensive gridlocking on roads and railways.
• 31 December – The Millennium Dome closes as planned after one year.

  Undated

• 2000 is the wettest year on record in the UK.
• Sales of the DVD format, first launched in the UK in June 1998, pass the 1 million mark, although the VHS format remains by far the most popular format of home video.

  Publications

• Iain M. Banks' novel Look to Windward.
• Lauren Child's children's book I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, first in the Charlie and Lola series.
• Matthew Kneale's novel English Passengers.
• Nigella Lawson's guide How to be a domestic goddess: baking and the art of comfort cooking.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel The Truth.
• Philip Pullman's novel The Amber Spyglass, third and final book in the His Dark Materials series.
• J. K. Rowling's novel Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
• Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth.

  Births

• 27 January – Morgan Gibbs-White, footballer
• 2 February – Shannon Cooke, footballer
• 8 February – Cieran Dunne, footballer
• 17 February – Billy Sass-Davies, footballer
• 26 February – Ryan Cooney, footballer
• 14 February – Tashan Oakley-Boothe, footballer
• 5 March – Jack Aitchison, footballer
• 11 March – Kane Wilson, footballer
• 25 March – Jadon Sancho, footballer
• 1 April – Rhian Brewster, footballer
• 8 April – Brenock O'Connor, English actor.
• 12 April – Alex Denny, footballer
• 16 May – Jacob Fletcher, footballer
• 18 May
• *Ryan Sessegnon, footballer
• *Steven Sessegnon, footballer
• 20 May – Leo Blair, son of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie Blair, the first legitimate child born to a serving Prime Minister since Francis Russell on 11 July 1849
• 28 May
• *Phil Foden, footballer
• *Alfie Gleadall, cricketer
• 23 June – Caitlin Blackwood, actress
• 28 June – Ruben Reuter, actor
• 29 June – Kia Pegg, actor
• 25 July – Ellie Soutter, snowboarder
• 28 July – Emile Smith Rowe, footballer
• 9 August – Arlo Parks, singer
• 11 August – James Cartmell, actor
• 28 August – Danny Loader, footballer
• 30 August – Catherine Lyons, artistic gymnast
• 31 August – Angel Gomes, footballer
• 14 September – Ethan Ampadu, Welsh footballer
• 18 September – Max Bird, footballer
• 6 October – Isobelle Molloy, actress
• 5 October – Millie Innes, actress
• 2 November – Georgia-Mae Fenton, artistic gymnast
• 7 November – Callum Hudson-Odoi, footballer
• 8 November – Jasmine Thompson, English singer-songwriter and YouTube celebrity
• 20 November – Connie Talbot, singer
• 21 November – Matt O'Riley, footballer
• 27 November – Jay Foulston, footballer
• 28 November – Sophia Kiely, actress
• 5 December – Hamidullah Qadri, cricketer
• 28 December – Isobel Steele, actress

  Deaths

• 2 January – Patrick O'Brian, novelist
• 9 January – Nigel Tranter, historian and author
• 30 January – Martin Aldridge, footballer
• 23 February – Sir Stanley Matthews, former footballer
• 24 February – Michael Colvin, politician
• 10 March – Ivan Hirst, former British army officer and engineer, best known for his part in the revival of German carmaker Volkswagen after World War II
• 27 March – Ian Dury, singer and actor
• 28 March – Anthony Powell, novelist
• 8 April – Bernie Grant, politician
• 14 April – Wilf Mannion, former footballer
• 27 April – Clifford Forsythe, politician
• 28 April – Penelope Fitzgerald, poet, essayist and biographer
• 17 May – Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 19 May – Larry Lamb, newspaper editor
• 21 May
• * Dame Barbara Cartland, novelist
• * Sir John Gielgud, actor
• 25 May – Nicholas Clay, actor
• 30 May – Doris Hare, actress
• 17 June – Brian Statham, former cricketer
• 5 July – Lord Woodbine, calypsonian
• 11 July – Robert Runcie, former Archbishop of Canterbury
• 5 August – Sir Alec Guinness, actor and writer
• 6 August – Robin Day, political broadcaster
• 2 September – Audrey Wise, politician
• 17 September – Paula Yates, television presenter
• 19 September – Anthony Robert Klitz, artist
• 25 September – R. S. Thomas, poet
• 1 October – Reggie Kray, convicted gangster and murderer, recently released from prison on compassionate grounds after serving more than 30 years of a life sentence
• 9 October – Patrick Anthony Porteous, recipient of the Victoria Cross
• 11 October – Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland
• 22 October – Fred Pratt Green, Methodist minister and hymn writer
• 11 November – Hugh Paddick, actor
• 27 November – Malcolm Bradbury, author and academic
• 28 November – Len Shackleton, former footballer and writer
• 4 December – Colin Cowdrey, former cricketer
• 18 December – Kirsty MacColl, singer-songwriter ; died in Mexico