Events from the year 2000 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Tony Blair (Labour)
Events January Japanese carmaker Nissan adds a third model to its factory near Sunderland: the new generation 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. 28 January – The Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, Nigel Jones, is attacked at his constituency surgery by a mentally disturbed man with a samurai sword. Andrew Pennington, a councillor, comes to Jones's defence but is stabbed nine times and dies later aged 39. 31 January – Dr. Harold Shipman is sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murdering fifteen elderly women patients in Greater Manchester between 1995 and 1998. 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. 10 February – A group of hijackers hijack an Ariana Afghan Airways plane and force it to fly to the United Kingdom. The plane lands at London Stansted airport and the hijackers surrender to authorities there. 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 (aged 8) 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; this never happens. 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. 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 (the Rover and MG marques) to the Phoenix Consortium, while it retains the rights to the Mini marque and sells Land Rover to Ford. Convicted child murderer and paedophile Ronald Jebson is further convicted at the Old Bailey of killing Susan Blatchford, 11, and Gary Hanlon, 12. Both disappeared in 1970 after leaving Gary's home in Enfield to go for a walk together. Their bodies were found 11 weeks after their disappearance on Lippitts Hill, Epping Forest. 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 end when the Fiesta launches a new generation 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 (which is due to close in October) is rebuilt. 21 May Best-selling author Dame Barbara Cartland dies aged 98 at her home near Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Long-serving actor Sir John Gielgud dies aged 94 at his home at Wooton Underwood, Buckinghamshire. 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. 8 June – The British military attaché to Greece, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, aged 52, is shot dead while driving in Athens; the Greek terrorist group 17 November later claims responsibility. 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 1999 London nail bombings with three deaths. 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: an 8-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, although remaining stocks of the model would continue to be sold until early 2001 while the van model would continue to be produced until 2002. Rioting breaks out in Brixton (south London) 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 Curriculum 2000 reform of GCE Advanced Level examinations introduced. 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 and 90% of all UK petrol stations closing due to low supplies in the following week. 10 September – Operation Barras, a British military operation to free five soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment who have been held captive for over two weeks during the Sierra Leone Civil War, rescues all of them. 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 (due to be held within eighteen months) are boosted when they come two points ahead of Labour on 38% in a MORI opinion poll. This marks the first time the Conservatives have led the Labour Party in national opinion polling since January 1993.