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) Parliament 56th (until 3 May) 57th (starting 21 June)
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.