Events from the year 2006 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – Tony Blair (Labour) Parliament – 54th
Events
January
7 January – Charles Kennedy, resigns as leader of the Liberal Democrats, admitting that he has a drinking problem. 20 January – River Thames whale: a whale is discovered swimming in the River Thames in London. 24 January – Sven-Göran Eriksson announces that he will retire as manager of the England national football team after this summer's World Cup in Germany. Eriksson, 57, has been in charge of the England team for five years and, as a Swede, is the first non-English manager of the England team.
February
3 February – Islamist demonstration outside Danish Embassy in London in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. 9 February Dunfermline and West Fife by-election: Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats wins the seat from Labour. The Government announces that the Child Support Agency is to be abolished. 10–26 February – Great Britain competes at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and wins one silver medal (Shelley Rudman for women's skeleton). 16 February – the Brit Awards take place. 19 February – the BAFTA awards take place in London. 22 February Securitas depot robbery: around £53 million (US$92 million) is stolen from a Securitas depot at Tonbridge, Kent, in the largest cash robbery in British crime history. The Prince of Wales's court case continues in the High Court against The Mail on Sunday as he tries to prevent the publication of his journals. Various revelations have been made such as that he considers himself to be a dissident, and his opinion of government officials in People's Republic of China whom he described as "appalling old waxworks". 27 February – writers Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh sue Random House in the High Court of Justice claiming that the best selling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown contains ideas stolen from their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
March
1 March – the Senedd, debating chamber of the National Assembly for Wales on Cardiff Bay, designed by Richard Rogers, is opened by the Queen. 2 March Sir Menzies Campbell is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats following an members' election caused by the resignation of previous leader, Charles Kennedy. Four people are injured in an explosion in a GlaxoSmithKline factory in Irvine, North Ayrshire. 7 March – the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, makes a state visit to the UK. 9 March – the notorious former politician John Profumo dies aged 91 of a stroke at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. 13 March – six men taking part in a clinical trial for a new anti-inflammatory drug TGN1412 are placed in intensive care, some in a life-threatening condition, after suffering adverse side-effects. 19 March – the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall begin a two-week foreign tour to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India. 20 March – the British Press Awards are held at The Dorchester, Park Lane, London, but boycotted by some national newspapers. 21 March – Labour's hopes of a fourth successive term in office at the next general election (by which time Tony Blair says he will have resigned as prime minister) are given a boost when an Ipsos MORI opinion poll puts them 11 points ahead of the Conservatives on 42%. 23 March – 2005-2006 Christian Peacemaker hostage crisis: British peacemaker Norman Kember and three Canadians are rescued by SAS troops. 26 March – a smoking ban comes into effect in all enclosed public places in Scotland. 28 March Council workers across the UK strike over pension rights. Royal Regiment of Scotland created.