Yeah...
Thats a credible source for sure...
"the population of false widows — the UK's only poisonous spider - has also increased thanks to the weather"
1/ Spiders are venomous - ie, they bite you, and can inject venom. They are not poisonous, ie, you can safely eat them if you really want to.
2/ All our spiders have venom. Not just false widows.
The chosen expert Mr Boase, a pest controller (you will note, not an entomologist or a zoologist, or any sort of ology holding scientist...) claims:
"There are half-a-dozen different species of the false widow and they can survive both indoors and outdoors."
Yeah.. (actually there are around 120)
He fails to point out that of those only three are actually common.
Steatoda grossa, Steatoda bipunctata and Steatoda nobilis.
The other three..
Steatoda phalerata is rare, with just over 1000 listed sightings since 1864 and only found in sand dune and dry heathland habitats where it lives with and preys on ants.
Steatoda albomaculata is pretty rare, with 122 sightings since 1900 and living only in the south, on grassland.
Steatoda triangulosa has a whopping SIX sightings since 1996, at one site in Leicester...
But half a dozen of which 3 are almost never seen by anyone sounds so much better than... three eh Clive.
If spiders came in from the rain, to live in our dessicating centrally heated homes... do please tell me why all the OTHER species remain outdoors?
Most of our 670+ species of spider live very firmly outdoors all year round, of those that do venture inside the chances are you are only going to notice about four species - Eratigena, Steatoda, Pholcus and Scotophaeus, with the addition of Araneus in the garden.