Government ‘must not delay’ over Abramovich’s £2.5bn Chelsea funds, Tories say March 18, 2026 Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has insisted the government “must not delay taking further action” against Roman Abramovich to unlock £2.5bn held after his sale of Chelsea. The Russian was forced to offload the Premier League club in 2022 after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with the proceeds of the sale to a consortium led by [...]
Pension transfers: Sluggish providers holding up your money March 18, 2026 Some UK pension providers and administrators are taking eighteen times longer to transfer retirement savings than their counterparts, leaving savers waiting months for their money to be moved. The fastest transfers took just five days, while the slowest took between a staggering 47 to 90 days, according to the latest analysis from Pension Bee. Some [...]
Chelsea punishment ‘extremely lenient’, says club’s former exec Purslow March 18, 2026 Former Chelsea executive Christian Purslow has labelled the club’s punishment from the Premier League for making undisclosed payments totalling £47.5m “extremely lenient and favourable”. Chelsea escaped with a £10.75m fine and suspended transfer ban after the club’s current owners self-reported offences they said they had discovered in an audit of the previous ownership of Roman [...]
City fears Rayner’s rise as she warns Starmer that Labour is ‘running out of time’ March 18, 2026 Angela Rayner’s ascendancy to the Labour leadership has been flagged as a risk for public finances as the former deputy prime minister said the party was “running out of time”. At a rally on Tuesday night, Rayner suggested that Labour was viewed as representing “the establishment” and said the party’s survival was “at stake”. She [...]
Bar of the week: Flipdog, the Shoreditch spot stoking its cocktails with a hot poker March 18, 2026 Hot pokers and experimental cocktails? Thanks very much, says Anna Moloney in her write up of new Shoreditch hotspot Flipdog.
Ramsdens shares rocket as pawnbroker cashes in on gold boom March 18, 2026 Shares in pawnbroker Ramsdens rocketed as it looked poised to take advantage of gold prices, inflated by the Iran war, by taking as much as £28m this year. The firm’s share price soared by more than ten per cent on Wednesday, to 404p, leaving it up more than four per cent in the year so [...]
Treasury reforms to banks ombudsman threaten independence, MPs warn March 18, 2026 The Treasury’s reforms to the banks ombudsman threaten to upend the body’s independence, a group of influential MPs have warned. The government revealed its overhaul proposals for the financial ombudsman service (FOS) on Tuesday in a bid to curb concerns it had behaved as a “quasi-regulator”. But a fresh letter to City minister Lucy Rigby [...]
City AM Awards 2026: Meet the Finalists March 18, 2026 And the nominees are…. Personality of the Year Greg Jackson CBE The entrepreneur and CEO of Octopus Energy has become one of the UK’s most prominent business leaders, known for his straight talking and punchy views across a range of topics including UK entrepreneurship, the business environment, capital markets and, of course, energy. In August [...]
Wetherspoon sales could turn flat as cost pressures brew March 18, 2026 Never known to shy away from calling out the issues that push up the price of a pint, JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin looked to be setting expectations at the weekend when he warned the war in Iran will hit punters in their pockets. The UK’s best-known pub chain will announce its half-year finances on [...]
Senegal to fight ‘iniquitous and unprecedented’ Afcon decision at CAS March 18, 2026 Senegal’s football association has vowed to launch a legal challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the decision to strip it of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and hand the title to Morocco. Two months after Senegal beat the hosts 1-0 in a controversial final, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced [...]