Budget whiplash: How bank shares were hit by the Treasury’s ‘hokey cokey’ leaking November 25, 2025 Last week the House of Commons speaker reprimanded the Treasury for what he called a “hokey cokey” Budget. “Can I just say it isn’t normal for a Budget to be put in the press,” Sir Lindsay Hoyle said in his dressing down of ministers. “One minute it’s in, next minute it’s out.” Few sectors have [...]
BCC boss: Enough taxes. The Budget must tell a positive story November 25, 2025 Last autumn, the British Chambers of Commerce and its members were left shell-shocked when a party that promised to be the most ‘pro-business in history’ used its maiden Budget to deliver a succession of hammer blows to the private sector. Having shouldered the burden last year, boss Shevaun Haviland wants this year’s instalment to paint [...]
Traders brace for punishing Budget on pound November 25, 2025 Traders are making pre-emptive moves on the indication Rachel Reeves’ forthcoming Autumn Budget will send the pound tumbling. Investors have taken an overwhelmingly bearish view on the pound, with new trading data revealing the volume of put options – contracts that profit when sterling declines – surpassing call options, those that profit when the currency [...]
Reeves demands bank chiefs back Budget November 25, 2025 Top bank chiefs are expected to praise Rachel Reeves’ Budget measures, according to reports, as the Chancellor looks set to dismiss calls for extra taxes on the sector. Lenders are being encouraged to back the government and follow through with extra investment plans to support Britons up and down the country, a report in the [...]
There’s nothing new in Zack Polanski’s fantasy economics November 25, 2025 Let’s go for a lyrical opening to this column: “The newspapers shout a new style is growing, but I don’t know if it’s coming or going, there is fashion, there is fad, some is good, some is bad, and the joke – rather sad – that it’s all just a little bit of history repeating.” [...]
Ex-OBR chiefs: Reeves was warned about productivity downgrade November 25, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves was warned about costly productivity downgrades and should have left a bigger fiscal headroom at the Spring Statement, former Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) officials have said. Speaking to City AM, a number of leading economists raised questions around Reeves’ statements suggesting an OBR review of productivity trend forecasts has forced her [...]
CBI chair condemns ‘incoherence’ of Labour’s Employment Rights Bill November 24, 2025 Rupert Soames, the outgoing chair of the Confederation of British Industry, has lambasted the Labour government for promising to cut regulatory burdens while pushing ahead with its Employment Rights Bill and adding to the cost of hiring. In a closing speech at the CBI’s annual conference on Monday, Soames questioned the government’s performance and “flakey [...]
Business secretary admits Labour tax hikes fuelling wealth exodus November 24, 2025 The business secretary has conceded that tax hikes have sparked an exodus of rich Brits, after one of the UK’s richest people fled to Switzerland. Peter Kyle admitted that he is “worried” that super-rich business figures such as Lakshmi Mittal feel they need to leave Britain “in order to succeed”. “There are people starting businesses [...]
OBR to downgrade growth forecasts ‘in every year’ to 2030 November 24, 2025 The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is set to downgrade growth forecasts at the Budget this week for every year of the forecast period amid revisions to trend productivity projections. Sky News reports that the OBR is expected to cut its growth predictions, which have been more optimistic than those published by City forecasters, in [...]
Here’s what to expect on Budget day November 24, 2025 An unusually late and extraordinarily widely briefed Budget has attracted more nerves and anticipation than any in recent memory. So when Rachel Reeves takes to the dispatch box just after midday on Wednesday, she is set to do so with the knowledge that her fate – and the Prime Minister’s – rest on placating at [...]