Lord Walker calls for Healey to cut business taxes August 30, 2026 Iceland boss Lord Richard Walker has urged Andy Burnham and John Healey to cut taxes for businesses and to stop focusing on the cost of living. Walker, who backed Labour at the last election, said Healey should ease costs for employers. The supermarket chief was the cost of living tsar under Sir Keir Starmer’s government [...]
Stansted Airport owner hit with cyber attack as millions of customers’ data stolen August 27, 2026 The owner of London Stansted has been targeted in a cyber attack that has led to customers data being stolen. Manchester Airport Group (MAG), which runs Stansted, East Midlands and Manchester Airport, said on Thursday customers’ email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registrations and postcodes had been seized in a “cyber security incident by an unauthorised [...]
Neets dip below one million as Labour blamed for youth unemployment August 27, 2026 The number of Neets, who are young people not in employment, education or training, has fallen marginally below the one million mark, the UK’s official data body said. The Office for National Statistics said it estimated the number of people aged between 16 and 24 out of work to be about 981,000 in the three [...]
Lloyds Bank and Halifax users unable to use app in latest outage August 26, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group has been hit with another app outage that has left thousands of customers unable to use services. The financial giant – which has Lloyds, Halifax and Scottish Widows under its umbrella – said it was “working to get things back to normal as quickly as we can” as users took to social [...]
Reform to slash HMRC officials’ pay if taxpayers wait too long August 26, 2026 HMRC officials would be fined and dismissed if they keep taxpayers waiting too long to deal with government services under a Reform UK government. If Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister, customer services officers at the tax collector would have their pay tied to performance levels and be required to keep waiting times to below 30 [...]
Burnham pledges to tackle ‘cost of business’ as firms fear Budget tax raid August 26, 2026 Andy Burnham has pledged to help tackle the “cost of business” as he looks to head off fears that the private sector will be hit with another punishing tax raid at the Budget. Burnham said he wants to “make life easier” for people and businesses as he prepares for his first Budget under the new [...]
Lloyds and Natwest flaunt social credentials as fears grow of Burnham tax grab August 26, 2026 Lloyds and Natwest are flaunting their community credentials and pledging a raft of new social investment initiatives as fears grow that Prime Minister Andy Burnham will launch a punishing tax raid on the sector with the government’s first Budget. The two lenders are among a group of top UK banks looking to prove they can [...]
Energy price cap rises to three-year high August 26, 2026 Brits are set for another squeeze from energy bills this winter after watchdog Ofgem confirmed the price cap was set to rise to a three-year high. The regulator said on Wednesday the default tariff for consumers across Britain would increase four per cent to £1,723 for the final quarter of the year. The rise marks [...]
As it happened: Antofagasta leads FTSE 100 rally; oil falls as US-Iran deal ‘close’ August 26, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM FTSE 100 liveblog. The UK’s blue-chip index slipped on Wednesday morning, dragged down by oil majors BP and Shell, before recovering later in the day to be level with Tuesday’s close. Brent crude – the international benchmark – fell by more than two per cent on Wednesday to $86 [...]
State pension set to pile pain on next generation of taxpayers, Healey warned August 26, 2026 The state pension is set to be the main driver of tax for the next generation of taxpayers, a Labour-linked think tank has warned in a paper that urged Chancellor John Healey to levy higher charges on wealth rather than income. New research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the former employer of [...]