‘Disgraceful’: Khan and RMT in tube strike deadlock ahead of disruption April 20, 2026 Sadiq Khan and Transport for London are at loggerheads with a major transport union, with tube strikes all but confirmed to take place between Tuesday and Friday this week. Talks between representatives ahead of strikes beginning at 12pm on Tuesday 21 April are at an impasse, with union leaders blaming TfL bosses for failing to [...]
Rachel Reeves to meet Lloyds and Natwest chiefs over Iran war April 20, 2026 Rachel Reeves has called in the bosses of Britain’s top banks for a summit this week to discuss the economic impact of the war in Iran. The Chancellor has invited executives from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Natwest, Santander UK as well as the UK’s biggest building society Nationwide for a meeting this Wednesday. The meeting – as [...]
‘Thrown under the bus’: Robbins to defend himself over Mandelson vetting April 18, 2026 Sir Olly Robbins is set to mount a defence of his decision to approve Mandelson’s appointment to Washington after allies accused Starmer of scapegoating him and throwing him “under the bus”. The prime minister sacked the head of the Foreign Office on Thursday night before accusing him of an “unforgivable” failure to warn him that [...]
Tankers report being fired upon as Tehran closes Strait of Hormuz again April 18, 2026 Merchant vessels have said they were hit by gunfire as they attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz, the first indication that Iran’s re-closure of the waterway has been enforced. Iran’s military reimposed restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz again after accusing the US of violating the deal to reopen it, throwing the world’s energy [...]
City of London urges action on Swiss border as EES holds up business travellers April 17, 2026 City of London officials are pressing Switzerland to allow UK travellers to use automated passport gates to end the long airport queues that have become a regular gripe for business travellers. The new EU Entry/Exit System (EES), which covers the Schengen area, rolled out last week, and it has resulted in lengthy queues at airports [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jittery as Starmer makes play to reopen Strait of Hormuz April 17, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The UK and France are set to co-chair a meeting with allies later today in a bid to strum up ways to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. The vital waterway, which sits off Iran’s coast, sees around a fifth of the world’s oil supply flow [...]
Top Foreign Office civil servant ousted over latest Mandelson bombshell April 16, 2026 The top civil servant in the Foreign Office has been ousted after losing the confidence over Sir Keir Starmer and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper. Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Sir Olly Robbins has become the latest Westminster figure to lose their role to the Mandelson scandal after it had emerged the disgraced peer was denied clearance in [...]
UK suffered biggest unemployment surge in G7 April 16, 2026 UK unemployment rose at a faster pace than any country in the G7, the OECD has said, with a sharp rise in joblessness particularly damaging for the youngest people. Unemployment levels across the country rose sharply by 0.8 percentage points over the year to 5.2 per cent between the last three months of 2024 and [...]
‘Pet projects’: Tories slam pension mandation powers as Labour refuse to back down April 16, 2026 The Conservatives have slammed the controversial mandation powers in the Pension Schemes Bill, after parliament swept aside the amendments put forward by the House of Lords. Labour has come a step closer to finalising the bill, after it used its government majority to stamp out more than 80 amendments put forward by the upper house, [...]
UK rejoins Erasmus: British students to study across Europe from 2027 April 16, 2026 Six years after Brexit, British students will soon be able to study and work across Europe again, as the UK formally re-joins the Erasmus programme. The legal text, signed in Brussels on Wednesday, is intended to bring the UK back into the programme in 2027 after the UK pulled out of in December 2020 as [...]