Three in four UK exporters say Brexit trade deal is stopping growth February 17, 2022 Just under three in four British exporters believe the UK-EU post-Brexit trade deal is not helping them increase sales, according to a new survey from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). The survey found 71 per cent of businesses disagreed with the statement that Boris Johnson’s trade deal was “enabling their business to grow or [...]
UK and Australia sign new defence and security agreement February 16, 2022 The UK and Australia have signed a new defence, security and trade agreement as a part of the government’s efforts to strengthen its foothold in the Indo-Pacific. Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison spoke at 8.30pm this evening to formalise the pact, which will see the UK agree to spend £25m for “regional projects [in the [...]
Ukraine: UK claims Russia has moved troops into ‘attack areas’ February 16, 2022 Russia has begun to move its troops into “attack areas” on the Ukrainian border despite the Kremlin’s claims that it is pulling back its soldiers, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has said. Wallace, speaking from Nato’s headquarters in Brussels today, told Times Radio he had seen “some movement of Russian military forces from sort of [...]
Russia prepared to re-route gas flows if punished with sanctions February 16, 2022 Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov has warned the country could shift supplies to other markets if it is hit with sanctions.
Priti Patel pushes Big Tech to have a proactive role in axing ‘legal but harmful’ online content February 16, 2022 Tech firms may be required to proactively monitor “legal but harmful” user content in a Home Office push on the new Online Safety Bill. As reported by the Financial Times, Home Secretary Priti Patel has been looking to widen the scope of the bill, with a particular focus on fraud, terrorism and other illegal activities [...]
Starmer says entitled to ask for pay rise in rebuke of Bank of England February 16, 2022 Workers have every right to ask for a pay rise amid the UK’s surging inflation rate and cost of living crunch, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said. In a direct rebuke of comments made by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, the Labour leader said “it’s very difficult to universally say” to workers that [...]
EU President: Europe can deal with partial disruption to Russian gas flows February 16, 2022 The EU could cope with a partial disruption to gas imports from Russia, argued commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
HMRC splashes £12m on data analysts February 16, 2022 HMRC has almost tripled its yearly spend on data analyst and data scientist roles over the past five years, according to official figures. The data, retrieved via the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and analysed by the Parliament Street think tank, revealed a large uptake in data analyst and data science staff year on year [...]
Editorial: Truss lets the cat out of the bag on ruinous NI hike February 16, 2022 Lest there had been any suspicion about the feline characteristics of the four-legged creature in the sack, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confirmed what we had all suspected last night. The cat, as they say, is out of the bag. In a radio interview with LBC yesterday Truss – when asked about the coming National Insurance [...]
Big tech rule book could be agreed as soon as April as EU clamps down on Google and Apple February 15, 2022 Landmark EU rules aimed at curbing the power of tech giants could be agreed between lawmakers and EU countries as soon as April. Although the rules have faced some obstacles, lawmaker Andreas Schwab told Reuters that he is optimistic that an agreement could be reached in record time for a key piece of legislation. Known [...]