This is why Starmer’s recent reshuffle is doomed to fail September 11, 2025 Keir Starmer’s personnel switch-up is an attempt to get a firmer grip on his government’s economic policymaking. Helen Thomas lays out why it won’t work. Keir Starmer’s latest cabinet reshuffle was billed as a decisive break from his choppy first year in power. Yet this is less a bold national reset than a desperate rebrand. [...]
Rachel Reeves defends Labour against bond market selloff September 9, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched a defence of Labour’s economic record and blamed her Tory predecessors for the mass selloff in the gilt market despite growing criticism of the government’s fiscal policies. In a parliamentary session before MPs, Reeves said the government had made “fully funded and fully costed” plans to support its £190bn splurge [...]
Bank of England ‘under pressure’ to slow bond sales amid market tumult September 5, 2025 The Bank of England should slow its quantitative tightening programme and stop active sales of long-dated bonds entirely in the wake of this week’s bond rout that saw the cost of long-term borrowing soar to its highest level this century, a group of top economists has said. Markets were rocked by a global sell-off in [...]
Banks’ bond market headache spells trouble for FTSE 100 September 4, 2025 The frenzy in the bond market spells trouble for banking stocks and could create broader issues for the FTSE 100. Bond markets have had a tumultuous week, with the UK’s 30-year gilt yields hitting a 27-year high. This was triggered by a global sell-off, as well as political unease stemming from a Downing Street reshuffle [...]
Bond traders hit out at ‘chorus’ of high tax advocates in No 10 September 2, 2025 Bond traders have hit out at the “chorus” of Westminster voices advocating for higher taxes as government borrowing costs soared to the highest level seen this century. Gilt yields, which feed into the cost the government will have to pay bondholders through debt interest payments, soared to their highest level since 1998, with the interest [...]
Gilt trip: why markets are punishing Rachel Reeves August 28, 2025 Without a credible and transparent medium-term fiscal plan, bond markets will continue to price in higher risk and demand higher returns, says Gareth Davies The UK economy faces an uncomfortable reality. On one side, inflation has continued to rise. On the other, government borrowing costs have surged, with gilt yields now at their highest level in [...]
Watch: Labour’s ‘total clusterf**k’ July 3, 2025 It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Exactly a year ago the Labour government swept into office promising stability, competence and economic growth. So why, on the one year anniversary of their victory, does it feel like their dying days? This has been a pretty extraordinary week in British politics and it’s a week that [...]
Sacking Reeves would make a bad situation even worse July 2, 2025 This government has made plenty of mistakes but ditching Rachel Reeves would be by far the biggest. While my advice to ministers remains “I wouldn’t have started from here” I have to recognise that a misstep now could make a bad situation worse. And the situation is bad. As Labour marks its first full year [...]
AIM boss: Inheritance tax sums don’t add up June 19, 2025 As AIM celebrates its 30th anniversary the market’s boss is eying a crucial birthday present from the Treasury: tax clarity. AIM shareholders were thrust into the tax spotlight last month after a leaked memo revealed Angela Rayner proposed Chancellor Rachel Reeves slap a series of taxes savers. Scrapping the inheritance tax exemption for AIM shares [...]
European bond rout worsens ahead of pivotal defence summit March 6, 2025 European bond yields continued to climb on Thursday as traders weighed expectations of higher borrowing from major European economies, which is expected to boost defence spending. German bonds suffered their worst day since the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Wednesday, after soon-to-be Chancellor Friedrich Merz laid out a bumper package [...]