FTSE 100 Live: Stocks fall as oil takes hit; YouTube, BBC strike deal January 16, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. How big of a win was yesterday for Rachel Reeves? The economy grew 0.3 per cent in November – faster than expected – as Jaguar Land Rover roared back to life following a costly cyberattack that halted supply chains across the UK. But while this [...]
Robert Jenrick defects to Reform after sacking from ‘rotten’ Tories January 15, 2026 Robert Jenrick has announced his defection to Reform UK after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch sacked him for plotting to switch over “in secret”. Hours after Badenoch announced Jenrick’s suspension from the Conservative Party, the former shadow justice secretary appeared in a press conference alongside Nigel Farage promoting the transfer. In a press conference he arrived [...]
Watch: We’ll regret granting this embassy to hostile China January 15, 2026 Is China our enemy or our ally? Is it an adversary or a partner? The trading relationship is huge, but so are the security risks. In the City, China means big business. Last year the UK exported £30bn worth of goods and services to China while we bought £70bn worth from them. But we exported [...]
Starmer in dire straits as British voters pessimistic on almost every issue January 15, 2026 Leaders rarely fail because of a single decision. Starmer's problem is that voters are pessimistic on almost every major measure.
FTSE 100 Live: Gold surges amid Trump tensions; JLR leads growth rebound January 15, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Rachel Reeves’ report card for 2025 has received another dim review with fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing growth came in at a sluggish 0.1 per cent in the three months to November 2025. This was led by a modest rebound [...]
Defence splurge cannot fund planned expansion, military chief says January 14, 2026 The Labour government’s commitment to increase defence expenditure to 2.5 per cent of GDP from next year will not fully fund the planned expansion of the armed forces, a top military official has warned. Sir RIchard Knighton, chief of the defence staff, told MPs on Monday the rise in government funding would not be enough [...]
Davos: Economic war is the ‘biggest global risk’ January 14, 2026 Trade wars and economic disputes between global powers are the biggest risk to the world over the next two years, business leaders, academics and government officials have said in a report ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos meeting. Nearly a fifth of respondents in a survey (18 per cent) by the World Economic Forum [...]
‘We’re turning the country around’: U-turns put pressure on defiant Starmer January 14, 2026 Keir Starmer attempted to justify a string of policy U-turns on everything from business rates to the mandatory digital ID, claiming the Labour government was “turning the country around”. In an awkward Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, opposition leader Kemi Badenoch grilled Starmer on recent U-turns, which prove tricky for MPs and strategists to explain [...]
Starmer to U-turn on mandatory digital ID January 14, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer is expected to perform another U-turn by scrapping plans to make a national digital ID compulsory for all Brits. After backtracking on a number of policies, from the farm tax to the end of winter fuel payments, the Prime Minister is set to reveal that the government will no longer make all [...]
‘Ambition and delivery are not aligned’ – Starmer’s AI Action Plan, one year on January 14, 2026 Exactly a year ago, Keir Starmer, with the help of Matt Clifford, promised to “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK’s economy. The so-called AI Opportunities Action Plan, a 50-point blueprint unveiled in January 2025, was meant to turn that rhetoric into results, placing the UK on equal footings with the likes of China [...]