Budget 2025: Lloyds, Natwest and Barclays brace for a tax raid? September 1, 2025 Ahead of the 2024 Autumn Budget, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned Labour’s first fiscal event was “going to be painful”. He added those with the broadest shoulders “should bear the heavier burden” as Chancellor Rachel Reeves battled against an alleged ‘£22bn black hole’ inherited from the Conservative government. After lobbying efforts, banks were spared [...]
Ministers brace for fresh protests and legal battles after asylum hotel ruling August 30, 2025 Keir Starmer has been warned by a Labour grandee that voters will continue to shift to Reform UK unless decisive action is taken to address the migrants crisis. The government won a Court of Appeal challenge against an an injunction which would have seen asylum seekers moved out of the Bell Hotel, Epping, but ministers [...]
Home Office wins appeal to keep asylum seekers in Epping hotel August 29, 2025 Asylum seekers will be allowed to stay at a hotel in Epping, after the Court of Appeal overturned a previous ruling from the High Court. The decision from the second highest court in the UK means that the 138 men currently housed at The Bell Hotel in the Essex town can stay put. Earlier in [...]
Rachel Reeves told ‘copy Margaret Thatcher’ with bank tax raid August 29, 2025 Britain’s banking titans are back in the hot seat as Rachel Reeves faces renewed calls to hike taxes on lenders. The self-described “iron Chancellor” has been advised to take a leaf out of Margaret Thatcher’s book with a fresh levy on banks that would hand the Treasury up to £8bn a year. The levy – [...]
UK defence tech pivots from taboo to City darling August 28, 2025 The UK’s deep tech sector is navigating a seismic shift in investor sentiment toward defence technology. Once a frowned-upon sector, defence is now shedding its taboo, driven primarily by global instability and recent geopolitical headwinds. This transformation, while opening the doors to new investment opportunities, also reveals underlying issues in the UK’s approach to technology [...]
Mental health overdiagnosis ‘costs £16bn a year’ August 28, 2025 The overdiagnosis of mental health illness in young people costs the UK around £16bn a year, a new report has suggested, with former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt claiming policies he introduced around Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) required “stretching questions”. Research by the right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange has found that the overdiagnosis of mental [...]
Butlin’s boss: We’re not going to tax ourselves to success August 26, 2025 The chief executive of holiday park chain Butlin’s has hit out at Chancellor Rachel Reeves after saying increases taxes on businesses is not the way to improve the UK economy. Speaking on an up-coming episode of City AM‘s Boardroom Uncovered show, Jon Hendry Pickup said the country is “not going to tax ourselves to success” [...]
Job postings fall in ‘summer slowdown’ August 22, 2025 Fewer jobs postings were made in July in signs that a “summer slowdown” will hit the UK economy and test Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ commitment to get more Brits into work. Data provided by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and analytics company Lightcast has shown that there was a 9.2 per cent decrease in the number [...]
UK government borrowing since April hits £60bn August 21, 2025 The UK government borrowed a total of £1.1bn last month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), compared to £2.3bn last year and below the fiscal watchdog’s £2.6bn forecast. The total deficit hit £60bn in the months since April, which is £6.7bn more than in the same four-month period of 2024 and the third-highest [...]