Labour minister: UK-EU trade deal could take another year to kick in July 17, 2025 The UK’s trade deal with the European Union, set to ease food standards and align energy markets could still take another year to come into effect, a Labour minister has warned. In a landmark post-Brexit deal, the UK and EU agreed a deal on food standards to slash red tape for British exporters while giving [...]
Does Rachel Reeves believe in capitalism? July 17, 2025 The Chancellor can’t do the biggest things she needs for growth because she can’t escape her own ideology, says Helen Thomas Spin only gets you so far in the business world. Action has to back up rhetoric or the game will be found out. This is the main difference between business and politics: the former [...]
Keir Starmer bars Labour MPs after rebellion July 16, 2025 Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suspended at least four Labour MPs who have had a record of voting against the government in parliament. The Labour backbenchers to have been barred from the party include Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell. Sources told The Times, which first reported the story, that the MPs [...]
Regulation is ‘a boot on the neck of businesses’, Rachel Reeves to warn at Mansion House July 15, 2025 Financial services regulation is “a boot on the neck of businesses,” Rachel Reeves is expected to say as the Chancellor delivers her annual Mansion House speech later today. Reeves will urge watchdogs to “take up the call” of regulating for growth rather than “bend to the temptation of excessive caution” as she seeks to showcase [...]
Reeves seeks to spark retail investor revolution July 15, 2025 High street banks Barclays and Lloyds will lead an advertising campaign to encourage more Brits into retail investing as part of a wider effort to get savers to boost the UK economy. In rallying calls to financial services, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled a campaign to encourage savers to invest in stocks and bonds, drawing [...]
Enough with black-hole blaming, Reeves is ignoring low hanging fruit July 15, 2025 Raising taxes and plugging black holes, Reeves's discourse ignores proven (and easier) methods to boost productivity, says Paul Ormerod.
Rachel Reeves accelerates deregulation push in Leeds Reforms July 15, 2025 Rachel Reeves has laid out plans to “rewire” the financial services system in a deregulation push as part of her Leeds reforms package. The Chancellor said the plans will make the UK the number one destination for financial services businesses by 2035 as the government “doubles down on the UK’s global strengths”. The Leeds Reforms [...]
Give business a voice to get back to growth July 15, 2025 The energy, ambition and innovative new ideas we need to turn Britain around is out there, it just needs to make itself heard, says Emma Revell Last year I wrote – on these very pages – that “[o]ne of the biggest hurdles we face as a country is a fundamental misunderstanding between the people who [...]
Minister says only ‘average incomes’ up to £39k safe from Reeves’ tax hikes July 15, 2025 A government minister has said that Labour will stick to its manifesto commitment not to raise personal taxes, at least for those on “average incomes” – earning up to £39,000. Successive ministers over multiple days of media rounds have been caught in an increasingly tangled mess of definitions of what it means to be “wealthy”, [...]
In Starmer’s Labour, it’s backbenchers that hold the power July 15, 2025 Labour needs backbenchers who fight for growth, not just block spending cuts, writes Michael Martins in today's Notebook.