Starmer and Trump to continue trade talks ‘at pace’ March 31, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump discussed “productive negotiations” to advance a UK-US trade deal and agreed they will “continue at pace” in a phone call on Sunday night, Downing Street has said. The UK is trying to negotiate an exemption from tariffs on imports into the US. Negotiations are said to be intense, with moves [...]
Are Brits getting richer? It depends how you measure growth March 30, 2025 Wobbly growth is the opposite of what Rachel Reeves would have hoped for in her first six months as Chancellor. While the headline figure on Friday morning said the UK economy had only expanded by 0.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2024, economists suggested that there was a more pressing matter at hand. [...]
US tariffs: UK ‘reserves right to respond’ after carmakers meeting March 28, 2025 The UK reserves the right to respond to American tariffs, Sir Keir Starmer has said, after US President Donald Trump’s decision to slap a 25 per cent import tax on cars. The Prime Minister said his government was involved in ongoing discussions with the White House aimed at “mitigating the impact” of any levies but [...]
No10 communications chief to quit after nine months March 28, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer’s director of communications, Matthew Doyle, is set to quit No10 Downing Street after nine months in the job. Doyle, who served as the Prime Minister’s communications chief in opposition, is understood to be stepping down immediately after feeling he had stabilised the government’s communications strategy after a rocky first few months in [...]
Spring Statement 2025: Rachel Reeves’ popularity nears Kwasi Kwarteng levels March 28, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ popularity rating as Chancellor has neared Kwasi Kwarteng levels after the mini-Budget, following the Spring Statement on Wednesday. She set out £14bn in welfare and spending cuts in the House of Commons, including a £4.8bn squeeze on benefits, to restore the £9.9bn headroom she had at the Autumn Budget, which would otherwise have [...]
Rachel Reeves has already lost half of her £9.9bn headroom March 28, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has had £5bn wiped off her headroom less than 48 hours after she delivered her Spring Statement, a calculation by Bloomberg Economics has suggested. Chancellor Reeves has received several warnings from leading economists at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) that her headroom risks getting [...]
Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal to ditch UK after non-dom crackdown March 28, 2025 Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal is set to leave the UK, as a direct result of a government crackdown on non-domiciled residents, in favour of more tax-friendly destinations such as the United Arab Emirates, Italy and Switzerland, the FT has reported. The businessman, a former Blair-era Labour donor and Sunday Times Rich List number seven, is [...]
Spring Statement: Watch out for income tax hikes in the autumn March 27, 2025 The Spring Statement has done little to reassure markets about the Chancellor’s commitment to fiscal discipline, says Aviva’s Vasileios Gkionakis The UK government on Wednesday announced cuts in government spending to rebuild ‘fiscal headroom’ after rising government borrowing costs and anaemic economic growth badly damaged its finances. Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the mix of cuts [...]
Reeves ‘lost gamble’ and is likely to raise taxes, IFS claims March 27, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is “likely” to raise taxes at this year’s Autumn Budget, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) director Paul Johnson has warned, as he claimed an extension to income tax thresholds would make for the “easiest political win”. Reeves’ announced her £40bn tax raid at the last Autumn Budget in October. The bulk of [...]
US tariffs: Reynolds urges ‘cool heads’ over trade negotiations March 27, 2025 Jonathan Reynolds has said it is a time for “cool heads” as the UK engages with the US over tariff plans despite holding a “different set of views” on trade policy. It comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the UK is not planning “at the moment” to introduce retaliatory tariffs on the US, after President [...]