Total UK government borrowing beats OBR forecast January 22, 2026 UK government has already borrowed more this year than the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, official data has revealed, wrapping up a difficult 12 months for Rachel Reeves as she grapples with keeping public finances safe from further shocks. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated public sector borrowing to have been £11.6bn over the [...]
FTSE 100 rebounds as Trump rules out taking Greenland by force January 21, 2026 Global markets bounced back into the green on Wednesday after President Donald Trump confirmed the US would not use military action to seize Greenland. In his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said: “All the US is asking for is a place called Greenland”. “We never ask for anything and we never [...]
Starmer: I will not yield to Trump January 21, 2026 Keir Starmer said President Trump’s tirade against the Chagos Islands deal was to “pressure” him to change tune on Greenland, adding he would “engage constructively” with the US administration and other allies. During Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer defiantly defended his position on upholding Greenland’s sovereignty, suggesting Trump’s unexpected attack on Chagos in a Truth Social [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Trump to rock davos; Stocks dip after inflation January 21, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Inflation spiked above expectations this morning, coming in at 3.4 per cent, according to fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This soared above a poll of economists by Bloomberg expecting 3.3 per cent. “Inflation ticked up a little in December, driven partly [...]
Starmer to face legal action on Chinese embassy approval January 20, 2026 China’s new “mega” embassy near the City will face a legal challenge from campaigners and local residents despite receiving approval from Keir Starmer’s government after months of diplomatic wrangling and protests highlighting security concerns. Residents of the Royal Mint Court site, the location where China is planning to build its embassy, have confirmed they will [...]
Trump blasts Starmer on Chagos deal in shock change of tune January 20, 2026 President Trump has attacked Keir Starmer for the UK’s giveaway of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, even though he gave his blessing to the deal last year. In a new Truth Social post scolding the Prime Minister over the Chagos deal, which includes a shared US military base at Diego Garcia that will be leased [...]
Thousands more jobs lost as UK businesses hold off hiring January 20, 2026 Thousands more jobs have been lost across the UK, official data has shown, while wage growth also slowed down in further signs of a struggling labour market. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said that the number of employees on the payroll fell by 33,000 in November while an estimate for December said there [...]
Labour scraps Audit Reform Bill to ‘avoid’ costs on firms January 20, 2026 The Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill, added into Labour’s first King Speech, is now being scrapped to “avoid significant new costs to firms”. The reform was first raised in 2018 following the collapse of Carillon, but has been on and off the table ever since. The Bill was shelved by the previous government in November 2023 [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks fall as Trump ramps up pressure; Unemployment at four-year high January 20, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Thousands more Brits exited the jobs market in November as the estimated number of payrolled employees fell by 33,000. New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the UK unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and hit 5.1 per cent in September [...]
U-turn on ID cards reveals a deeper flaw in Starmer’s Labour January 19, 2026 With his latest U-turn, Keir Starmer has taken a controversial policy which nonetheless had a substantial support base and made it deeply unpopular. It’s of a piece with his whole approach to government, says Eliot Wilson Last week the government announced – or perhaps admitted? – that the digital ID unveiled last year will not [...]