Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget still causing negativity – CBI July 30, 2025 A streak of negative business sentiment has now lasted 10 months, a leading industry body has suggested, in further evidence that employers have struggled to turn a page on Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £40bn tax raid at last year’s Autumn Budget. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly told MPs that business confidence was edging higher, [...]
JP Morgan: Rachel Reeves could slash headroom to avoid large tax rises July 29, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is poised to reduce her wafer-thin £9.9bn headroom even further at the Autumn Budget to avoid making sweeping tax rises, analysts at one of the world’s biggest banks have predicted. Leading think tanks and City analysts have warned that Rachel Reeves will look to raise as much as £30bn in taxes later [...]
Trump hails relationship with Starmer – but no steel exemptions yet July 28, 2025 In a Scottish golfing holiday that has swiftly given way to a multi-sided international summit, Keir Starmer has held a bilateral meeting with Donald Trump which has spanned from the UK-US trading relationship to immigration policy and international conflicts. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds had tempered expectations of immediate steel tariff progress ahead of the meeting, [...]
Physician associates union takes government to court over planned role changes July 27, 2025 A union will take the Government to court over its decision to implement recommended changes to the roles of physician associates (PAs) within the NHS, the United Medical Associate Professionals (UMAPs) has said. It follows findings by a Government-ordered report that PAs have been used as substitutes for doctors despite having significantly less training. The [...]
Labour to introduce new licensing rules to boost high street venues July 26, 2025 The Labour government has pledged to simplify the opening process for new high street venues in a bid to ramp up British hospitality prospects. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said new licensing framework, which comes as part of Labour’s overhaul on planning, plans to fast-track permissions for al fresco dining, helping to “protect pavement pints”. The [...]
Labour’s OpenAI deal lacks transparency July 24, 2025 The Labour government’s newly announced partnership with OpenAI has positioned the UK at the centre of a global discourse on the future of artificial intelligence in public services. The memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed on Tuesday by tech secretary Peter Kyle and OpenAI chief Sam Altman, sets out a framework for collaboration across sectors like [...]
Rachel Reeves is lost in space July 24, 2025 Rachel Reeves said was steering the economy past a black hole but her calculations are off and we’re heading for the abyss, says Helen Thomas One year ago, the new UK Chancellor declared that upon taking office she had discovered a £22bn fiscal black hole. She told parliament in her first big speech, “If left [...]
Labour’s plan to gerrymander London’s mayoral election will backfire July 24, 2025 Giving the vote to teenagers may be getting the headlines, but Labour are also planning to rig London’s mayoral elections by restoring supplementary voting. It’s a plan based on dangerous assumptions, warms James Ford Labour is clearly panicking. There is a very real fear that, come 2028, the combination of a deeply unpopular Labour government [...]
Goldman Sachs boss: London finance lead ‘fragile’ July 23, 2025 London’s position as a global financial centre is at risk from years of anti-business policies that are pushing talent and capital abroad, the boss of Goldman Sachs has warned. David Solomon highlighted a damaging combination of Brexit, the UK’s tax burden, constrictive regulation, and the recent decision to abolish the non-dom regime have all harmed [...]
Starmer must face down the self-righteous clowns on his back benches July 23, 2025 Keir Starmer’s attempt to select compliant MPs has backfired, producing a rebellious and ill-informed parliamentary party that has already successfully vetoed its own government’s economic policy, says Paul Ormerod A fundamental feature of the social and economic world is that intentions are not the same as outcomes. Morgan McSweeney and his colleagues exercised very close [...]