Natwest skims past profit expectations February 14, 2025 Natwest narrowly beat analysts’ annual profit expectations after posting a bump in its consumer lending. The FTSE 100 lender posted a £6.2bn pre-tax profit, ahead of £6.1bn pencilled in by analysts and up 0.3 per cent on 2023. Net loans to customers hit £368.5bn, an increase of £12.9bn, which reflected Natwest’s acquisition of Metro Bank’s [...]
Reform UK call for windfall tax on renewable energy in anti-net zero push February 12, 2025 Reform UK has said they would introduce a windfall tax on renewable energy as they announced they were “serving notice” on the industry. The party has detailed a set of “policies to undo the effects of net zero”, in the wake of a series of polls and voting intention surveys that saw it beat Labour [...]
Progressive liberal comes out against progressive liberalism February 11, 2025 What’s keeping Keir Starmer up at night? It’s safe to assume the list is long and that we’re unlikely ever to see it in full, given the myriad security and intelligence matters that take up so much of a PM’s time without ever breaking into public view. So, aside from state secrets, what else might [...]
Why are so many young men turning to Reform February 10, 2025 Young men are flocking to Reform because Nigel Farage is telling them what they want to hear: That they have a voice and it matters, says Oliver Dean British politics appears to have been tipped on its head. Young men who were once considered a sure thing for Labour are now flocking to Reform UK. [...]
Streeting heckled as he urged progressives to fight ‘populist right’ January 25, 2025 Health Secretary Wes Streeting was interrupted by climate protesters on Saturday as he gave a speech urging progressives to fight the “populist right” in a battle of ideas. Two women shouted over him as he used an address to the Fabian Society to call for the centre-left to take on the “miserablist, declinist vision” he [...]
Can Elon Musk really sway UK politics? January 20, 2025 Elon Musk has been loud and proud about his intentions to influence UK politics. But will it actually work, asks Bill Sedat Frater.
Badenoch refuses Reform merger as she says UK ‘getting poorer’ January 16, 2025 Kemi Badenoch has said Britain is “getting poorer” and “living off the inheritance” of past generations, as she refused any suggestion of a merger between the Tories and Reform UK. The Conservative leader made her first speech of 2025 in central London on Thursday. She focused on the past mistakes of her party in what [...]
Hargreaves Lansdown founder: Labour has ‘worst cabinet of all time’ January 16, 2025 The billionaire founder of Hargreaves Lansdown has said that the current Labour administration has the worst cabinet of all time and will “wreck the economy” over the course of a full term. Peter Hargreaves, who set up the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown from his bedroom in 1986, slammed the Labour government’s first six months in [...]
Kemi Badenoch not planning to announce big policies for two years January 9, 2025 Kemi Badenoch is reportedly not planning to announce big policies for the next two years as she plans to focus on rebuilding voters’ trust. The Conservative leader is said to have told her shadow cabinet on Tuesday that she has a “three-year plan” based on transforming her party’s fortunes following the July election defeat, according [...]
PMQs: Siddiq ‘acted appropriately’ by referring herself to adviser, Starmer says January 8, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Tulip Siddiq has “acted appropriately” by referring herself to the independent adviser on standards and said he would not give “running commentary” of the recently announced probe into her finances. The City minister referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests on Monday, for [...]