Crossrail and HS2 chair Sir Terry Morgan faces sack after costs spiral December 1, 2018 The chair of the Crossrail and HS2 infrastructure projects reportedly faces the sack over fears the rail link between London and Birmingham could exceed its £56bn budget by a large margin. Sir Terry Morgan has only been chair of HS2 for four months but could now be fired within weeks after his poor performance was [...]
Sam Gyimah resigns in protest at Theresa May’s “naive” Brexit deal December 1, 2018 Science and universities minister, Sam Gyimah, became the sixth minister to resign in protest at Theresa May's Brexit deal when he quit the government on Friday evening. It came after May announced that the UK was pulling out of the EU's Galileo satellite-navigation project, which Gyimah believes exposes the deal as "naive". The decision to pull out of the project came [...]
Mike Ashley acquires Intu property despite row with retail landlord over House of Fraser stores November 30, 2018 Mike Ashley has acquired a new property from Intu despite a public bust up with the retail landlord in which he threatened to withdraw 17 of his stores from their shopping centres. The billionaire has bought a long leasehold on the former BHS site in Derby from Intu, according to the Press Association. It comes just two [...]
US, Mexico and Canada sign new trade deal November 30, 2018 The US, Mexico and Canada today signed a new deal governing the more than one trillion dollars (£780bn) worth of trade between the three countries. US President Donald Trump, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto signed the deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement today in Argentina at the start [...]
Donald Tusk’s message to MPs: UK cannot renegotiate Brexit deal November 30, 2018 European Council president Donald Tusk ruled out renegotiating Theresa May’s Brexit deal today, saying if parliament rejects the agreement then Britain must either crash out of the EU with no deal or abandon Brexit altogether. “A few days before the vote in the House of Commons, it is becoming more and more clear that this [...]
UK banks can pat themselves on the back, but the system is still feeling the stress November 30, 2018 Breathe a sigh of relief: once again, all financial institutions have passed the Bank of England’s annual stress tests. But look beneath the surface, and suddenly the various allowances made this week start to undermine the good news. First, if the impact of the new accounting standard IFRS 9 that came into force in January was [...]
International trade secretary Liam Fox backs Theresa May’s Brexit deal November 30, 2018 International trade secretary Liam Fox this morning backed Theresa May’s Brexit deal as the prime minister ruled out a plan B. Leading Brexiteer Fox said he believed members of the cabinet would back the deal, despite a deeply divided parliament. Fox told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: “It is very difficult to get a deal [...]
Editor’s Notes: Check back in with the forecasters in 2033 November 30, 2018 The Treasury’s Brexit scenarios, released this week, boiled down to a claim – made with pinpoint accuracy – that the Prime Minister’s deal will leave the UK economy 3.9 per cent smaller in 15 years, compared with staying in the EU. In other news, PwC estimates that artificial intelligence will increase UK GDP by 10.3 [...]
Big ambitions and grand challenges: How the industrial strategy fares one year on November 29, 2018 It’s now a year since the industrial strategy was launched. Encompassing a 255-page tome, it laid five foundations for productivity: ideas, people, infrastructure, places and the business environment. It promised waves of sector deals between government and industry to de-risk investment and improve workers’ skills. Six such deals were announced in the first year, from automotive [...]
Trump lawyer admits lying to Congress over president’s Russian affairs November 29, 2018 The former lawyer of US President Donald Trump has admitted he lied to Congress amid an investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election. Michael Cohen, who served as then-businessman Trump’s personal lawyer for several years, pleaded guilty following charges filed by special counsel Robert Mueller last night. Cohen said that he had included false [...]