More Brits ‘in financial strain’ as Trump frightens UK voters April 7, 2025 Nearly two in five UK voters are either cutting their spending or are unable to pay essential bills due to ‘financial strain’, according to the latest City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll, as President Trump’s tariffs are set to send Chancellor Reeves’ growth plans into disarray. The Chancellor said at her Spring Statement in March that Brits [...]
Voters’ economic gloom worsens as tariff fears bite April 7, 2025 UK voters are increasingly downbeat about the economy as President Trump’s tariff announcements have further dampened Brits’ confidence, according to the latest City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll. The global economy is still reeling from the President’s Rose Garden speech, where Trump announced sweeping tariffs on countries around the world, with markets nosediving across Asia and Europe [...]
UK services sector ‘driving force’ behind growth, BDO says April 7, 2025 The UK’s services sector is the “driving force” behind marginal growth gains, research by the consultancy BDO has suggested, as other sectors’ performance has become increasingly lacklustre. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to ease cost pressures on firms as her £25bn national insurance tax hikes, coming into effect this week, have weighed down on [...]
Tariff response: slash red tape and lure the non-doms back April 7, 2025 Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith on the five steps the government should now take A few years before he died, Henry Kissinger described Trump as “one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences”. It [...]
Reeves’ £25bn national insurance tax raid has arrived. What happens now? April 6, 2025 Sorry, Lionel Richie. Businesses aren’t feeling easy like a Sunday morning. The new tax year is here. And Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn national insurance tax raid has fallen on thousands of firms. From today, employers will pay a tax rate of 15 per cent on salaries above £5,000, down from £9,100 previously. This secondary threshold [...]
Global markets nose-dive as Trump’s tariff on UK products comes into effect April 5, 2025 Donald Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on UK products has officially come into force, with global stock markets plunging deeper into the red in response to the imposition of import taxes. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to spend the weekend speaking to foreign leaders about the tariffs, after calls with the prime ministers [...]
Number 10 slaps down David Lammy ‘protectionism’ comments as tariff shockwaves continue April 4, 2025 Downing Street has distanced itself from comments made by the foreign secretary, who told reporters on Friday that he regrets “the return of protectionism in the United States.” David Lammy said that Britain is “a nation that believes in open trade” and that these curbs on trade are “something we’ve not seen for nearly a [...]
Construction output drops again despite Rayner’s planning reforms April 4, 2025 Construction activity has suffered a further decline and confidence is low despite minister Angela Rayner’s planning reforms getting a thumbs up from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Rayner’s Ministry of Housing is introducing broad changes to planning rules as it hopes to deliver the UK’s construction sector an extra boost. Its planning reforms have [...]
Reeves’ £25bn tax grab to become ‘toxic reality’ for British business, firms suggest April 4, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn tax grab from employers will become a “toxic reality” for British businesses from Sunday as higher costs risk stunting firms’ income, one of the UK’s largest industry bodies has warned. Reeves’ has pinned her hopes for improving the state of public finances on growing the UK economy but more firms have [...]
How will Trump’s tariffs impact the UK economy? April 3, 2025 The US president holds up a sandwich board in the Rose Garden. On it is a list of countries. Next to each country are two columns: one for “tariffs charged to the USA” and one for “USA Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs”. The leader of the free world is cooking up a storm. “Our country has been [...]