Lib Dems would scrap Treasury for ‘Department for Growth’ February 11, 2026 The Liberal Democrats have laid out plans to scrap the Treasury department if elected in favour of a ‘Department for Growth’. Daisy Cooper, the party’s deputy leader and Treasury spokeswoman, said on Wednesday took aim at failed government economic policy and said the Treasury “does too much”. “Fiscal policy, economic policy and controlling government spending. [...]
Heathrow warns on losing European crown without expansion February 11, 2026 Heathrow Airport has kicked off the new year with a shattering of its previous traffic record but has offered a stark warning it could lose its crown without progress on expansion. Some 6.5m passengers travelled through the airport in January, marking a 2.2 per cent increase on last year and making it the busiest January [...]
Starmer will fail to improve living standards – but it isn’t all his fault February 11, 2026 Between the mid 1960s and the mid 2000s, the living standards of the poorest half of households doubled. Increasing by 1.9 per cent a year, it took four decades to make this leap. To emulate that progress again, starting from today, would take 137 years. This is not a state of affairs that can be [...]
Buy now, pay later providers set for £3bn hit in ‘regulatory reset’ February 11, 2026 Providers of buy now, pay later services are set to feel the crunch as the UK’s financial watchdog tightens its regulatory focus on the fast-growing industry. Merchants and lenders are set to take a combined hit of as much as £3bn following the regulation overhaul by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), according to its own [...]
UK fintech investment hits lowest since pandemic despite Revolut boost February 11, 2026 Investment into the UK’s fintech sector tumbled to a five-year low in 2025 even after a major boost from industry juggernaut Revolut. UK fintech received just shy of $11bn (£8bn) in investment in 2025, falling a fifth from the $13.4bn notched the year prior, according to new figures from KPMG. A hefty chunk of the [...]
Services sector rebound expected to help economy limp towards growth February 10, 2026 Rachel Reeves is set to breathe a minor sigh of relief at the sight of new economic data this week with the UK economy expected to have limped towards growth in December. A survey of City economists by Bloomberg had projected a 0.1 per cent expansion in December and 0.2 per cent for the fourth-quarter. [...]
Barclays boss calls for political ‘stability’ as banker’s pay packet swells to £15m February 10, 2026 The boss of British banking giant Barclays has called for “stability” across the political landscape as the Labour government’s future faces uncertainty. CS Venkatakrishnan, the bank’s chief executive who is known as Venkat, faced questions on the turmoil in Number 10 after Barclays published its full-year earnings report. “From the point of view of businesses [...]
Budget documents accessed thousands of times before release February 10, 2026 The budget was accessed nearly 25,000 times before its formal release, according to an official report into the leak, raising questions over the data handling practices of the UK’s fiscal watchdog. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it had identified at least 24,701 successful downloads of the document, compared to the 43 spotted in [...]
FTSE 100 Live: BP tumbles on buyback suspension, Barclays profit boost February 10, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. It was a rocky day for bond markets on Monday as political jitters rippled through the City. The 10-year gilt yield – a key benchmark for the government – rose as much as 10 basis points to 4.62 per cent following news that Scottish Labour [...]
Starm before the storm? PM survives the day but crisis still looms. February 10, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is “getting on with the job” following a punishing 24 hours in which he lost his Chief of Staff, his Director of Communications and the support of Labour’s leader in Scotland as the fallout from the Peter Mandelson scandal threatens to collapse the government. As leadership speculation continued to [...]