FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jittery as Starmer makes play to reopen Strait of Hormuz Markets Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The UK and France are set to co-chair a meeting with allies later today in a bid to strum up ways to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. The vital waterway, which sits off Iran’s coast, sees around a fifth of the world’s oil supply flow [...]
Tories brace for heavy losses as Badenoch outpolls rivals Politics Five years ago, the Conservatives were polling at around 40 per cent, buoyed by the vaccine rollout and post-Brexit momentum, and went on to gain 235 seats in the 2021 local elections. But ahead of May’s vote, that position seems to have shifted. Political scientist Stephen Fisher has suggested the party could lose as many [...]
Top energy and City bosses called for summit with Starmer as oil surges Politics A number of senior leaders from the likes of HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Shell will meet with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday as the government scrambles to help ease the unfolding energy crisis from the war in Iran. Top officials from the energy, finance and logistics sectors will attend the roundtable on Monday, [...]
Business groups warn against axing ‘fundamental’ red tape watchdog March 16, 2026 Some of Britain’s largest business groups have urged the business secretary not to scrap a body responsible for scrutinising business regulation, saying it plays a “fundamental” role evaluating the impact of red tape on British firms. The intervention comes as the Department for Business confirmed to City AM that ministers are “considering the role” of [...]
Reeves urged to cut bank tax as UK competitiveness lags February 25, 2026 Rachel Reeves is facing renewed calls to cut tax on the banking sector after new bombshell research laid bare the competitive disadvantage UK lenders are battling against. The Chancellor spared banks from a highly-anticipated fresh tax raid in the Autumn Budget but a new report – penned by the Association for Financial Markets (AFME) and [...]
Reeves lands £30bn reprieve ahead of Spring Statement February 20, 2026 Rachel Reeves has secured a record-breaking borrowing reprieve in fresh data that comes ahead of the Chancellor delivering her Spring Statement in March. The Treasury has been handed a surplus of £30.4bn in January, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show, after a surge in tax receipts. The figure is £15.9bn higher [...]
Starmer orders tech giants to delete abusive content within 48 hours February 19, 2026 Tech companies will be legally required to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours, or face heavy fines and potential UK blocks, under new measures unveiled by the Prime Minister The proposals, introduced through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, require platforms to act swiftly once content is flagged. Companies that fail to [...]
Sarwar says Starmer welcome on campaign trail despite resignation call February 15, 2026 Anas Sarwar has said Keir Starmer would be welcome to join Scottish Labour’s Holyrood campaign, despite having urged him to resign as prime minister only days earlier. The Scottish Labour leader reiterated on Sunday that he stood by his call for a change of leadership in Downing Street, arguing there had been “too many mistakes” [...]
Starmer only cares about victims ‘to save his skin’, Badenoch blasts February 11, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer faced a brutal grilling at Prime Minister’s Questions on Monday where Kemi Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of only caring about victims of sexual abuse “to save his skin”. In a fiery exchange that was highly party-political but light on policy, the Labour leader said he had “accepted responsibility and apologised for [...]
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 [...]