FTSE 100 Live: Stocks tumble amid Trump’s Strait of Hormuz blockade April 13, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Markets are returning from the weekend to a major blow in hopes of a ceasefire in the Middle East. After Donald Trump revealed his two-week reprieve on strikes whilst negotiations begin, those very talks now look to be hanging by a thread. Vice President JD [...]
Firms slash jobs at fastest pace this year and pay growth slows April 13, 2026 Businesses slashed jobs at the fastest pace in 2026 as employers also resisted giving staff big pay increases over March, research has suggested, exposing the Iran war’s damaging effects on all sides of the UK economy. Research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG said there was a steeper rise in the number [...]
Tech bosses line up for Cabinet under new Whitehall plans April 12, 2026 Hundreds of business leaders, tech executives and former military figures are set to be trained for senior roles in government under a new initiative aimed at overhauling Whitehall. The programme, led by the Centre for Government Reform, will target candidates from outside Westminster and prepare them to take on positions such as cabinet ministers and [...]
“War in Iran will come at a cost,” Reeves warns UK businesses April 12, 2026 Rachel Reeves has warned the escalating conflict in Iran will feed directly into higher costs for British businesses, as pressure builds on energy prices and inflation. “I am going to be straight with people”, Reeves said, “the war in Iran will come at a cost to British families and business,” signalling that the economic fallout [...]
Starmer told Trump to be ‘practical’ amid Strait of Hormuz tax rumours April 10, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer has said he spent most of a conversation with Donald Trump on Thursday night talking about a “practical plan” to secure the Strait of Hormuz, shortly after he said he was “fed up” of the US president’s impact on energy bills. Starmer said he spoke to Trump about the blocked strait, which [...]
Healey: Defence investment is Starmer’s ‘highest priority’ April 10, 2026 Defence secretary John Healey has said defence investment is the Prime Minister’s “highest priority” as military officials wait for a long-awaited strategy paper on procurement and spending. At the London Defence Conference, Healey said Sir Keir Starmer has taken a “personal interest” in drafting the Defence Investment Plan, which was due to be published last [...]
Mahmood agenda bites: Migrant worker applications nearly halve in a year April 9, 2026 The number of applications for skilled worker visas has nearly halved in a year after home secretary Shabana Mahmood raised the barriers to entry for migrants. Official data released by the Home Office showed that there were 34,700 skilled worker visa applications in the year to March. This was a 44 per cent decrease from [...]
Taxpayers brace for a financial hit after personal allowance rule change April 9, 2026 British taxpayers are bracing for a fresh financial hit as changes to the personal allowance creeps closer. While the personal allowance itself is not changing, remaining frozen at £12,570 until 2031, a subtle change will take effect from the next tax year, as the government places a new lock onto how it is applied, affecting [...]
Fuel shortages, hunger, inflation spiral: IMF fears ‘scarring’ harm from Iran war April 9, 2026 Several fuel shortages, hunger and spiralling inflation will be some of the consequences of the Iran war as the head of the International Monetary Fund said that it would leave “scarring effects” on the global economy. In a speech by Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, global policymakers were warned that trade disruption across the [...]
‘Dragged out of the dark ages’: Investment industry welcomes risk warnings review April 9, 2026 The UK investment industry has welcomed the findings of the Risk Warnings Review, emphasising the need to remove the extremes-focused view on investing. The review, a study commissioned by the Chancellor as part of the Leeds Reforms, found that consumers’ perception of risk has seriously hindered investing in the UK, with the state of risk [...]