By: Ali Lyon

Chief reporter Ali Lyon is the chief reporter at City AM, responsible for covering the full gamut of business, finance and wealth news. He has been at City AM full-time since July 2024. Get in touch with tips via email: ali.lyon@cityam.com. Follow Ali on X: @alilyon_94

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Defence stocks rally after Starmer vows to ‘go faster’ on spending pledge

February 17, 2026

Investors piled into defence stocks on Monday after Keir Starmer said the UK needed to “go faster” on defence spending to combat the growing threat from Russia. The Prime Minister warned that the UK needed to “step up” its defence commitments amid reports that he wants to ramp up the defence budget by tens of [...]
US alternatives giant leads £150m refinancing at debt-laden Very

February 16, 2026

The credit giant that took control of Very from the Barclay family has arranged a £150m funding package for the online retailer ahead of a potential £2bn sale. Carlyle helped arrange an extension and renewal of debt-laden Very’s key credit lines, in a move it said helps secure the group’s long-term funding until 2029. The [...]
Google’s 100-year bond ‘plays into’ AI bubble fears

February 12, 2026

A rare 100-year bond issued by the owner of Google will compound fears that tech firms’ historic debt-fuelled capital expenditure is evidence of an AI bubble. But, this is a shot in the arm for the UK’s stuttering credit market, analyst have said. Alphabet raised £1bn of an astronomical $32bn (£23.4bn) borrowing spree via a [...]
Landlords ‘underestimated’ scale of business rates overhaul

February 11, 2026

The architect of Labour’s business rates overhaul has blamed the political backlash to the controversial policy on landlords and industry chiefs not fully understanding that a pandemic-related subsidy was coming to an end. Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson told MPs that business owners were taken off-guard by the scale of their tax rise because they weren’t [...]
Global Counsel loses more clients as Epstein scandal deepens

February 11, 2026

The crisis engulfing the lobbying firm founded by Peter Mandelson, Global Counsel, deepened on Tuesday, after three more of its blue-chip clients parted ways with the advisory over its links to co-founder Mandelson and the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. City AM understands that pensions giant Phoenix, Tesco and Bank of America have all severed [...]
American hedge fund relaunches campaign against Scottish investment trust

February 10, 2026

The American hedge fund tycoon behind a years-long assault on Britain’s investment trust industry has revived his campaign against a Baillie Gifford-run fund less than a month after being resoundingly defeated by shareholders at a crunch meeting. Saba Capital founder Boaz Weinstein shared an open letter to investors in the Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (Ewit), [...]
Mandelson’s Global Counsel has been rocked by its links to Epstein. Will it survive?

February 10, 2026

Global Counsel – the lobbying shop co-founded by Peter Mandelson – was once a swashbuckling force in London’s world-leading public affairs sector. But after the extent of its links to Jeffrey Epstein were revealed by the US Department of Justice email release, clients have been severing ties and its chief executive has quit. Ali Lyon [...]
Lobbying chief urges firms not to work with unregistered agencies

February 10, 2026

The boss of the lobbying sector’s industry body has urged public affairs chiefs to stop working with agencies that have not signed up to its code of conduct, after several blue-chip companies were forced to sever ties with Peter Mandelson’s lobby firm, Global Counsel. In a draft letter seen by City AM, PRCA chief Sarah [...]
No 10 communications chief quits as Mandelson fallout deepens

February 9, 2026

Keir Starmer’s communications chief has resigned less than six months after joining the Prime Minister’s Downing Street operation, in a further deepening of the crisis engulfing the government over Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein . Tim Allan, the founder of PR agency Portland, said in a statement he was leaving government to “allow a [...]
Boss of Mandelson’s Global Counsel quits amid Epstein file fallout

February 6, 2026

The chief executive and co-founder of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm Global Counsel has quit with immediate effect after revelations about his and his company’s connection with Jeffrey Epstein caused clients to sever or reconsider ties to the firm. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser has stepped down with immediate effect, the group’s board said in a statement, which also [...]

Iran vows to never surrender following US demand

Fifa’s credibility is shot because it can’t decide what it wants to be

Ford Mustang Sutton CS800DH review: Taming a wild horse

By: Ali Lyon

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