City raises a glass to Reeves’ reforms July 16, 2025 The City may have been a bit damp and grey yesterday but the Chancellor appeared as a welcome ray of sunshine. At City AM, we haven’t held back in our criticism of this government’s economic policies – and we’ll return to that theme before long, I’m sure – but we also believe in giving credit [...]
Tax debate goes from comedy to tragedy July 15, 2025 When I suggested recently that we were going to experience déjà vu, with another summer of endless tax rise speculation, I didn’t imagine the experience would be quite so profound. And yet, having already enjoyed the spectacle last year of Labour MPs trying to define “working people” they’re now treating us to a rerun of [...]
Week in Business: The tragedy of Labour’s tax addiction July 10, 2025 From the housing market to the stock exchange, some taxes need to be reformed or reduced - but this government only wants to hike rates.
Labour’s tax addiction will end in tears July 10, 2025 It is now pretty much universally accepted that the government will launch a fresh tax raid in October’s budget. City economists expect the Treasury to be on the hunt for between £10bn and £20bn of additional revenue, though given the expensive u-turns on winter fuel payments and welfare reform combined with likely lower growth forecasts [...]
Brutal bean-counters break the news: we’re utterly broke July 9, 2025 These are difficult times for a news organisation that likes to think of itself as being on the glass-half-full side of life. Optimism is in short supply, and whatever reserves remained after 12 months of this government were snatched away from us yesterday by those bean-counting assassins at the Office for Budget Responsibility. Once a [...]
A wealth tax would be a disaster – and an admission of total failure July 8, 2025 Why wouldn’t Downing Street rule out a wealth tax? It isn’t difficult, you just say “we will not introduce a wealth tax” and the show moves on. Instead, when asked about the growing clamour in Labour circles for new tax aimed squarely at the well-off, Downing Street’s spokesperson simply talked about the need for “the [...]
Watch: Labour’s ‘total clusterf**k’ July 3, 2025 It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Exactly a year ago the Labour government swept into office promising stability, competence and economic growth. So why, on the one year anniversary of their victory, does it feel like their dying days? This has been a pretty extraordinary week in British politics and it’s a week that [...]
Sacking Reeves would make a bad situation even worse July 2, 2025 This government has made plenty of mistakes but ditching Rachel Reeves would be by far the biggest. While my advice to ministers remains “I wouldn’t have started from here” I have to recognise that a misstep now could make a bad situation worse. And the situation is bad. As Labour marks its first full year [...]
Calm heads make a welcome return to ESG debate July 2, 2025 In May 2022, HSBC’s head of responsible investing, Stuart Kirk, took to the stage at a City conference and did something extraordinary; he criticised the financial services industry’s obsession with climate change. With a degree of candour that would ultimately cost him his job, Kirk said “I feel like it’s getting a little bit out [...]
Why can’t Keir Starmer lead? July 1, 2025 Later this week, Keir Starmer will celebrate the one year anniversary of his thumping election victory. Although he constantly tells journalists that he “doesn’t do” self reflection, if he does choose to recognise this political milestone he’ll surely be unnerved to consider that it’s less a case of “look how much we’ve achieved” and more [...]
