By: Christian May

Editor-in-Chief Christian May is the Editor-in-Chief of City AM. He served in the role from 2015 to 2020 and returned in 2024. He writes the daily Editor's Letter for print and online and releases The Week in Business roundup video each Thursday. He is particularly interested in the health of London's capital markets, economic policy, politics, regulation and business activity in the City of London. He regularly appears in the broadcast media and presents a daily Business News slot on LBC at 0730, Monday to Friday. Find Christian on X and LinkedIn.

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Is Rachel Reeves the Prime Minister’s lucky general?

December 2, 2025

Napoleon is supposed to have declared that he’d “rather have lucky generals than good ones.” Here in the UK, it seems we have a Chancellor who fits just such a mould. Only the most loyal Labour MPs would declare that Rachel Reeves is a good Chancellor, and in doing so they’d be setting themselves firmly [...]
Thanks to Reeves, our economy is now a 20 mile per hour zone

November 27, 2025

If, on Wednesday morning, you’d asked me how this entire Budget process could ever get more chaotic and absurd I might have said “I suppose the entire thing could leak, before the Chancellor delivers it.” Then again, I probably wouldn’t have suggested such an implausible scenario. But at 11.44am yesterday morning, just ten minutes before [...]
Budget Day: The good, the bad and the ugly

November 26, 2025

It seems as if we’ve been speculating about the contents of today’s Budget since the moment Rachel Reeves sat down after delivering her first one, just over a year ago. Since then, unemployment has risen (every month) and growth rates have slumped quarter-to-quarter from 0.7 per cent to 0.3 per cent to 0.1 per cent. [...]
There’s nothing new in Zack Polanski’s fantasy economics

November 25, 2025

Let’s go for a lyrical opening to this column: “The newspapers shout a new style is growing, but I don’t know if it’s coming or going, there is fashion, there is fad, some is good, some is bad, and the joke – rather sad – that it’s all just a little bit of history repeating.” [...]
Join City AM and guests for a LIVE broadcast on Budget Day

November 21, 2025

After months of speculation and mounting political drama, Rachel Reeves will deliver her second Budget at noon on Wednesday 26 November. City AM‘s team will bring you all the news throughout the day on our Live Blog via CityAM.com and the City AM App, along with a special livestream broadcast from the heart of the [...]
Budget chaos isn’t a game, it’s caused real harm

November 20, 2025

It’s been the longest run-up to a Budget anyone can remember, it started just after the last Budget, so how much damage has this chaos caused? In her first speech as Chancellor in the first week of July last year, Rachel Reeves used the word stability 8 times. She pledged to “deliver economic stability” and [...]
Unpopular opinion: Banks are taxed enough already

November 20, 2025

Is Angela Rayner influencing the Budget from beyond the political grave? The former deputy PM and housing secretary was famously in favour of increasing the additional tax burden faced by banks. Ahead of this year’s Spring Statement, Rayner was riding high. With a confidence that turned out to be misplaced, she inserted herself into debates [...]
Markets will determine whether Reeves has any credibility left

November 19, 2025

It’s a regrettable reality that a politician – or an entire government – can limp on for months or even years after losing credibility in the eyes of voters. In contrast, when markets think the credibility is gone the consequences can be much more immediate. Just ask Liz Truss. One week from today, the Chancellor’s [...]
Prime Ministers deserve a nicer house and we deserve better government

November 18, 2025

The nerve centre of the British state, 10 Downing Street, is fantastically ill-suited to the needs of a modern Prime Minister and to the interests of the country. An excellent piece by Politico last week lifted the lid on what it’s actually like to work in this rather dilapidated Georgian townhouse, with one former No [...]
Will the Budget push the economy off the cliff?

November 13, 2025

Downing Street is in chaos and the economy has flatlined. Now, with just a couple of weeks to go until we find out what’s really in Rachel Reeves’ Budget, Britain’s bosses are getting restless. It used to be the case that Chancellor’s went quiet in the run-up to a Budget, keeping their powder dry and [...]

Make toilets beautiful again!

Thomas Frank sacked: Tottenham count cost of £6.7m compensation payout

Bar of the week: Why Three Sheets is a little slice of old Soho

By: Christian May

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