British Airways dives to £4bn loss as flights reduced by two-thirds March 3, 2021 British Airways (BA) fell to a £3.9bn operating loss in 2020, owner IAG revealed today, more than half of the airlines group’s total loss for the year. According to the FTSE 100 firm’s annual reports, BA’s loss dwarved that of its stablemates Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling. These fell to losses of €563m, €1.4bn, and [...]
ITV shares rise as channel secures Meghan and Harry Oprah interview March 3, 2021 ITV shares pushed higher today as the broadcaster revealed it has secured UK rights to Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The London-listed company fended off competition from rivals Sky and Channel 4 to acquire the eagerly-awaited chat, in which the couple discuss their decision to quit the royal family. The special [...]
Corporate tax hike could depress economic activity and reduce tax rise revenue, says IFS March 3, 2021 The corporation tax hike announced in today’s budget will lead firms to invest less in the UK in the medium term, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced corporation tax will rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent by 2023 for UK companies with annual profits of [...]
Editorial: Long-term growth worryingly absent in a tax-hiking, business-battering Budget March 3, 2021 Tax hikes are one thing – but more concerning are the pedestrian growth numbers that seem to be the new normal for the British economy Conservative Chancellors do not, as a general rule, batter big business or ordinary Brits with tax hikes. But these are not normal times, and batter both Rishi Sunak certainly has. [...]
Cazoo, Dettol and Tik Tok: How the pandemic has changed the sport sponsorship landscape March 3, 2021 The pandemic may have halted the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but in the world of sport sponsorship it has sparked some dramatic moves. New entrants are making major investments while more established sponsors have moved aside to make way. A combination of enforced changes of habit and the uneven nature of Covid-19’s [...]
Budget 2021: Keir Starmer accuses Sunak of ‘papering over the cracks’ March 3, 2021 Sir Keir Starmer has hit back at Rishi Sunak’s Budget, accusing the chancellor of “papering over the cracks” in his spending plans. The Labour leader said the chancellor was the person “actually making the decisions” in government, but said these decisions had “left us with the mess we find today”. Starmer accused Sunak of delivering [...]
Brexit disruption to shave 0.5 per cent off GDP as UK starts its recovery March 3, 2021 Post-Brexit disruption to UK-EU trade will reduce the UK’s first quarter GDP growth by 0.5 per cent, according to the government’s budgetary watchdog. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said in its forecast today that customs disruptions at the EU border and a drop in the number of lorries travelling between the UK and EU [...]
Budget 2021: Big business to pay off UK’s Covid debt burden with £45bn corporation tax rises March 3, 2021 Rishi Sunak will make the UK’s big businesses pay off the country’s Covid spending, with £45bn of corporation tax rises to hit companies with profits over £250,000 the hardest. Corporation tax will rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent by 2023 for UK companies with annual profits of £250,000 or higher, however a [...]
Corporation tax hike: Rishi Sunak is on the way to creating a tax environment to stifle innovation March 3, 2021 Last week, Rishi Sunak rightly said that fintech is one of the UK’s big success stories, and that the growing industry needs access to talent, finance and support. I had therefore hoped for more good news for the sector in today’s Budget. However, it’s been announced that from 2023, the rate of corporation tax, paid [...]
Bitfinex Pay launches as a cryptocurrency payment system March 3, 2021 Crypto trading platform Bitfinex is gearing up to take aim at some of the digital payment big players as it launches Bitfinex Pay today.
