MPs begin debating emergency law to save British Steel April 12, 2025 The Business Secretary accused British Steel’s Chinese owners of attempting to “unilaterally” close down its Scunthorpe blast furnaces as MPs began debating emergency legislation to save the plant. Jonathan Reynolds told MPs that developments over recent days had made Saturday’s extraordinary sitting of Parliament necessary as Jingye rejected the Government’s offer of support and took [...]
US envoy suggests Ukraine can be partitioned April 12, 2025 Ukraine could be partitioned like Berlin after the Second World War, Donald Trump’s envoy to Kyiv has suggested as Russia continues to hold out on accepting a truce. General Keith Kellogg appeared to suggest the country could be split into zones of control, with British and French troops as part of a “reassurance force” in [...]
MPs face choice on British Steel as ministers aim to ‘take back control’ April 12, 2025 MPs face a choice between “taking back control” of British Steel or seeing the end of primary steelmaking in the UK, the industry minister said ahead of a debate on emergency legislation. Both the Commons and the Lords will break from Easter recess for a highly unusual Saturday sitting to debate a bill aimed at [...]
Parliament to be recalled over future of British Steel April 11, 2025 Parliament will be recalled on Saturday to discuss the future of British Steel, Downing Street has confirmed. A government source said it is looking “take control” of the company after its owner, China’s Jingye, said its two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe were “no longer financially sustainable.” British Steel employs around 2,700 people but is weeks [...]
BP forecasts ‘weak’ gas trading April 11, 2025 BP said it expects gas marketing and trading to be “weak” in the first three months of 2025, as it published its early indicators for performance through the period. Upstream production in the first quarter is also expected to be lower compared to the prior quarter, with production slightly higher in oil but lower in [...]
Heathrow passenger numbers fall after power outage closure April 11, 2025 Heathrow Airport reported a decline in traffic in March as passenger numbers were impacted by the power outage that resulted in a 10-hour shutdown. Some 6.2m passengers flew from the UK’s busiest airport last month, down 7.5 per cent year-on-year. An investigation has been launched into the March closure, which was caused after a fire [...]
Consumer confidence flattens as recovery stalls despite wage growth April 11, 2025 Consumer confidence was flat in the first quarter of the year despite high wage growth, as economic uncertainty weighs on Brits. Overall consumer confidence rose 0.3 percentage points in the first three months of 2025, with sentiment towards the UK economy at its lowest level in over a year, according to Deloitte. “The consumer recovery [...]
Healey warns against ‘forgetting about the war’ at Ukraine summit April 10, 2025 Allies of Ukraine should guard against “jeopardising the peace by forgetting about the war” amid plans for a peacekeeping force from 30 ‘coalition of the willing’ nations, John Healey has said. Proposals for that peacekeeping force in Ukraine are “real and substantial”, the defence secretary said, at the start of a further meeting of the [...]
Cabinet Office to shed 2,100 jobs as government shrinks civil service April 10, 2025 The Cabinet Office will lose almost a third of its staff as Labour seeks to shrink the civil service, the government has announced. Around 1,200 jobs will go through redundancies and leavers not being replaced under plans unveiled to civil servants on Thursday, with another 900 transferred to other departments. The 2,100 job cuts represent [...]
S&P 500 slumps on open as Treasury yields remain elevated April 10, 2025 US markets have opened down after digesting the implications of Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs. The Nasdaq opened down 2.7 per cent, while the Dow Jones fell 1.9 per cent and the S&P 500 opened 2.3 per cent down. Meanwhile, US Treasury yields have remained elevated, with the 30-year US Treasury sitting [...]
