Starmer accused of ‘fudging the facts’ of his schooling by education expert February 1, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has faced accusations of “fudging the facts” about his education, from the founder of a social mobility charity. Sutton Trust founder Sir Peter Lampl, who went to the same school as the Prime Minister, Reigate Grammar, made the claim as he attacked the government’s plans to charge VAT on private school fees. [...]
Barclays customers ‘unable to make payments’ as bank outage continues February 1, 2025 A major IT glitch is still affecting Barclays customers, with some locked out of their accounts throughout the night and almost 24 hours on from the bank’s initial outage. The bank has apologised to customers, saying they are facing “ongoing technical issues that are impacting our customers’ accounts”. They warned some people may see an [...]
High street sales grow but threat of closures looms February 1, 2025 High street sales grew in January but the gains failed to offset volume losses last year, leading analysts to warn of closures as costs mount. Total retail sales in discretionary spend categories grew by 7.1 per cent in January, although this comes off the back of a 0.8 per cent drop last January, according to [...]
IoD: Business confidence remains ‘historically depressed’ February 1, 2025 The Institute of Director's (IoD) economic confidence index stood at -59, which was up slightly from -61 in December but still at a very weak ebb.
Astrazeneca cancels £450m vaccine plant, blaming state funding cut January 31, 2025 Astrazeneca has cancelled a planned £450m investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Merseyside, saying Labour have failed to match the previous government’s offer of funding. It sees the pharmaceutical firm scrap plans to expand its existing facility in Speke, as announced by then-chancellor Jeremy Hunt at last year’s March budget, as first reported by [...]
Britain needs to work harder to ‘compete globally’, Chris Philp says January 31, 2025 Brits need to work harder in order to “compete globally” with rival nations, Chris Philp has argued. The Conservative shadow home secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking podcast that the UK “needs everyone to make a contribution” to keep up with states like China and India. He told presenter Nick Robinson that there were [...]
Government implements alcohol tax reliefs but critics say it’s not enough January 31, 2025 The government has implemented two tax reliefs aimed at growing the UK’s alcohol sector, although critics have said they won’t be enough to offset other cost hikes this year. Labour will implement a draught relief increase, cutting 1p duty off draft pints, as well as small producer relief, which the government said will help small [...]
Five policies the Chancellor hopes will fire up the economy January 31, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves committed to going "further and faster" on kickstarting economic growth.
City of London approves major new skyscraper January 31, 2025 The City Corporation has approved a 54-storey skyscraper on the doorstep of UK’s busiest station as demand for office space continues to grow in the capital. The site at 99 Bishopsgate, which will become one of the tallest towers in the Square Mile, is set to provide a minimum of 1.2m sq metres of office [...]
St James’s Place and Next help FTSE 100 to another all-time high January 31, 2025 The FTSE 100 has hit another all-time high this morning, with the index up five per cent since the start of 2025. London’s main index rose 0.46 per cent this morning before dropping back slightly, while the more domestically focused FTSE 250 jumped 0.53 per cent. “Given the volatility this week on Wall Street as [...]
