Brexit and pandemic onslaught have altered UK workforce with highest-ever number of non-EU workers April 21, 2022 UK, EU and non-EU payroll data varied drastically during the course of the pandemic, according to fresh data sent to City A.M. this morning. While the UK entered the first lockdown in March 2020 with payroll numbers at 25.7m that then dropped to 24.9m by March 2021, non-EU payroll saw figures at 2.12m in March [...]
Brexit-supporting Newark in shock as largest employer shuts up shop and heads for mainland Europe April 21, 2022 Local media and residents in the English town of Newark, as well as its local MP Robert Jenrick, are said to be shocked and disappointed by the decision of food producer Goodlife Foods to shut up shop and move its entire production to mainland Europe. The decision is likely to result in around 110 job [...]
Balancing the budget won’t win voters hooked on Sunak’s years of spending April 20, 2022 On a balmy September day eight years ago, Ed Miliband strode onto the stage at Labour Party Conference and proceeded to deliver a marathon 66-minute speech without notes. Unfortunately for the then Labour leader, he managed to forget a key chunk of his prepared remarks – the bit about tackling the deficit. Cue glee from [...]
Boris Johnson’s political survival could come at the cost of Britain’s rule of law April 20, 2022 Last week epitomised a favourite phrase of political pundits: it was a “bruising week” for the government. This one, so far, isn’t shaping up to be much better, after the Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis compared fines handed out to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to speeding tickets. The partygate fines have been fraught [...]
‘Scramble for staff’: Restaurants hike pay by double-digits in attempt to woo staff to stay April 19, 2022 Pubs and restaurants have hiked workers’ pay by an average of 11 per cent in recent months. A staffing blight continues to plague the hospitality sector, according to data from the latest CGA and Fourth’s Business Leaders’ Survey. Almost four in five businesses told the survey that they had increased wages in a bid to [...]
UK will not offer Indians more visas in post-Brexit trade talks April 19, 2022 The government will not allow more Indians to come to the UK through new visa routes in any UK-India free trade deal. City A.M. understands the prospect of special Indian visas has not been discussed in the first two rounds of trade negotiations and that international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has not put the issue [...]
Companies relieved at unions waning power face a revived challenge in ERGs (no, not the Brexit kind) April 19, 2022 Companies are in the firing line for the way they treat their workers. The latest in the long list of companies who are experiencing the sharp end of worker anger is gaming giant Activision Blizzard whose workers are staging a virtual walkout in protest of the lifting of the vaccine mandate, which workers claim creates [...]
Non-EU migration increase paints a positive picture – but not the whole story April 19, 2022 At points over the past few years – amid apocalyptic warnings of Brexit’s impact on the capital and then Covid-19’s actual impact on our streets – there have been moments when you’d be forgiven for wondering about the future prosperity of the Square Mile and the wider London area. As life has returned to our [...]
‘Liar’: Less than a quarter of Brits paint Boris Johnson in a positive light April 18, 2022 Prime minister Boris Johnson is facing the wrath of British public opinion following revelations about his role in partygate. The prime minister was fined for attending a party which breached his government’s own Covid-19 laws, and made headlines across the globe. In a survey by JLPartners, commissioned by The Times, just 16 per cent of [...]
Brexit felt all the way down in Falkland Islands as fishing exports take a hit after squid orders in EU dry up April 18, 2022 Brexit has “brought problems” for the Falkland Islands’ fishing industry, a Labour former defence minister has warned. Derek Twigg, chairman of the Falkland Islands All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), said there had “been a lot of concern” over the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU on Falkland Islands fishing exports, such as squid. As [...]