Automotive supplier SGL shares drop a third as chief quits on profit warning August 15, 2019 SGL Carbon, a major supplier to Germany’s car industry, has suffered a double blow as its chief executive threw in the towel over flawed business planning on the same day as a profit warning. Chief executive Juergen Koehler will step down at the end of August, he announced, as the company said it expected adjusted [...]
UK retail sales get surprise boost in July from stay-at-home shoppers August 15, 2019 British shoppers bought more than expected in July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today, in a sign that consumer spending could help the UK economy escape recession in the third quarter. Read more: BRC: July 2019 worst on record for retail sales growth The 0.2 per cent increase in the quantity of retail [...]
Government offers £25m to ensure drug supply after Brexit August 15, 2019 The government is planning a £25m contract to ensure British pharmacies and medicine cabinets stay stocked after Brexit. The contract will ensure that small parcels of medicines or medical products get into the country within 24 hours, with larger deliveries every two or four days. Read more: New £300m no-deal Brexit freight plan risks legal [...]
Remainer MP Wollaston joins Lib Dems to halt Brexit August 15, 2019 Former Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston has joined the Liberal Democrats, as she continues to fight Boris Johnson’s threats of a no-deal Brexit. Wollaston, who chairs the Health and Social Care Committee and the influential Liaison Committee, which will haul Johnson over the coals next month, was one of three Tories to quit the party in [...]
Rabobank profits fall by a quarter as lender hit with charges August 15, 2019 Pre-tax profit at the Dutch lender Rabobank fell by 26 per cent in the first half of the year, the company said today, after it was hit with impairment charges and struggled with low interest rates. Read more: Four lenders awarded £40m from RBS banking competition funds The figures Rabobank’s operating profit before tax dropped [...]
Boris Johnson’s ‘tough on crime’ rhetoric won’t make our streets any safer August 15, 2019 Boris Johnson’s criminal justice announcements this week are red meat for disillusioned voters. Having fallen off the radar in the past five years, people are now more concerned by crime than any issue other than Brexit – and it happened on the Tories’ watch. Bad news for the party of law and order. Ever the [...]
Does your business have a Brexit plan? Good, now it needs a Corbyn plan too August 15, 2019 In the mid-1970s, when I was a 10-year-old in love with Choppers and Sherbet Fountains, the ideological war between Thatcherism and Bennism began. Small versus big state, low versus high taxation, light versus tight regulation, and private versus public ownership. Now, 45 years later, we have a neo-Thatcherite government facing a Bennite-controlled Labour party. And [...]
Corbyn calls for cross-party collaboration in no-deal strategy August 14, 2019 Jeremy Corbyn has called on MPs opposed to a no-deal Brexit to back his attempt to form a “strictly time-limited” government, insisting he would call a General Election and campaign for a second referendum. The Labour leader wrote to backbenchers and other opposition party leaders promising to extend Article 50 and push for “a public [...]
US vice president Mike Pence to speak at City trade banquet August 14, 2019 US vice president Mike Pence will speak at a trade banquet in the City when he visits London next month, City A.M. can reveal. The black tie dinner, hosted by the City of London Corporation, will take place at Guildhall in the Square Mile on 5 September and will also be attended by the international trade secretary Liz Truss. Some City councillors [...]
ECB tells banks in Britain to speed up Brexit preparations August 14, 2019 Banks have been urged to speed up their Brexit preparations by the European Central Bank (ECB), which warned yesterday that London-based firms are falling behind on potential plans to move jobs. The Eurozone’s top banking watchdog has called on firms to step up their contingency plans as the UK nears Downing Street’s 31 October deadline [...]