Investment minister Jason Stockwood: I don’t want to be political October 22, 2025 Jason Stockwood insists he hadn’t been angling for a plumb ministerial job before the call from Keir Starmer asking for him to be investment minister came six weeks ago. The serial entrepreneur – and Grimsby Town Football Club co-owner – had, instead, been “moaning” about the paucity of politicians with genuine business experience, when the [...]
Darktrace boss blames employee share rules for London exit October 22, 2025 The boss of Darktrace has said that the London Stock Exchange’s restrictive rules over offering options and equity to staff drove its decision to leave the UK bourse in 2023, saying it limited its ability to attract and retain talent. Jill Popelka told a Bloomberg event that the “limitations” meant that as a London-listed company [...]
Exclusive: Reeves poised to roll out ‘concierge service’ for investors October 16, 2025 The Treasury is preparing to launch its ‘concierge service’ to help international firms invest and expand in the UK as soon as this week, City AM can reveal, in a move ministers hope will attract as much as £10bn of foreign investment into the UK. The new service – also dubbed an ‘investment hub’ – [...]
UK’s top tech scale-ups named, but can Britain keep hold of them? September 11, 2025 Tech Nation has announced its Future Fifty 2025 cohort, featuring 25 high-growth UK scaleups across various sectors, including AI, climatetech, healthtech, and spacetech. Between them, these firms have raised more than £1.4bn and employ over 2,100 people. The programme, which was relaunched under Founders Forum Group in 2024, has long been seen as the UK’s [...]
Merck warns UK is ‘not internationally competitive’ as it scraps £1bn London research centre September 10, 2025 Merck has pulled out of a planned £1bn London drug research centre in the latest blow to the government’s growth agenda. The US pharma giant is to lay off 127 staff alongside abandoning the construction project, which had been set to open in King’s Cross in 2027. The firm warned the UK would lag behind [...]
Meet the new ministers driving Labour’s latest growth mission September 9, 2025 A £25bn fiscal black hole, fading housebuilding hopes and lacklustre productivity growth marked a troublesome end to the first year in office for the new occupants of Downing Street this summer. While the resignation of Angela Rayner – the popular Labour figure who had called for the Treasury to turn left and tax the wealthy – [...]
Cabinet reshuffle: Lucy Rigby replaces Emma Reynolds as City minister September 6, 2025 Former solicitor general Lucy Rigby has been made Economic Secretary to the Treasury, a role often called the City minister, in the latest development in Starmer’s reshuffle. Rigby replaces Emma Reynolds, a former City lobbyist who had held the role since last July but who has now become environment secretary. In a post on X, Rigby said she was [...]
Poppy Gustafsson resigns as investment minister September 5, 2025 UK investment minister Baroness Poppy Gustafsson is stepping down less than a year after the former boss of cyber security firm Darktrace was appointed to the role by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Gustafsson is understood to be leaving to spend more time with her young family, with the announcement due in the next few days. [...]
London Stock Exchange boss: Fix underinvestment for growth September 5, 2025 The boss of the London Stock Exchange has urged the government to fix investment in capital markets to achieve economic growth. Dame Julia Hoggett, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, has backed the new ‘Tell Sid’-style campaign announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves this year in a bid to get Brits investing. Hoggett told [...]
Jaguar Land Rover hit by cyber attack forcing production shutdown at UK plant September 2, 2025 Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has been forced to halt production and retail operations after a cyber attack disrupted its global IT systems, with staff at its plant on Merseyside told not to report to work. The incident prompted the UK’s biggest carmaker to take its systems offline as a precaution. In a statement, JLR said [...]