Total UK government borrowing beats OBR forecast January 22, 2026 UK government has already borrowed more this year than the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, official data has revealed, wrapping up a difficult 12 months for Rachel Reeves as she grapples with keeping public finances safe from further shocks. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated public sector borrowing to have been £11.6bn over the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Defence and miners miss Trump ‘TACO’ tariff rally January 22, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Yesterday Donald descended on Davos. In a wide-ranging address to the economic elite, President Trump scolded Europe, touted his own successes and doubled down on the “need” to acquire Greenland. Beyond his scathing remarks about Nato peers, the central takeaway from Trump’s over-hour long speech [...]
Inflation remains a headache on both sides of the Atlantic January 22, 2026 Donald Trump made many claims in his Davos speech yesterday and there aren’t enough pages in this newspaper to do justice to them all, but his assertion that “inflation has been defeated” is worth considering. With midterm elections coming up Trump knows the cost of living is a real concern, just as it is here, [...]
Legal accounts controversy: Who should fund the broken justice system? January 22, 2026 First, the government tried to go after the LLPs, but that failed. Now its eyes are on law firms’ client accounts under the narrative that it will be used to help the crumbling justice system, but lawyers are seeing it as just another tax raid. Law firms earn substantial income from interest on client accounts, [...]
Northern Powerhouse Rail has more to do with votes than growth January 22, 2026 With Northern Powerhouse Rail now given the green light, the North-South divide now benefits the North over London, writes James Ford I have long thought that the North-South divide was far more cultural than economic. One end of the country prefers gravy on their chips and chooses to eat them watching Coronation Street whilst the [...]
Mark Kleinman: Reeves’ ISA reforms pose more risk than reward January 22, 2026 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Reeves’ ISA reforms pose more risk than reward If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That sounds like the right epithet to apply to the Treasury’s approach to reforming individual savings accounts (ISAs), one of the [...]
Son-of-a-toolmaker Starmer is a poor workman January 22, 2026 Successful organisations, from businesses to governments, work best when their leaders are able to articulate a clear, long-term vision, says Paul Ormerod Keir Starmer has been complaining that the machinery of government does not work properly. When he pulls a policy lever, very little happens. This has provoked a public argument with the health secretary, [...]
UK bank ramps up fight for savers after rebrand January 22, 2026 The battle to bank Britain’s savers has ramped up with the arrival of a new name, set to challenge ‘easy access’ incumbents such as JP Morgan’s Chase, Goldman Sachs’ Marcus and fintechs like Oaknorth. The former UK arm of Jamaica National Group, previously dubbed JN Bank UK, has revamped its operations after being sold in [...]
Only pubs set to benefit from business rates U-turn as hoteliers barred January 21, 2026 Pubs will be the only businesses to benefit from the government’s business rates U-turn as other hospitality firms will be shut out from tax relief, Rachel Reeves has hinted. The Chancellor told reporters at Davos that pubs face a different situation to the rest of the sector, likely meaning hotels and other hospitality businesses will [...]
Citadel’s Griffin condemns Trump’s Federal Reserve attack January 21, 2026 Donald Trump’s onslaught against the Federal Reserve is a political misstep that will put “he and his party in a precarious position”, Citadel founder Ken Griffin has said, in one of the most stinging rebukes from a US business luminary since the White House launched legal action against the central bank last week. Speaking at [...]