Slower April wage growth to feed into interest rate cut hopes June 9, 2025 An expected drop in wage growth in April compared to the previous month could encourage Bank of England officials to vote for further interest rate cuts this year, leading analysts have suggested. Labour market data for April, which is due to be published on Tuesday morning, is set to reveal wage growth has cooled while [...]
London Tech Week: Barclays partners with Microsoft in major AI roll-out June 9, 2025 Barclays is set to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 100,000 employees worldwide, in one of the largest known deployments of generative AI tools in the banking sector to date. The announcement was made at London Tech Week by Microsoft’s UK chief, Darren Hardman, who signalled a major step in embedding the technology into day-to-day operations in [...]
How defence can lead growth through private investment June 9, 2025 The UK’s Strategic Defence Review outlines ambitious long-term reforms, but by leveraging its strengths in finance, AI, and commercial shipping, Britain can achieve rapid defence innovation and capability gains without immediate major spending increases, says Julien de Saint-Quentin The Strategic Defence Review (SDR), published last week, was presented as a ‘transformative’, ‘once-in a generation’ exercise. [...]
Can populists survive in public office? Ask Geert Wilders… June 9, 2025 Right-wing firebrand Geert Wilders has withdrawn from government in the Netherlands after discovering that governing is harder than criticising from the fringes. It’s a lesson Nigel Farage may learn too, say Eliot Wilson Last week, greeted by more weary fatalism than surprise, the government of the Netherlands collapsed. On Tuesday, radical nationalist Geert Wilders withdrew [...]
Reeves should use the Spending Review to make pay conditional on performance June 9, 2025 If the public sector had matched the productivity improvements of the private sector over the last 15 years or so, Keir Starmer would have £100bn more to spend this year. Instead of reheated policies, it’s time for real reform, says Tim Knox Keir Starmer, to his credit, has been making the right diagnosis. Six months [...]
Gino D’Acampo: Restaurant empire’s huge debts revealed before rescue June 9, 2025 The company behind TV chef Gino D’Acampo’s restaurant empire owed more than £11m as it collapsed into administration, it has been revealed. Upmarket Leisure Ltd, which controlled the former This Morning star’s venues, was served with a wind-up petition by HMRC in March and moved to appoint an administrator before being saved in a £5m [...]
Spending review: Rachel Reeves in standoff over police budgets June 9, 2025 Just 48 hours out from the government’s spending review on Wednesday, Rachel Reeves faces a tax and spend tug-of-war between senior Cabinet ministers and the realities of the public finances. Yvette Cooper looks to be the major remaining holdout, with substantial cuts to Home Office funding expected at the spending review and no funding deal [...]
This is what London needs in the spending review June 9, 2025 We need radical action if we’re going to hit the target of building 88,000 homes a year, more powers for the Mayor and improvements to productivity to get London out of the cycle of spending cuts and tax rises, says John Dickie In less than a week, the Chancellor will fire the starting gun on [...]
Cut net zero and welfare spending instead of police budget, Tory MP blasts June 8, 2025 The shadow home secretary has slammed the Labour government amid mounting speculation police budgets are on the chopping block in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending review. Chris Philp told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he believes police funding should be protected from cuts following concerns of a shrinking workforce. “I think I’m very concerned that [...]
Can government force £2.5bn Abramovich Chelsea funds to Ukraine? June 8, 2025 Last week the UK government threatened to take Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to court to make sure the £2.5bn raised from his sale of Chelsea FC went to Ukraine. Abramovich owned Chelsea from 2003 until his forced sale in 2022 following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. But the proceeds of the sale to a consortium [...]