Reeves lands £30bn reprieve ahead of Spring Statement February 20, 2026 Rachel Reeves has secured a record-breaking borrowing reprieve in fresh data that comes ahead of the Chancellor delivering her Spring Statement in March. The Treasury has been handed a surplus of £30.4bn in January, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show, after a surge in tax receipts. The figure is £15.9bn higher [...]
Tech CEO Daniel Callaghan: My first job was in a sports shop with Rachel Reeves February 19, 2026 We dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, the CEO of one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech firms, Daniel Callaghan.
Antonia Romeo appointed civil service boss February 19, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Dame Antonia Romeo to be the first female cabinet secretary to lead the civil service, as part of a reshuffle of the government’s top team. The new civil service chief is currently the most senior civil servant at the Home Office, and was a leading contender for the role when [...]
Rachel Reeves warned ‘dysfunctional’ fiscal rules are hammering economy February 19, 2026 Rachel Reeves has been dealt a scathing assessment of her economic policy by a top think tank, which likened her approach to a driver who was “watching the speedometer” while ignoring other conditions. The Chancellor is facing calls to scrap the self-imposed fiscal rules that prevent her from borrowing to pay for day-to-day spending and [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Centrica profit falls; Stocks dip after record rally February 19, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. It’s been quite the week for the “old and unexciting” FTSE 100. The blue-chip index closed 1.2 per cent higher on Tuesday led by a rally in the mining sector. Antofagasta led the pack up over 10 per cent, which came a day after its [...]
Inflation eases to three per cent boosting interest rate cut hopes February 18, 2026 Inflation fell to its lowest level in nearly a year last month, new figures show, giving a further boost to hopes that the Bank of England will cut interest rates in March. The headline rate dipped to 3.0 per cent in January, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), down from 3.4 per cent [...]
Is AI really to blame for Britain’s rising unemployment? February 17, 2026 Unemployment has risen to 5.2 per cent, the highest level since 2021, as the UK’s labour market continues to cool. But how much of that stagnation can reasonably be attributed to AI? The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show the jobless rate climbed in the three months to December, while the number of [...]
Brewdog faces hangover from ‘punk’ investment model February 17, 2026 Once offering a craft beer revolution to its “punk” investors, Brewdog’s likely sale has angered some of its thousands of small-scale shareholders and could see the brand’s elements be flogged off in segments. The UK’s largest independent brewer kickstarted the country’s craft beer obsession and challenged traditional financing models by offering cheap shares to consumers. [...]
Labour’s employment legislation and national insurance blamed for rising joblessness February 17, 2026 National insurance hikes and the employment rights act mean businesses are being forced to cut back on hiring, business leaders and analysts have said. The labour market continued to loosen at the end of last year, according to new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, with unemployment climbing to 5.2 per cent between October and [...]
On this day: Thomas J Watson, father of IBM, was born February 17, 2026 On 17 February 1874, the man who would go on to found the largest industrial research organisation on the planet was born in the tiny town of Campbell, writes Eliot Wilson The town of Campbell, New York, in the Appalachian Mountains had a population of less than 2,000 in 1874. Thomas John Watson, born this [...]