Smuggling gangs likely to capitalise on tobacco bill, experts say October 27, 2025 As the Lords debate Labour’s tobacco and vapes Bill, experts have warned it could hand a major victory to the same organised criminal gangs behind illegal smuggling. Labour’s proposed Bill, which started the committee stage at the House of Lords on Monday, would create a generational ban on tobacco sales and implement stricter regulations on [...]
Rachel Reeves alerts top investors on tax rises and spending cuts October 27, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has sent a message to international investors on incoming tax hikes and spending cuts in an effort to ease market nerves ahead of this year’s Budget. Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative – or ‘Davos in the Desert’ – in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Reeves prepared investors for a more difficult Budget next [...]
Looking for Growth? Look no further. October 27, 2025 The fury online is palpable, high-fliers feel undervalued, and ‘Britain is Broken’ has become the ridiculing punchline enjoyed by American crypto traders and digital nomads. Here though, at a mini arena in Greenwich on a Thursday night, Looking for Growth – LFG – is not a lost cause. Some attendees are unsure exactly what they [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Goodwin shares soar, HSBC $1.1bn Madoff hit, Petrofac administration October 27, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. Rachel Reeves likes to insist that she will “never play fast and loose with the public finances.” It’s a phrase she deploys quite often, not least when it looks as if the bond market could do with a bit of reassurance, and it means that she won’t [...]
Rishi Sunak: Tax rises at Autumn budget would crush confidence October 26, 2025 Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned Chancellor Rachel Reeves that she must cut spending at the next budget or risk economic disaster. Writing in his inaugural column for the Sunday Times, Sunak said that Reeves faces a “simple choice: spending cuts or tax rises.” “If the chancellor opts for the latter, it will crush [...]
The nuclear stupidity of insisting reactors provide ‘social value’ October 23, 2025 The government is demanding that companies who want to build small modular reactors must ensure 50 per cent of workers are women and provide jobs for refugees rather than, you know, build a nuclear reactor, says Tom Harwood Let me take you back in time to a quite different world. Barack Obama is President of [...]
Labour’s tobacco bill risks empowering black market, warns shadow minister October 7, 2025 The Labour government’s proposed Tobacco and Vapes Bill could hand a significant boost to criminal gangs and fuel the growing black market in illicit goods across the UK, the shadow policing minister has warned. Matt Vickers MP has told City AM that the legislation, aimed at curbing smoking and youth vaping, fails to address the [...]
Titanic Quarter sinks further into the red as losses mount September 17, 2025 Losses at a string of companies related to the landmark Titanic Quarter development in Belfast have widened during their latest financial years, new documents show. The companies, which are controlled by businessmen Dermot Desmond and Pat Doherty, are all involved in the development of the 161.5-acre site. Belfast’s Titanic Quarter is home to more than 100 companies with [...]
Sorry Nigel, appointing business leaders to government never actually works August 18, 2025 Taking successful people from the business world and putting them in government sounds like a good idea, but history proves otherwise.
Sir Rocco Forte enjoys record pay day after hotels empire deal August 13, 2025 The hotels group founded by Sir Rocco Forte has issued a record dividend for the first full year after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) became a major shareholder. Rocco Forte Hotels has paid out dividends totalling £8.9m for the year to 30 April, 2025, to its shareholders. The international hotels group, which is headquartered in [...]