Real Madrid top Deloitte Football Money League as Champions League revamp boosts Premier League’s rivals
Total UK government borrowing beats OBR forecast Economics 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 [...]
Inflation remains a headache on both sides of the Atlantic Economics 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? Legal 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, [...]
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, [...]
Budget damage to housing market set to continue, experts warn January 22, 2026 The UK’s housing market will continue to suffer from the impact of months of budget speculation last year as seller confidence languishes, property experts have warned. While sellers and estate agents breathed a sigh of relief when November’s Budget steered clear of most of the property that had been feared, these experts told City AM [...]
Scrapping jury trials will only have ‘modest’ impact on backlog January 22, 2026 David Lammy’s controversial plan to restrict jury trials will unlock only “relatively modest reductions in demand given the scale of institutional upheaval”, according to a new report by the Institute for Government (IFG). The government’s plans, which leaked in November, revealed a move to scrap some jury trials to tackle the nearly 80,000 criminal case [...]
High Court to hear Reform’s challenge on cancelled council elections January 21, 2026 Reform UK’s legal challenge against the UK government over plans to delay local elections is set to go to a two-day trial next month. The case focuses on the government’s plan to allow 63 councils to postpone their local elections that were scheduled for May 2026. So far, more than a third of local authorities [...]
Coffee and sugar drive surging food inflation January 21, 2026 Sharp increases in the cost of coffee and sugar are behind the high rate of food inflation which is one of the drivers of the surprise inflation rise. The cost of food increased at a rate of 4.5 per cent in the year to December, overshooting the overall inflation rate of 3.4 per cent by [...]
UK’s net zero drive singled out in Trump attacks January 21, 2026 The UK’s net zero policies were singled out in President Trump’s long tirade against European energy struggles at the World Economic Forum in Davos. President Trump described the UK economy’s struggles in stark terms, suggesting that the Labour government had disregarded “one of the greatest reserves in the world” at the North Sea. In his [...]
FTSE 100 rebounds as Trump rules out taking Greenland by force January 21, 2026 Global markets bounced back into the green on Wednesday after President Donald Trump confirmed the US would not use military action to seize Greenland. In his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said: “All the US is asking for is a place called Greenland”. “We never ask for anything and we never [...]