FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jump; oil dips below $100 as Trump says Iran deal close May 6, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Brent crude dipped below $100 at Wednesday lunchtime after Donald Trump has hailed “great progress” towards a “final agreement” with Iran, prompting a rally in the FTSE, Asian markets and Wall Street. In a sudden reversal late last night, President Trump said he will pause [...]
Forvis Mazars UK CEO: We have what others are trying to buy May 6, 2026 Forvis Mazars UK boss tells Maria Ward-Brennan that the firm’s integrated, global structure is what competitors are now trying to acquire through mergers and investments Forvis Mazars has built an integrated firm from the ground up, something others are now trying to purchase, says its UK chief executive, who added that building integration from scratch [...]
Bournemouth: Vitality Stadium expansion setback hits European plans May 6, 2026 Bournemouth’s plans to redevelop the Vitality Stadium ahead of a potential first season in Europe have been hit by delays. In what has been a remarkable season, it is still on the cards for the south coast club to qualify for the Champions League. They sit sixth in the Premier League, which will earn a [...]
Supermarket inflation: Falling oil prices help keep costs down at the till May 6, 2026 Thank goodness for the price of oil. No, not Brent crude – the stuff that has sent costs at the pump up sharply since the outbreak of war in Iran – but cooking oil. A 500ml bottle of rapeseed oil fell by an average of 14 per cent between April and May across three supermarkets [...]
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is right – our energy policy is ‘all over the place’ May 6, 2026 Punchy interventions from chemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe are not rare; most announcements from his company, Ineos, are enriched with a missive from the billionaire on where exactly the UK is going wrong. But these are no mere PR ploys. The stakes are high and he knows what he’s talking about. Yesterday’s confirmation of his [...]
KPMG faces staff uproar as job cuts expose communication breakdown May 6, 2026 Big Four audit firm KPMG is facing something of an internal comms meltdown, Morning Wire understands, amid complaints of a lack of communication during a ‘mismanaged’ redundancy round. In late March, it was reported that KPMG UK was set to axe more than 500 staff in the latest redundancy round at the Big Four giant. [...]
Fractile vs Nvidia: can a UK startup undercut AI’s chip darling? May 6, 2026 A little-known British startup is beginning to test one of the biggest assumptions underpinning the AI boom: that Nvidia will remain the unavoidable centre of the ecosystem. Founded in 2022 by Oxford researcher Walter Goodwin, Fractile is attempting to redesign how AI chips work altogether, with a focus on speed and – crucially – cost. [...]
Bank of England says quantitative easing programme to cost taxpayer £125bn May 6, 2026 The Bank of England’s historic quantitative easing programme is poised to cost the taxpayer £125bn when it is complete, according to updated central bank estimates, prompting calls for the central bank to pause its costly attempt to unwind the policy. In an update on its ‘asset purchase facility’ – the tool the Bank of England [...]
A bank tax hangs in the balance at the local election ballot May 6, 2026 As speculation of a leadership challenge – or sweeping reshuffle – surrounds the forthcoming local elections, in this week’s column Samuel Norman looks at what a change in Chancellor would mean for the banking sector. It is no secret that Thursday’s local elections carry a weight far heavier than the fate of a few neighbourhood [...]
HMRC handed red card in £584,000 football referee tax lawsuit May 5, 2026 HMRC has lost a long-running legal battle against the UK’s football refereeing body over the employment status of 60 referees, after the tax authority issued a £584,000 tax bill. In a judgment on Friday, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) upheld that the referees were self-employed and not employed by the body, the Professional Game Match [...]