Debenhams shares plunge after £35m capital raise confirmed February 17, 2026 Debenhams shares plunged ten per cent in early deals after the struggling fashion group confirmed plans to launch a £35m equity raising round. The group’s board said the fundraise will allow it to complete its resurgence but the plans did little to calm investors as its share price tumbled on the Tuesday open. Debenhams Group, [...]
Lloyds offloads Scottish Widows Europe in £100m deal February 17, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group has offloaded its European life insurance business to FTSE 250 firm Chesnara in the latter’s second major deal with a UK bank. The FTSE 100 banking giant – which posted a hefty profit jump last month for the 2025 financial year – has inked a €110m (£96m) deal with Chesnara for Luxembourg-based [...]
Unemployment hits post-pandemic high as wage growth slips February 17, 2026 The labour market continued to loosen in the final quarter of last year, official figures show, with wage growth easing and unemployment climbing steadily higher. The rate of joblessness crept up to 5.2 per cent between October and December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the highest level since early 2021 and slightly [...]
CLIQ: The app combating loneliness is growing its network February 17, 2026 After living in Australia for a period of time, Nicola Gunby and Jason Iliffe wanted to find a community of friends upon moving to London post pandemic, but like many others moving to the capital, they found themselves isolated in one of the world’s busiest cities. Frustrated by a lack of meaningful ways to meet [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Unemployment rises; Debenhams’ £35m raise February 17, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. The UK unemployment rate has risen again this morning, with fresh data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing the rate had surged to 5.2 per cent in the three months to December 2025. This was up from 5.1 per cent in the latest [...]
‘What if a blind person falls over an e-bike?’: The untenable rise of whataboutism February 17, 2026 Rowing about hypothetical dangers like e-bikes on pavements is turning London into a febrile City, scared of progress, writes Michael Martins.
Defence stocks rally after Starmer vows to ‘go faster’ on spending pledge February 17, 2026 Investors piled into defence stocks on Monday after Keir Starmer said the UK needed to “go faster” on defence spending to combat the growing threat from Russia. The Prime Minister warned that the UK needed to “step up” its defence commitments amid reports that he wants to ramp up the defence budget by tens of [...]
Exclusive: RFU monitoring possibility of protests against stadium sponsor Allianz February 17, 2026 The Rugby Football Union is closely monitoring the possibility of protests against sponsor Allianz ahead of this weekend’s Six Nations clash between England and Ireland in Twickenham. Irish sport has seen a backlash over the insurance giant’s sponsorship of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) amid the German firm’s alleged links to military companies which trade [...]
Winter Olympics 2026: How insurance keeps Milano Cortina on track February 17, 2026 Every four years, the world’s greatest athletes fight to take gold, but it’s the unseen safety nets, drafted by insurers, that keep the Winter Olympics running smoothly. German-based Allianz became the exclusive insurance partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2021, with coverage until the 2032 summer games in Brisbane, under the oversight of [...]
Regulator mulls audit changes to attract Chinese listings February 16, 2026 The audit regulator is considering a temporary change in its accounting rules which would make it easier for Chinese firms to list in London. The proposal is the latest regulatory reform designed to make the UK a more attractive place for international companies to list. In a statement, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it [...]