Heathrow warns on losing European crown without expansion February 11, 2026 Heathrow Airport has kicked off the new year with a shattering of its previous traffic record but has offered a stark warning it could lose its crown without progress on expansion. Some 6.5m passengers travelled through the airport in January, marking a 2.2 per cent increase on last year and making it the busiest January [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Heathrow traffic record; Homebuilders call for help February 11, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Yesterday the FTSE 100 retreated on a slew of miserable corporate news. Leading the blue-chip index’s downturn was BP, which announced it would suspend its share buyback programme and increase cost-cutting goals as it looks to reverse its fortunes in the next financial year. The [...]
UK AI plans fall short without backing home firms, warns UKAI February 11, 2026 The UK’s ‘sovereign AI’ push risks becoming a missed opportunity unless government policy does more to back UK businesses at home, according to the head of Britain’s AI trade body. Speaking after a parliamentary roundtable in the House of Lords, Tim Flagg, UKAI boss, said the debate around sovereign AI should focus on growth and [...]
Luxury watch theft hits record high of £1.7bn February 11, 2026 The total value of luxury watches registered as lost or stolen on a global database hit a record £1.7bn last year amid renewed fears of muggings on London streets. The Watch Register said that 10,000 luxury watches had been logged on the site in 2025, the equivalent of one watch per hour, bringing the total [...]
Starmer will fail to improve living standards – but it isn’t all his fault February 11, 2026 Between the mid 1960s and the mid 2000s, the living standards of the poorest half of households doubled. Increasing by 1.9 per cent a year, it took four decades to make this leap. To emulate that progress again, starting from today, would take 137 years. This is not a state of affairs that can be [...]
Exclusive: Prem Rugby kicks plan to hike stadiums to 15,000 into touch February 11, 2026 Prem Rugby has torpedoed proposals for a top-flight shake-up that would have seen champions Bath Rugby’s stadium deemed too small for the top flight, Morning Wire can reveal. A study, run by Deloitte, looking at how Prem Rugby can raise the minimum standards of entry to the English top flight raised the prospect of increasing [...]
Buy now, pay later providers set for £3bn hit in ‘regulatory reset’ February 11, 2026 Providers of buy now, pay later services are set to feel the crunch as the UK’s financial watchdog tightens its regulatory focus on the fast-growing industry. Merchants and lenders are set to take a combined hit of as much as £3bn following the regulation overhaul by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), according to its own [...]
UK fintech investment hits lowest since pandemic despite Revolut boost February 11, 2026 Investment into the UK’s fintech sector tumbled to a five-year low in 2025 even after a major boost from industry juggernaut Revolut. UK fintech received just shy of $11bn (£8bn) in investment in 2025, falling a fifth from the $13.4bn notched the year prior, according to new figures from KPMG. A hefty chunk of the [...]
Canada gives green light to controversial Liverpool Street plans February 10, 2026 Canada Corporation has granted planning permission to Network Rail’s controversial redevelopment of Liverpool Street station, with councillors saying it will be a “modern temple of transport”. The proposals will help increase the capacity and accessibility of Britain’s busiest railway station, but objectors warned that the scheme was “unviable and undeliverable”. In total, [...]
Money Supermarket shares tumble to 13-year low on AI fears February 10, 2026 Shares in Money Supermarket have tumbled to their lowest in 13 years on renewed anxieties that advances in AI are eating into the value of price comparison sites. The FTSE 250 stock sunk as much as 13 per cent by mid-morning on Tuesday, before paring back losses later in the afternoon. Mony Group shares closed [...]