FTSE 100 Live: Ofwat £11m fine; Unemployment at four-year high December 16, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. We received another gloomy snapshot of the economy ahead of the ever-important Bank of England rate decision on Thursday. New unemployment data showed another blow for the Labour government, which has denied that its policies have had an on the ailing jobs market. The UK [...]
The secret to Reform’s rise? They don’t put their out of offices on December 16, 2025 Reform used the summer holiday vacuum to further their cause, and it's made all the difference, writes Michael Martins in today's Notebook.
The City is thirsty for more detail from Reform December 16, 2025 Appearing before MPs yesterday, Keir Starmer bemoaned the “consultations, regulations [and] arms-length bodies” that create “a thicket of reasons why you can’t do something.” He was responding to a question from Dame Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who chairs the committee in front of which he was appearing, about whether he had prepared enough for [...]
Why leaking can make for good government December 16, 2025 Mic-drop moments does not a good government make, says Alastair McCapra. He makes the case for political leaking.
Private landowner sends Lime an £8k bill as e-bike row escalates December 16, 2025 A London property firm has invoiced Lime nearly £8,000 for removing, storing and returning dockless e-bikes left on its private land, Morning Wire understands, amid struggles to contain the capital’s bike clutter problem. Russell Gray, director of property firm Shiva Ltd, personally returned around ten Lime bikes to the firm’s depot on Thursday, handing staff [...]
British pessimism is stalling growth December 16, 2025 British leaders are now the least optimistic cohort internationally, and it's having a real-world impact on growth, writes David Stevens.
Mickey Mouse puts copyright woes to bed with Disney-OpenAI deal December 16, 2025 Disney’s $1bn investment in OpenAI, coupled with a three year licensing deal for over 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters on Sora, constitutes a seismic shift in how Hollywood thinks about content creation and copyright. Last week’s announcement, long anticipated since CEO Bog Iger hinted at AI plans, marks the first time a [...]
Value of UK passport declines sharply under Labour December 16, 2025 The once-coveted British passport has tumbled in value since Rachel Reeves’ “wealth tax” Budget, according to a new report. In the latest Passport Index, put together by financial advisory firm Nomad Capitalist, the UK’s iconic blue travel document has slipped from 21st place in the previous list down to 35th out of 199 countries. This [...]
‘Picking winners? This is about backing champions’ – Reform’s Zia Yusuf on a radical approach to business December 16, 2025 Reform has by any measure enjoyed an incredible 2025. But for much of the poll-topping year, its economic vision has remained an unknown entity. Ali Lyon met policy chief Zia Yusuf to hear, for the first time, his party’s plans for Britain’s flatlining economy and the millions of businesses in it. Zia Yusuf is feeling [...]
Reform government would partially nationalise Rolls-Royce through ‘strategic stake’ December 16, 2025 A Reform government would partially nationalise Rolls-Royce as a quid pro quo for helping it ramp up its small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear programme “as fast as it possibly can”, its policy chief has said. In a wide-ranging interview setting out his party’s plans for the UK economy, Zia Yusuf told Morning Wire that Reform [...]