EU referendum: US trade official Michael Froman says UK would miss out on trade after Brexit October 29, 2015 A top American official has warned that Britain will miss out on key trade deals if it leaves the European Union. Michael Froman, the US trade representative, said in a major intervention yesterday that America would not want to pursue a free trade agreement with an independent Britain. The US finalised a major trade deal with 11 Pacific [...]
Chilcot report release date set: Iraq inquiry’s two million word report will be published in June or July 2016 October 29, 2015 Sir John Chilcot has finally set a date for the publication of his long-awaited inquiry into the UK's role in the Iraq War. The report will be published in June or July of next year, according to a letter Chilcot sent to Prime Minister David Cameron. The letter was published on the Chilcot inquiry's website this morning. Chilcot [...]
Fast growing firms say they will look at relocating if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister – Leap 100 October 29, 2015 A majority of fast-growing companies in the UK refuse to rule out relocating abroad if Jeremy Corbyn were elected Prime Minister. Forty-six per cent of the Leap 100 – 100 of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses, surveyed by Morning Wire – said they would consider moving overseas if the Labour leader came into power, while a [...]
EU minister agree to hold emergency meeting after business secretary Sajid Javid calls for summit on steel crisis October 29, 2015 European Union ministers have agreed to hold an emergency meeting over the steel crisis within two weeks. Business secretary Sajid Javid called for an EU-wide steel summit during meetings with EU commissioners in Brussels yesterday, saying that "severe pressures" on the European steel sector required "urgent action". Javid said today: “I am determined this council leads [...]
New Institute for Economic Affairs poll: most people don’t think politicians make decisions based on what’s best for the country October 29, 2015 New polling figures out today reveal just how disaffected the British public is with government. More than three-quarters of British people say they feel they have not very much influence, or no influence at all, on the national government’s decision-making, according to a new ComRes poll for the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a free [...]
Financial sector feels positive about board positions for women, research finds ahead of Davies review report October 29, 2015 Nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of finance directors think women have more opportunities to advance in finance and accounting than they did 10 years ago, research by specialist recruitment consultancy Robert Half UK has revealed today. The survey findings come ahead of a new report relating to the Lord Davies review of women on boards, published today. [...]
CBI/AECOM poll: infrastructure is a top concern for businesses trying to invest October 29, 2015 Nearly two-thirds of British businesses want the government to speed up delivery of promised infrastructure projects, according to a new poll out today from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and AECOM, the infrastructure services firm. Almost all – 94 per cent – of the firms surveyed said that the quality of infrastructure was a [...]
Lord Davies’ review: Government-backed report targets women holding one third of board seats by 2020 October 28, 2015 The Davies Review is setting a new target for a third of all board members at Britain’s biggest listed companies to be women, as a separate new study warns that the country’s boardroom diversity “risks going into reverse gear”. In his final Women on Boards report tomorrow, Lord Mervyn Davies, a former chairman and chief [...]
Lord Davies report: Britain’s boardroom diversity risks hitting the brakes as the number of female directors is set to fall October 28, 2015 The diversity of Britain’s boardrooms risks dropping over the next 18 months, just as women were starting to become a more common feature. Women currently make up 25 per cent of Britain’s blue-chip firms’ boards. But on the eve of Lord Davies’ review, which shows that UK companies managed to double the number of female [...]
House of Lords reform: 90 per cent of people say it needs a complete overhaul after tax credits vote October 28, 2015 Just ten per cent of British voters say the House of Lords should "remain as it is" following peers' votes on Monday night to delay the implementation of tax credit cuts. According to a new poll conducted by BMG Research for the Electoral Reform Society, a campaign group, nearly half (48 per cent) of people think the Lords should be an [...]