FTSE 100 Live: Gold surges amid Trump tensions; JLR leads growth rebound January 15, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Rachel Reeves’ report card for 2025 has received another dim review with fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing growth came in at a sluggish 0.1 per cent in the three months to November 2025. This was led by a modest rebound [...]
‘We’re turning the country around’: U-turns put pressure on defiant Starmer January 14, 2026 Keir Starmer attempted to justify a string of policy U-turns on everything from business rates to the mandatory digital ID, claiming the Labour government was “turning the country around”. In an awkward Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, opposition leader Kemi Badenoch grilled Starmer on recent U-turns, which prove tricky for MPs and strategists to explain [...]
Reeves confirms ‘temporary support’ for pubs amid row over misleading claims January 14, 2026 Rachel Reeves has confirmed “temporary support” for pubs in a climbdown over the business rates row, as a chief tax official claimed the Treasury was warned about the damaging impact of tax reforms after ministers claimed they had been in the dark about the changes. The Chancellor confirmed on Wednesday that she will roll out [...]
‘Ambition and delivery are not aligned’ – Starmer’s AI Action Plan, one year on January 14, 2026 Exactly a year ago, Keir Starmer, with the help of Matt Clifford, promised to “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK’s economy. The so-called AI Opportunities Action Plan, a 50-point blueprint unveiled in January 2025, was meant to turn that rhetoric into results, placing the UK on equal footings with the likes of China [...]
Labour is leading Britain on an economic death march January 14, 2026 Keir Starmer’s premiership looks to be over but, unlike great Labour leaders of the past, none of his possible replacements has a vision for growth, says Paul Ormerod To all intents and purposes, an election campaign for the position of leader of the Labour Party is currently underway. In fact, it has been for some [...]
EU banking rules could ‘choke investment’ from booming City January 14, 2026 The European Union threatens derailing its economic growth through changes to banking regulation after London beefed up its lending capacity following a Brexit boom. The 27-state bloc is set to bring in new legislation which will effectively ban non-EU banks from providing core banking services – such as lending and taking deposits – without establishing [...]
Former OBR chair takes aim at Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules January 13, 2026 The former chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility has taken aim at Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules, suggesting they prevent UK public finances from building enough “resilience”. In his first public appearance since his resignation last month due to the leaked Budget, Richard Hughes said the current fiscal rules were “among the loosest” the [...]
Vast majority of Brits expect more damaging tax hikes in 2026 January 13, 2026 Nearly four in five Brits are bracing themselves for further tax rises this year, with voters fearing that more money going into government coffers will damage growth. Keir Starmer has kicked off the year with pitches on improving the cost of living for millions of people across the country. Extra welfare payments for some families [...]
Public officials ‘not truthful’ about ‘fantasy’ net zero costs January 13, 2026 Net zero is set to cost the UK economy billions of pounds more than public officials estimate, a new report has suggested, raising questions over the supposed savings to be made from the energy transition for households and businesses. A new paper published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, a free market think tank, has [...]
VAT-free shopping debacle has sent tourists packing January 13, 2026 Five years on from the demise of VAT-free shopping, retail and hospitality chiefs say the impact is still causing pain as the industry seeks change, writes Joanna Hodgson Five years ago this month a change came in that might, on the surface , have prompted the average British shopper to get their smallest violins out: [...]