Labour ministers ordered to stop relying on emergency funds October 9, 2025 Labour ministers have been told they will be blocked from using the government’s reserve funds to pay public sector staff and will only be given cash in exceptional circumstances. James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has told colleagues across the Cabinet that access to rainy day funds will be limited as the government [...]
Rachel Reeves vs the Hydra (the black hole that keeps on growing) October 8, 2025 Super-heroine Rachel Reeves is in battle with a mythical beast that keeps multiplying, and the OBR won't help her, writes Paul Ormerod.
Rachel Reeves mulls bank tax amid scramble to fill fiscal hole October 6, 2025 Rachel Reeves is reported to be weighing up a tax on Britain’s banking giants as the Treasury looks to strum up cash in the forthcoming Autumn Budget. The Chancellor is expected to be staring down a fiscal blackhole of over £20bn come November 26 and banks have been viewed as an easy – and politically [...]
Rachel Reeves mulls hiring ‘outsider’ for banking watchdog role October 4, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is looking to hire a City heavyweight to succeed Sam Woods as the chief executive of the main banking watchdog once his term ends in the middle of next year, it has been reported. Sam Woods’ term as chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the watchdog which is part of [...]
Treasury invests £63m in cloud services amid public sector overhaul October 1, 2025 HM Treasury has spent more than £63.6m on cloud services over the past three years, showing a decisive shift toward fully cloud-based IT infrastructure. The department has eliminated on-premise systems entirely, reflecting a broader digital transformation agenda across public spending and tax policy. According to the State of Digital Government Review, around 60 per cent [...]
Rachel Reeves takes dig at Andy Burnham over bond markets September 26, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the government was reliant on bond traders as part of an effort to fix “precarious” public finances in a pointed dig at Labour’s Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. In a panel discussion in front of an audience of centre-left figures on Friday, Reeves struck a defiant tone against mooted criticism she [...]
UK fintechs send rallying cry as industry slips in global ranking September 25, 2025 UK fintech leaders have sent a rallying call to policymakers after the sector slipped in global rankings. A host of industry bigwigs have told Morning Wire the government must be bolder in growth-orientated reforms to bolster the sector’s standing against rivals. It comes after Z/Yen’s 38th Global Financial Centres Index showed the UK’s fintech sector [...]
London hot on New York’s heels as financial centre race ramps up September 25, 2025 London is now within a whisker of ousting New York as the world’s leading financial hub, fresh rankings reveal, but risks remain over the capital’s fintech prospects. The City was chomping at the heels of the Big Apple with just a singular rating point between the two. New York once more topped the rankings in [...]
Wages soar to £1.5bn as HMRC ramps up on compliance staff September 24, 2025 HMRC has allocated over £1.5bn for 2024-25 to support staff in compliance, preventing and detecting fraud cases and collecting taxes, representing a 23 per cent increase on its 2021-22 staff bill. According to a freedom of information (FOI) shared with Morning Wire by think tank Parliament Street, over the past fiscal year as part of [...]
Stalling Starling revs up Engine in rebrand September 24, 2025 Veteran of the UK fintech industry Starling has overhauled its brand with a fresh colour palette, a new slogan and even a new name. The digital lender announced last week it would drop the word “Bank” from its banking arm’s name in a move analysts have described as a “significant” step in its evolution. The [...]