Big Yellow slashes staff and turns to automation after Reeves’ business rates blow July 20, 2026 Big Yellow continued to trim its headcount and hike investment into automation in a bid to cut staff costs, as the company continues to deal with the fallout of Reeves’ decision to hike business rates. The Chancellor’s decision to increase both national insurance and minimum wage in the 2024 Autumn Budget, caused the group to [...]
London-listed healthcare services firm hit by cyberattack July 20, 2026 Shares in Craneware tumbled in early trading on Monday as the healthcare services firm revealed it had been hit by a cyberattack. The AIM-listed business said the incident involved “unauthorised access to a subset of its data environment”. Early investigations suggest “a significant volume of file names were viewed and exfiltrated”. Employee data as well [...]
As it happened: John Healey named Chancellor as Burnham shakes-up cabinet July 20, 2026 Welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Andy Burnham has become the UK’s newest Prime Minister, succeeding Sir Keir Starmer just two years after his landslide win at the 2024 general election. Starmer visited the King this morning to give him his resignation. In his farewell speech outside Number 10, the outgoing Prime Minister said [...]
Private equity firms eye valuation gap as City falls to takeovers July 20, 2026 The London Stock Exchange has seen a sharp uptick in takeover premiums this year as a deals spree from led by private equity firms and foreign buyers accelerates. The average price paid by acquirers relative to companies’ share prices has hit 45 per cent, according to data from AJ Bell. Foreign buyers account for 86 [...]
Ask the expert: Will paying for my daughter’s wedding reduce my IHT bill? July 20, 2026 Fidelity personal financial specialist Marianna Hunt is back on hand to answer your burning questions, and today a reader wants to know if paying for their daughter’s big day could reduce their IHT bill. Q: My daughter is getting married. I understand that if my wife and I transferred her £15,000 for the costs of [...]
Victory wasted: The cautionary tale of Keir Starmer July 20, 2026 Keir Starmer sold himself as a non-politician, and proved again and again why political skills matter, writes Eliot Wilson.
‘Pro-business’ Burnham eyes Reynolds return to top business job July 18, 2026 Andy Burnham is planning to bring Jonathan Reynolds back as business secretary as the incoming prime minister moves to deliver on his pledge to lead a “pro-business” government. Reynolds, who served as business secretary until last September before becoming chief whip, is expected to return to the department when Burnham unveils his cabinet this week, [...]
Thames Water creditors expect Burnham talks despite legal contigency plans July 18, 2026 The creditors bidding to rescue Thames Water remain confident they will be able to present a revised takeover proposal to Andy Burnham’s government, despite preparing for the possibility ministers reject the deal, a source told Morning Wire. People close to the London & Valley Water (L&VW) consortium said they expected to engage with the new [...]
Octopus tells Burnham to ‘cut bills’ with £189 energy plan July 18, 2026 Octopus Energy has urged incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to overhaul Britain’s electricity market, saying the changes could cut the average household bill by up to £189 a year. The supplier said reforming wholesale electricity pricing would save households around £114 a year, and also called for energy levies to be moved from electricity bills [...]
Burnham: I’ll be a pro-business Prime Minister July 17, 2026 Andy Burnham has vowed to be a pro-business Prime Minister who will reindustrialise Britain and support the country’s small businesses. Speaking after he was crowned Labour leader on Friday, the former Manchester mayor railed against “four decades of neoliberalism” which he said had seen political power concentrated in Westminster while “economic power was privatised”. In [...]