Brain drain latest: Brits quitting UK three times faster than thought November 18, 2025 Fears that the UK is in the grips of a ‘brain drain’ escalated on Tuesday after fresh data revealed that than three times as many British nationals left the UK last year than officials previously thought. According to revisions made by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 257,000 Britons left the UK in 2024, over [...]
JP Jenkins secures Pisces licence as ‘discussions ongoing’ with rivals November 18, 2025 JP Jenkins has become the latest securities venue to secure a Pisces operator licence by the UK’s financial regulator as competition heats up to attract businesses to the new private market. The approval makes JP Jenkins the second company to have received a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after London Stock Exchange operator [...]
Santander: UK businesses shift away from China as tensions flare November 18, 2025 UK businesses are moving away from China as risks mount amid flaring geopolitical tensions. Over half of firms are taking steps to bring their supply chains closer to home, with one in five having already relocated their network closer to the UK. The moves come amid questions over China’s dominance in the supply chain, with [...]
Firstgroup doubles down on open access expansion despite DfT concerns November 18, 2025 Firstgroup has doubled down on its open access expansion plans as the transport business defied government concerns over the scheme. The FTSE 250 firm said it was “focused on growing” its operations in open access, an arrangement under which private rail operators will continue to run services after the nationalisation of all major routes as [...]
Reform and Tories battle over the Budget with spending cuts calls November 18, 2025 Opposition parties Reform UK and the Conservatives are intensifying pressure on Labour ahead of the Budget with calls for dramatic spending cuts to fix public finances. In separate press conferences on Tuesday, leaders Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch called for deep cuts to government expenditure to balance the books. Their renewed attacks on the government [...]
Banks back in Reeves’ tax targets amid Budget whiplash November 18, 2025 Britain’s banking giants are back in the Budget crosshairs as Chancellor Rachel Reeves mulls a tax raid on lenders’ profits. Banks had been expected to be spared from a tax grab in the forthcoming Budget due to Reeves’ inclination to protect the financial services sector, following a concerted lobbying effort by top finance chiefs. But [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Miners sink blue-chip index; CMA crackdown November 18, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. We’re another day closer to the all-important Autumn Budget and the mood started on a sour note once more on Monday. The FTSE 100 struggled to slip out of the red ending the day on a loss of 0.24 per cent to 9,675.43p. Meanwhile, the [...]
Rachel Reeves’s caution could prove as damaging as Liz Truss’s recklessness November 18, 2025 Reeves is trying her best to avoid any comparisons to Truss's infamous mini-budget, but her excessive caution could prove just as damaging.
Prime Ministers deserve a nicer house and we deserve better government November 18, 2025 The nerve centre of the British state, 10 Downing Street, is fantastically ill-suited to the needs of a modern Prime Minister and to the interests of the country. An excellent piece by Politico last week lifted the lid on what it’s actually like to work in this rather dilapidated Georgian townhouse, with one former No [...]
‘Shenanigans’: Did the OBR save Reeves from hiking income taxes at the Budget? November 18, 2025 For weeks, Chancellor Rachel Reeves had been engaged in an extraordinary communications exercise of expectation management, leading Brits to believe that income tax was about to hiked for the first time in 50 years. In an unusual press conference earlier this month, she told journalists that everyone would have to contribute to the Labour government’s [...]