Starmer to unveil hotly debated Defence Investment Plan in final act June 29, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer will unveil the highly-anticipated Defence Investment Plan in one of his final acts as Prime Minister. Starmer will publish full funding plans for the Defence Investment Plan (Dip), the government’s 10-year blueprint for armed forces, on Tuesday. He will say that more than £5bn over four years will be invested into drones, [...]
Google ‘disappointed’ as Youtube swept into UK social media ban June 29, 2026 Google has said it is “disappointing” that Youtube has been included in the government’s planned ban on social media for under-16s, warning the measures risk cutting children off from one of the internet’s biggest educational resources. The rebuke forms the firm’s strongest response yet to Keir Starmer’s plans to prohibit children under 16 from using [...]
Yoti boss warns social media ban needs tougher age-check standards June 29, 2026 The chief executive of digital identity giant Yoti has urged ministers to introduce minimum standards for age verification, warning the government’s proposed social media ban for under-16s risks falling short without clearer rules on how platforms check users’ ages. The intervention comes after Keir Starmer announced plans to block children under 16 from accessing major [...]
Streeting tax policies could cost the Treasury nearly £8bn June 29, 2026 Adopting Wes Streeting’s plans to hike capital gains tax could cost the Treasury billions of pounds and lead to a reduction in retail investment, new analysis suggests. Last month, Streeting, who is reportedly in the running to succeed Rachel Reeves as Chancellor should Andy Burnham enter No 10, proposed that capital gains tax (CGT) should [...]
AI data centre race reaches rural Devon as Xlinks eyes £3.6bn campus June 29, 2026 Britain’s race to build the infrastructure underpinning AI is moving beyond its traditional data centre heartlands, with Xlinks unveiling plans for a £3.6bn AI campus in north Devon as developers search for land and grid capacity. The energy developer, whose Morocco-UK power project was shelved by the government earlier this year, wants to build a [...]
‘Anti-growth’: Labour blocks Canada skyscraper plans June 29, 2026 The government has been branded “anti-growth” by Canada Corporation after a minister blocked plans to build tall buildings near the Tower of London. In a letter to planning chiefs, the housing minister Matthew Pennycock said the authority for the Square Mile should not be able to go ahead with its skyscraper plans [...]
Is Andy Burnham a left-wing Liz Truss? June 29, 2026 Say what you like about Andy Burnham (and I intend to say a lot) but he’s not short on ambition. Armed with a single by election victory he now intends to oversee “the biggest change in our lifetime to the way Britain is run.” The PM-in-waiting had popped down to London for some selfies before [...]
Sky owner Comcast announces plan to split June 29, 2026 Comcast, the US media behemoth which owns Sky TV, has announced plans to split in two. The deal comes just as Sky is agreeing terms of a multi-billion-pound acquisition of part of ITV, which would unite the UK’s biggest pay-TV provider with the channels and streaming platform of its dominant free-to-air service. London traders looked unperturbed at [...]
‘Biggest change in our lifetime’ – Burnham vows ‘greater public control’ over utilities June 29, 2026 Andy Burnham has vowed to empower local government to take “greater public control” over energy, housing, water and transport as councils are set to be handed greater powers as part of sweeping economic and political reform. In a speech on Monday setting out his 10-year vision to raise living standards, the likely next Prime Minister [...]
British American Tobacco rolls out plan for thousands of job cuts in AI streamlining June 29, 2026 British American Tobacco is to cut thousands of jobs in the latest sign of artificial intelligence transforming outsourcing initiatives at some of the City’s biggest names. The FTSE 100 firm expects to cut 5,500 jobs by the end of the year, it said in a statement on Monday. Alongside the cuts, 3,500 more jobs will [...]