UK defence chief: Adopt AI or lose future wars June 11, 2026 Britain’s most senior military officer has warned that the UK risks losing future conflicts unless it dramatically accelerates the adoption of AI across its armed forces. Speaking at London Tech Week, chief of the defence staff Air Chief Marshall Sir Richard Knighton said AI would be as transformative for warfare as the internet was for [...]
One in three defence firms ‘can’t find graduates to hire’ June 11, 2026 Nearly one in three defence firms can’t find graduates to hire despite a youth unemployment crisis, a new report has found, as universities have been urged to work more closely with businesses. Research by the University of Manchester and CBI Economics has suggested that skills shortages among young people has made it more difficult for [...]
Making the jump to self-employment could damage your pension savings June 11, 2026 Employees making the leap into self-employment could put their retirement at risk, with many unlikely to continue saving into a pension upon leaving auto-enrolment. Roughly one in five self-employed workers save into a private pension, compared with around four in five employees, leaving those working for themselves at greater risk of having insufficient savings upon [...]
Reform UK vows to raise VAT threshold to £150,000 June 10, 2026 Reform UK has announced it would raise the VAT threshold for small businesses from £90,000 to £150,000 despite long-running debates over the cost and benefits of reforming the tax. Reform announced on Wednesday it would create a “fair deal for the White Van man” by increasing the VAT registration threshold to £150,000. The party said [...]
Starmer dodges questions on funding for defence spending June 10, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer dodged several questions over funding for an uplift in defence spending as he appeared to suggest that the full defence investment plan will take weeks to be published. Starmer refused to confirm the publication date for a 10-year blueprint on defence spending as he stuck to a commitment that it would be [...]
Government sets out conditions for unlocking ‘trapped capital’ in defined benefit pension schemes June 10, 2026 The government has published a consultation setting out conditions on freeing ‘trapped’ capital from defined benefit pension schemes, in a bid to keep pace with the rapidly changing pension landscape and free up greater amounts of capital. The consultation, published on Wednesday by the Department of Work and Pensions, set out plans to give trustees [...]
‘AI is not killing all these jobs’: LinkedIn boss on UK hiring slump June 10, 2026 Hiring in the capital is down 32 per cent from January 2019, a steeper fall than in any other region tracked by LinkedIn, as higher interest rates and corporate cost-cutting weigh on firms that dominate London’s labour market. Across the UK, hiring has slowed by 24 per cent on pre-pandemic levels and 10 per cent [...]
Revolut faced orders to fix ‘deficiencies’ in product launches in Europe June 10, 2026 Revolut faced a regulatory slap-down from the European Central Bank last year as restrictions were placed on its operations in the continent. Europe’s most valuable fintech company had its permission to release new products across the 27 countries covered in the European Economic Area temporarily suspended last summer. The bank was instructed to rectify “deficiencies” [...]
Pension funds must ’embrace’ private markets to fuel growth June 10, 2026 UK pension funds must stop hiding in public equity benchmarks and ‘embrace’ private markets in order to meet their obligations and accelerate economic growth, the group chief executive of one of the UK’s largest pension providers has argued. Andrew Evans, co-founder and group CEO of Smart Pension, urged providers to steer away from public markets [...]
As it happened: FTSE 100 see-saws amid global jitters as market outlook turns ‘risky and dangerous’ June 10, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Markets were not getting too excited at the beginning of this week when Donald Trump said a peace deal with Iran was “very close”. And last night’s exchange of strikes might explain why. The US has said it completed a series of strikes against Iran [...]