Category: News

Jeremy Hunt, the UK’s new chancellor, has called on his cabinet colleagues to cut spending across their departments as the government cast doubt on the future of the UK’s pensions “triple lock”. Hunt urged ministers to find savings at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, as he grappled with a budget shortfall that remains approximately £40bn,…

Jeremy Hunt, the new UK chancellor, on Monday ripped up Liz Truss’s economic policy, in a move that reassured markets but left the prime minister’s future hanging by a thread. Hunt scrapped two-thirds of the controversial £45bn of unfunded tax cuts announced by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng and warned of “eye-wateringly difficult” decisions still to…

The UK’s new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has insisted that Prime Minister Liz Truss is still running the government after reports suggested he was preparing to scrap further parts of her “mini” Budget. Following Truss’s decision to sack her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, senior Conservative MPs believe it is a matter of time before she…

Jeremy Hunt, the new UK chancellor, admitted taxes would have to rise and spending would have to be cut after prime minister Liz Truss failed to reassure markets with a U-turn on cutting corporation tax. In his first interviews since replacing Kwasi Kwarteng, who was sacked by the prime minister on Friday, Hunt buried the…

Liz Truss sacked her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and shredded her economic strategy on Friday, but her effort to salvage her premiership failed to win over financial markets and left Conservative MPs in a state of mutiny. In a Downing Street press conference lasting less than 10 minutes, Truss named Jeremy Hunt, former foreign secretary, as…

Liz Truss was on Thursday locked in discussions on a major U-turn on the government’s “mini” Budget, prompting a market rally amid expectations that a £43bn package of unfunded tax cuts is unravelling. Government insiders confirmed talks were taking place on whether to unwind parts of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal statement, with speculation it could…

The Bank of England battled a renewed sell-off in UK government bonds on Wednesday after its vow to end its emergency gilt-buying programme unsettled markets already unnerved by the fiscal plans of prime minister Liz Truss. The central bank bought £4.4bn of gilts from investors, its biggest intervention since it entered the market last month…

The Bank of England has staged its second emergency intervention in as many days, as financial institutions step up calls for it to prolong its bond-buying programme to shore up the British pension system. The BoE widened its £65bn gilts purchasing programme to include inflation-linked bonds in its latest attempt to stem “fire sales” by…

A sell-off in UK government bonds pushed the country’s long-term borrowing costs to their highest point since the Bank of England stepped in to avert a financial market collapse, as new BoE and government measures failed to reassure investors. Monday’s fall in gilts came despite the BoE announcement earlier in the day of a new…

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said the move by Opec+ to cut oil production was “unhelpful and unwise” for the global economy, particularly emerging markets already struggling with high energy prices. The Biden administration has been loudly critical of the decision by the oil cartel backed by Saudi Arabia and Russia this week, which took…

An explosion tore through Russia’s bridge across the Kerch Strait to Crimea early on Saturday, severely damaging it in a major blow to Vladimir Putin more than seven months into his invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s anti-terrorist committee said a truck exploded on the bridge’s roadside in the early hours of Saturday morning and caused seven…

Ukrainian troops have reported outages of their Starlink communication devices on the frontline, hindering efforts to liberate territory from Russian forces, according to Ukrainian officials and soldiers. Thousands of Starlink terminals, made by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, were purchased by the US government and crowdfunded by donors to help Ukrainian troops operate drones, receive vital intelligence…

The Bank of England has defended last week’s intervention in the UK government debt market, saying it stepped in to prevent a £50bn fire sale of gilts that would have taken Britain to the brink of a financial crisis. The central bank said on Thursday that had it not launched its emergency bond-buying scheme in…

Saudi Arabia and Russia have led the Opec+ cartel in a deal to make deep oil production cuts to raise prices, risking a backlash from the US and European countries already battling surging energy inflation. The Opec+ group will cut 2mn barrels a day, equivalent to 2 per cent of global supply, it said, following…

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has accused fellow Tory MPs of staging a “coup” by forcing the UK government to abandon plans to axe the 45p top rate of income tax, as a new rebellion on benefit cuts erupted. In a sign of the acrimony engulfing Prime Minister Liz Truss’s Conservative party, Braverman said she…

Liz Truss has executed a major U-turn by scrapping plans to axe the 45p top rate of tax after facing a growing revolt from Tory MPs led by former cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Grant Shapps. Investors bought sterling and UK government bonds in response to the policy reversal. By Monday afternoon the pound had…

Prime minister Liz Truss has said that “Britain’s economy needs a reset” and pledged to prioritise “aspiration, enterprise and growth” as the Conservative party prepares to gather for its annual conference in the wake of a week of market turmoil. MPs and party members will convene on Sunday in Birmingham, and Truss is expected to…

The UK watchdogs responsible for the £1.5tn corner of the pensions sector that came close to imploding this week are holding daily talks with asset managers to stave off a fresh crisis when the Bank of England’s emergency bond buying ends. The £65bn plan, which ends on October 14, was launched on Wednesday to safeguard…

Liz Truss is under mounting pressure to change course on her tax and borrowing plans after a new opinion poll gave Labour a historic lead over the Conservatives. The prime minister was rocked by a YouGov poll which found that Labour had a 33-point lead over the Tories, the biggest gap since the 1990s. The…

The Bank of England took emergency action on Wednesday to avoid a meltdown in the UK pensions sector, unleashing a £65bn bond-buying programme to stem a crisis in government debt markets. The central bank warned of a “material risk to UK financial stability” from turmoil in the gilts market sparked by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax…