Category: News

Nigel Farage will scrap income tax on overtime for workers earning under £75,000 — a £5bn Reform UK pledge with major implications for SME payroll.

Charlotte Tilbury’s payout demand has derailed the £30bn Estée Lauder–Puig beauty mega-merger, with a change-of-control clause proving the deal-breaker.

Morrisons is courting rival UK supermarkets to take supply from its Myton manufacturing arm, as the Bradford grocer battles a £3.1bn debt pile and £381m annual loss.

Ministers refuse to scrap the £2bn EPR packaging tax, threatening to push food inflation higher and putting £500m of UK glass-sector investment at risk.

Morrisons is closing 100 loss-making convenience stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk, and has blamed Labour’s “policy choices” for the rising costs eroding profitability.

UK public sector borrowing climbed to £24.3bn in April 2026, overshooting the OBR forecast, as Treasury debt interest payments hit a record £10.3bn for the month.

Jaguar Land Rover signs a memorandum of understanding with Stellantis to explore building Range Rovers and Defenders in the US, sidestepping President Trump’s tariff cap on British-made cars.

HMRC drafts plans to slap 20% VAT on airport landing fees, adding £1bn to airline costs and pushing up the price of UK family holidays — even as Reeves cuts VAT on days out.

Amazon UK chief John Boumphrey tells employers to stop blaming young people for record NEET numbers and calls for compulsory work experience for over-16s.

The UK ceramics sector has secured a £120m government support package, split evenly between capital investment and operational relief, in a long-awaited win for Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery heartland.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves slashes VAT from 20% to 5% on summer attractions, children’s meals and family days out, alongside a fuel duty freeze and supermarket tariff suspension to ease cost-of-living pressures.

Whitehall releases the file on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 2001 appointment as UK trade envoy, showing Queen Elizabeth II was ‘very keen’ he take the role — raising fresh questions for British exporters and SMEs.

HS2’s revamped budget could leave Britain with up to £33bn of unfunded spending as Heidi Alexander warns the project may cost taxpayers £102bn. What it means for SMEs and the wider economy.

UK youth employment has fallen by 330,000 in three years, with the IFS warning the decline is closing in on Covid-era lows — and could scar a generation.