Hairdressers and barbers are joining pub landlords in banning Labour MPs from their premises, as anger intensifies across the high street over business rates, rising employment costs and what some owners describe as a “betrayal” by the government. Signs reading “No Labour MPs” have begun appearing in salon windows and barbershops, echoing a protest that has already seen more than 1,000 pubs bar parliamentarians from Keir Starmer’s party. The move follows widespread frustration with the...
A £5 billion tax raid on salary sacrifice pension schemes announced in Rachel Reeves’s Budget has emerged as the single most damaging policy for business confidence, according to new research from the Confederation of British Industry. Almost three-quarters (73%) of companies surveyed by the CBI said the move to levy national insurance contributions on pension salary sacrifice above a new cap was the most harmful measure in the Budget, warning it risks deterring workers from...
There’s a particular sound that stays with you once you’ve lived in the English countryside. Not birdsong, that’s too obvious, but the deeper rhythm of things: the tractor coughing into life at dawn, Chameau boots crunching on gravel, the hooves of the horses going out for a hack, the soft murmur of a village pub where everyone knows exactly why you’re there even if they’ve never seen you before. I had a house in rural...
Hospitals across England are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to ease pressure on accident and emergency departments, as a new AI-powered forecasting tool is deployed to help predict when demand will be at its highest. The system, now in use across 50 NHS organisations and available to all trusts, is designed to identify likely surges in A&E attendances days and weeks in advance. By analysing a wide range of data, from historical hospital admissions and...
New anti-fraud rules introduced at Companies House have led to a sharp drop in the number of new companies being registered in the UK, according to early data, as ministers claim the reforms are beginning to bite. Weekly incorporations have fallen by around 30 per cent since November, when legislation came into force requiring all new company directors and people with significant control to verify their identity. Acting as a director without verification is now...
The government is facing renewed political pressure to disclose whether Jeffrey Epstein played any role in discussions surrounding the sale of a taxpayer-backed commodities business during Labour’s last period in office. Senior Conservatives have tabled a series of parliamentary questions demanding clarity on the $1.7bn (£1.35bn) sale of parts of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Sempra joint venture to JP Morgan in 2010, when Lord Mandelson was business secretary. The intervention follows disclosures contained in an...
Let’s be absolutely candid: the siren song of easing off climate commitments is tempting the corporate class and it stinks. If 2025 was indeed the year business quietly began retreating from net zero, watering down pledges or scrapping them outright, then 2026 must be the year UK firms rediscover backbone and purpose. After all, the alternative isn’t merely inconvenient; it is recklessly self-defeating. The Guardian’s recent investigation suggests that, from retailers to banks, carmakers to...
For many music fans, 2025 will be remembered as the year Oasis returned. Their long-awaited reunion tour dominated the summer, reviving bucket hats, Britpop nostalgia and generating more than £300 million in ticket sales alone. Yet beneath the headlines and stadium sell-outs, a far less celebratory story is unfolding across the UK’s live music ecosystem. Just 11 of the 34 grassroots venues that hosted Oasis during their first tour in 1994 are still operating today...
British businesses are right to be concerned about the rise of Reform UK and should demand far tougher scrutiny of the party’s economic plans, according to Liam Byrne, the Labour chairman of the House of Commons business and trade select committee. In an interview with The Times, Byrne said that if Reform were to become the dominant force on the political right, companies would need to take a much closer look at its policies and...
Brits are on track to drink more than 200 million pints of low and no-alcohol beer this year, marking a record milestone that underlines a profound shift in the nation’s drinking habits. Consumption of “no and low” beers is forecast to rise almost a fifth from 2024 levels, when around 170 million pints were sold, according to research from the British Beer & Pub Association. The trade body expects around 22 million pints to be...
