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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...