FTSE 100 Live: Natwest bumper dividend, stocks tick up February 13, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. The City was left stunned yesterday after Schroders entered into a surprise £10bn deal with Nuveen, which holds $1.4tn in assets, after speculation of a sale was rebuffed in July. Schroders Group chief Richard Oldfield had previously squashed rumours that the Schroder family, who control [...]
Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham criticise pub tax raid February 12, 2026 Two prominent potential leadership challengers to Sir Keir Starmer have attacked the government’s tax regime for putting hospitality businesses, and particularly pubs, under serious pressure. Angela Rayner acknowledged that the hike to the minimum wage has put pressure on hospitality businesses, and said that the government needs to “start relieving” the sector. Starmer’s former deputy [...]
GDP: UK faces ‘most dismal decade for growth in 100 years’ February 12, 2026 The UK economy had a minor expansion in the fourth quarter of 2025 coming a touch below expectations as an expected boost from the services sector failed to come to fruition. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the economy expanded a sluggish 0.1 per cent in three months to December 2025. [...]
Reform UK’s rise: Will City law firms shift their support? February 12, 2026 Businesses, including law firms, snuggled up to Labour in 2024 but with Reform UK on the agenda, will firms shift their focus before the next election? Unlike in the US, business lobbying of British political parties and the UK government is kept somewhat behind closed doors, but it remains a powerful tool. For professional services, [...]
Starmer only cares about victims ‘to save his skin’, Badenoch blasts February 11, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer faced a brutal grilling at Prime Minister’s Questions on Monday where Kemi Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of only caring about victims of sexual abuse “to save his skin”. In a fiery exchange that was highly party-political but light on policy, the Labour leader said he had “accepted responsibility and apologised for [...]
The Debate: Can you date across the divide? February 11, 2026 Ahead of Valentine’s Day, we ask the big question: can a Tory really love a leftie? Read the case for and against in this week's Debate.
Lib Dems would scrap Treasury for ‘Department for Growth’ February 11, 2026 The Liberal Democrats have laid out plans to scrap the Treasury department if elected in favour of a ‘Department for Growth’. Daisy Cooper, the party’s deputy leader and Treasury spokeswoman, said on Wednesday took aim at failed government economic policy and said the Treasury “does too much”. “Fiscal policy, economic policy and controlling government spending. [...]
Heathrow warns on losing European crown without expansion February 11, 2026 Heathrow Airport has kicked off the new year with a shattering of its previous traffic record but has offered a stark warning it could lose its crown without progress on expansion. Some 6.5m passengers travelled through the airport in January, marking a 2.2 per cent increase on last year and making it the busiest January [...]
Starmer will fail to improve living standards – but it isn’t all his fault February 11, 2026 Between the mid 1960s and the mid 2000s, the living standards of the poorest half of households doubled. Increasing by 1.9 per cent a year, it took four decades to make this leap. To emulate that progress again, starting from today, would take 137 years. This is not a state of affairs that can be [...]
Buy now, pay later providers set for £3bn hit in ‘regulatory reset’ February 11, 2026 Providers of buy now, pay later services are set to feel the crunch as the UK’s financial watchdog tightens its regulatory focus on the fast-growing industry. Merchants and lenders are set to take a combined hit of as much as £3bn following the regulation overhaul by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), according to its own [...]
