Pension ping pong: Now government backtracks on mandation powers April 22, 2026 The government has been forced to water down controversial mandation powers in the Pension Schemes Bill after prolonged uproar from the pensions industry and opposition MPs and peers. Pensions minister Torsten Bell has tried to push through the bill with a clause that gives ministers the power to force funds to invest in UK infrastructure [...]
Peer pressure: Starmer admits former aide was considered for diplomatic role April 22, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer has admitted that he considered appointing Lord Matthew Doyle for an ambassadorial role without the foreign secretary knowing, amid growing questions over the Prime Minister’s judgment in key decisions. The Prime Minister appeared to accept that Doyle, who recently had the Labour whip removed following revelations about his relationship with a sex [...]
End of the runway for Gatwick as top court kicks out insurance lifeline April 22, 2026 Gatwick Investment’s appeal against insurance giant Liberty Mutual has been struck down over whether insurers can deduct government furlough payments from business claims. The Supreme Court ruled that insurers do not have to pay an estimated £1bn to the hospitality and leisure companies involved in the case that suffered financial losses during the pandemic because [...]
War propels UK inflation in new risk for interest rate hikes April 22, 2026 Inflation sped up in March, official data has revealed, giving the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee a headache as policymakers mull over whether to raise interest rates. Inflation jumped to 3.3 per cent last month as President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war on Iran led to critical trade disruption across the Strait of [...]
Starmer won’t recover from the toxic Mandelson scandal April 22, 2026 Think back to the election campaign of 2024 and you’ll recall that Sir Keir Starmer’s pitch for power wasn’t based on very much. His offer to the electorate was built almost entirely on the well-worn ‘time for change’ argument that opposition politicians across the world cling to when the incumbent has clearly run out of [...]
Investment risk misunderstandings fuel cash hoarding April 21, 2026 Brits’ confusion over investment risk warnings has kept people clinging to cash and damaged economic growth, according to recent findings. Nearly 35 per cent of savers admitted the fear of losing money was holding them back from stepping into the stock market, according to the latest research from Barclays, with only 12 per cent expecting [...]
‘Fossil fuel rollercoaster’: Government plans energy price shake-up as Miliband ‘doubles down’ on renewables April 21, 2026 UK households could see their electricity bills fall after the government unveiled measures to end the pricing system’s relationship with volatile gas prices and fossil fuels. Energy secretary Ed Miliband is set to overhaul the system in a major intervention to sever the link between the prices of electricity to gas, which has long been [...]
Robbins: Starmer’s team was ‘dismissive’ about Mandelson vetting April 21, 2026 Former Foreign Office permanent secretary Sir Olly Robbins has criticised Number 10’s “dismissive attitude” to security vetting for Lord Peter Mandelson, who accessed classified files before Robbins, who was recently sacked from his key civil service post, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that there was “constant pressure” on the Foreign Office to give Mandelson clearance [...]
Job vacancies fall to lowest level in five years April 21, 2026 The UK jobs market took a turn for the worst as job vacancies fell to their lowest level in nearly five years, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of vacancies fell by an estimate of 29,000 in the three months to March. It is the lowest level of [...]
Trojan tools: AI is professional services’ newest cyber liability April 21, 2026 As the UK government ramps up pressure on businesses to strengthen their cyber defences over Anthropic’s Mythos, professional services firms are already feeling increasingly anxious about cybersecurity. In the last month, a hacker gained access to one of Bain & Co’s internal AI tools, which followed another attack that exposed cybersecurity flaws in a system [...]
