Business

Rail workers’ union RMT has announced more strikes next month following what it said was a pay offer “U-turn” from Network Rail. Three days of strike action are set to take place on 3, 5 and 7 November. Negotiations had been under way between the union and the rail operator. The Railway, Maritime and Transport

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been ordered by the UK competition regulator to sell the GIF library Giphy. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the ruling was a “final decision”. The move followed a protracted effort by Meta to overturn a CMA ruling last year that the takeover, which completed in

Financial markets have reacted positively to the new chancellor’s cull of more costly measures in his predecessor’s disastrous mini-budget. Jeremy Hunt revealed in a televised statement that he would no longer be proceeding with almost all the controversial package, including the reduction in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19% from next

Jeremy Hunt has revealed he is reversing “almost all” of the tax cuts announced in his predecessor’s mini-budget and is scaling back support on energy bills. In an emergency statement, the chancellor said a 1p cut to income tax will be delayed “indefinitely” until the UK’s finances improve instead of being introduced in April 2023

Unions are close to organising co-ordinated strike action “very soon” following the “horror story” of the past few weeks, a union boss has told Sky News. Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, accused the government of “aiding and abetting” employers earning millions in profits but not handing that to workers. She confirmed Unite, the UK’s

The government is pressing ahead to introduce legislation which will require transport workers to run a minimum service when strikes are taking place. It comes after commuters have been plagued by months of travel chaos caused by industrial action by railway workers, who are calling for better pay, working conditions and job security. But trade

Interest rates will have to be raised higher than initially hoped in the face of inflationary pressures, the Bank of England (BoE) governor has suggested. Speaking at an International Monetary Fund event in Washington, Andrew Bailey also said there had been “a very clear and immediate meeting of minds” with new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on

The financial markets have responded negatively following Liz Truss’s announcement of a U-turn on corporation tax in a bid to reassure investors. As was widely predicted, the prime minister said she was abandoning the government’s commitment to drop the planned tax increase from 19% to 25% – even though it was a central plank of

So farewell, then, Trussonomics. The demise of the country’s second shortest-lived chancellor also brings with it the demise of the country’s shortest-lived economic movement. Liz Truss came into office promising to boost the country’s growth rate through a forensic combination of tax cuts, reforms to the country’s supply side (for which read: things like planning

Royal Mail has announced it will begin a process to make 5,000 to 6,000 roles redundant by August next year. The announcement, made in a trading update by the postal service’s parent company, has been blamed on industrial action taken by Royal Mail workers, delays in improving productivity and falling parcel volumes. A process of

The head of the International Monetary Fund has delivered a blunt condemnation of the UK government’s mini-budget – pointing out government and Bank of England policies should not be working against each other. Kristalina Georgieva was speaking at a news conference in Washington after the government’s mini-budget unleashed chaos in the markets when it was

As Liz Truss faces open revolt in her party over her planned tax cuts, her chancellor will today try to reassure the IMF that everything is under control. Ministers continue to be under pressure for the market chaos that erupted after the government announced its £45bn package of unfunded tax cuts last month. The prime

The chancellor’s mini-budget “complicated matters” for the Bank of England as it battled to bring down inflation, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist has told Sky News. In an interview at the IMF’s annual meetings in Washington, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas warned the coming years would “not be very pleasant” for the global economy. He also said

The economy unexpectedly shrank in August, contracting by 0.3% on the previous month. The growth in July has also been revised downwards, from the previously recorded 0.2% to 0.1%. The Office for National Statistics released its latest reading on the UK’s performance as the government frets over the prospect of recession ahead, given the toll

The Bank of England’s governor has ruled out extending its bond-buying support for pension funds beyond Friday’s deadline, prompting a dramatic fall in the value of the pound. Andrew Bailey told an event in Washington that funds had “three days left… to get this done” after a series of interventions to support the “dysfunctional” market

The Bank of England has warned of “a material risk to UK financial stability” as it widened its programme to buy up government bonds. The move has been made as a result of “further significant repricing of UK government debt” in one pension-linked market, the Bank said. It added that it was “dysfunction” and the