The Conservatives face losing their Commons majority if local election results are replicated at a general election, according to a Sky News projection. Analysis suggests that it would mean a hung parliament with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Tories remaining the largest party at Westminster but falling 48 seats short of an overall majority. The projection
Roman Abramovich has insisted his position over the sale of Chelsea is unchanged and has described claims he has asked for a £1.5bn loan to be paid back as “entirely false”. Reports had suggested the Russian billionaire could insist on the money being paid back, which could threaten the sale of the Premier League club.
The Bank of England has raised the base rate of interest to 1% – the fourth consecutive increase as it continues to move against surging inflation – despite issuing a warning about a recession ahead. The Bank forecast that the UK economy will shrink later this year in the face of double-digit inflation and an
Rail companies have been accused of “failing dismally” to help families with young children travel on trains, according to a new report. Only five operators in Britain scored more than two out of eight points in analysis by the Campaign for Family-Friendly Trains. It comes after 13 firms were assessed on factors such as the
Elon Musk has secured $7bn from new investors for his $44bn takeover of Twitter. The 19 contributors supporting the billionaire’s deal include Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and Tesla board member, who is pledging $1bn. The Qatar state investment fund is putting up $375m, while Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, is pitching in $500bn,
The parent company of British Airways has hailed a pick-up in travel between the UK and United States for helping to narrow losses and predicted a return to profitability this year despite a leap in costs. International Airlines Group (IAG), which also has the Aer Lingus and Iberia brands in its stable of carriers, reported
Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, has been warned it must do more to help struggling pork producers or risk “the destruction of the UK pig sector”. The chairman of the National Pig Association (NPA) Rob Mutimer used an open letter to the Tesco boss Ken Murphy to argue that the company was uniquely positioned,
In today’s episode, Ian King looks at the markets reacting to rising interest rates and soaring inflation. He’s also joined by Sky’s City editor Mark Kleinman, who has all the latest on Morrisons proposing a last-ditch rescue deal for McColl’s Retail Group. Plus, more on Zeelo, the UK-based smart bus platform bought last week for
The new owners of Chelsea Football Club would be prevented from paying dividends or taking management fees for a decade under a package of measures designed to avoid the controversies which have dogged Manchester United since the Glazers’ takeover in 2005. Sky News can exclusively reveal that a consortium majority-funded by private equity firm Clearlake
The billionaire brothers behind one of Britain’s biggest fuel retailing empires are close to sealing a last-ditch swoop on McColl’s Retail Group that could lead to thousands of job losses. Sky News has learnt that EG Group was putting the finishing touches on Friday to a takeover of McColl’s through a pre-pack administration that would
Not many Eurovision acts can say that instead of rehearsing for the biggest performance of their life, they have grabbed an AK47 to fight off Russian aggressors on the streets. But that’s exactly what Ukraine’s act, Kalush Orchestra, have done ahead of their appearance at the contest. The glitzy arena in the Italian city of
More than 500kg of cocaine has been discovered in a shipment of coffee beans sent to a Nespresso factory, according to Swiss police. The authorities were alerted after staff at the plant in Romont found a white powder while unloading the sacks, which had just arrived from Brazil. Analysis confirmed the powder was cocaine, with
The Pope approved a secret €1m operation to free a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali, a disgraced cardinal has claimed. Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez was seized by the Macina Liberation Front, an al Qaeda-linked group, in February 2017 and released last year. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who is one of ten defendants on trial accused of
A woman detained after her Ryanair flight was forced to land in Belarus last May has been jailed for six years. Sophia Sapega and her activist boyfriend were flying from Greece to Lithuania when the plane was flanked by a fighter jet and forced down over an alleged bomb threat. Western countries said the actions
At least eight people have died and dozens are injured after a powerful explosion at a five-star hotel in the downtown area of Cuba’s capital Havana, officials have said. The blast at the Hotel Saratoga, a 19th-century structure in Old Havana, was apparently due to a gas leak, according to the Twitter account of the
A German woman has been found guilty of sexual assault after poking holes in her partner’s condoms in an attempt to get pregnant, according to reports. The woman, 39, was in a “friends with benefits” relationship with the man when she deliberately damaged the condoms without his knowledge. The case made legal history, according to