New threat to Labour spending plans as UK long-term borrowing costs hit highest level since 1998

The risk to Labour’s tax and spending plans from the war in Iran was underscored on Tuesday, as long-term government borrowing costs hit their highest level since 1998.Fears of higher inflation as a result of the conflict have fuelled a selloff across government bond markets, which City analysts say has been exacerbated in the UK by uncertainty about the future of Keir Starmer’s government.The yield – effectively the interest rate – on 30-year UK government bonds (gilts) hit 5.77% on Tuesday – exceeding the 27-year high reached last September.Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, said he was “concerned for the health of the UK economy”, after the latest market moves

UK electric car sales leap ‘could be hit by Iran war inflation and energy price rises’

A recent jump in electric car sales in the UK is likely to be “tempered” by worries over rising inflation and energy prices caused by the Iran war, a leading industry body has warned.New car sales in the UK rose by 24% year on year to 149,247 in April, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).The trade body said battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales jumped by 59.1% last month and the two millionth electric car had been registered. They accounted for more than a quarter (26

Australians are poorer because of war on the other side of the world – Michele Bullock’s logic is hard to fault

As far as rallying cries go, Michele Bullock’s “we are poorer, and there is no way out of that” leaves a lot to be desired.It’s not going to win you any applause, particularly when you’re the governor of a central bank that has just announced a third rate hike.But as a blunt way to describe what the US-Israel war on Iran means for everyday households, it’s hard to fault.“Australians are poorer because of this shock to oil prices and energy prices and all the other commodity prices that are being impacted,” Bullock told journalists.“So yes, we are all feeling poorer

Vodafone to take full control of UK mobile operator in £4.3bn deal

Vodafone is to take full control of the UK’s biggest mobile operator in a £4.3bn buyout deal with the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison.The billionaire Li Ka-shing’s business said it had agreed to sell its 49% stake in VodafoneThree – a network with more than 27 million subscribers – to its partner Vodafone.Vodafone will buy out CK Hutchison, paying cash, and cancel the shares.The deal is part of CK’s efforts to reshape its global portfolio, offloading major assets to boost shareholder returns

Reform UK’s immigration policies are a significant risk to the UK economy | Sushil Wadhwani

While all eyes are on the Middle East and the risk of a global recession, a possible scenario with significant downside risk for the UK economy after the next general election is building: the impact of anti-immigration policies.We do not know enough about the actual policy changes a Reform UK-led government would impose, but if we get forced repatriation (including of some who were born in Britain) combined with a climate of fear, the economic disruption could be highly significant.The number of people affected by Reform UK’s policies is necessarily uncertain, but it has been estimated that the party might want at least 2 million people to leave the country, which is considerably higher than previous talk of deporting 600,000 people.Minority ethnic NHS doctors and nurses already report that they encounter increased levels of racism at work. Home Office numbers show a steep decline in the number of foreign nurses granted entry into the UK over the past three years

‘There is a good deal of fear’: what would a Labour leadership challenge mean for bond markets?

Who calls the shots on the bin collections in Sunderland, potholes in Hackney, or schools in Cardiff is not normally of interest to City traders in the multitrillion-pound sovereign bond market.But for those dealing in UK government debt, Thursday’s local and devolved government elections are significantly more important than usual, amid speculation that a dire showing for Keir Starmer’s Labour party could topple him as prime minister.“Usually local elections should not be a market relevant event, but this has indeed become one,” said Sanjay Raja, the chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank.“Mainly as the repercussions, not just from a leadership challenge, but also any changes to fiscal policy and any pressure on fiscal rules the chancellor had signed up to. That is what the market is really signed up to

Concierge firm co-founded by queen’s nephew went on ‘ill-timed’ hiring spree before Iran war

The embattled luxury concierge service co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew Ben Elliot embarked on what appeared to be an inopportune hiring spree in the Middle East and Asia before wealthy individuals began fleeing the region because of the US-Israel war on Iran.Quintessentially almost quadrupled staff in the regions from 22 to 84 during its financial year to 30 April 2025, according to newly released annual accounts, which again reported multimillion-pound losses and warned of “material uncertainty” about its future.The increase in staff numbers came less than a year before the conflict erupted in the Middle East – with Iran retaliating against US and Israeli strikes by targeting Gulf cities including Dubai. The attacks prompted a scramble among the wealthy to leave the Emirates via alternative routes on private jets.A Quintessentially spokesperson said the business continued to hire in the region and was planning another office in Dubai

Jaguar Land Rover could have shifted production from UK without £380m battery subsidy, officials warned

Jaguar Land Rover would have considered moving car production out of the UK and slashing jobs if not for a £380m subsidy for its sister battery company, government officials claimed privately.Officials at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) warned in December that Britain’s largest automotive employer may have triggered an exodus from the UK car industry, according to state aid documents prepared by the competition regulator.JLR is owned by Tata Sons, an Indian conglomerate that also controls Britain’s largest steelmaker. Tata Steel has received £500m to upgrade its Port Talbot steelworks. Earlier this month the government also extended a grant of £380m to Agratas, Tata’s new business, which is building a battery “gigafactory” in Somerset to supply JLR and other carmakers

Shipping firms question safety in strait of Hormuz despite Trump plan

The world’s shipping industry has questioned whether vessels will be able to travel safely to and from the Gulf after Donald Trump announced his latest plan to open the strait of Hormuz.Trump wrote on Monday that the US navy would “guide” stranded ships out of the waterway, writing on his social media site Truth Social that the operation, “Project Freedom”, would be a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran”.But within hours Iran’s Fars news agency reported a US warship intending to pass through the strait had been hit by two missiles and turned back after ignoring an Iranian warning. The US denied its ship had been hit. Brent crude rose more than 5% a barrel to $114

Nigerian refinery accused of sacking union members is key to UK plan to tackle jet fuel shortage

A refinery in Nigeria accused of dismissing workers for joining a union has emerged as key to the UK government’s hopes of saving the summer holiday amid a jet fuel shortage.Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said at the weekend that part of the answer to the strait of Hormuz crisis was to import more fuel from the US and west Africa.The main refinery on the west coast of Africa exporting fuel to the UK for commercial flights is Dangote in Lagos, which started producing aviation fuel in January 2024. According to the market data company Kpler, about 130,000 tonnes of jet fuel was imported into the UK in March from the huge Nigerian plant.Owned by the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, the refinery has been accused by unions of being a “plantation of exploitation”

Thousands of Just Eat couriers launch legal action to improve workers’ rights

More than 7,000 Just Eat couriers are taking legal action against the food delivery company in an attempt to gain better employment rights including the minimum wage and holiday pay.The employment tribunal, which begins on Tuesday and is set to run until 2 June, will determine if the couriers are classed as workers, a status that comes with improved rights, or self-employed independent contractors.Judgment is expected later in 2026.Just Eat dismissed about 1,700 couriers in the UK in 2023 when it returned to a gig economy model and scrapped an experiment that offered guaranteed minimum pay, sick pay and holiday pay in six cities in the UK and Europe.Under its “Scoober” experiment, couriers who Just Eat said handled less than 5% of UK orders at the time and also worked set shifts, were provided with e-bikes or e-mopeds and had the option to operate from a central hub, where they could pick up equipment and take breaks

UK food prices on track to rise by 50% since start of cost of living crisis

Food prices are on track to be 50% higher in November than at the start of the cost of living crisis in 2021, research suggests.Climate and energy shocks have driven an almost quadrupling of the pace of food price growth, according to research from the thinktank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), with costs rising in five years at about the same rate as they had over the previous two decades.Anna Taylor, the executive director of the Food Foundation charity, said: “Food prices rising this high and this fast leaves families on the lowest incomes with nowhere left to cut except the food on their plate. When that happens, people skip meals, children go hungry, and diet-related illness rises – taking parents out of work and piling pressure on an NHS that can least afford it.”The research suggests that the cost of living crisis, which many voters blame on political elites and big business, is likely to continue to be an important political issue during 2026

How to make the perfect Spanish broad bean stew – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …

I always feel sorry for broad beans, the lumpy cousin perpetually overshadowed by the charms of slender, elegant asparagus and sweet, bouncy, little peas. They’re in season at roughly the same time, but asparagus in particular gets all the glory, perhaps because so many of us are scarred by childhood experiences of large, grey wrinkly beans served in a floury white sauce (my own parents are so averse to the things that I vividly remember the first time I came across them on a Sunday roast as a teenager and had to ask a friend what they were).The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more

Willy’s, Margate, Kent: ‘It chortles in the face of small plates’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

This cute and jovial eatery is reason enough to make a break for the coastAs summer looms, and with it the urge to stampede towards the edges of Britain in search of paddling opportunities, I proffer another coastal dining idea: Willy’s in Margate – and, yes, that name does have about it something of the naughty seaside postcard. Tucked away in the back of Margate House hotel on Dalby Square, a few minutes’ walk from the seafront, Willy’s is a blur of frilly red-and-pink seaside adorableness. It’s cool, cute and jovial, with pork scratchings and apple chutney on the menu, as well as black pudding scotch eggs, sticky toffee pudding and Sunday lunches of beef rump and baked cauliflower cheese. This menu is short, intentional and hearty, rather than airy-fairy, and it chortles in the face of small plates.But, for the foodie/sippy crowd, the signifiers are all here: there’s a paper plane and a penicillin on the cocktail menu, throwbacks to New York’s iconic Milk and Honey bar

Helen Goh’s springtime spinach sponge cake with cream cheese icing – recipe | The sweet spot

There is a particular green that belongs to spring: pale and luminous, it’s softer than the dark foliage of winter, and quieter than the glossy abundance of summer herbs. Spinach, the colour of new growth, captures this moment perfectly. Tender and almost impossibly vivid, this cake loses its metallic edge in the heat of the oven, leaving a gentle, vegetal brightness. Baked in a shallow tin and spread with cream cheese icing, when sliced into squares, it produces the perfect ratio of cake to icing and tastes uncommonly good.Prep 10 min Cook 50 min serves 8-10For the cake120g baby leaf spinach, stems removed 120ml milk 200g plain flour 1½ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) ¼ tsp fine sea salt 3 large eggs, at room temperature180g caster sugar Finely grated zest of 1 lime 120ml solid coconut oil, melted and cooled to tepid1 tsp vanilla extractFor the icing200g cream cheese 100g icing sugar, sifted Finely grated zest of 1 lime, plus 1 tsp juice80ml double creamLine the base and sides of a standard 23cm x 33cm x 5cm baking tin and heat the oven to 185C (165C fan)/360F/gas 4½

Why we care so much about preserving family recipes

“Chicken, leek, flour, a few more ingredients.” That was it: my grandma’s WhatsApp response to me earnestly asking if she’d mind sharing her time-honoured chicken pie recipe. She wasn’t being obtuse – well, not deliberately. She had simply never before committed a dish that was second nature to paper, let alone an iPhone screen.It wasn’t how she’d learned it and it wasn’t how I’d go on to learn it, either

When it comes to wines, it pays to look beyond the fashionable

The sommelier Honey Spencer, of Sune in east London, struck a real chord on Instagram earlier this year: “I’m so fucking sick of expensive wine,” she lamented. There followed an angry plaint about the “unrelenting rise” in the cost of bottles from “artisans making wine properly … and FORGET BURGUNDY”. In a difficult climate, this is “one of the hardest pills to swallow” for the restaurateur.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for spaghetti with crab, chilli, herbs and lemon | A kitchen in Rome

My copy of the River Cafe Cookbook is silver, having lost its original blue sleeve some years ago. Naked, the hardback cover is completely plain, so it is my handwriting of “River Cafe blue” along the metallic spine, even though there is little chance of mixing it up with the yellow softback River Cafe Cookbook Two or the emerald cover of River Cafe Cookbook Green.Blue was first published in 1996, a sobering fact, because that’s the same year I enrolled at the Drama Centre London, as well as the year when Pierce Brosnan took on rogue agent Alec Trevelyan (played by Sean Bean) in GoldenEye. That was Brosnan’s debut as James Bond and Dame Judi Dench’s first appearance as M. Brosnan trained at Drama Centre between 1973 and 1976, which is why, when I bought the blue book in 1996, I had good reason to imagine my future career as looking a little like that of Pierce, or Judi, or both

How to turn old pitta into spiced chips – recipe | Waste not

Three years ago, I helped my friend, the chef Sam Webb, set up Babette, a street food stall at Newquay Boathouse. Webb and his team make everything from scratch and, wherever possible, using only local Cornish produce, from their hot honey (sourced from the Rescued Bee) to pitta with freshly milled flour from Cornish Golden Grains; he also grows his own produce with fellow restaurateur Matt Comley at Gannel Valley Gardens.As you might expect, saving food waste is at the top of Webb’s agenda, which is how he came to create waste-saving pitta chips to serve with hummus. It’s a recipe I couldn’t resist, not least because they take minutes to cook. What makes Webb’s pitta chips unique is their wonderful seasoning of sumac, za’atar and sea salt just before serving

Why sweet, chewy dates go perfectly with chocolate – and the best ones to try

I first cemented the allure of the “chew” aged 14, working illegally as a chambermaid (I lied about my age) and finding a guest’s Gummy Bears laid open – a breach I heavily exploited. Recently this chew need has been sated by dates and their use in chocolate as a healthy caramel. Dates do have nutritional benefits over mere sugar: fibre, minerals, antioxidants and make a great pre-workout boost.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link

The perfect birthday cake: tips for the best blow-out

What’s the best birthday cake?Katie, by email“My mum once made a cake with mini rolls made to look like cats with googly eyes and strawberry lace tails,” says Nicola Lamb, author of Sift and the Kitchen Projects newsletter. And that’s the whole point of a birthday cake, right? It should align with the recipient’s favourite thing: “That could even be a lasagne,” Lamb says. “I’m not at all prescriptive about what you stick a candle into.”Of course, some cakes are a safer choice than others. Take the Victoria sponge: “I don’t think anyone is going to have a problem with a plush vanilla sponge, jam and cream job,” Lamb says

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for green chilli eggs with coriander and coconut | Quick and easy

This might look like a shakshuka, but with lemongrass, ginger and lime, you couldn’t really get away with calling it one – particularly because the noodles make this an easy, flavour-packed one-pan dinner. The crunch of the peanuts is particularly good against the lime-spiked coconut milk – a perfect transitional “is it spring yet?” dinner.Prep 15 min Cook 15 min Serves 21½ tbsp neutral oil 2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated½ stick lemongrass, finely chopped½-1 green chilli, finely chopped (remove the pith and seeds first if you want less heat)5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely gratedJuice and zest of 1 lime 2 large echalion shallots (or small onions), peeled and finely sliced1 tsp freshly ground coriander seeds 1 tsp flaky sea salt 320g baby spinach400ml tin coconut milk, whisked smooth150g packet straight-to-wok medium noodles2 eggsTo serve 15g coriander, roughly chopped 50g salted peanuts, finely chopped½ green chilli, finely sliced (remove the pith and seeds first if you want less heat)Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan on a medium heat, then add the garlic, lemongrass, chilli, ginger, lime zest and shallots. Stir-fry for four to five minutes, until the shallots are soft and the mixture is aromatic and starting to brown lightly, then turn down the heat and add the ground coriander and salt. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, add the spinach and cook for two minutes, until it is just wilting

The truth about cooking oils: 14 essential facts for healthier, cheaper meals

From avocado to hemp, extra virgin olive and rapeseed, the shops are packed with various oils. But what is worth spending money on? And are any of them actually better for you? The world of cooking oils is confusing. I keep spotting new ones on supermarket shelves, trumpeting their health claims. Cold-pressed avocado oil, extra virgin macadamia oil, organic coconut oil, premium hemp seed oil … Even familiar oils are mired in controversy. Is it OK to cook with olive oil? Should you avoid seed oils? Meanwhile, prices keep rising – earlier this month, Walter Zanre, the CEO of Filippo Berio UK, said supermarkets were “taking the mickey” out of customers over olive oil pricing

The surprising boom in blouge wine: ‘It’s for 5pm, in the sun’

Twenty years ago, a winery could do well selling one white and two reds, says Konrad Pixner, a northern Italian winemaker who set up his vineyard, Domaine de L’Accent, in Languedoc, France, in 2019. But today, importers and bars always ask: “Do you have something new?” So up in the hills, surrounded by deep gorges and limestone plateaus, Pixner is constantly experimenting.After a good harvest in 2023, Pixner walked into the shed he shares with other winemakers at 4am to find that his biggest vat of white wine, pressed from carignan blanc grapes, had overflowed during fermentation. He had run out of space, so he quickly “pumped the white juice into the tank where whole bunches of carignan noir were,” he says, and left them to ferment for 10 days together. In contrast to rosé, made from red grapes left for a short time with their skins on before being pressed, he created “blouge” – a light, fresh wine blended from white and red grapes that’s best served chilled