Jump in UK borrowing shows Rachel Reeves needs to relax her strict budget rules
There is mounting pressure on Rachel Reeves to relax her budget rules and to prepare the ground by telling voters in the next few weeks.The latest public borrowing figures for April, which show a rise above most City forecasts, indicate that the chancellor will struggle to stay within the constraints she imposed on herself at last year’s budget.Reeves gambled that the Treasury could brazen out a difficult year with nearly £10bn of headroom – a cushion that would protect the government against all eventualities.Donald Trump’s tariffs war and the subsequent global slowdown have been enough to derail that tactic.Economic growth is expected to slow over the next year despite a spate of trade deals
Will cyber-attack threaten M&S’s hard-won return to fashion relevance?
In September 2019, as Marks & Spencer fell out of the FTSE 100 for the first time, its then chief executive, Steve Rowe, described the retailer as having a “reputation for frumpiness”. Just six years later, thanks to clever campaigns, unexpected collaborations and a focus on catwalk-influenced pieces, the retailer has transformed itself into the go-to fashion destination for high street shoppers.Annual results, released on Wednesday, showed a 22% rise in pre-tax profits in the year to 30 March. Overall sales were up 6% to £13.9bn with fashion and homeware increasing 3
UK borrowing rises to £20.2bn, putting pressure on Rachel Reeves
The UK government borrowed more than expected in April, underscoring the challenge for Rachel Reeves to fix public services and grow the economy while meeting her fiscal rules.With the chancellor under pressure on Labour’s tax plans, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said public sector net borrowing rose to £20.2bn in April, £1bn more than the same month a year earlier. City economists had forecast borrowing of £17.9bn
WeightWatchers scraps business model to team up with anti-obesity drugs provider
WeightWatchers is teaming up with a provider of weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, in a seismic shift for the brand away from a focus on dieting as it tries to turn around its struggling business.WeightWatchers, which has promoted a non-medical, points-based approach to food intake since its creation in the 1960s, has announced a strategic partnership in the UK with CheqUp, a provider of GLP-1 weight-loss medication and accompanying clinical support and health coaching.The partnership comes weeks after WeightWatchers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, as it tries to cut its debt after the popularity of anti-obesity injections upended its model.All CheqUp members will be able to access a WeightWatchers app, which has been specifically designed for people on weight-loss injections, with guidance from experts on food recommendations to minimise the side effects of the medication, such as nausea, while supporting healthy weight loss.The two companies said the tie-up would help patients who are “seeking sustainable weight loss through GLP-1 medication and behavioural support”, with their “complementary offerings” allowing patients to achieve better results than with medication alone
HSBC high street bank staff face bonus cuts over remote working
HSBC has told staff in its UK high street banks that it may cut their bonuses if they do not work in the office frequently enough.The bank told employees at its HSBC UK division, which includes its retail and domestic commercial banking businesses, that anyone who did not spend at least 60% of their time in the office could end up being paid less, according to a report by Bloomberg.It is the latest bank to harden its stance on remote working. In January, the rival bank Barclays ordered all staff to work from the office for at least three days a week, up from a previous requirement of two days. Last year Santander told employees they must be in the office for at least three days a week
Liberty Steel has not produced anything at two key plants since July 2024
Liberty Steel has produced nothing at two of its key UK plants since July, in a sign of the deep financial difficulties for Britain’s third-biggest steelmaker as it looks for rescue funding.The plants at Rotherham in South Yorkshire and Motherwell in Scotland have not produced any steel for about nine months because of a lack of funds to buy vital materials, with staff on furlough on 85% of their salaries for the duration, according to workers who spoke to the Guardian.Steel companies have been struggling for several years. UK steel production fell in 2024 to its lowest since the 1930s, and in the last month the government in effect took over the British Steel blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, amid fears of more than 2,700 job losses and the end of primary steel-making in the UK.Liberty Steel is ultimately owned by Sanjeev Gupta, whose GFG Alliance metals empire is under severe financial pressure across the world after a debt-fuelled expansion spree
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Ministers said to be considering bill to wipe out British Steel’s debts
Ministers are reportedly considering legislation to relieve British Steel of debts that have risen to nearly £1bn, as the government considers how best to prepare the Scunthorpe steelworks for sale.The government took control of the business last month after it said its Chinese owner, Jingye Steel, planned to close the plant within days. The move required emergency legislation that was passed in a historic recall of parliament.Jingye remains the legal owner of British Steel, despite the takeover, and is owed money by the company. Those debts would probably have been wiped out in a liquidation
Government considers sale of Brexit border checkpoint in Kent – reports
The UK government is reportedly considering selling a post-Brexit border check facility in Kent that could fall out of use as a result of this week’s trade pact with the EU.The site, based in Sevington, Ashford, was erected in 2021 with capacity for 1,300 lorries that were expected to face extra checks on plants and animal goods, including dairy and meat, entering and leaving Britain after Brexit.However, the deal between the UK and EU struck earlier this week is expected to remove the need for routine health and veterinary certification on the import and export of farm products ranging from fresh meat and dairy products to vegetables, timber, wool and leather.The government is now looking for a company willing to buy or repurpose the Sevington border control point.Ministers are said to have approached Eurotunnel directly, according to the Financial Times
Scattered Spider is focus of NCA inquiry into cyber-attacks against UK retailers
A hacker community known as Scattered Spider is a key suspect in a criminal inquiry into cyber-attacks against UK retailers including Marks & Spencer, detectives have said.Scattered Spider, a loose collective of native English-speaking cybercriminals, has been strongly linked with hacks against M&S, the Co-op and Harrods. M&S said on Wednesday it will take an estimated £300m hit to profits after its systems were hacked last month.The UK’s National Crime Agency, whose remit includes combating cybercrime, said the group was a focus in its investigations.“We are looking at the group that is publicly known as Scattered Spider, but we’ve got a range of different hypotheses and we’ll follow the evidence to get to the offenders,” Paul Foster, the head of the NCA’s national cybercrime unit, told the BBC
Most AI chatbots easily tricked into giving dangerous responses, study finds
Hacked AI-powered chatbots threaten to make dangerous knowledge readily available by churning out illicit information the programs absorb during training, researchers say.The warning comes amid a disturbing trend for chatbots that have been “jailbroken” to circumvent their built-in safety controls. The restrictions are supposed to prevent the programs from providing harmful, biased or inappropriate responses to users’ questions.The engines that power chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude – large language models (LLMs) – are fed vast amounts of material from the internet.Despite efforts to strip harmful text from the training data, LLMs can still absorb information about illegal activities such as hacking, money laundering, insider trading and bomb-making
Lewis Hamilton ‘to make three new films’ but Verstappen snubs F1 screening
Lewis Hamilton has revealed his film production company is working with screenwriters to write and produce three films in the future. The seven-time world champion was speaking after a private screening of the forthcoming film F1: The Movie, held on Wednesday night in Monte Carlo, on which he was a producer and an adviser.“At the beginning you see all the different logos for the different production houses and my one comes out, which I worked on for so long, which is Dawn Apollo and it was just amazing to see that,” he said. “This has gone in very high. Couldn’t go any higher for my first movie but we will be producing more movies in the coming years
Scientists warn Enhanced Games athletes of heart attack risks and having libidos ‘killed off’
Enhanced Games competitors run the risk of their libido being “killed off” as well as a greater chance of heart attacks and psychiatric issues by taking performance enhanced drugs, leading experts have warned.Prof Ian Broadley, whose research has been supported by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and his colleague Martin Chandler, a research fellow who specialises in PEDs, also told the Guardian that organisers’ claims that banned drugs can be made safer if taken under medical supervision are “incorrect and misleading”.Organisers of the Enhanced Games revealed on Wednesday that they will stage a four-day event in Las Vegas next year, but confirmed that they had already given the Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev $1m for dipping under the 50 metre freestyle world record time by using banned drugs.Meanwhile the Australian former Olympic swimmer, James Magnussen, has said that he “feels like 18 again” after taking testosterone, peptides and banned drugs, including BPC-157, CJC-1295 and the growth hormone ipamorelin to prepare for the event.However, Boardley and Chandler have warned that Magnussen and other Enhanced Games competitors are underestimating the risks and dangers from taking steroids and other experimental drugs
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