Rishi Sunak is refusing to rush Britain back into the EU’s €95.5bn Horizon science programme despite his recent breakthrough in relations with Brussels, raising the prospect of a tough negotiation on rejoining the scheme. Senior colleagues said the UK prime minister was “sceptical” about the value of the research programme — the world’s biggest —
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James has lived in Dubai for 30 years and has never seen the local property market so frenetic. On a clear day, from his office in Boulevard Plaza, a stone’s throw from the Burj Khalifa, he can see the Palm Jumeirah, a man-made archipelago in the shape of a palm tree lined with luxury villas.
Kate Forbes, previously tipped to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the Scottish National party, recently admitted that she would have voted against same-sex marriage had she been a member of the Scottish parliament in 2014. A public furore ensued. Forbes is a devoted member of the Free Church of Scotland. Stephen Evans, chief executive
This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign Money: it’s emotional. If I had to sum up the main lesson I have learned after many years writing about personal finance, this would be it. I always try to break down the barriers that prevent readers from getting to grips
An avalanche of hot inflation data over the past month has lifted US borrowing costs to the highest point in a decade and a half, intensifying debate over how much further interest rates must rise to rein in soaring consumer prices. The yield on the two-year Treasury note hit 4.94 per cent on Thursday, a
The British government’s drive to raise private finance for the new Sizewell C nuclear plant so construction can start may not conclude until the end of next year, more than a decade after the project was launched. Ministers gave the go-ahead last year for what would be the next project in Britain’s new nuclear programme,
Two years ago, one City practitioner memorably told me that the freshly agreed deal between London and Brussels on financial services amounted to a “nothingburger”. This sad sandwich, the text of which was agreed but never signed, ended up in the deep freeze as relations soured over the Northern Ireland protocol. Now it seems likely
Asian equities followed the US higher on Friday after dovish comments from a Federal Reserve official counteracted data showing a robust labour market in the world’s largest economy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.6 per cent, China’s CSI 300 gained 0.2 per cent and Japan’s Topix rose 1.1 per cent. US stocks reversed two
Boris Johnson has criticised Rishi Sunak’s deal on post-Brexit trading in Northern Ireland, but the former UK prime minister admitted that many people wanted to “move on” from rows with Brussels. Although Johnson said he would find it “very difficult” to vote for the so-called Windsor framework, Sunak has secured a critical victory by splitting
Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who led the inquiry into the “partygate” affair that consumed Boris Johnson’s UK government, has caused Tory outrage by quitting to become chief of staff to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Rishi Sunak, prime minister, may intervene to block Gray from taking up her key role in Starmer’s office
This winter, American realtors have a plethora of problems to ponder. Surging interest rates have created a frozen residential housing market and shifting working practices will push office vacancies to 55 per cent above their pre-pandemic peak by 2030, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield. The prospect of stranded assets looms. But if
The US will launch a renewed crackdown on countries and individuals helping the Kremlin evade western sanctions amid growing fears Russia is fuelling the war in Ukraine by funnelling imports through countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. The push by the US Treasury, commerce and justice departments, details of which were obtained
The head of Melrose Industries has thrown his weight behind the London capital market, crediting it with having been a “major factor” in the group’s growth since listing, even as it struggles with a wave of takeovers and take-private deals. Simon Peckham, chief executive of the FTSE 100 conglomerate, said it had no plans to
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for the first time since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Blinken and Lavrov spoke for about 10 minutes on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi on Thursday, according to a state
A reconnaissance group claiming to work for the Ukrainian military crossed into Russia and allegedly launched an attack on Thursday, prompting President Vladimir Putin to convene his security council and delay a planned trip out of Moscow. Russian authorities said on Thursday that the group had entered a village in Bryansk region near Russia’s border
London Stock Exchange Group’s reaction to losing CRH is surprisingly sanguine. The Irish building materials company is joining the exodus from the City with plans to switch its primary listing from London to New York. Politicians will trade barbs about the impact of Brexit. Yet LSEG chief executive David Schwimmer simply says it is “what
In popular and political discourse, London is often portrayed as a giant leech, sucking the life out of the rest of the UK. It gobbles up the money, the public spending, the best jobs and talent from other towns and cities, creating the need for “levelling up”. If this was ever true, it could not
The writer is founder of Sifted, an FT-backed media company covering European start-ups In the justifiable, if spicy, words of one veteran tech investor in Israel: “It’s a fricking miracle what we’ve built here.” Over the past three decades, the tiny country of 9mn people, located in a hostile neighbourhood, has shrugged off wars, uprisings
The chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group has shrugged off an escalating series of moves by UK companies to shift their listings from London to the US, as the world’s largest building materials group dealt the latest blow by planning to ditch its listing. Asked about the decision by CRH on Thursday, David
Once on the brink of collapse, Britain’s automobile industry was painstakingly rebuilt through investments by carmakers from Japan, Germany and India. State-owned British Leyland had become a byword for bad industrial relations, but in the 1980s Margaret Thatcher oversaw a sector renaissance that began with Nissan agreeing to build a car plant in Sunderland. Now,
In 2002, I moved from London to what was then a blessedly cheaper Paris. London had its almighty banks; Paris was the “Capital of the 19th Century”. In fact, I felt I was emigrating from modernity. France then had lower average incomes than the UK and got less foreign direct investment (FDI), partly because of