Author: Blake Anderson

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Michael Gove is among a handful of former Conservative cabinet ministers who will be awarded peerages in ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter.The former housing secretary will be ennobled, alongside ex-chief whip Simon Hart and former Scottish secretary Sir Alister Jack. Stephen Massey, former Tory party chief executive, is another name on the seven-person list, the people said. They will receive peerages for “political and public service”. Veteran frontbencher Gove held six…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK government will provide auditors to local authorities in England to plug the shortfall of firms willing to take on the low-paid, complex work of checking council accounts, in a return to a policy ministers axed a decade ago.The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it would “establish public provision” for auditors providing a check and warning system for the £124bn spent by England’s 426 local authorities each year.The intervention comes amid a multiyear audit backlog caused by a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Reform UK has ruled out forming coalitions with the Conservatives in town halls across England after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch extended an olive branch by saying councillors were free to enter power-sharing agreements.“Reform will not form coalitions with the Tories at any level,” Reform leader Nigel Farage said on Thursday. “The Tories broke Britain nationally for 14 years, and their councils continue to break local communities.”His comments came after Badenoch talked up the precedent of her party going into “coalition” with other…

Put the English sparkling wine back on ice. So much for the Brexit dividend we thought we’d finally found. In the first days of Donald Trump’s tariff war, Leavers and Conservatives lined up to celebrate the lesser violence inflicted upon the UK economy. They had a point. The 20 per cent reciprocal tariff proposed for the EU was twice the UK’s, so being outside of that bloc offered less of a disadvantage. The US president’s opening shots owed more to British weakness in goods exports than Brexit; the UK still faced the same 25 per cent tariff on cars. But…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Britain’s statistics agency has said it plans to replace its faulty jobs market data in November 2026, earlier than previous guidance of 2027, as the embattled authority seeks to stem criticism of its performance.The Office for National Statistics said on Thursday that improving figures on the labour market remained its “highest priority” and that work was already under way to launch the new “transformed” labour force survey later this year.  The agency said it aimed to transition to the new survey as…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The head of the UK’s largest education union has urged ministers to impose a statutory ban on mobile phones in schools, as concerns mount over the impact of devices on children’s mental health.Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said on Thursday that legally prohibiting smartphones would alleviate pressures on school leaders, teachers and parents. The Labour government has ruled out calls to mandate phone-free schools in law, arguing it is for headteachers to decide what is best for their pupils.But…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.How does each country select its economic elite? What are the differences between, say, US and Chinese elites? The new World Elite Database (WED) offers the best comparative data yet, drawn from 16 countries that account for one third of the world’s population and 54 per cent of global GDP. One fascinating early fruit is the paper, “Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database”. First, a caveat. A country typically has three distinct, often rivalrous elites: the political,…

This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. If you’re not a subscriber, you can still receive the newsletter free for 30 daysGood morning. The markets have taken a dim view of POTUS and his revealed preference for chaos. There is a lot of great analysis from my FT colleagues on this and we have a tariff tracker here. But as the dust settles on the overnight retreat from some of it, let’s take a slight detour to our own shores and delve into something…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nikhil Rathi has been given another five-year term as head of the Financial Conduct Authority, a recognition of his embrace of the government’s push to boost economic growth by easing the burden of regulation.Rathi, the former chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, is the first head of the British financial watchdog to be given a second five-year term.Since his appointment in 2020, Rathi has overseen major changes at the FCA, including overhauling its remuneration policy and refocusing its enforcement approach. Last…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Media myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.A British version of US comedy show Saturday Night Live is set to be made in the UK for the first time under plans being worked on between broadcaster Sky and US media group NBC.Executives at Sky UK are hoping to bring in a British cast for the popular series, said several people close to the talks, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in the US.They added that talks to launch Saturday Night Live in the UK were at an advanced stage but…