Author: Blake Anderson

This article is an onsite version of our Europe Express newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday and fortnightly on Saturday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereWelcome back. “Finally, we meet again.” Emmanuel Macron adopted an almost wistful tone in his address to a joint session of parliament this week marking the first day of his state visit to the UK. It is 17 years since a French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was last afforded the honour. That is the longest interlude between state visits since Vincent Auriol was greeted at Victoria…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Female business leaders have lent their support to Rachel Reeves over the chancellor’s tearful appearance in the House of Commons last week, with the head of the CBI employers’ group saying displaying emotion is part of “our humanity”.Rain Newton-Smith told a CBI dinner in Cambridge this week that “a lot of female leaders” had been in touch with her, asking her to convey solidarity with Reeves after she shed tears following the government’s humbling defeat on welfare reforms.The Treasury has maintained its…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to launch a “concierge service” to smooth the way for international financial services companies moving to and expanding in the UK, part of her efforts to boost the City of London.Reeves will use her Mansion House speech next week to set up a “single front door” for investors, helping them to navigate issues such as visas and regulation, in a recognition that Britain is locked in a fierce battle for business with centres such as Paris, Singapore and…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK employment myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The exodus of wealthy UK residents following last year’s Budget has hit the market for butlers, housekeepers and security guards in London’s largest homes.Many of the rich non-doms who left the UK after changes to the tax regime have kept their houses but no longer had full-time staff, according to Caroline Baker, who provides management service for luxury properties. “They want a more dial-up, dial-down solution” with staff working only when they are in residence. A full household of staff costs between…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Wealthy entrepreneurs are a mobile bunch, and countries are jostling to woo them. Some 70,000 people are said to have registered interest in Donald Trump’s proposed £5mn “gold card” US visa. Many are lured by the luxury lifestyles and zero personal income tax of the United Arab Emirates. Italy’s flat tax of €200,000 a year on foreign income has been a big draw. Britain has long been a favoured destination, but Conservative and Labour moves to scrap its special regime for “non-doms”…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.British ministers are claiming the European Commission will support the migrant returns agreement between France and the UK, even as it faces severe pushback from several European countries and politicians on the French right.Home secretary Yvette Cooper said on Friday morning that the UK and France had been developing the pilot scheme since last October and “EU commissioners have been very supportive”.“We have designed this in a way to work, not just for the UK and France, but in order to fit…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Unite, the UK’s largest union, has voted to re-examine its relationship with Labour and moved to suspend deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, in a significant blow to a government struggling to keep the leftwing of its party onside.Unite said a member vote at its conference in Brighton on Friday was taken following an emergency motion “that condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the Labour government for attacking the bin workers”.Unite is traditionally one of Labour’s biggest financial backers and the move comes as…

Stretching across 30 miles of rolling farmland, sandy beaches and dramatic cliffs overlooking the Irish Sea, the Llŷn Peninsula is a dreamy spot for a quintessentially Welsh holiday. Once travelled by pilgrims en route to medieval Christian pilgrimage site Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), the peninsula and its surrounding areas of Ynys Môn (Anglesey) and Eryri (Snowdonia) are home to two Unesco World Heritage Sites (as well as the brilliantly bizarre Italianate village of Portmeirion). The first includes four late 13th and early 14th-century castles and their fortified town walls at Harlech, Beaumaris, Conwy and Caernarfon; the second counts six historic…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.“Will the last person to leave Britain please turn off the lights?” That was the Sun’s infamous headline, in 1992, which Neil Kinnock blamed for his losing the election to John Major. It came to my mind again this week when Kinnock popped up and floated the idea of a wealth tax — something Downing Street didn’t rule out. If Britain really is going back to the 1970s, to rolling strikes and heavy taxes and a visit from the IMF, could we…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK economy contracted 0.1 per cent in May, despite analysts’ expectations of a small uptick, in a sign of the challenges facing chancellor Rachel Reeves.The fall in output for the month contrasted with the 0.1 per cent growth forecast by economists polled by Reuters and followed a 0.3 per cent contraction in April according to data published on Friday by the Office for National Statistics. The pound fell 0.2 per cent against the dollar to $1.35 following the data release.The Labour government’s…