Author: Blake Anderson

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Doctors in England will go on strike for five days this month, in a sharp escalation of their dispute with Wes Streeting that further threatens the health secretary’s promise to cut NHS waiting times. The British Medical Association said on Wednesday that resident doctors — formerly known as junior doctors — would walk out from 7am on July 25 until 7am on July 30.The announcement of the strike — the first in a year — comes a day after the country’s main…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK property myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Chancellor Rachel Reeves will next week launch a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme to help first time buyers get on the housing ladder during times of economic stress.Reeves will confirm the government-backed scheme in her Mansion House speech, as part of a range of measures that she claims will help ordinary voters with their finances, according to officials briefed on her plans.In April 2021, the Conservative government launched a mortgage guarantee scheme during the Covid pandemic, but it was intended to be a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Most British companies would withstand sharply higher tariffs even if their earnings fell 10 per cent and their borrowing costs surged, according to the Bank of England’s assessment of risks from US President Donald Trump’s trade war.“Despite some pockets of vulnerability, UK corporates would, in aggregate, be able to service their debts even in the face of further global shocks such as lower global demand and supply,” the BoE said in its latest financial stability report published on Wednesday.UK companies that are…

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 UK faces a series of “daunting” risks to the public finances, the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned. There are a lot of them to worry about. For now I want to talk about just one: the pensions triple lock, which ensures the state pension increases every year by consumer price rises, average earnings growth or 2.5 per cent, whichever…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Ministers are poised to drop a controversial plan to split Britain’s wholesale electricity market into different geographical zones in a move that could lead to the south of England paying more for power than Scotland, following several months of intense debate. Energy secretary Ed Miliband has recommended to ministers that the government should not adopt the so-called zonal pricing scheme, officials said. His recommendation has been circulated to senior colleagues under a Whitehall consultation process called a “write-round”. The decision follows warnings from…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Students and alumni from Cambridge university will begin voting this week for a new chancellor, in a closely fought race that has been criticised by several of the candidates. It is the first time that the election for the formal head of the university includes online voting, while the winning candidate will have a 10-year term, rather than being elected for life. Former Pimco boss Mohamed El-Erian, former culture secretary Lord Smith, former BP boss Lord John Browne, campaigner Gina Miller and…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The family of a 32-year-old man who died after a two-day struggle to get hold of vital anti-seizure drugs has launched a UK awareness initiative to ensure others with epilepsy know how to access medication in a crisis. Charlie Marriage died in June 2021 from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) after he was unable to obtain an emergency supply of his regular medication through NHS 111, his local health centre, or a London pharmacy.Under existing NHS guidance, a patient on repeat medication…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.EU negotiators are closing in on a trade deal with Donald Trump that would cement higher tariffs than those granted to the UK, a Brexit dividend that has rattled some European capitals.Brussels is ready to sign a temporary “framework” agreement that sets the US president’s “reciprocal” tariffs at 10 per cent while talks continue, matching the baseline duty imposed on the UK. But the EU is not expecting to achieve the same access to the US market as British steel, cars and…

Reform UK is planning to attack the “broken” system of council spending on special educational needs as part of its Elon Musk-inspired cost-cutting initiative, wading into an issue that is already threatening to divide Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party. Former party chair Zia Yusuf said the amount of spending by councils on children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) was a “huge issue”. “That conversation does need to be had and Reform local government teams will be making these points,” he told the Financial Times. Yusuf is the head of the party’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is styled…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Jury trials in England and Wales should be rolled back for complex fraud cases and some sexual offences, a government-backed review of the struggling criminal courts system has recommended. Criminals who plead guilty should also receive an even larger reduction in their sentences to ease the pressure on courts, while cautions should be used more widely, the report from retired senior High Court judge Sir Brian Leveson said. Possession of some controlled drugs like cannabis and voyeurism are among crimes that should…