Author: Blake Anderson

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is chancellor of the exchequerAfter nearly a decade and a half of stagnation and decline, this country has a radically different government. One that is relentlessly focused on delivering what matters most to working people. People whose household budgets are still stretched. People who lie awake at night hoping that their rent is not hiked, their boiler does not break and that their car starts in the morning. Because there is no emergency fund.The root cause of these everyday battles is…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Britain’s balanced trade with the US should reduce the risk that Donald Trump slaps fresh tariffs on its products, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has claimed. The incoming US president has threatened to impose higher tariffs on all imports, leaving its trading partners across the world to consider how they would respond if hit. Even if Trump did hit the UK with fresh tariffs, the government would think very carefully about retaliating, Reynolds added: “In this country there’s no political constituency for protectionism.” In…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Aerospace & Defence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Qatar has said it will buy another 12 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from Britain, easing fears of a gap in workload on the UK assembly lines for the pan-European combat aircraft.The commitment came after this week’s state visit by the emir of Qatar during which he held talks with Sir Keir Starmer about strengthening economic co-operation between the two countries. In a joint statement issued by Qatar on Thursday evening, the emirate said the two countries had agreed to extend the existing partnership…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Labour mayor of London Sadiq Khan is to receive a knighthood in the New Year honours list, one of a string of political veterans to be handed gongs, according to people briefed on the document. Khan, the first Muslim mayor of the UK capital who was elected for a third term this year, will receive his award for political and public service after almost two decades in frontline politics. He was previously an MP.Commons foreign affairs committee chair Emily Thornberry, a long-standing…

Sir Keir Starmer unveiled six fresh pledges as part of a major government reset this week, which included diluting a green target and redefining his economic goals. It followed a tumultuous start to government for Labour after 14 years in opposition. As the administration reached the five-month mark on Thursday, Political Fix hosted a live special as part of the FT’s Global Boardroom online conference. Host Lucy Fisher was joined by the podcast’s regulars Stephen Bush, Miranda Green and Peter Foster to take stock of the ups and downs of Labour’s record in power to date.Follow Lucy on X: @LOS_Fisher,…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A Bulgarian national accused of spying for Russia was paid £18,600 from a bank account in the name of collapsed payments company Wirecard, according to evidence seen by a London court on Thursday. Jurors at the Old Bailey were shown a series of payments in July 2019 from Wirecard Technologies Gmbh to an account belonging to an alias of Orlin Roussev, 46, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to spy.Jan Marsalek, Wirecard’s former chief operating officer, was the liaison between a group…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Thames Water has received a bid from Covalis Capital that would see France’s Suez flown in to help manage a break-up of the UK’s largest water utility before listing it on the stock market.The proposal comes ahead of Thursday’s deadline for indicative bids for Thames, which is saddled with nearly £19bn of debt and risks running out of cash in the new year. UK infrastructure investor Covalis plans to sell off billions of pounds of the troubled water company’s assets — including,…

Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday set out six “milestone” targets to hit by 2029 in a push to convince voters his government is back on track.The prime minister vowed to “give the British people the power to hold our feet to the fire” as he sought to reset his administration after a sharp fall in opinion poll ratings in the five months that he has been in power.The milestones — spanning health, housebuilding, policing, early years education, clean energy and living standards — varied wildly in the scale of their ambition, according to policy experts.Cut NHS waiting listsSome content could…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK telecoms industry will receive its biggest shake-up in years after the country’s competition regulator on Thursday approved the £16.5bn merger of Vodafone’s domestic business with CK Hutchison’s Three UK. The move from four to three mobile operators marks a milestone for the sector.The Competition and Markets Authority said the deal, first announced last year, should be allowed to proceed if the companies sign binding commitments to invest billions of pounds to roll out a combined 5G network across the UK…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Labour party will not have to apply for a renewal of its lease on power until eight months after the end of Donald Trump’s second term as US president. Or, to put it another way, enough time for South Korea to swing from democracy to martial law to rule by chastened president 1,719 times. Assessing the measures in Keir Starmer’s new “plan for change” according to their electoral effectiveness is, therefore, pretty silly. Clearly, governments can do things to help their…