Business

Jeremy Clarkson has warned some bottles of his Hawkstone Cider might explode. The former Top Gear presenter, who owns the craft drink brand, warned there had been a “massive cock-up” in a sweary Twitter update. He wrote: “If the cap has the code L3160, open it underwater, pour it away and get in touch for

The four biggest UK supermarkets have doubled their profit margins on fuel since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, analysis has revealed. Research from the RAC of wholesale and retail prices showed Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – supermarkets that dominate the UK fuel market – had increased their margins from 4.7p per litre prior

Ministers have rebuffed pleas for financial support from a London-listed electric battery manufacturer which faces collapse within days. Sky News has learnt that efforts by AMTE Power to hold substantive discussions with Whitehall about emergency funding have stalled. City sources said that AMTE’s chief executive, Alan Hollis, had been left frustrated by a lack of

Fixed mortgages rates have risen again after a brief fall, according to figures from a financial information website. The average two-year homeowner mortgage rate on the market edged back up to 6.8% on Friday from 6.79% yesterday, Moneyfactscompare.co.uk said. Five-year fixes have also risen back to 6.32%, up from 6.31% on Thursday. On Wednesday, it

The chief executive of NatWest Group has apologised to Nigel Farage for the closure of his bank accounts and ordered an immediate review of the processes followed by its Coutts subsidiary. In a letter to Mr Farage seen by Sky News, Dame Alison Rose said she regretted “deeply inappropriate comments” about the former UKIP leader

More than 20,000 rail workers will strike on Thursday in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions – with passengers warned they may experience severe disruption to services. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out on 20, 22 and 29 July while drivers in Aslef are banned from working

Banks will be forced to give customers three months’ notice of account closures and to provide a full explanation of the reasons under reforms that could be unveiled in the coming days. Sky News has learnt that the Treasury plans to force British lenders to be more transparent with customers amid an escalating freedom of

The owner of Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled plans to build an electric car battery factory in the UK. Tata Motors says it’s planning to invest more than £4bn, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declaring that the new plant will create thousands of skilled jobs for Britons across the country. The deal is the culmination

A decision by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to invest in electric vehicle battery production in the UK is “very welcome”, a Labour MP has said. Darren Jones, chair of the cross-party Business and Trade Committee, was responding to reports that Tata will establish a battery gigafactory in Somerset for its JLR operation, potentially creating thousands

Supermarket deals have helped grocery price inflation ease for a fourth consecutive month. Closely watched data from Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks supermarket sales and prices, charted the steepest decline in checkout costs during the four weeks to 9 July since grocery inflation peaked in March. Its inflation measure fell by 1.6 percentage points to 14.9%

Train drivers will refuse to work overtime for a week – threatening disruption to services at the height of the summer holidays. The action – part of a long-running dispute over pay – will begin from 31 July, the ASLEF union announced on Monday. It will affect services across 15 train operating companies, and marks

Gresham House, a London-listed asset manager which invests in sectors including forestry and battery storage, is in talks about a private equity takeover. Sky News has learnt that Searchlight Capital, a US-based buyout firm, is targeting a take-private of the alternative investment manager, which is run by chief executive Tony Dalwood. If completed, the deal

Kemi Badenoch has signed off UK membership to a major Indo-Pacific trade bloc. The business and trade secretary signed the accession protocol to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in New Zealand on Sunday. The move brings British businesses a step closer to being able to sell to a market of half

The government is poised to shelve plans to crack down on Britain’s fast-growing ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) industry amid Whitehall concerns that it could curb the availability of low-interest products. Sky News has learnt that Treasury officials have been told during recent talks with the industry that a number of its biggest players could

Young adults and renters are some of the groups of people worst hit by rising prices as official figures show around 1 in 20 said they’d run out of food in the past 2 weeks and couldn’t afford more. Those aged 25 to 34 were at greater risk of financial vulnerability than those over the

Almost 1,000 workers at Gatwick Airport, including baggage handlers and check-in staff, will stage eight days of strikes from later this month. Staff will strike in a dispute over pay, the union Unite announced, at the start of the school summer holidays. Significant disruption, delays and cancellations are “inevitable”, the union said. The workers will

Unions have won a legal challenge against a law change which allowed companies to use agency staff to fill in the roles of striking workers. The change was introduced when Kwasi Kwarteng was business secretary under Boris Johnson in July last year. Mr Justice Linden was scathing in his written judgement. Politics latest: Rishi Sunak

The UK’s national debt could hit 300% of GDP by the 2070s because of the string of major challenges still facing national governments after a “rapid succession of shocks”, according to a report for the Treasury. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility laid out how climate change, defence and the fact people were living longer

The economy contracted in May as the additional public holiday for the King’s coronation weighed on output, according to official figures. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed negative growth of 0.1% during the month, better than economists had predicted but continuing the yo-yo pattern seen throughout the last year that has left

Billions of pounds allocated to tackle Britain’s housing crisis has been returned to the Treasury because the housing department was unable to find projects to fund. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) was unable to find projects for the £1.9bn of funding budgeted