Financial news

• ‘That is a lie’: Rayner and Mordaunt clash over £2k Tory tax claim – video

  07-06-2024 22:33
  
  During the BBC’s live TV election debate, Penny Mordaunt said the election was about the cost of living crisis and claimed ‘Labour will put up your taxes by £2,000’, repeating a line made days earlier by Rishi Sunak during ITV’s debate. Labour’s Angela Rayner responded quickly, repeating ‘that is a lie’, and claimed the Conservatives had raised taxes to record levels, which Mordaunt accepted. The Tories said the £2,000 figure was drawn from i
  
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• Former BP boss calls for end to new North Sea drilling licences

  07-06-2024 17:52
  
  John Browne appears to back Labour energy policy as he underlines need for green transitionThe former boss of BP John Browne has appeared to back a key Labour energy policy by calling for an end to new North Sea oil and gas drilling licences.The oil industry veteran, who was known as the Sun King when he ran the oil company between 1995 and 2007, said an important test for the UK’s political parties before next month’s general election was whether they have “serious plans for t
  
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• Stagflation: is Australia heading back to the 1970s? Our economics and business writers go head to head

  07-06-2024 17:00
  
  The economy has stalled and inflation remains high. Should we be worried? Guardian Australia’s experts have very different viewsGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAustralia posted its weakest economic growth – excluding the Covid-era distortions – since 1992 in the first quarter of 2024, we learned this week.Inflation, too, has ticked up lately rather than remaining on a downward trajectory towards the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% target range
  
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• Crochet shakes off stuffy old image to become fashion’s freshest DIY trend

  07-06-2024 17:00
  
  Sales of beginner’s hooks and patterns have had a dramatic rise as influencers show off their ‘makes’ on social mediaFrom maxidresses to tank tops and colourful totes, the high street is bedecked with crocheted fashion this summer. But while shops are full of ready-to-wear styles they face increasingly stiff competition from homemade efforts.In recent years crochet has managed to shake off associations with blankets and tea cosies, with social media sites such as TikTok and Ins
  
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• ‘It’s just too big’: division over plans for UK’s biggest solar farm

  07-06-2024 15:00
  
  Solar projects such as Botley West in Oxfordshire are latest net zero schemes bogged down by local disputesA few hundred metres from her house, Rosemary Lewis stands at a clearing on a footpath overlooking a tract of rolling hills in the Oxfordshire countryside that could become home to UK’s largest solar farm. With plans to install 2.5m solar panels along an 11-mile (18km) stretch north of Oxford, the Botley West solar farm would be vast.The proposal is one of 30 large-scale solar project
  
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• US adds 272,000 jobs as labor market holds unexpectedly strong

  07-06-2024 14:53
  
  Figures show unexpected resiliency of job market as Fed keeps interest rates high try to tamp down 3.4% inflationThe US economy added 272,000 jobs in May, a sign the labor market remained strong amid high interest rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.The number of May jobs was far higher than the 190,000 economists had expected and topped April’s gains, when a revised 165,000 jobs were added to the economy. The report offered a mixed view of the jobs market. The unempl
  
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• Asda-owning Issa brothers go their separate ways amid family rift

  07-06-2024 14:40
  
  Union warns of risks to shoppers and staff after Zuber Issa sells 22.5% supermarket stake to private equity co-owners TDR CapitalBusiness live – latest updatesThe billionaire brothers who part-own Asda have gone their separate ways, with Zuber Issa selling his shares in the supermarket to the private equity firm TDR Capital amid a rift between the siblings.Zuber owned 22.5% of the Leeds-based grocery chain after a £6.8bn takeover alongside his older brother Mohsin and TDR three years
  
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• ‘Cannot be trusted’: traditional farming voter base turns away from Tories

  07-06-2024 14:32
  
  Many disenchanted farmers in England are seeking new political homes. Can Labour and the Lib Dems capitalise on this opportunity?Business live – latest updatesUK general election live – latest updates“Since I first voted for Thatcher in 1979, I’ve always gone Conservative,” says the Hertfordshire farmer Andrew Watts – a longer period than the three decades he has been managing his cereal farm near the village of Puckeridge.But when he enters the voting booth o
  
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• Uber and Lyft made a deal to raise drivers’ wages. It was another victory for big tech | Edward Ongweso

  07-06-2024 14:30
  
  Minneapolis cracked a deal with the companies, but it preserves integral parts of their model, allowing the firms to undermine the compromise laterWho came out ahead when the Minneapolis city council announced a deal with Uber and Lyft to increase driver pay and improve working conditions last month?On 20 May, the city council heralded a compromise with the ride-hailing companies. Uber and Lyft would agree to an inflation-pegged wage floor matching Minnesota’s minimum wage of $15 an hour a
  
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• Independent UK retailers claim £1bn damages against Amazon

  07-06-2024 14:17
  
  About 35,000 sellers argue that online giant misuses their data to launch rival products that are sold more cheaplyBusiness live – latest updatesIndependent UK retailers have launched the biggest ever retail class action with a £1bn claim for damages against Amazon, which they allege has been pushing them out of its online marketplace.The claim, brought by about 35,000 sellers and headed by the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), asserts that between October 2015 and th
  
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• Boss of Magners cider maker C&C steps down over accounting errors

  07-06-2024 13:23
  
  Shares slide after drinks firm says Patrick McMahon will leave roles as CEO and director immediatelyThe owner of Magners and Bulmers cider has parted with its chief executive after accounting mistakes led to the company taking a €17m charge.Shares in the drinks company C&C Group fell 8% to 155.48p in early trading on Friday, the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 index, after the company announced that Patrick McMahon, who was chief financial officer during the time of the accounting shortc
  
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• ‘Greed’: John Deere rolls out hundreds of US layoffs and sends work to Mexico

  07-06-2024 13:00
  
  Agricultural equipment company plans to move production out of the country in move condemned by workersUS workers at John Deere plants have accused the company of acting on “greed” as America’s most famous agricultural equipment company plans to shift more production to Mexico.The company – famous for its green tractors and leaping deer logo – has announced layoffs of several hundred workers over the last several months with more layoffs planned for later this year.
  
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• UK house prices stabilise as rising wages and consumer confidence steady market

  07-06-2024 11:20
  
  Average price of a home dipped by 0.1%, says Halifax, bringing cost of typical property down to £288,688Business live – latest updatesUK house prices held steady in May underpinned by rising wages and an increase in economic confidence during the important spring selling season, according to the latest data from mortgage lender Halifax.Average house prices were stable in May, dipping 0.1% on a monthly basis. The typical UK home now costs £288,688 – reduced slightly from &
  
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• Homes for sale in England with wartime connections – in pictures

  07-06-2024 09:01
  
  From a thatched cottage with links to the English civil war to a former RAF base with a listed cold war bunker Continue reading...
  
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• There is no ‘change’ for Britain without a massive injection of cash. Why won’t our politicians admit it? | Frances Ryan

  07-06-2024 09:00
  
  If the Labour party wants to deliver real transformation for voters, now is the time to be brave, and back a wealth taxAnyone who has the fortune to see the Labour “battle bus” in their town this week will be hard pressed to avoid the party’s “change” slogan. Keir Starmer’s team have not exactly been subtle with their messaging: the word is emblazoned across the bus’s rose red backdrop … and then rewritten over and over and over again. In the comi
  
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• Not guilty: how tech mogul Mike Lynch’s fortunes soared, fell – and rose again

  07-06-2024 08:00
  
  A jury of Californians acquitted the Autonomy founder, who on trial tried to show that life is ‘nuanced and messy’“This is a momentous day in Autonomy’s history,” Mike Lynch declared in a press release on 18 August 2011. He was announcing the sale Autonomy, his software firm, to Hewlett-Packard for $11bn.For Lynch 6 June 2024 would prove more significant. Continue reading...
  
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• Labour vows to investigate carer’s allowance scandal

  07-06-2024 07:00
  
  Liz Kendall, shadow work and pensions secretary, tells pensioners in Essex repayment demands ‘unforgivable’Unpaid carers being left with crippling debts and threatened with prosecution after Department for Work and Pensions overpayments is “unforgivable” and would be investigated by a Labour government, the shadow work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, told the Guardian.Speaking on a visit to meet pensioners in the Labour target seat of Thurrock in Essex, Kendall urged
  
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• Royal Mail bidders, paradise islands and Prague properties: questions asked over Daniel Křetínský’s business links

  07-06-2024 06:00
  
  Czech billionaire’s long-time business partners linked to controversial global property dealsOn Prague’s exclusive Pařížská Street sits a nondescript brown door.Lodged between a designer clothing shop and a luxury luggage store, it is the gateway into a discreet sixth-floor office from where one of the Czech Republic’s richest people runs his empire. Continue reading...
  
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• Great British Energy will be welcome – but Labour risks over-selling it

  07-06-2024 06:00
  
  Promise to invest in ‘cheap, clean, homegrown energy’ ticks every box but £8.3bn over a parliament is not game-changing Great British Energy, Labour’s proposed publicly owned energy company, scores well with voters, according to the pollsters, and one can understand why. The promise to invest in “cheap, clean, homegrown energy, to cut bills for families and rebuild the strength of British industry” ticks every imaginable box. What’s not to like?And, sinc
  
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