British inflation surged last month to its highest annual rate since 1982, pressuring finance minister Rishi Sunak to offer more help for households and the Bank of England to keep raising interest rates despite a risk of recession, Reuters reported. Consumer price inflation hit 9% in April, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, surpassing the peaks of the early 1990s recession that many Britons remember for sky-high interest rates and widespread mortgage defaults.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday the EU had significant concerns about the announcement by the UK government to enable legislation that would disapply basic elements of the Northern Ireland protocol, Reuters reported. "Unilateral actions are not acceptable," Sefcovic said in a statement. Sefcovic added that should the UK decide to move ahead with the bill, the EU would need to respond with all measures at its disposal.

Britain's jobless rate hit a 48-year low in the first three months of 2022 and employers paid bigger bonuses to keep or attract staff, according to data that added to bets by investors on further Bank of England interest rate hikes, Reuters reported. Core earnings for most workers fell by the greatest amount since 2013 when adjusted for surging inflation, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. But total pay including bonuses was up 7.0% on a year earlier, far above economists' average forecast of 5.4%. Sterling climbed by 1.1% against the U.S.

More than 50 economists warned on Monday that Britain's post-Brexit plans to boost the competitiveness of its huge finance industry risked creating the kind of problems that led to the global financial crisis, Reuters reported. The government, seeking to use its "Brexit freedoms", announced this month that it would require regulators to help the City of London to remain a global financial centre after the country left the European Union.

Administrators for the collapsed rent-to-own firm BrightHouse, which specialised in loans for big-ticket items such as fridges and sofas, have warned they will not have enough money to compensate thousands of customers who were left with unaffordable debts. The latest report from the accountants Grant Thornton, which is managing the administration, shows a plan to set aside £600,000 for payouts to customers who may have been mis-sold expensive loans by BrightHouse has been scrapped. Meanwhile, a number of creditors have received large sums.

A metals firm that was handed a £586million ­ Scottish Government ­support package to buy a Highland smelter is facing a court bankruptcy fight, the Daily Record reported. Taxpayers could be hit with losses if businessman Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance goes under as a result of the controversial deal signed by SNP ministers. The company, given massive state support to buy metal and power plants in Lanarkshire and Fort William, is now at the ­centre of a fraud investigation and it could be ­liquidated if it loses a court ­battle with creditors.

A start-up investment group backed by Sir Terry Leahy that secured close to £11 million in emergency pandemic loans is being scrutinised over a series of insolvencies set to cost taxpayers about £2 million, the London Times reported. We Are Nova, which is under investigation by the government’s Insolvency Service over alleged misuse of the bounce back loan scheme, is the subject of separate inquiries over subsidiaries that collapsed before the pandemic.

Britain’s economy grew at the slowest pace in a year during the first quarter as retailers and manufacturers were hurt by supply disruptions and higher prices, raising concerns that the country may be headed for a recession, the Associated Press reported. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, rose 0.8% in the period, slowing from 1.3% in the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. Monthly estimates indicate GDP shrank by 0.1% in March.

Britain and the European Union were once again at loggerheads over Brexit on Wednesday, after the U.K. government ramped up threats to scrap parts of its trade treaty with the bloc, saying the rules are blocking the formation of a new government in Northern Ireland, the Associated Press reported. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the government would “not shy away from taking action” if it can’t reach agreement with the bloc.

Morrisons now looks set to clinch a last ditch deal to buy the convenience store chain McColl's, BBC News reported. The supermarket has been in a two-way battle with EG Group, the Blackburn-based petrol station empire owned by the billionaire Issa brothers. McColl's is poised to go into administration, but in what's known as a pre-pack deal the business will immediately be sold to a new owner. McColl's has more than a thousand small stores and 16,000 workers. No formal announcement has been made but it is understood that Morrisons has secured the winning bid.