The tone of the most recent talks between the European Union and Britain on resolving the status of Northern Ireland after Brexit was very positive, giving confidence that a solution will soon be found, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Speaking after meeting her British counterpart James Cleverly in London, she said that war in Ukraine served as a reminder to focus on the most important task of letting people live in peace and freedom.
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U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to reduce the national debt and cut inflation as he set out his priorities for the coming year against a backdrop of mounting strikes, a creaking National Health Service and dire poll ratings for his ruling Conservative Party, Bloomberg News reported. The economic goals were among five priorities outlined by the prime minister in his first set piece remarks of the year. He also outlined promises to grow the economy, tackle immigration and improve health care provision.
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Cineworld, the British cinema operator in bankruptcy proceedings, said today that it would not sell any of its assets individually, and that it had not held discussions with AMC Entertainment about the sale of any of its theaters, Reuters reported. The British company said it would focus on selling the group as a whole rather than disposing of individual assets, along with its restructuring efforts, and was expecting to start reaching out to potential parties for a sale later this month.
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Ministers are urging the chancellor to provide £300m of taxpayers' money to avert the closure of British Steel’s two blast furnaces – a move that would trigger the loss of thousands of industrial jobs in northern England. Sky News has learnt that Grant Shapps, the business secretary, and Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, wrote to Jeremy Hunt this month to warn that the demise of British Steel could cost the government up to £1bn in decommissioning and other liabilities.
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Crypto miner Argo Blockchain said on Wednesday it will sell its mining facility Helios for $65 million and refinance a new asset-backed loan as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy, sending its London-listed shares soaring, Reuters reported. Argo, which earlier this month warned that it might have to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to insufficient cash, said the deals will allow the company to continue its operations.
Britain's accounting watchdog said on Thursday it had fined Deloitte LLP more than 900,000 pounds ($1.09 million) over its audits of building materials supplier SIG plc (SHI.L) for the 2015 and 2016 financial years, Reuters reported. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it had imposed a penalty of 1.25 million pounds on Deloitte LLP, reduced to 906,250 pounds after it admitted breaches over its work on SIG's financial statements. The FRC reprimanded Deloitte, ordering it to take action to prevent the breaches from happening again.
Brexit has left the UK economy is 5.5% smaller than it would have been and added to the squeeze on public services that’s behind strikes cripling the railways and National Health Service, a prominent research group concluded, Bloomberg News reported. The Center for Economic Reform said that slower growth is also weighing on the Treasury’s revenue and that the tax increases announced in the autumn fiscal statement wouldn’t be necessary if the UK were still in the European Union’s common market.
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Thurrock council has become the latest local authority to formally declare effective bankruptcy, as it grapples with a £500m deficit caused by a series of disastrous investments in risky commercial projects, the Guardian reported. The Conservative-run council in Essex admitted three weeks ago that it faces big cuts and job losses after revealing it had lost £275m on investments it made in solar energy and other businesses, and has set aside a further £130m this year to pay back investment debts.
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Europe has been hit hard by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, putting its companies on the front line of what has become a war of economic attrition between the West and Russia that is playing out alongside the real war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K. is suffering more than other big countries in Europe, economists say. Inflation is running in the double digits, higher than all of its Group of Seven industrialized peers with the exception of Italy; gross domestic product shrank 0.2% in the third quarter year-over-year, setting the U.K.
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British Airways and Virgin Atlantic will limit ticket sales for flights to London's Heathrow Airport during planned strikes by border agents over Christmas and New Year's Eve to reduce disruption, the airlines said on Friday, Reuters reported. UK Border Force workers at several major British airports including the country's busiest, Heathrow, will go on strike for eight days this month in a dispute over pay, threatening to slow processing of passengers arriving from abroad during the holidays.
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