Ireland does not expect Britain to trigger a clause in Northern Ireland's fraught post-Brexit trading deal to unilaterally jettison some of its terms, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that it was possible the British government would trigger "Article 16" if the European Union did not make appropriate concessions to ease the burden of trading restrictions on Northern Ireland.
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British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak promised Monday to deliver an economy based on “good work, better skills and higher wages,” as the governing Conservative Party tried to shrug off the U.K.’s economic turmoil as the growing pains of a thriving, self-reliant post-Brexit economy, the Associated Press reported. Sunak touted the U.K.’s low unemployment rate of under 5% as a sign it is putting pandemic disruptions behind it. He said now that Britain has left the European Union, it will embrace “the agility, flexibility and freedom provided by Brexit” to create a dynamic, high-tech economy.
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Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has won the auction for Morrisons with a 7 billion pound ($9.5 billion) bid, paving the way for the U.S. private equity firm to take control of Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group, Reuters reported. The board of Morrisons recommended CD&R's 287 pence per share bid on Saturday, hours after its bid beat a consortium led by Softbank owned Fortress Investment Group, which had made an offer worth just a penny less per share at 286 pence.
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Britain has temporarily exempted parts of the carbon dioxide (CO2) industry from competition law to help provide further security of the gas's supplies to businesses in the country, Reuters reported. Britain last week warned food producers to prepare for a 400% rise in carbon dioxide prices after extending emergency state support as rising costs of wholesale natural gas led to fears of poultry and meat shortages.
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After 18 months during which it subsidized 11.6 million jobs, Britain’s government-funded furlough program ended on Thursday, along with some other pandemic relief measures, the New York Times reported. While it marked another milestone in Britain’s efforts to put the pandemic in the past, the country is experiencing a slowing economic recovery and increasingly severe supply chain disruptions.
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As a critical shortage of truck drivers has caused gas pumps to run dry across the country and disrupted the lives of thousands, Britons and their leaders in Parliament are delivering a plaintive message to the drivers: We need you, the New York Times reported. The government is sending out a letter to nearly 1 million people who hold a license to drive a heavy goods vehicle, urging them back onto the road. And it is relaxing visa restrictions for thousands of foreign workers, in the hope of luring them into temporary work in Britain.
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The yield on U.K. 10-year notes rose past 1% for the first time since March 2020, while the pound plummeted, as U.K. assets confronted a mix of accelerating inflation expectations accompanied by curtailed growth from an expected tightening cycle, Bloomberg News reported. The rate on benchmark gilts rose as much as 11 basis points to 1.06% on Tuesday, the highest level since the market turmoil in March 2020. They haven’t closed above 1% since May 2019. The move comes after some U.S. Treasury yields hit similar pandemic-era milestones.
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More than a million British workers face an uncertain future this week as the UK becomes the world's first big economy to wind up its COVID-19 jobs support scheme, Reuters reported. The programme, which at its peak paid a third of employees to stay at home, cost more than 68 billion pounds ($93 billion) - the most expensive single piece of UK economic support during the pandemic. It also marked a sharp shift in policy in Britain where unemployment benefits are low by European standards. "I think it's been an absolute lifesaver ...
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Irish petrol and diesel suppliers say consumers here are not at risk of the shortages being experienced in Britain, which the industry says is largely due to a lack of truck drivers within the U.K. and panic-buying, the Independent.ie reported. Industry group Fuels for Ireland said on Sunday that there will be no interruption to the supply of petrol, diesel and home-heating oil in Ireland.
Irish EU Commissioner Mairéad McGuinness has warned U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to abandon his threats to set aside Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit special trade status, the Independent.ie reported. McGuinness was speaking after a visit to London for talks on the U.K.’s money market status in the EU after Brexit, which included a meeting with British finance minister Rishi Sunak. She said the EU will soon publish new proposals to deal with practical problems on the North’s trade with England, Scotland and Wales, especially focused on ensuring medical supplies.