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Kwasi Kwarteng, chancellor, is seeking to scrap Britain’s cap on bankers’ bonuses, introduced after the 2008 financial crash, in a controversial move to boost the City of London’s global competitiveness. Kwarteng argues the move would make London a more attractive destination for top global talent and would be a clear signal of his new “Big

The UK’s rate of inflation eased back into single digits in August on the back of lower petrol prices, providing some relief to households as they go into winter. The headline consumer price index was 9.9 per cent higher than a year earlier during the month, down from a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent

Ukraine still faces “a tough fight” after Russia gave up most of the territory it had taken near Kharkiv, the US said, after a lightning counteroffensive that has forced many retreating troops to leave the country. A senior military official said on Monday that Russian forces “had largely ceded their gains” around Ukraine’s second-largest city

Ukraine needs to secure the vast territory it has recaptured from possible Russian counter-attack, the country’s defence minister has warned, as he said Kyiv’s lightning offensive had gone far “better than expected”. The attack has routed the Kremlin’s forces, led to the recapture of 3,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory and prompted an unusual admission

Russia abandoned military strongholds in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday in an apparent rout of its front line positions, after Ukrainian forces pushed forward in a lightning advance that has left Moscow’s forces in disarray. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had pulled back from the strategic city of Izyum, claiming it had decided to “regroup” and transfer

Charles III has addressed his nation for the first time, vowing to emulate his late mother Queen Elizabeth’s “life-long service”, ahead of his formal proclamation as king on Saturday. The new monarch’s words came after a day of parliamentary tributes, gun salutes and raw emotion, as thousands of people gathered at the gates of Buckingham

King Charles III will address the UK on Friday as tributes were paid from around the world following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96. The new King will travel from Balmoral, the royal estate in Scotland, to London and is expected to hold an audience with Liz Truss,

The pound hovered close to its weakest levels since 1985 on Thursday, reflecting the scale of the economic challenge facing Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss as she prepares to unveil an emergency energy package. Truss is due to give details during the morning of the state intervention to shield households and companies from soaring

Liz Truss has vowed Britain will “ride out the storm”, as the new UK prime minister began confronting an economic crisis with a massive energy bailout for families and businesses that could cost more than £150bn. Truss dodged torrential rain outside Downing Street to tell the country that she would create an “aspiration nation”, adding:

Boris Johnson gave an unapologetic speech outside Downing Street on Tuesday morning on his final day as UK prime minister before handing over to new Tory party leader Liz Truss. Johnson and Truss will meet the Queen at her Balmoral estate in Scotland — although they will fly in separate planes — to formalise the

Liz Truss, who is expected to be named as Britain’s next prime minister on Monday, is considering freezing energy bills in response to the spiralling cost to households. Energy industry executives have been talking to members of Truss’s camp in recent weeks about ways to freeze energy bills for at least the most vulnerable households.

Sweden will give emergency liquidity support to electricity producers as its prime minister warned that Russia’s decision to halt gas deliveries to Europe could place its financial system under severe strain. Magdalena Andersson said on Saturday that the government would offer hundreds of billions of kroner in funding to electricity producers, who have seen the

Surging inflation, the rising cost of government debt and Liz Truss’s promises on tax cuts and defence spending will blow a £60bn hole in the public finances by the middle of the decade, according to Financial Times calculations. Although Truss, favourite to be named Britain’s next prime minister on Monday, has said she will stick

Starbucks has named the outgoing head of Reckitt Benckiser as its next chief executive, handing Laxman Narasimhan the task of executing a “reinvention” strategy designed by Howard Schultz since he returned in April to take charge of the coffee chain for the third time. The India-born, US-educated executive will join as “incoming CEO” on October

Chinese internet titan Tencent is pivoting from years of aggressive stakebuilding to a focus on divestments as it comes under pressure from investors and Beijing’s recent antipathy towards Big Tech. As part of an important shift in strategy, the company has outlined a soft target of divesting about Rmb100bn ($14.5bn) of its $88bn listed equity

Conservative leadership contender Rishi Sunak has warned that it would be “complacent and irresponsible” to ignore the risk of markets losing confidence in the British economy, as wagers against UK government debt sent short-term borrowing costs in the gilt market soaring. In an interview with the Financial Times, Sunak said his leadership rival Liz Truss

Morgan Stanley has ordered an internal lawyer to shadow the unit entangled in a federal investigation into block trading, underscoring the gravity of the probe and the steps the lender is taking to beef up supervision. The Wall Street bank has embedded one of its lawyers to sit on its US equity syndicate desk to

Investor bets that the euro will fall in value have reached their highest level since the pandemic hit Europe more than two years ago as the risk grows that record energy prices will drag the region into recession. Rising wagers against the euro also reflect bullishness on the US dollar, which has been boosted by

A larger “sacrifice” will be needed to tame inflation than in previous bouts of monetary policy tightening, according to European Central Bank officials who warned that price growth risks spinning out of control if forceful action is not taken. Isabel Schnabel, an ECB executive board member, and François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Banque de

The scale of the challenge facing the UK’s next prime minister was laid bare on Friday when the energy regulator said household power bills would surge 80 per cent with further rises expected next year. Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, the two candidates for the leadership of the Conservative party, will face a spiralling cost