Britain’s tax wedge jumped 2.45 points in a year — 16 times the OECD average — as Reeves’s employer NI hike and frozen thresholds punish SMEs and shrink payrolls. Read more: UK employers saddled with sharpest tax rise in developed world, OECD finds
Read Full Story →
The world’s largest cosmetics group shrugs off the drag from the Iran war, posting forecast-beating first-quarter sales as European consumers treat themselves to small indulgences and China stirs back into life. Read more: L’Oréal banks on the ‘lipstick effect’ as anxious shoppers reach for affordable luxuries
Read Full Story →
Employers’ National Insurance Contributions have soared by £28bn in a single year, £4bn above the Government’s own forecast, triggering redundancies in hospitality and retail and slowing hiring across the UK private sector. Read more: Employers hit with £28bn National Insurance Shock as rate rise bites harder than treasury forecast
Read Full Story →
Former Manchester United captain Ryan Giggs is £99,925 out of pocket after his restaurant George’s Dining Room and Bar folded owing creditors £563,600, with HMRC, staff and lenders all left empty-handed. Read more: Ryan Giggs nurses £100,000 loss as Manchester restaurant venture collapses owing creditors more than £560,000
Read Full Story →
Barclays and Lloyds have joined the FCA’s second AI live testing cohort alongside Experian, GoCardless and UBS, as UK banks accelerate their artificial intelligence investment. Read more: Barclays and Lloyds join FCA’s second AI sandbox as banks race to prove their tech credentials
Read Full Story →
Jeff Bezos’s physical AI venture Project Prometheus is closing in on a $10bn funding round at a $38bn valuation, with BlackRock and JPMorgan on board. Read more: Bezos’s physical AI lab Prometheus nears $10bn raise at $38bn valuation
Read Full Story →
Baroness Karren Brady has departed West Ham United after 16 years as vice-chair, ending a near four-decade business partnership with David Sullivan amid sustained fan protests. Read more: Brady bows out: West Ham vice-chair ends 16-year tenure as boardroom pressure mounts
Read Full Story →
Tim Cook will become Apple’s executive chairman on 1 September 2026, with hardware engineering chief John Ternus taking over as CEO after a unanimous board vote. Read more: Cook hands Apple’s reins to Ternus as engineering chief prepares for top job
Read Full Story →
Sarah Willingham-backed Craft Gin Club warns of administration unless lenders approve a CVA wiping £4.2m of debt and ending free gin deliveries to bondholders. Read more: Craft Gin Club teeters on brink as Dragons’ Den darling pleads with bondholders
Read Full Story →
Iran has reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, sending crude below $92 and driving UK 10-year gilt yields to a week’s low. Here’s what it means for British SMEs. Read more: Hormuz reopens: what Iran’s climbdown means for British SMEs
Read Full Story →