Business

Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has ordered officials to launch a national security probe into the £2.6bn takeover of Ultra Electronics, a key supplier of military technology, by Cobham, the former London-listed defence group. Sky News has learnt that Mr Kwarteng has told civil servants at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Senior ministers are set to discuss extending the rollout of daily COVD testing sites to ease the concerns of industry and frontline services by allowing further exemptions from isolation for critical workers. The COVID operations sub-committee of Cabinet will meet later to discuss if the number of jobs eligible for the testing regime should be

Zopa, one of Britain’s biggest digital financial services providers, is in talks with investors about a £100m capital injection that will put it on course to become the country’s latest fintech ‘unicorn’. Sky News has learnt that Zopa has hired JP Morgan, the Wall Street investment bank, to advise on what is expected to be

Taxpayers will spend decades exposed to financial risks from the government’s coronavirus spending, according to a committee of MPs. Parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) has produced two reports related to the crisis, the first of which warns that Britain will be exposed to “significant financial risks for decades to come”. The cost of government measures

The newly listed owner of Burger King’s UK operations has begun drawing up plans for a sale of the business next year in a bet on an accelerated recovery of Britain’s pandemic-hit restaurant industry. Sky News has learnt that Bridgepoint Group is holding preliminary talks with investment banks about an auction of one of the

Boris Johnson is facing growing pressure to allow fully vaccinated people who have been identified as close contacts of coronavirus cases to be exempt from isolation. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has joined business leaders in calling for more workers to be allowed to skip quarantine if they are alerted by the NHS COVID-19 app to

The UK’s economic bounce-back has slowed sharply partly thanks to the impact of the “pingdemic” causing workers to isolate, according to a key business survey. A “flash” estimate of private sector activity for July showed the weakest expansion since March as Britain’s firms battle to recover from the coronavirus crisis. The reading of 57.7 –

Emergency measures to exempt food supply chain workers from coronavirus self-isolation rules will not be extended to other businesses, Environment Secretary George Eustice has told Sky News. On excluding other sectors such as hospitality, the cabinet minister said he understood it was frustrating, but stressed the need to “dampen the pace and velocity” at which

Supermarkets Sainsbury’s, Iceland and Co-op have revealed they are suffering stock shortages as concerns grow about the impact of the so-called “pingdemic”. Sainsbury’s, Britain’s second biggest supermarket, said it “might not always have” products customers want while Iceland revealed it was also being hit and urged customers not to stockpile. Co-op said it was “running

The Treasury is to sell a further chunk of NatWest in a trading plan over the next 12 months as it further reduces its stake in the bank. NatWest, previously called Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), was bailed out by the government in a £45.5bn rescue deal during the financial crisis more than a decade

Retailers say they are under “increasing pressure” to keep shelves fully stocked amid staff shortages caused by the “pingdemic”. Industry bosses have warned that supply chains are “starting to fail” due to the number of workers, including lorry drivers and meat-processing staff, getting pinged by the NHS COVID app. Live COVID updates from the UK

MPs have promised a new amendment to help flat owners “trapped” in buildings affected by the cladding crisis. Leaseholders who bought flats in blocks that were later found to be unsafe have seen the value of their homes wiped out while they wait to be told of the scale and cost of repairs. On Wednesday,

The government will not draw up a list of critical jobs that will be exempt from full self-isolation if workers are “pinged”. Instead, employers will have to apply to government departments to allow workers to effectively circumvent the rules. Boris Johnson announced on Monday that critical workers, who have been fully vaccinated for at least

Easyjet has revealed that fewer than half of UK flights for this summer have been booked as customers leave it late to arrange trips. The budget airline said capacity for the usually lucrative July-September period was just 44% sold, down from 69% in the same period in 2019 before the pandemic. It said customers “are

People will need to have proof of full vaccination to enter nightclubs and other “crowded venues” from the end of September, the vaccines minister has announced. Nadhim Zahawi said a negative coronavirus test would soon “no longer be sufficient” proof that a person wasCOVID-safe. Speaking in the Commons on the day England’s nightclubs were allowed

A US special forces veteran and his son have been jailed in Japan for helping former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn flee to Lebanon. Michael Taylor was given a two-year sentence while his son Peter has handed a term of one year and eight months by a Tokyo court. The men had admitted their roles at