Business

Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit. While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester

Marks & Spencer’s website and app has not been working for several hours, with a message telling shoppers “you can’t shop with us right now”. “We’re working hard to be back online as soon as possible,” it adds. All the menus and images have disappeared apart from one showing a model in a green jacket.

Bosses at Revolut, Britain’s biggest fintech, are drawing up plans to allow employees to cash in with a sale of stock valued at hundreds of millions of pounds. Sky News has learnt that the banking and payments services provider is lining up investment bankers to coordinate a secondary share sale worth in the region of

The Post Office scandal inquiry has said it will “urgently” review dozens of new documents it has received from former chief executive Paula Vennells. The inquiry heard her legal team had conducted further searches ahead of her appearance next week and found 50 additional documents that had previously not been shared. A spokesperson for the

The Body Shop’s administrators are to launch an auction of the chain after concluding that an alternative restructuring of one of Britain’s best-known high street retailers was not viable. Sky News has learnt that FRP Advisory, which has been overseeing the collapsed business since January, is to begin formally sounding out potential buyers in the

Prosecutions of sub postmasters by the Department for Work and Pensions could be “tainted” as Sky News reveals officials worked with now discredited Post Office investigators to secure convictions. Around 100 prosecutions of Post Office staff were led by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) between 2001 and 2006. It is understood that these

A former Post Office executive has said she was forced to block ex-boss Paula Vennells’ phone number after the ex-CEO called multiple times asking for help to avoid an independent inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal. Lesley Sewell, previously the company’s head of IT, told the Post Office inquiry on Thursday that former CEO Ms

The owner of Royal Mail has said it is “minded” to accept a revised takeover bid by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. The latest offer from Mr Kretinsky’s investment firm EP Group values the Royal Mail parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) at £3.5bn. An earlier offer had been rejected last month as being too low.

Representatives of Thames Water’s multinational syndicate of shareholders are poised to quit as directors of its corporate entities after refusing to inject the billions of pounds of funding required to bail it out. Sky News has learnt that a number of board members at companies connected to Kemble Water Finance, Thames’s parent, are expected to

Landlords have been accused of “holding parliament hostage” with the threat of selling up to stop tenants’ rights from being strengthened. A fresh row erupted on the eve of the controversial Renters Reform Bill coming to the House of Lords for its second reading, as one landlord group warned of a supply crisis in the

The new version of the ChatGPT AI chatbot has been unveiled and offers near-instant results across text, vision and audio, according to its maker. OpenAI said it was much better at understanding visuals and sounds than previous versions. It offers the prospect of real-time ‘conversations’ with the chatbot, including the ability to interrupt its answers.

The prospects for an interest rate cut next month have not been helped by the latest wage growth figures which have come in higher than expected. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed regular wage growth, excluding the effects of bonuses, was 6% higher over the three months to March compared with a

Young homebuyers are being forced to gamble with their retirement prospects by taking on ultra-long mortgages, according to a former pensions minister. Sir Steve Webb described data – supplied by the Financial Conduct Authority to the Bank of England – as “shocking”. It suggests that more than one million new mortgages have been issued over

The major backer of Pinewood Studios is among the suitors vying to buy Village Hotels, one of Britain’s biggest mid-market hotel chains. Sky News understands that Aermont, which specialises in real estate-backed investments, submitted an offer last week for Village Hotels, which is owned by KSL Capital Partners. City sources said that KSL was seeking

Henry Birch, the former boss of Rank Group, is among the candidates vying to run Entain, the FTSE-100 owner of Ladbrokes. Sky News has learnt that Mr Birch is one of a small number of candidates being considered by Entain to replace Jette Nygaard-Andersen as its permanent chief executive. The recruitment process comes at a

The former head of accounting for the Post Office has been described as the “gatekeeper of the remote access secret”, the inquiry has heard. Rod Ismay authored the first report into faulty accounting system Horizon, in August 2010, which concluded the software was robust. Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted between 1999 and 2015 as

As the latest GDP figures show the UK economy has emerged from its shallow recession, Ian King hosts a special edition of his business show. To analyse what the numbers mean, he’s joined by Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, Vivek Paul from BlackRock Investment Institute and Interactive Investor’s Victoria Scholar.

A privately owned used-car platform is circling Cazoo Group, its stricken US-listed rival which is on the brink of administration. Sky News has learnt that Motors.co.uk is a leading contender to acquire Cazoo’s marketplace operation, which would include its brand and intellectual property assets. The process to auction the used-car platform’s constituent parts comes after

The owner of British Airways has reported a sharp rise in profits amid soaring demand for trips and a fall in the cost of fuel. International Airlines Group (IAG) said its operating profit for the first three months of the year was €68m (£58.5m) – above expectations and up from €9m (£7.7m) during the same

How soon is too soon? That’s the question exercising members of the Bank of England‘s monetary policy committee (MPC) at the moment. All nine members know that interest rates, currently at 5.25%, will have to be cut in the coming months. After all, high interest rates represent a brake on the economy and it’s becoming