Business

Some British ports will find it “impossible” to carry out checks on fresh food and plant imports in the event of a no-deal Brexit, industry groups have warned parliament. Ports around the UK face fundamental changes to customs arrangements in just 45 days’ time when the EU transition period ends on January 1. Deal or

Global stock markets are rallying sharply after positive trial results from a second potential coronavirus vaccine lifted hopes over the battle to defeat the pandemic. The FTSE 100 jumped by 2%, or more than 100 points, after interim data from a US-developed drug produced by Moderna showed it to be 94.5% effective against COVID-19. Markets

One of Britain’s biggest listed property groups is facing demands from an American hedge fund to break itself up and hand over a board seat in the latest example of shareholder activism targeting a major UK company. Sky News has learnt that Countryside Properties, which has a market capitalisation of over £2bn, has been told

China and 14 other countries agreed to set up the world’s largest trading bloc – accounting for almost a third of all global economic activity. Many in Asia hope the pact will hasten recovery from the shock economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed virtually on Sunday at

The high street tycoon Sir Philip Green is this weekend trying to secure tens of millions of pounds in fresh funding to keep his TopShop empire afloat. Sky News has learnt that Arcadia Group has approached several potential lenders about borrowing roughly £30m to prop up the business after seeing its pre-Christmas trading plans wrecked

Greggs has announced plans to cut more than 800 jobs as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The boss warned that the bakery chain “will not be profitable as a business” if sales continue at the rates they have been in lockdown. In a statement posted on its employee information website earlier this week,

The founder of the UK’s largest independent travel firm, who saved thousands of Thomas Cook staff from losing their jobs when the holiday giant went bust, has died. John Hays, who started the company in 1980 out of the back of his mother’s childrenswear shop in County Durham, collapsed on Friday while working at its

Ticketmaster has been fined £1.25m for losing more than a million British customers’ payment card details in a data breach in 2018. At the time the company admitted personal information and card details belonging to 40,000 customers were stolen by hackers, but the true impact has been revealed to be much higher by the Information

The boss of the British company supplying a crucial ingredient of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has warned that avoiding Brexit border disruption will be “a crucial step” in ensuring it is available to millions of people. Yorkshire-based Croda International has provided a key chemical element of the vaccine to Pfizer in the trial phase, and

The UK economy grew by a record 15.5% in the third quarter but remains 8.2% smaller than before the pandemic, official figures show. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed gross domestic product (GDP) bounced back strongly in the July-September period after the pandemic-driven recession in the first half of the year. But

People earning more than £19,500 a year would pay more under a £40bn tax hike plan to boost the public finances in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The Resolution Foundation makes the case for a range of tax changes by the middle of the decade to avoid a return to austerity and tackle the

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has notched up sales of more than £42bn for its annual Singles’ Day sales event – but the extravaganza threatened to be overshadowed by plans for new regulation. The running total announced by the company shortly after midnight showed the event was already 16 times bigger than US online retailer Amazon’s

Supermarket bosses have launched a fresh lobbying drive to extend Sunday trading hours ahead of a Christmas shopping rush that they are warning ministers could put customers’ safety at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sky News has learnt that major grocers including J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison have been urging the government in recent weeks

A record 314,000 redundancies were recorded in the three months to September as the coronavirus took a further toll on jobs. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed the unemployment rate rose to 4.8%, its highest level since November 2016 and up from 4.5% the month before. ONS data for October also

Stock markets have responded very strongly to news from the US drugs giant Pfizer and the German biotech company BioNTech that their COVID-19 vaccine has proved to be more than 90% effective in late stage clinical trials. The positive outcome to the trials, which to date have involved almost 44,000 people globally, have raised hopes

Stock markets in Asia have rallied after Joe Biden’s US election victory. Japan’s Nikkei was the most notable gainer, hitting a 29-year high after the confirmation of the result over the weekend. Mr Biden’s defeat of Donald Trump has eased fears about a continuation of a damaging trade war between the US and China, the