OBR chair ‘mortified’ by budget leak as ex-cybersecurity chief called in to investigate

The chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility has said he felt “personally mortified” by the early release of its budget documents and said the former boss of the National Cyber Security Centre will be involved in an investigation into the incident.Richard Hughes said he had written to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the chair of the Treasury select committee, Meg Hillier, to apologise, and launched the inquiry.“I felt personally mortified by what happened. The OBR prides itself on our professionalism. We let people down yesterday and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme

US banks announce UK expansion projects hours after budget

Two of Wall Street’s biggest banks have announced substantial expansion plans in the UK, hours after they were spared increased taxes in Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.JP Morgan on Thursday revealed plans to build a 3m sq ft tower in Canary Wharf, which will serve as its new UK headquarters and house more than half of its 23,000 UK staff. It is understood the London project will cost £3bn.The US rival Goldman Sachs said it would expand its Birmingham office and hire 500 staff, in a move that would more than double its workforce in the city.Banks dodged a tax raid in the chancellor’s budget, having lobbied hard against a higher levy that lenders argued could force them to curb lending and cancel out the benefits of regulatory reforms meant to spur growth

New rules crack down on high risk loans as Australian property market heats up

A crackdown on risky lending will limit banks’ capacity to extend highly geared mortgages, as the financial regulator launches a pre-emptive strike against the growing excesses of an overheated property market.The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority announced a 20% cap on the share of new lending that banks can do at a debt-to-income ratio above six – a mortgage worth more than six times the borrower’s income.While Jim Chalmers said the move would “help with financial resilience and housing affordability”, the Greens immediately criticised it as insufficient and experts said it would not curb the current rapid rise in lending growth and property prices.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailThe newly announced restriction lands amid a worsening housing crisis, with a recent report highlighting affordability is now at its worst on record and that a typical household needs to dedicate nearly half of its pre-tax pay to service the average new mortgage.An explosion in lending to landlords has been of particular concern to regulators

Gopichand Hinduja obituary

Gopichand Hinduja, listed at his death aged 85 as the richest man in Britain, was one of four brothers who took their father’s Indo-Iranian trading business and turned it into a vast international conglomerate. It spread across everything from motor manufacturing to their own banks and Bollywood film-making, and had a value put on it by this year’s Sunday Times Rich List of more than £35bn.The brothers – devout, acquisitive, secretive – positioned themselves across the world like latter-day Rothschilds: one, Ashok, in India and one, Prakash, in Switzerland, with Gopichand and his elder brother, Srichand, in London. There they lived in opulence in four interconnected mansions purchased from the Crown on Carlton House Terrace on the Mall. Two years ago, at a party celebrated with canapes covered in gold leaf and in the presence of royalty, Gopichand opened his £1

Relief for retailers as business rate changes in budget not as bad as feared

Retailers have breathed a sigh of relief after changes to their business rates bills in the budget were not as bad as feared, after the industry had warned for months that more punitive measures could lead to shop closures and jobs losses.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, on Wednesday revealed plans to permanently reduce business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties – although the discounts are not as generous as those that have been in place since the pandemic. About 750,000 properties in those sectors will see their bills set below the current standard level, with deeper discounts for smaller operators, according to the government.Businesses are still calculating what their ultimate bills will be, but the global tax firm Ryan calculated that there are 3,480 retail properties in England that have the higher rateable value and together would pay an extra £112m in business rates from April 2026. However, the government is providing billions of pounds of “transitional relief” to help those whose bills will increase dramatically next year

Labour is still in a muddle on North Sea oil and gas | Nils Pratley

Labour’s manifesto commitment on North Sea oil and gas production was a fudge. On one hand, it said no new licences “to explore new fields” would be granted. On the other, it said existing fields would be managed “for the entirety of their lifespan” in a way “that does not jeopardise jobs”.The formulation raised many questions. Where, exactly, would the line be drawn between a new field and an existing field? What would be the approach to protecting workers when, as now, North Sea jobs are estimated to be going at a rate of 1,000 a month according to analysis by Robert Gordon University?The thinking is only slightly easier to understand now

Ed Miliband confirms crackdown on North Sea exploration – but new drilling will continue

The government has ruled out new North Sea oil and gas exploration or lower taxes for fossil fuel companies as it struggles to protect workers from the industry’s collapse.In a strategy paper, Ed Miliband confirmed the crackdown on new North Sea exploration – although the energy secretary will still allow new offshore fossil fuel projects to move ahead as long as they are linked to existing fields.The strategy was released alongside Rachel Reeves’ budget statement, which ended months of speculation over the future of the North Sea industry by confirming the government’s intention to ban new oil and gas licences to explore new fields, and keep tax rates in place.The Labour party swept to power with a promise to end new exploration drilling, alongside a pledge to work with oil and gas companies to manage the North Sea’s remaining lifespan.The government hopes that by allowing “tie-back” projects that are linked to existing schemes it can strike a balance between protecting thousands of North Sea jobs and meeting the UK’s climate commitments

North Sea plan allows drilling while enabling Labour to keep ‘no new licences’ pledge

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has returned from the Cop30 climate conference in Brazil, where he championed the UK’s world-leading promise to ban all new oil and gas licences and backed the call for a blueprint to “transition away from fossil fuels”.Back at home, the government says it is sticking to its manifesto pledge by becoming the first major economy to have a 1.5C- and climate science-aligned no new licences position, but it plans to allow some new drilling in oil and gas fields that have existing licenses.The North Sea strategy, released on Wednesday alongside the autumn budget, will introduce “transitional energy certificates” that will allow new drilling on or near existing fields. These are called “tiebacks” and will enable a small amount of new fossil fuel extraction

Computer maker HP to cut up to 6,000 jobs by 2028 as it turns to AI

Up to 6,000 jobs are to go at HP worldwide in the next three years as the US computer and printer maker increasingly adopts AI to speed up product development.Announcing a lower-than-expected profit outlook for the coming year, HP said it would cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs by the end of October 2028. It has about 56,000 employees.“As we look ahead, we see a significant opportunity to embed AI into HP to accelerate product innovation, improve customer satisfaction and boost productivity,” said the California company’s chief executive, Enrique Lores.He said teams working on product development, internal operations and customer support would be affected by the job cuts

Ministers approve £750m Marlow Film Studios development after review

Ministers have approved a development to build a £750m Hollywood-style film and TV studios in Marlow, west of London, a project that has faced local opposition and been seen as a test of Labour’s appetite to prioritise economic growth.The Marlow Film Studios project has received high-profile backing from film-makers including the director of 1917, Sam Mendes, the director of Titanic and Avatar, James Cameron, and the Captain Phillips director, Paul Greengrass.Last year, Buckinghamshire county council rejected the planning application, prompting its backers to lodge an appeal to the national planning body to get the decision overturned.However, Angela Rayner, the former secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, called in the planning application. The outcome of the review had been seen as a benchmark for Labour’s desire to put economic growth ahead of local opposition, as stated repeatedly by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves

The latest inflation figures offer no joy – except to the gas producers whose windfall profits remain largely untouched | Greg Jericho

The latest inflation figures showed a jump in the growth of average prices from 3.6% to 3.8%. But they also indicate just how much our economy is caught up in the ramifications of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, which sent gas prices higher – and with it our electricity prices.The October consumer price index figures were a turning point for data in Australia

UK borrowing costs fall after early release of budget forecasts – as it happened

Follow Rachel Reeves’ budget as it happens, and all the details of the mistakenly released OBR forecasts, with Graeme Wearden and Andrew Sparrow on our politics live blog:By the end of the day, UK bonds had recovered more ground as investors welcomed the UK’s new fiscal outlook.The news that the chancellar has doubled her budget headroom to over £20bn helped to spark a rally in gilts today.The 10-year UK bond yield fell by 11 basis points, to 4.42%, while 30-year yields fell by 11bps.Deutsche Bank analysts have spotted that this was the best Budget day for UK government debt, compared to German and American debt, in almost 20 years!They report:At first glance, the gilt market likes what it heard from the Chancellor today

How to turn the dregs of a jar of Marmite into a brilliant glaze for roast potatoes – recipe | Waste not

I never peel a roastie, because boiling potatoes with their skins on, then cracking them open, gives you the best of both worlds: fluffy insides and golden, craggy edges. Especially when you finish roasting them in a glaze made with butter (or, even better, saved chicken, pork, beef or goose fat) and the last scrapings from a Marmite jar.I’ve always been fanatical about Marmite, so much so that I refuse to waste a single scoop. I used to wrestle with a butter knife, scraping endlessly at the jar’s sticky bottom, until I learned that there’s a reason the rounded pot has a small flat spot on each side. When you get close to the end of the jar, store the pot on its side, so the last of that black gold inside pools neatly into the side for easy removal

What’s the secret to great chocolate mousse? | Kitchen aide

I always order chocolate mousse in restaurants, but it never turns out quite right when I make it at home. Help! Daniel, by email“Chocolate mousse defies physics,” says Nicola Lamb, author of Sift and the Kitchen Projects newsletter. “It’s got all the flavour of your favourite chocolate, but with an aerated, dissolving texture, which is sort of extraordinary.” The first thing you’ve got to ask yourself, then, is what kind of mousse are you after: “Some people’s dream is rich and dense, while for others it’s light and airy,” Lamb says, which is probably why there are so many ways you can make it.That said, in most cases you’re usually dealing with some form of melted chocolate folded into whipped eggs (whites, yolks or both), followed by lightly whipped cream

The small plates that stole dinner: how snacks conquered Britain’s restaurants

It’s love at first bite for diners. From cheese puffs to tuna eclairs, chefs are putting some of their best ideas on the snack menuElliot’s in east London has many hip credentials: the blond-wood colour scheme, the off-sale natural wine bottles, LCD Soundsystem and David Byrne playing at just the right decibel. The menu also features the right buzzwords, such as “small plates” and “wood grill”.But first comes “snacks”. There are classics: focaccia, olives, anchovies on toast

‘Alicante cuisine epitomises the Mediterranean’: a gastronomic journey in south-east Spain

The Alicante region is renowned for its rice and seafood dishes. Less well known is that its restaurant scene has a wealth of talented female chefs, a rarity in SpainI’m on a quest in buzzy, beachy Alicante on the Costa Blanca to investigate the rice dishes the Valencian province is famed for, as well as explore the vast palm grove of nearby Elche. I start with a pilgrimage to a restaurant featured in my book on tapas, New Tapas, a mere 25 years ago. Mesón de Labradores in the pedestrianised old town is now engulfed by Italian eateries (so more pizza and pasta than paella) but it remains a comforting outpost of tradition and honest food.Here I catch up with Timothy Denny, a British chef who relocated to Spain, gained an alicantina girlfriend and became a master of dishes from the region

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for spiced paneer puffs with quick-pickled carrot raita | Quick and easy

These moreish little pastries are as lovely for a snack as they are for dinner, and they take just minutes to put together. I like to fill squares of pastry and fold them into little triangular puffs, but if you prefer more of a Cornish pasty look (*food writer cancelled for suggesting paneer is an appropriate pasty filling!*), by all means stamp out circles, fold into half-moons and crimp the edges.Prep 20 min Cook 25 min Serves 3-4225g block paneer 2 spring onions, trimmed20g mint leavesZest of 1 lime, plus 15ml lime juice1 green chilli, deseeded if you wish1 heaped tsp flaky sea salt1 tbsp self-raising flour320g roll puff pastry 1 egg, beatenFor the quick-pickled carrot raita ½ tsp fennel seeds ½ tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed30ml white-wine vinegar½ tsp flaky sea salt, crumbled2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped300g carrots, peeled, quartered lengthways and finely sliced150g natural yoghurtHeat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Tip the paneer, spring onions, mint leaves, lime zest and juice, green chilli and salt into a food processor, and blitz, scraping down the sides occasionally, until the mix resembles very fine couscous. Add the flour, and blitz again until the mix has broken down even more finely

Chef Skye Gyngell, who pioneered the slow food movement, dies aged 62

Tributes have been paid to the pioneering chef and restaurant proprietor Skye Gyngell, who has died aged 62.The Australian was an early celebrity proponent of using local and seasonal ingredients and built a garden restaurant from scratch, the Petersham Nurseries Cafe in Richmond, south-west London, which went on to win a Michelin star.A statement released by her family and friends read: “We are deeply saddened to share news of Skye Gyngell’s passing on 22 November in London, surrounded by her family and loved ones.“Skye was a culinary visionary who influenced generations of chefs and growers globally to think about food and its connection to the land.“She leaves behind a remarkable legacy and is an inspiration to us all

How to make the perfect butter paneer – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …

This luxuriantly rich, vegetarian curry – a cousin of butter chicken, which is thought to have been created in the postwar kitchens of Delhi’s Moti Mahal, though by whom is the subject of hot dispute – is, according to chef Vivek Singh, “the most famous and widely interpreted dish in India”. His fellow chef Sanjeev Kapoor describes it as “one of the bestselling dishes in restaurants” there, but here in the UK, though it’s no doubt widely enjoyed, it seems to fly somewhat under the radar on menus, where even the chicken original plays second fiddle to our beloved chicken tikka masala.If you haven’t yet fallen for the crowdpleasing charms of fresh cheese in a mild tomato sauce, consider this a strong suggestion to give it a whirl. Paneer makhni (makhni being the Hindi word for butter, hence also dal makhni), tastes incredibly fancy, but it’s relatively simple and quick to make. Just add bread and a vegetable side to turn it into a full feast

Fluffy and fabulous! 17 ways with marshmallows – from cheesecake to salad to an espresso martini

They come into their own around Thanksgiving in the US, used alongside savoury dishes, as well as in desserts. Now is the time to try them with sweet potatoes, in a strawberry mousse, or even with soupThe connection between marsh mallow the herbaceous perennial, also known as althaea officinalis, and marshmallow the puffy cylindrical sweet, is historic. In the 19th century, the sap of the plant was still a key ingredient of its confectionary namesake, along with sugar and egg whites. But that connection has long been severed: the modern industrial marshmallow is derived from a mixture of sugar, water and gelatine. Its main ingredient is air

The Shaston Arms, London W1: ‘Just because you can do things doesn’t mean you should do them’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

A pub that wants to be an old-school boozer and a cool restaurant both at the same timeWhile perched inside what felt like a repurposed bookshelf at the draughty back end of the Shaston Arms, sitting next to the dumb waiter and waiting for the ping to herald the arrival of my £16 plate of red mullet with squid ink rice, I had time to consider yet again the so-called “pub revival” in cool modern hospitality. Old boozers are reclaimed, reloved and restored, and the great tradition of going down the pub is celebrated. The Devonshire in nearby Piccadilly is, of course, the daddy, the Darth Vader of this trend, winning plaudits, TikTok adoration and celebrity fans aplenty. So it’s no wonder that myriad other hospitality operators have cast an eye over their local neglected fleapit and thought: “Let’s buy some Mr Sheen, give that old hovel a polish and start serving duck à l’orange and flourless chocolate tart. It’s all the rage! Gen Z loves it!”Whether Gen Z really does love anything about the pub experience as it was in the 20th century is debatable, however, because inside these poshed-up spit-and-sawdust boozers, all the phlegm and fag ash has gone – as have the dartboards, pool tables, punch-ups, topless women on KP peanut pub cards and the ever-present bar-fly alcoholic drinking himself yellow while droning on about his marital problems

Goblets of borscht, turkey-shaped madeleines: why Martha Stewart’s fantastical menus are still an inspiration

The celebrations were imminent and the greenhouse ready to accommodate – among the orchids, in unseasonable November warmth – an intimate Hawaiian luau. The table was set with giant clam shells for serving vessels and miniature hibachis for grilling Dungeness crab. Somebody had found a small, pink pineapple and secured it on the watermelon like a brooch. The hostess considered the merits of a hula dancer, but in the end settled on a more succinct spectacle: a 19lb suckling pig, enwreathed with sub-tropical flowers and caparisoned in bronze.It was, and could only ever have been, a Martha Stewart affair

Winter has finally kicked in – it’s time to crack out the casserole dish and get stewing

At the risk of sounding like a British cliche, can we take a moment to discuss the change in the weather? This week’s sudden drop in temperature has our house excited for potential snow (the children are giddy), with everything suddenly feeling a lot more wintry. New coats are on the hooks, thermals are being dug out and a casserole dish filled with some sort of soup, stew or stock seems to be permanently ticking away on the hob. These range from quick, warming weeknight dinners to leisurely, slow-cooked weekend meals.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link

Helen Goh’s recipe for cranberry, orange and ginger upside-down cake | The sweet spot

Bright, tart cranberries are one of the most vivid flavours of the Thanksgiving table, but they often play a supporting role to turkey and stuffing. Here, however, they take centre stage in a sparkling upside-down cake, and their ruby tones gleam over a tender, orange-scented crumb. The batter is enriched with soured cream, ensuring every bite is a balance of sweet, sharp and soft.A note about the cranberries: if using frozen, do not defrost them first.Prep 10 min Cook 1 hr 15 min, plus cooling Serves 8-10For the cranberry caramel base 60g unsalted butter 100g light brown sugar 1 tbsp fresh orange juice2 tsp finely grated ginger⅛ tsp flaky sea salt250g fresh or frozen cranberriesFor the cake batter150g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda ¼ tsp fine sea salt 120g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing150g caster sugar Finely grated zest of 1 orange 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 120g full-fat soured creamGrease a 20cm round cake tin (at least 5cm deep, and not springform), then line the base and sides with baking paper