Bond market turmoil eases as Treasury minister says ‘no need’ for government intervention – as it happened

Harriett Baldwin MP accuses Rachel Reeves of having ‘fled to China’ rather than face MPs over the rise in public borrowing costs, because she realises her budget means she is “the arsonist”.Baldwin says yesterday’s statement from the Treasury (which said the government has an iron grip on the public finances) was an “extraordinary emergency” effort to calm the markets.Darren Jones says these “inflammatory” comments are rather surprising, and don’t reflect reality.The trip to China has been in the diary for weeks, he points out.And he rejects claims that the Treasury has intervened in the markets, saying yesterday’s statement was simply a response to questions from the media

Shares in banknote printer De La Rue soar after it confirms takeover talks

Shares in De La Rue, the 200-year-old British firm that prints banknotes for the Bank of England, have surged after it confirmed it was in talks about a possible takeover offer from a well-known City financier.Investment funds controlled by the pensions and private equity entrepreneur Edi Truell have made a conditional offer for De La Rue worth 125p a share, valuing the company at £245m.The deal would be conditional on the completion of De La Rue’s planned £300m sale of its authentication division to Crane NXT, which was announced last October.De La Rue said in a statement to the stock market that its board was “considering its options”.The firm said in December that it had been approached by Truell and companies he founded about a partial takeover, of 40% of the business

Pound dips to 14-month low as bond sell-off piles pressure on Rachel Reeves

The pound briefly fell to a 14-month low against the US dollar on Thursday morning after the sell-off in the bond market fuelled investors’ anxiety about UK assets and piled further pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.Sterling extended recent losses against the US dollar, falling by a cent at one point, before recovering to trade half a cent down at $1.23.The sell-off in British government bonds – known as gilts – drove up the yield, or interest rate, paid to those holding them and therefore UK borrowing costs.However, comments by the chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, later on Thursday appeared to calm the market

Lloyds to let customers use Halifax and BoS branches, raising job cut fears

Lloyds Banking Group will allow customers to use any of its Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds branches as part of a shake-up that has sparked fears of job cuts and site closures, weeks before a strategy update by its chief executive, Charlie Nunn.A memo circulated to staff earlier this week explained that customers would be able to conduct their in-person banking at branches of any of the group’s three brands, regardless of which of lender they held accounts with.But unions representing Lloyds Banking Group staff are concerned this could open the door to job cuts, given that roughly 25% of the high street lender’s branches were within close distance of one another, according to a 2023 estimate. So far, they have been serving different sets of customers.Hints of the move came last year, when the group rolled out standardised uniforms across Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds branches

M&S reports strong festive sales but says tax rises will lead to cost cuts

Marks & Spencer has hailed a “good Christmas” with strong sales of food but warned it would have to find new ways of to cut costs in the face of the government’s tax increases.The UK retailer said sales at established food halls rose 8.9%, making its the top-performing high street grocer over Christmas, according to the analysts Kantar. Equivalent clothing, home and beauty product sales grew by 1.9% in the 13 weeks to 28 December, even as the clothing market fell 2% before Christmas

Greggs boss defends price hikes amid anger over cost of sausage roll

The boss of Greggs has blamed wage, tax and food cost rises for a 5p hike in the price of its sausage rolls, after it faced a backlash over the decision.The UK’s biggest bakery chain has increased the price of its flagship product to £1.30, as part of an average 4% price rise on key items including coffee and doughnuts.The increases, introduced just after Christmas, were labelled “disgraceful” by shoppers with some saying they would stop buying the sausage rolls if prices rose further.Roisin Currie, the chief executive of Greggs, said the price rises were driven by the chain passing on increases to its wage bill, with two-thirds of Greggs workers handed a 6