Ministers should ‘start doing stuff’ to help farmers and cut fuel costs, says Asda boss

Asda’s executive chair has called on the government to “stand up and start doing stuff” to support farmers and ease the price of fuel as he warned that food prices would inevitably rise as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.Allan Leighton said farmers were under pressure but the supermarket chain had so far received “a trickle of requests not an avalanche” of cost price increases from its suppliers, as they were under pressure from higher fertiliser, energy and fuel costs.“I do believe it will create inflation,” he said, adding that the pace of cost increases was volatile and quite different across the various commodities.Leighton also warned of “temporary shortages’” at petrol stations, as supplies are squeezed by the conflict in the Middle East, with the RAC reporting on Friday that the average price of unleaded petrol in the UK had risen to 150p a litre.Leighton accused the government of benefiting from £3bn of income from fuel duties as prices rose and said it should ease these duties or support farmers on energy or other costs

‘It’s fired people up’: support grows, including within Labor, for new gas tax to curb wartime profits

The gas industry is mobilising in opposition to a potential new tax on the sector as political momentum builds – including among Labor MPs – for the government to use the May budget to prevent producers profiting from the Middle East war.The Australian Energy Producers (AEP) chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, claimed a new tax would punish the same Asian trading partners Australia was leaning on to supply more fuel amid the global energy crisis.The gas sector was blind-sided by revelations the Treasury was modelling options for a new levy to capture windfall profits from gas and thermal coal companies, as well as potential changes to the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT) and corporate tax.Government, industry and opposition sources believe the public mood on taxing the resources giants has shifted, giving the Albanese government cover to pursue changes it might have considered too politically risky a few months ago.The sources point to a campaign spearheaded by independent senator David Pocock, social media influencer Konrad Benjamin of Punter’s Politics fame and progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, which has highlighted how much tax gas companies pay

Blink and miss: Trump’s tactic of threats first and U-turn later is proving stale in Iran war

President’s move, dubbed Trump Always Chickens Out, appears to have soured as he loses hold on situation in IranFrom Wall Street to the White House, the dish everyone’s talking about this week is the Persian Taco. It’s what’s served when Trump chickens out in Iran.In the early hours of Monday morning, witnessing oil prices surge, stock futures plummet and bond yields climb due to his threat to pummel Iran’s civilian power infrastructure, the president hurriedly walked it back, announcing he would put off the bombing because talks with Iran were actually going great. After the bombast and bloodshed, it was time for Taco (Trump Always Chickens Out), a move he first put on display during the tariffs crisis last year.Bonds snapped back in instants and the price of Brent crude recoiled to below $100 a barrel from more than $112 seconds earlier

UK car production falls 17% as industry warns of ‘worrying’ decline

Fewer cars rolled off UK production lines in February in what the industry called an “extremely worrying” slump even before the impact of the Iran war was felt.Vehicle production was 17% lower last month on the same period in 2025, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, as exports dropped sharply.A further decline is expected in March, after the war sent global energy prices soaring and further dented consumer demand, a double blow for carmakers.Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, said: “Another decline for UK vehicle production and exports is extremely worrying, given these figures pre-date the crisis in the Middle East. While the sector has made efforts to build resilience into its logistics and supply chains post-Covid, the conflict adds further strain

Almost half a million Lloyds customers had personal data exposed in IT glitch

Lloyds Banking Group exposed the personal data of nearly 500,000 customers in an IT glitch that left people’s payments, account details and national insurance numbers visible to other users, a committee of MPs has revealed.A letter from Lloyds, published by MPs on the Treasury select committee on Friday, blamed the glitch on a software defect introduced during an IT update to its Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland mobile banking apps overnight into 12 March.The bank explained that customers would have had to be looking at their app within “small fractions of a second” of other users in order to access their details.However, it still meant up to 447,936 customers were potentially able to view private information of other users, with Lloyds adding that about 114,182 people ended up clicking into transactions that revealed account details, national insurance numbers or payment references.Even people who were not Lloyds Banking Group customers may have had their transaction details exposed, the bank said

Five firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failings

The UK competition watchdog has launched investigations into five companies including Autotrader and Just Eat over concerns they have not done enough to tackle fake and misleading online reviews.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has previously investigated the tech companies Amazon and Google, said its latest crackdown includes the funeral services operator Dignity, the review company Feefo and the restaurant chain Pasta Evangelists.The CMA said that in the case of Autotrader and Feefo it was looking at whether a number of one-star reviews, moderated by Feefo, were excluded from being published on the car-selling platform and therefore did not give consumers a full picture of other customers’ experiences.The Dignity investigation focuses on whether staff were asked to write positive reviews about the company’s cremation services.Just Eat, the food delivery company, is being investigated over concerns that its system “inflated certain restaurants’ and grocers’ star ratings”