Renewed zeal for Boxing Day sales expected to ring up £3.8bn for retailers

UK shoppers are expected to spend £3.8bn this Boxing Day, 2% more than last year, with online sellers experiencing most of that growth but high streets also enjoying a boost from a renewed appetite for post-Christmas bargains.Boxing Day remains one of the busiest shopping days of the year, but in recent years the dash for the high street has eased as more people opt to search for bargains from the sofa.With many discounts kicking off from midnight on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day is now worth more than £1bn in sales, with 23 million people in the UK expected to be buying online shortly after unwrapping their gifts. That is half a million more than last year, according to analysis by the research company GlobalData for Vouchercodes

End of shareholder revolt register ‘will help UK firms bury pay controversies’

UK-listed companies will be able to bury controversies over executive pay for the first time in eight years, a thinktank has warned, after the Labour government shut down a public tracker meant to curb “abuses and excess in the boardroom”.The public register was launched under the Tory prime minister Theresa May in 2017 to name and shame companies hit by shareholder revolts at their annual general meetings (AGMs). That included rebellions over issues such as excessive bonuses or salary increases for top earning bosses.However, the Treasury – under the chancellor, Rachel Reeves – instructed the Investment Association (IA), the UK asset management trade body that maintained the register, to shut it down this autumn as part of a wider regulation action plan to increase economic growth by cutting “red tape” for businesses. The closure of the public log follows lobbying campaign by companies including the London Stock Exchange, whose bosses claim bad publicity over executive pay is harming the City’s competitiveness and deterring UK listings

‘Undermines free speech’: Labour MP hits back at US government over visa ban on UK campaigners

A senior Labour MP has accused the Trump administration of undermining free speech after Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, announced sanctions against two British anti-disinformation campaigners.Chi Onwurah, the chair of parliament’s technology select committee, criticised the US government hours after it announced “visa-related” sanctions against five Europeans, including Imran Ahmed and Clare Melford.Ahmed leads the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), while Melford is chief executive of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), both of which have clashed directly with Elon Musk, the owner of X and a former adviser to the US president.Onwurah said on Wednesday: “Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek.“We desperately need a wide ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people

Visa ban for European critics of online harm is first shot in US free speech war

For Maga politicians, European tech regulation hits hard in two areas: at the economic interests of Silicon Valley and at their view of free speech.The action against five Europeans who are taking on harmful content and the platforms that host it has had an inevitable feel to it, given the increasingly vociferous reactions to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Both pieces of legislation require social media firms to protect users or face the threat of sizeable fines. Indeed, Elon Musk’s X has been fined €120m (£105m) this month for breaching the DSA.These acts are prime examples of what US Republicans see as an anti-free speech culture on the other side of the Atlantic

Better late than never: fans relive watching their teams end a long wait for a trophy

Several teams got their hands on silverware at last in 2025. Here supporters talk about the pain and pleasure of finally winning16 March 2025: Won Carabao Cup, beating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley, their first trophy in 56 yearsDad’s view: As a baby boomer, it seemed to me that Cup success was a God-given right. We’d triumphed in 1951, 52 and 55. Wembley was our second home. But it took nearly two decades to return for the FA Cup – in 1974 – for a loss to Liverpool, compounded by the crowing Emlyn Hughes

Sale squad’s ‘honest’ meeting with owners has reset ambitions, says Sanderson

Alex Sanderson has said an “honest” meeting of Sale’s owners, players and coaches this week has set their intention for the Boxing Day encounter with Harlequins and beyond.The Sharks are seventh in the Prem table, with two wins from seven, and were soundly beaten by Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens last Saturday. Their most recent Prem victory came against Newcastle on 10 October, and the director of rugby knows they need to start winning to have any chance of reaching the playoffs for a fourth straight season.“It wasn’t a crisis meeting, but honest – about what kind of team we want to be,” Sanderson said. “Not an inconsistent one, a one week on, one week off team