Author: SKYNEWS

The Mais lecture has become a kind of rite of passage for all aspirant chancellors.This annual speech, held at the Bayes Business School in the City of London, was where Nigel Lawson laid out his thinking about reforming the economy in the 1980s. It was where George Osborne provided his plan for his first 50 days in office, where Gordon Brown explained the economics behind his policies.It is, in short, a very big deal.Money blog: Big drop in inflation predicted So the merest fact that Rachel Reeves has given this lecture is, in a sense, a part of the story…

Live music fans are being charged up to 20% extra on the face value price of a ticket by ticketing sites, according to research from Which?The consumer body compared the cost of a ticket to an Anne-Marie concert at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena last November – which had a face value of £45 – between vendors. Which? found that on average, the biggest ticketing sites add around 20% extra to the cost of a ticket but noted “charges can be lower or even sometimes higher than this”.Eventim charged a total of £56.37 after adding a £1.50 processing fee, £2.50 delivery and…

HMRC will close its self-assessment helpline line for almost six months every year, forcing customers to use its online services instead.Taxpayers will be unable to call the tax office from 8 April to 30 September, HMRC has confirmed, meaning people who would previously have spoken to an adviser about their enquiries will now have to self-serve online. The phoneline will close during the same period every year, it added.HMRC said it was taking the step because “around two-thirds of calls” to its helpline were “routine or simple enquiries, which can be resolved online using our digital services, tools and guidance”.It…

He’s being touted as the next 007, but who is Aaron Taylor-Johnson – and does he have the action and acting skills to be the next James Bond? Image: Pic: AP First off, who is he? The 33-year-old British star was born Aaron Perry Johnson in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in 1990.Excelling at drama, dance and singing, he was a successful child actor – with his first professional stage appearance aged just six in a London production of Macbeth.As a teenager he appeared in movies including Shanghai Knights in which he played a young Charlie Chaplin, and The Illusionist, where he…

The takeover of the Telegraph has been referred for further regulatory scrutiny as the communications watchdog said the purchase, by an Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund, may “operate against the public interest”. Competition and communications regulators, the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) and Ofcom, have been directed by Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer to enter the next stage of their investigation into the purchase of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and the Spectator magazine. Money blog: Washing powder ‘shrinkflation’ exposed by shopperAccording to Ms Frazer, Ofcom’s initial findings are that the acquisition of the media brands by a 75% Abu Dhabi-backed…

Katie Price has said she missed a court hearing where she was declared bankrupt for the second time because she was “dealing with serious stuff”.The former glamour model and TV personality owes nearly £762,000 to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which issued a bankruptcy petition last October. The debt comes from her tax self-assessments from the years 2020-2021 and 2021-22, and includes income tax, VAT, surcharges and interest, a judge said.Price, 45, failed to appear at the Insolvency and Companies Court on Monday.The London hearing was told she did respond to HMRC over the debt, and she was declared bankrupt…

JD Sports has come under fire after posting an “irresponsible” advert showing motorcyclists wearing trainers.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had received 41 complaints about the social media adverts promoting Nike Air Max 95s in which bikers are seen performing stunts such as wheelies. The footage carried the disclaimer “stunts performed by professionals – do not try at home”, but still gained criticism from the public.”What level of riding protection do your trainers offer, seen as your promotional angle is biker wear,” one person wrote in the comments on Instagram.While another added: “Wow @jdsports making bikers look like hooligans.…

Ariana Grande and estate agent Dalton Gomez have officially divorced after nearly three years of marriage.The Thank U, Next singer, 30, filed for divorce from 28-year-old Mr Gomez six months ago, according to court papers. She cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for their split.The divorce was officially signed off by a Los Angeles court on Tuesday and will see Grande make a one-off payment of $1.25m (£980,000) to Mr Gomez and half of the profits from the sale of their LA home.The Grammy-winning pop star will also pay up to $25,000 (£19,000) towards his legal fees. The pair began…

This is a story about Spanish thieves, Italian farmers and British voters, and if that sounds like a set-up to a bad joke, that’s because in many ways it is.Sky News analysis of official data shows that of all the items we put in our shopping baskets, none has gone up in price anywhere near as much as olive oil in the past three years. Not sugar, which is 70% more expensive now than in January 2021. Not baked beans, 60.6%, and hard cheese if you were thinking about hard cheese (44.7%).Our spending calculator reveals the average price of a…

Oprah Winfrey says she “starved herself” for months before wheeling out a “wagon of animal fat” to represent all the weight she’d lost on an episode of her talk show back in 1988, all in a bid to combat the “shame” she felt around her weight.The 70-year-old star – who has been ranked among the most influential women in the world – described the criticism she had received over her weight during her career, saying that for more than two decades “making fun of my weight was a national sport”. he spoke emotionally about the myths surrounding obesity and the…