Author: SKYNEWS

The chancellor’s spring budget will take place in March, the Treasury has announced.Rachel Reeves will deliver the budget, known as the “spring forecast”, on 3 March 2026. She has asked the independent budget watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), to “prepare an economic and fiscal forecast” for publication on the same day.The Treasury said the government has committed to delivering only one major fiscal event a year, at the autumn budget.As a result, it said the spring forecast will “not make an assessment of the government’s performance against the fiscal mandate and will instead provide an interim update on…

The row between Europe and Washington about what you can do online just ramped up.On Christmas Eve, the White House imposed visa bans on five public figures in Europe. It’s all about what European officials describe as the regulation of online harm and what America’s officials consider censorship.”If you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil,” said Sarah Rogers, the US under secretary of state for public diplomacy, as the bans were announced.The highest profile figure facing travel restrictions is Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for regulating social media and a key…

Russell Brand has been charged with further counts of rape and sexual assault, police have said.They relate to two further women and are in addition to the charges issued to the comedian and actor in April, which involved four women. He had been previously charged with two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.Brand has pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges. Image: Russell Brand arriving at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in May. Pic: PA He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 20 January 2026 in relation to the two additional…

Two of Britain’s biggest high street banks are embroiled in a £2.5bn takeover battle for Evelyn Partners, the wealth management group.Sky News has learnt that Barclays and NatWest Group were among the bidders notified last week that they were through to the second round of the Evelyn auction. Royal Bank of Canada is also said to be in the frame to buy Evelyn, while a number of private equity firms have also tabled offers for the business.Lloyds Banking Group is understood to have explored an offer for Evelyn, although it was unclear on Tuesday whether it remained interested.For Barclays and…

Two burglars who used the Grindr dating app to trick victims into letting them into their homes have been jailed.Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 23, and Mohammed Bilal Hotak, 27, would arrange to meet victims at their London properties, and persuade them to provide their phone passwords by asking to play music on YouTube.The Afghan refugees then stole the devices and left before making online or contactless payments, as well as occasionally transferring funds to themselves.Mohammadi targeted 11 victims in his five-month crime spree between 24 October 2024 and 24 March 2025.Hotak offended multiple times between 24 October 2024 and 23 December…

The rapper in punk duo Bob Vylan will not face further action over his “death death to the IDF” chants at Glastonbury Festival, police have said. Rapper Bobby Vylan, real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster led crowds on the festival’s West Holts Stage in the chants about the Israel Defence Forces during the group’s performance in June. Avon and Somerset Police said a criminal investigation was under way shortly afterwards, with a senior detective appointed to lead the investigation. Image: Punk duo Bob Vylan performing on stage at the 100 Club in central London. Pic: PA But in a statement released…

Informa, the FTSE-100 events group behind the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and World of Concrete, is kicking off a search for its next chairman.Sky News has learnt that Informa, which has a market capitalisation of about £11.3bn, is working with headhunters to find a successor to John Rishton. City sources said on Monday that Russell Reynolds Associates was handling the search.A former chief executive of Rolls Royce Group, Mr Rishton joined the Informa board in September 2016 before taking over as chairman nearly five years later.People close to the process said he was likely to step down in 2027,…

The UK could be set to have had its warmest year on record, according to forecasters.The Met Office says 2025 is on track to become one of the UK’s warmest years, possibly surpassing 2022. The average annual temperature is tracking at 10.05C – ahead of the previous record of 10.03C set in 2022.A forecasted cold spell over Christmas means the final figure is not yet confirmed. Image: People enjoy the warm weather in Folkestone, Kent, in July. Pic: PA If it is confirmed, 2025 will be only the second year in observational records where the UK’s annual mean temperature has…

Barry Manilow is being treated for lung cancer and has been forced to reschedule live shows, the 82 year-old has revealed.The Copacabana popstar announced on Instagram that a cancerous spot had been discovered on his left lung. “As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” he wrote.”Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK.”The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs…

A renewable energy group founded by the former chief executive of Petrofac, the oilfield services group which collapsed during the autumn, will this week announce a £40m fundraising despite signs of growing tension over its leadership.Sky News has learnt that Venterra, which was set up four years ago by Ayman Asfari, will unveil the capital injection as early as Monday. Its backers will include existing shareholders Beyond Net Zero, a fund affiliated with the private equity firm General Atlantic, and First Reserve, another private equity investor.The fundraising will come amid a challenging climate sweeping through swathes of the renewable energy…