Business

A key figure behind the flawed IT system that led to hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongly jailed has told the Post Office inquiry he had “not remembered” legal advice he was given about his obligations as an expert witness. Former senior Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins was crucial in the prosecutions process because he was one

Advisers working on the controversial takeover of Royal Mail’s parent company are in line for a fee bonanza worth more than £130m. Sky News has learnt that International Distribution Services (IDS) and its would-be owner, a vehicle owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, will fork out the lavish sum to bankers and other professional services

One of the architects of the Post Office Horizon accounting system has admitted there were “discreet” bugs but it generally “worked well”, dismissing suggestions he had knowledge of widespread flaws. Gareth Jenkins, who was a lead engineer at Horizon supplier Fujitsu, told the public inquiry into the IT scandal that while pilots for both Horizon

Prospective bidders for The Daily Telegraph have been told to submit indicative offers by July 19 if they want to take control of two of Britain’s most influential newspaper titles. Sky News has learnt that interested parties have been given the deadline, which comes barely two weeks after the general election, as they seek to

Voters have been left in the dark over how the major parties will be able to fund their spending commitments, a respected thinktank has said, offering just “thin gruel”. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) took further aim at what it described as a “conspiracy of silence” from both the Conservatives and Labour on how

A pack of trade and private equity suitors are circling Evri, one of Britain’s biggest parcel delivery companies. Sky News has learnt that Apollo Global Management and Platinum Equity are among the parties which have lodged initial offers for Evri, which is reportedly worth around £2bn. City sources said that a number of strategic bidders

Blackstone, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms, is in advanced talks to buy a stake in Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), the owner of some of the most famous playhouses in London’s West End. Sky News has learnt that Blackstone, which manages more than $1trn (£790bn) in assets, is close to snapping up a

Around 1,500 workers at Tata Steel are to hold an “all-out indefinite strike”, a union has announced. The industrial action at Port Talbot and Llanwern, Newport, will begin on 8 July and is expected to “severely impact” the company’s UK operations, Unite said. It comes in response to plans to close Tata Steel’s blast furnaces

The former head of a union for sub-postmasters has denied it became “too close” to the Post Office and was “flush with money”. George Thomson, formerly of the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), also denied lacking sympathy for those who were wrongfully convicted during the Post Office scandal, which occurred following faults in the organisation’s

The roll-call of UK-listed companies to have attracted foreign takeover approaches this year is a long and distinguished one. It includes Anglo American, the mining giant; International Distribution Services, the parent of Royal Mail; Darktrace, one of the world’s most exciting cyber security specialists and DS Smith, the FTSE-100 packaging company which is Europe’s largest

Government borrowing was less than expected in May, new figures have revealed. Net borrowing – the difference between public sector spending and income – was £15bn, an increase of £0.8bn on the same time last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Friday. The amount is below the £15.7bn forecast by the Office

TikTok has launched a long-awaited legal fight to stop its Chinese owner being forced to sell the short video platform’s US operations, arguing it violates Americans’ rights to free speech. TikTok and Chinese parent ByteDance were told in April they had until January next year to divest TikTok in the US or face the prospect

The future of new oil and gas projects in the UK has been thrown into doubt following a landmark decision by the Supreme Court. The court concluded the environmental impact of emissions from burning fossil fuels must be considered in planning applications for new extraction projects – not just the impacts of the emissions produced

Boeing should be fined almost $25bn and face criminal proceedings over two fatal 737 MAX 8 crashes, according to relatives of some of the 346 victims who argue the company is guilty of the “deadliest corporate crime in US history”. The plea was revealed in a letter to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a

UK inflation has eased to 2% – increasing the prospect of an interest rate cut this summer. The consumer prices index (CPI) rate for the year to May was confirmed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday. The figure indicates that prices are still rising, but at the slowest pace since spring 2021.

There was “possibly a criminal conspiracy” at the Post Office, according to an independent forensic accountant drafted in to investigate the controversial Horizon accounting system. Ian Henderson, one of the two forensic accountants from Second Sight paid by Post Office (POL) to review sub-postmaster convictions involving Horizon in 2012, told the public inquiry into the

Grocery inflation has eased for the 16th month in a row, according to industry data released ahead of the general election also showing a price war aimed at luring fans during Euro 2024. Kantar Worldpanel – which tracks supermarket till prices, sales and market share – said its measure of grocery inflation slowed to 2.1%

China may target the European Union’s pork producers in retaliation for EU tariffs on its electric cars. The world’s second largest economy revealed on Monday that it had launched an investigation into imports of pork for human consumption from the bloc. The Commerce ministry inquiry was in response to a complaint by Chinese pork producers

Fuel retailers have been accused of using the “distraction” of the general election to keep petrol and diesel prices “persistently high”. The RAC said the cost of filling up at the pumps was “far higher” than would normally be expected as wholesale costs had fallen since the end of April. The average price of a

One of London’s most prominent venture capital investors will this week change its name following the death and resignation of its two co-founders. Sky News understands that Hambro Perks, which counts a stake in What3Words, the location-mapping service, among its holdings, is to rebrand as Salica Investments. An announcement about the change of name will