UK government borrowing costs climbed on Monday as markets reacted to intensifying pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, with investors pricing in heightened political risk and the possibility of a shift towards more left-leaning Labour policies.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year UK government bond rose by as much as 0.08 percentage points to nearly 4.6 per cent, while yields on 30-year gilts reached their steepest level since November. Bond yields move inversely to prices, meaning the rise reflected a sell-off in gilts.

The move came after Anas Sarwar, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, publicly called on Starmer to step down, triggering speculation over the prime minister’s future. Yields later pared back some of their gains after senior cabinet ministers rallied behind Starmer.

Currency markets were more mixed. Sterling strengthened 0.4 per cent against the dollar to $1.36, while slipping 0.26 per cent against the euro to €1.14. London’s FTSE 100 ended the session 0.16 per cent higher.

Investors appeared to react to concerns that Starmer, under pressure from within his party, could pivot towards more interventionist or higher-spending policies to shore up support from Labour backbenchers. Markets also weighed the prospect of a leadership contest that could elevate figures from the party’s left.

One name increasingly discussed by traders is Angela Rayner, who is seen as sitting to the left of Starmer. Although Rayner was among senior Labour figures to publicly back the prime minister, her potential ascent has unsettled investors wary of a change in fiscal direction. Wes Streeting, associated with Labour’s more centrist wing, is also viewed as a possible contender in any future leadership race.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said markets were beginning to reprice UK assets. “A political risk premium is once again being built into UK asset prices, as investors worry about what a new leader could mean for economic policy,” she said.

The gilt sell-off also unfolded against a backdrop of broader volatility in global bond markets following Japan’s general election, though UK-specific political concerns were seen as the main driver.

Speculation around Starmer’s position intensified further after the resignation of his head of communications, Tim Allan, following the weekend departure of chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. The turmoil has been compounded by controversy surrounding the appointment of Lord Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the United States, despite warnings over his past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

For now, markets remain on edge, with investors closely watching whether Labour’s internal strains translate into a change of leadership, or a change of economic course, in the weeks ahead.

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

Boss Chris Oglesby says ‘rental growth is at levels I haven’t seen in my 35 years working across our city regions’

Bruntwood has slashed its losses in a “pivotal” year for the North West property group as it continued its growth plans despite turbulent economic conditions. The group reported a loss before taxation of £12.9m, a big improvement on the £73.7m reported last year.

Total assets across the Bruntwood group’s own portfolio and its joint ventures now stands at £1.9bn, up on last year’s £1.8bn, while operating profits stood at £18.6m.

Bruntwood said valuations were stable at its wholly-owned Bruntwood Places arm, and that its pre-tax loss “largely reflects a £21.5 million share of joint venture losses, driven by development write-downs amid higher build costs (up around 40% since 2022) and continued market yield pressures”.

READ MORE: Bruntwood plans ‘statement of intent’ makeover for one of Manchester’s original 60s skyscrapersREAD MORE: Britain’s sportswear capital: How Manchester lured Puma and other famous brands

Demand was strong through the year, with the group completing more than 900,000 sq ft of lettings transactions and welcoming 455 new customers across its portfolio. In its results statement, Bruntwood said: “This activity reflects the continued flight to quality, with businesses increasingly recognising the value of well-amenitised workspace in driving productivity and encouraging employees back to the office”.

During the year the group completed the refinancing of its club bank facility for its Bruntwood Places portfolio with Santander, HSBC, NatWest and Barclays. The facility was extended by £90m and 12 months, allowing the repayment of retail bonds due in February 2025, while providing £29m of undrawn commitments and giving what Bruntwood called “a comfortable level of covenant headroom as at 30 September”.

Bruntwood Places investment

Over the year, Bruntwood invested £16m in its Bruntwood Places workspace portfolio, including £6.2m in its wholly-owned office portfolio and another £9.8m through town centre joint ventures with Trafford and Bury Councils. Places now includes £240m of workspace, with an £84m portfolio of town centre regeneration projects, serving some 800 customers.

Work in the wholly-owned portfolio included refurbishments of South Central in Manchester city centre, Station House in Altrincham, Landmark House in Cheadle, Wilderspool in Warrington, and Exchange Court in Liverpool.

Bruntwood SciTech invests £156m over year

Bruntwood SciTech, Bruntwood’s tech-focused joint venture with Greater Manchester Pension Fund and Legal & General, invested some £156m across its portfolio over the year.

It completed schemes with a gross development value (GDV) of £245m, including No.3 Circle Square and Citylabs 4.0 in Manchester, No.1 Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, and West Village in Leeds. Meanwhile work on the Greenheys laboratory building at Manchester Science Park, home to UK Biobank, is set to complete in Spring 2026.

Bruntwood SciTech’s portfolio now stands at £1.6bn of schemes over 5.8m sq ft of space. Since the financial year end, work on the £30m work to transform Pall Mall in Manchester city centre has been completed, with 120,000 sq ft of space. Bosses want the business to grow to a £5bn portfolio by 2033 and it already has a 3m sq ft development pipeline. That includes the Sister joint venture with the University of Manchester, Hemisphere in Liverpool through the Sciontec joint venture, and Birmingham Health Innovation Campus with the University of Birmingham.

Chris Oglesby, CEO of Bruntwood and Bruntwood SciTech, said: “2025 has been a pivotal year for Bruntwood, characterised by strong operational execution and strategic investments positioning us for sustainable long-term growth. Despite navigating a complex global economic landscape, our core business units have demonstrated resilience and adaptability.

“In the office sector, it has been a tale of two halves. While capital markets have faced significant headwinds with yield-driven valuation reductions of around 35% across the wider market over the last two-and-a-half years, occupational markets have been incredibly strong. Rental growth is at levels I haven’t seen in my 35 years working across our city regions, and businesses increasingly recognise the value of quality workspace in driving productivity.

“Our investment in our wholly owned portfolio and joint ventures reflect our conviction that for cities to thrive, they need a network of thriving towns. The opening of King Street in Stretford and continued progress at Stamford Quarter demonstrate our commitment to consultation-led regeneration that delivers lasting benefit for local communities.

“Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to capitalise on emerging opportunities. We end the year with a strong balance sheet, diversified revenue streams and a commitment to innovation – all of which provide a solid foundation for future growth.”

MeOmics Precision Medicine began in 2021 as a spin-out from Cardiff University

Cardiff-based medtech business MeOmics Precision Medicine is expanding after a joint investment in a £300,000 round from Angels Invest Wales and Women Angels of Wales. The latest investment will allow the company toadvance platform development and data generation, and hire new technical staff.

MeOmics Precision Medicine began in 2021 as a spin-out from Cardiff University, backed by an Innovate UK grant and support from partners St Andrew’s Healthcare. It uses stem cell-based techniques to identify patients’ biological types when conducting drug discovery testing for conditions such as schizophrenia.

READ MORE: Admiral invests in fund backing growth of UK mid-market firmsREAD MORE: Data centre and renewable investment plans at Global Centre of Rail Excellence site delayed

The tests used by the business allow for more targeted drug development, minimising the risk of failure in the clinic or ineffective treatment selection for patients.

The business has received £125,000 in equity investment from Women Angels of Wales – led by data expert and lead investor Sara Boltman – plus £125,000 in match funding from the Wales Angel Co-Investment Fund and £50,000 from existing investors. It also follows a £25,000 grant from the Welsh Government, via Smart Flexible Innovation Support (SFIS)

Lucy Sykes, chief executive of MeOmics Precision Medicine, said: “The complexity of mental illnesses means it is difficult to develop new therapies that will work for everyone. Incorrectly applied treatment for mental illnesses can lead to debilitating side-effects for the individual patient, while also resulting in huge costs to the NHS.

“Our technology allows us to do in psychiatry what’s been done in oncology, and help drug developers to match their treatments not just across broad patient populations, but instead to targeted groups of patients depending on their underlying biology.”

She added: “This investment from Angels Invest Wales and Women Angels of Wales will help us optimise our platform for customers, expand our partnerships and grow our team, as we take the next step in our journey to commercialisation.”

Sara Boltman, Women Angels of Wales, said: “I’ve made a number of smaller investments in the past, but this is the first investment on which I’ve led. As someone with a background in data, I was interested in the work being done by Lucy and the team at MeOmics, and I was glad of the opportunity for us to support another female founder.”

Carol Hall, Co-Investment network manager at the Development Bank of Wales, said: “MeOmics Precision Medicine is an excellent example of the kind of businesses working in Wales’ medtech ecosystem. We were glad to back Women Angels of Wales’ investment in the business, and welcome Sara Boltman’s expertise as lead investor.”

Established to help support women in the early-stage investment community in Wales, Women Angels of Wales is jointly supported by the British Business Bank and the Development Bank of Wales. The syndicate has access to co-investment of up to £350,000 for each deal from the Development Bank’s £8 million Wales Angel Co-Investment Fund.

When President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs, Wall Street panicked and markets plunged. Now, with the Dow surging past 50,000, Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro says the rebound is proof the tariffs defied Wall Street fears and helped drive investment, productivity and economic growth critics never saw coming.

White House Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro joined FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on ‘Mornings with Maria‘ as markets pushed to new highs, reflecting on the sharp reversal that followed April’s tariff-driven sell-off.

The rally marks a dramatic reversal from early April, when stocks sold off sharply after the tariff announcement and the Dow slid toward 38,000 points. Navarro said that moment exposed a fundamental disconnect between Wall Street’s inflation fears and how President Donald Trump’s economic strategy actually works.

“It’s nice to be right,” Navarro said, pointing back to his prediction in April. “We were talking on April 7th, thereabouts… The Dow had fallen to 38,000… What I said to you… It’s going to 50,000.”

DOW CLOSES ABOVE 50,000 FOR FIRST TIME

Navarro argues tariffs are widely misunderstood because they are viewed in isolation rather than as part of a broader supply-side framework. That approach combines tax cuts, deregulation, energy policy and trade enforcement. Navarro calls this the administration’s “four engines of growth.”

“What you get with tariffs is you get a massive wave of investment… That increases productivity… Productivity is the key to rising real wages,” Navarro said.

Navarro argued the investment surge strengthens productivity, supporting wage growth without driving inflation. He said the same dynamic played out after the 2016 election, when futures markets plunged only to be followed by a powerful rally.

Recent economic data, Navarro said, is beginning to reflect that sequencing. He pointed to the ISM manufacturing index jumping above 50, signaling expansion for the first time since 2022, after months of construction and capital investment.

“You got to have the construction jobs first, then you get the manufacturing,” Navarro said, adding that durable goods orders and GDP growth are now moving in the same direction.

TRUMP PREDICTING 100K ON DOW BY TIME HE LEAVES OFFICE, CLAIMS HE WAS ‘RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING’

Navarro also urged investors to recalibrate expectations around job data as immigration enforcement reshapes the labor market.

“50,000 a month is going to be more like what we need,” Navarro said, arguing headline numbers must be viewed in context.

With the Dow clearing 50,000 far faster than skeptics expected, Navarro says markets are once again signaling confidence that President Donald Trump’s trade policies are driving growth — not inflation.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

The council is currently in the throes of setting its annual budget, with rising demand for services

Somerset Council is “not in the territory” of effectively declaring bankruptcy within the next 12 months, says its interim finance chief. The council is presently grappling with setting its annual budget, as escalating demand for services and the continually rising costs of meeting these needs make balancing the finances increasingly challenging.

The council’s forecasted budget deficit for 2026/27 has significantly reduced from £73m in December 2025 to approximately £41.4m a month later – although it will still be dependent on extraordinary financial aid from the central government to bridge this gap.

Clive Heaphy, the council’s interim chief financial officer, expressed that he was not immediately concerned about the council’s ability to set its annual budget, adding that he anticipated the projected budget shortfall to decrease further once the government confirmed the final local government funding settlement.

Mr Heaphy discussed the matter extensively when the council’s corporate and resources scrutiny committee convened in Taunton on January 28.

He said: “We have probably moved slightly away from a financial emergency, but let’s be clear: we still have deep issues to do with our budget and balancing our finances, and we still have a lot of work to do. We need to match our spending to our income without reliance on exceptional financial support, reserves or one-off savings.

“You will recall that had a gap coming into this year originally of £101m, representing some 17 per cent of our net revenue budget – that’s a very large deficit by any measure.

“The gap as reported in December was down to £73m, and is now down to £41.4m. By the time we get to the executive [on March 25], we will be moving towards a figure starting with a three, and the likely figure is likely to be in the mid-thirties [millions].”

To bridge the outstanding shortfall, the council is substantially dependent on exceptional financial assistance from central government – which permits the council to utilise the proceeds from disposing of land, property and other assets to fund everyday expenditure (something which is not ordinarily allowed).

The council can only increase its share of council tax bills by a maximum of 4.99 per cent without prompting a referendum, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) rejecting any higher rise in the final local government finance settlement on Monday (February 9).

The council operates a council tax reduction scheme which offers support for residents who are finding it difficult to pay council tax – with Mr Heaphy noting that the current scheme meant that the equivalent of 12,800 Somerset residents were contributing no council tax whatsoever.

If the council fails to legally set its budget by 11 March, it will be forced to issue a Section 114 notice and declare effective bankruptcy – resulting in the MHCLG dispatching commissioners who can implement sweeping changes with minimal democratic scrutiny.

Mr Heaphy said: “I am pleased to say that this year, we are not in Section 114 territory of at the moment.

“While the reserves are not the levels where we need them to be, I don’t think they represent a risk as long as we are not calling on them for regular, day-to-day spending.”

Councillor Dave Mansell (who heads the opposition Green group on the council) suggested that the council’s choice to spend proceeds from asset sales on its ongoing transformation programme might not deliver value for local taxpayers.

Mr Mansell (who represents the Upper Tone division near Wellington) said: “We have relied a lot on the capitalisation, and I tend to think we’ve relied on that too much – we’ve avoided doing something better with that money.

“We’ve had 15 years of cuts and savings to local government; there have been many painful decisions over those years, and it’s still going on. Our officers are overstretched, having to do too much and are struggling to keep up with everything – I’m sure we all see that.

“It looks like the budget gap will be closed through a council tax increase – I think we have to look at that, given our circumstances.

“Those who don’t want to pay more council tax will have to say which public services they don’t want any more . We’ve already dropped some that we should have kept going.”

Councillor Henry Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat, Castle Cary) argued the council would never achieve financial stability without comprehensive social care reform.

He said: “In my division, I have Chilton Cantelo special needs school and six different adult social care homes – almost every single one of which are now owned by financial institutions in London.

“It is a complete and utter disgrace the amount of money that is being charged by special needs schools – it is more expensive to send a child to Chilton Cantelo than it is to send a child to Eton, and it really isn’t good enough.

“Somebody higher up than me and this committee has got to do something about it.”

The council’s executive committee will reconvene on Wednesday (February 11) to examine rental levels for the authority’s housing portfolio, rather than addressing the complete budget as initially scheduled.

A dedicated executive session will follow on February 25 to scrutinise cost-saving proposals, fee adjustments and any additional measures that might be required once further Government guidance arrives.

The full council will convene at the Canalside conference centre in Bridgwater on March 4 to ratify the budget. Should the budget fail to gain approval, a backup full council meeting has been arranged for March 6 at the same location, with a reserve executive date set for the day before.

Following the budget’s approval, the council will name a permanent successor to Mr Heaphy. The senior management appointments and employment committee is scheduled to convene in a confidential session on Monday evening (February 16) to discuss this matter.

A data breach that impacted a major government tech contractor is now believed to be significantly larger than initially thought, with more than 25 million Americans affected.

Conduent, a business technology firm that provides a variety of services like medical billing, toll transactions and processing prepaid cards for government programs, experienced a data breach that began in October 2024 and was mitigated in January 2025.

Last October, the company began informing consumers who were affected by the breach, which was believed to have affected more than 10 million people who had their names, Social Security numbers and medical information exposed. 

Newly released data breach reports have pushed the number of people affected in Texas to at least 15.4 million, up from an earlier estimate of 4 million that was released in October, according to a report by TechCrunch.

10M AMERICANS HIT IN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR DATA BREACH

Conduent has been working through the process of notifying clients and consumers about the data breach. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Additionally, the Oregon attorney general said over 10 million people were affected by the breach, and Conduent has reached out to “hundreds of thousands” of people in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and other states, according to TechCrunch’s review of breach notifications.

A ransomware group known as SafePay took responsibility for the Conduent data breach and claimed to have stolen over 8 terabytes of data over the course of the intrusion.

CHINA BANS US AND ISRAELI CYBERSECURITY FIRMS OVER NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS: REPORT

Conduent said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last fall that its investigation of the breach “confirmed that the data sets contained a significant number of individuals’ personal information associated with our clients’ end-users,” and it notified its government and private sector clients about the affected end users.

The SafePay ransomware group claimed responsibility for the Conduent data breach. (iStock)

The company added in the Sept. 30, 2025, filing that it’s working with clients on the next steps required by federal and state law “including individual and regulatory notifications that began in October 2025 and are expected to be concluded by early 2026.”

TEXAS GOV ABBOTT ADDS POPULAR CHINESE ELECTRONICS, ONLINE SHOPPING COMPANIES TO ‘PROHIBITED’ TECH LIST

In a statement provided to FOX Business, Conduent said that, “Working in conjunction with our clients, we expect to send out all of the consumer notifications by April 15. In addition, a dedicated call center has been set up to address consumer inquiries. At this time, Conduent has no evidence of any attempted or actual misuse of any information potentially affected by this incident.”

The company said in its statement that “given the nature and complexity of the data involved, Conduent worked diligently with a dedicated review team, including internal and external experts, and conducted a detailed analysis of the affected files to identify the personal information contained therein, which was a time-intensive process.”

Conduent said that it expects to send all consumer notifications by April 15. (iStock)

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

“Both Conduent and our third-party experts monitor the dark web regularly and have no evidence of any personal information being released on the dark web,” the statement noted.