Since taking power in July, Starmer has looked to ’reset' ties with the EU in the wake of years of Brexit talks. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer departs from Downing Street in London, on Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images Sir Keir Starmer was in Brussels on Monday to meet European Union leaders en masse, in a first for a British prime minister since Brexit. On his trip, Starmer will also meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as well as the leaders from the 27 EU member...

The City of London, once considered the crown jewel of Britain’s dominant services sector, has performed even worse than the rest of the economy in the years following the Brexit referendum.

Financial and insurance output has grown just 2.8% since the decision to leave the European Union in June 2016, Bloomberg analysis of official data shows. That is much slower than the 10% increase in overall gross value added, which itself reflects only anemic growth for the wider economy across nearly a decade.

Brexit had some benefits, No 10 says on anniversary The prime minister believes Brexit has had some benefits, Downing Street has said on the fifth anniversary of the UK leaving the European Union. A No 10 spokesman pointed to freedom from EU regulations, helping to make the UK a more competitive financial hub. However, he said Sir Keir Starmer also wanted "to make Brexit work better for the British people" and strengthen relations with Europe. The Conservatives accused the government of being "determined to dismantle Brexit and drag us back...

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UK has not ruled out EU food trade deal, says minister His comments come after EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic told the BBC a new agreement, including so-called dynamic alignment on standards, is possible alongside other areas of pan-European co-operation on customs. Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC such an agreement - which lowers all trade barriers in return for mirroring EU rules and standards - would not cross the government's red lines. The UK has left open the possibility of following EU rules for food and farm products in order...

The UK government has refused a request by Stormont’s unionist parties to trigger a post-Brexit mechanism, known as the Stormont Brake, to prevent a European Union law coming into force in Northern Ireland. Unionist MLAs had backed a DUP motion before Christmas to pull the brake in a bid to stop new EU rules on packaging and labelling of chemicals, such as house cleaning materials and industrial chemicals. On Monday, Northern Secretary Hilary Benn announced that legal tests had not been met to use the mechanism, which is contained in...

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised her predecessors for mishandling Brexit, saying leaving the EU without a growth plan was a "mistake". In her first major speech of 2025, Badenoch will attack the Labour's government but also her own party for repeatedly pledging to lower immigration as numbers "kept going up" and for promising net zero carbon emissions by 2050 without a clear plan. Badenoch pledged to tell hard truths "even when it's difficult to hear" to restore trust with the public. Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves accused the Tory leader...

The UK’s trade in goods is set to grow by an average of just 0.7% a year in the decade from 2023, well behind the global average of 2.9%, according to a report published Monday by Boston Consulting Group. Post-Brexit frictions will continue to hinder trade with the European Union, while higher US tariffs under President-elect Donald Trump will weigh on UK exports, BCG said. It added that Britain will be buffeted by US and EU efforts to divert their supply chains away from China. Last year, it had expected...

Former Brexit negotiator Sir Oliver Robbins is expected to be appointed as the top civil servant at the Foreign Office, the BBC understands. He will take over from Sir Philip Barton, who became permanent secretary in 2020 but decided to step down this month before the end of the full five-year term achieved by his predecessors. It is understood Sir Oliver did not initially apply for the role, but will now return to the civil service to take the job - having left in 2019 after overseeing the Brexit negotiations....

star Kevin O'Leary realizes not everyone is a fan of President-elect Donald Trump's idea of making the 51st state—so he proposed an "economic union" similar to the European Union. But that might be a hard sell for a president who once called himself "Mr. Brexit." O'Leary appeared on Friday morning to discuss Trump's talk about absorbing Canada into the United States. O'Leary, who is Canadian, endorsed the plan, , calling it "something great." "If you figured out a way to put these two countries together, it would be the most...