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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The UK stands apart as a place to do business, not because of one advantage, but many working together. Over £10 trillion in capital, four of the world's top universities, a 10-year industrial strategy in action, its stability with dynamism, global reach with local depth. It all adds up to greater growth. Find out more at business.gov.uk slash growth.
News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Jack Sidders. And I'm Caroline Hepke. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer appears to have won a reprieve from a potential leadership challenge with all members of his cabinet backing him to stay on.
The public endorsement of Starmer comes after a second top adviser resigned and the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, called for the Prime Minister to go. The situation in Downing Street is not good enough. There have been too many mistakes. They promised they were going to be different, but too much has happened.
However, Sarwar's push for Starmer's removal was met with a wall of support for the Prime Minister as Labour politicians came to his defence. And perhaps most notably, key potential leadership challenges, including the likes of former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, opted to back Starmer. Let's give Keir, like, just give Keir that chance.
Let him set out how he's going to lead us forward. The near-unanimous public support from Streeting and others gives Starmer more time in the top job, but his record-low polling and upcoming local elections are adding to a growing sense of crisis in Downing Street.
Bloomberg has learned that the European Union is preparing options to embed Ukraine's future EU membership into any peace deal with Russia. Formal negotiations on EU membership began in 2024, but the process has been stalled by objections from Hungary. With more, here's our chief Europe correspondent, Oliver Crook.
Sources say the options now under consideration include providing Ukraine with the protections that come with EU accession up front, as well as immediate access to some membership rights.
At the same time, the bloc would give Ukraine a clear time frame, as well as outline the steps it needs to take in order to advance through the formal accession procedure, which normally takes many years and requires the backing of all member states. A draft peace plan anticipates EU membership in 2027, with Kiev receiving some benefits from membership in the interim.
In response to questions from Bloomberg, a spokesman for the European Commission said Ukraine's future accession to the EU is part of the discussion on a peace agreement. Oliver Crook, Bloomberg Radio. France's central bank governor, François Villeroy de Gallo, surprised many yesterday by announcing that he will step down in June this year, more than a year before the end of his term.
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Chapter 2: What recent developments have occurred in UK politics regarding Keir Starmer?
Now we've got some breaking earnings news. BP says that it has decided to suspend share buybacks. The struggling UK energy giant, which employs over 100,000 people, reported adjusted net profits of $1.5 billion for the fourth quarter, broadly in line with estimates. BP also increased its cost-cutting targets to between $5.5 and $6.5 billion by the end of next year.
It now expects proceeds from divestments to exceed $11 billion. Meanwhile, Barclays Bank is saying that it sees capital returns... of more than £15 billion for the years 2026 to 2028. They've come out with their fourth quarter investment banking revenue, which has topped estimates at £2.79 billion. So the expectation had been for £2.7 billion. So that from Barclays this morning.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca also reporting earnings, fourth quarter core earnings per share, a slight miss, $2.12 versus the estimate of $2.14. Shares in US insurance brokers were pummeled in trading yesterday after the launch of an AI tool from insurance shopping platform Insurify. The tool uses ChatGPT to compare car insurance rates.
The S&P 500 insurance index closed down 3.9% in its biggest drop since October, with Arthur J. Gallagher, Aon and Marshall McLennan down significantly. The UK's insurance industry is increasingly seen as the bedrock of the City of London, while France and Germany have sizeable industries of their own. But there are those who doubt AI can replace the core business of insurance brokers.
In a new analysis of living standards, the think tank the Resolution Foundation says that a typical lower-income British household would have to wait 137 years to see their living standards double. Bloomberg's Ewan Potts has more. High rents and low pay mean work is no longer a route out of poverty for millions of families in the UK.
That's the conclusion of a report called Unsung Britain from the Resolution Foundation. It says incomes of poorer families are set to grow just 0.5% a year across the 2020s. In the 40 years up to the mid-2000s, the typical disposable incomes of working-age families in the poorest half of Britain doubled, growing by 1.8% a year in real terms.
The report says that for many, in-work poverty has become a bigger issue than worklessness. In London, I'm Ewan Potts, Bloomberg Radio. That's news when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Jack Sidders. I'm Caroline Hepka and this is Bloomberg. As a place to do business, the UK stands apart. Not because of a single advantage, but a uniquely powerful combination of many.
As one of the world's leading financial centres, the UK puts over £10 trillion to work every day, fuelling innovation across every sector. Home to four of the world's top universities, it provides exceptional talent and breakthrough research. This sits alongside a clear 10-year industrial strategy, unlocking smarter regulation and making it faster and easier to operate. Stability with dynamism.
Global connectivity with local depth. It all adds up to greater growth. Visit business.gov.uk slash growth.
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