Billionaire Tory donor gives £200,000 to Reform UK

JCB chair Lord Bamford hands equal amount to Tories and Reform to support parties he says ‘believe in small business’

UK divisions of ticket resale website Viagogo hit with £15m bill over tax shortfall

Company already under scrutiny on ‘secondary ticketing’ amid outcry over touts using such platforms to exploit fans

The bond market is wrong. Reeves should not cut welfare to placate the City

Keeping the markets on side is the chancellor’s priority but it’s not an easy task given their simplistic, misplaced views on welfare cuts

AI-powered nimbyism could grind UK planning system to a halt, experts warn

Tools that help people scan applications and find grounds for objection have potential to hit government’s housebuilding plans

‘A job is like finding a needle in a haystack’: how Dudley became centre of UK’s youth jobs crisis

Almost one in five school-leavers in West Midlands town are not in education, employment or training and chancellor is under pressure to deliver promised ‘youth guarantee’

Increase taxes for working people, or make the super-rich pay their fair share? The answer seems obvious – but not to Labour

Rachel Reeves has unnecessarily blocked her options of what to include in her budget, says Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah of the New Economics Foundation

MPs urge Reeves to raise gambling taxes despite ‘scaremongering’ from firms

Treasury select committee calls for higher duties on most addictive forms, such as high-street slots and online games

Business leaders urge Reeves to force pension funds to raise UK investments

More than 250 bosses ask chancellor to require schemes to put 25% of assets in British firms, which could unlock £95bn

Lucy Powell says Labour must stand by promise not to raise key taxes

New deputy leader also calls on government to lift two-child benefit cap urgently and in full

Bank of England opens door to December rate cut as it signals inflation has peaked

Policymakers keep borrowing costs at 4% before crucial budget while also warning of persistent weak growth

Bank of England’s decision to keep interest rates at 4% is not all doom and gloom

Close-run vote raises hopes of rates cut in December, with inflation said to have peaked at 3.8%

Thinktanks urge Rachel Reeves to overhaul ‘broken’ tax system

Coalition says ‘arbitrary and nonsensical’ rules are penalising work and discouraging investment

Economic policy is one thing Nigel Farage can’t crib from the Donald Trump playbook

The Maga model, based on the US’s exorbitant market privileges, can’t be imported to Britain. That’s going to be a problem for Reform UK, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

Reeves refuses to say she will stick to manifesto pledge on tax rises and insists she must face world ‘as it is’ – as it happened

Chancellor says she is focused on priorities for British people in pre-budget speech laying ground for expected tax rises

Pound hits lowest since April as investors anticipate budget tax rises; markets hit by AI valuation jitters – as it happened

Sterling drops against dollar as chancellor’s speech is taken as a sign that taxes will rise in the budget, and interest rates may fall faster