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Christian May

Christian May

City A.M.

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Tesla pays the price for Elon Musk’s politics

Tesla pays the price for Elon Musk’s politics

People do strange things when passions are running high. Take the brave protester in Bristol, who last month felt he had to take a stand against the...

latest 4

City A.M.

Christian May

Are we all just winging it, all the time?

Are we all just winging it, all the time?

There aren’t many decade-old Guardian articles that still resonate with me, but I can recall (and often revisit) a 2014 column by Oliver Burkeman....

yesterday 3

City A.M.

Christian May

The Spring Statement takes us back to square one

The Spring Statement takes us back to square one

It might not have been a Budget, but the Chancellor may well wish that it had been. Constrained by her fiscal rules and her own insistence that...

28.03.2025 3

City A.M.

Christian May

If the world really has changed, Chancellor, then drop your tax hikes

If the world really has changed, Chancellor, then drop your tax hikes

Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement on Wednesday afternoon. Rachel Reeves has one of the most demanding, high profile and exhausting jobs...

27.03.2025 10

City A.M.

Christian May

Reeves crosses her fingers and hopes for growth

Reeves crosses her fingers and hopes for growth

Ahead of last October’s Budget, ministers allowed months of speculation as to what would be unveiled, and the never-ending drumbeat of doom and...

26.03.2025 6

City A.M.

Christian May

Do we need to rethink Brexit’s impact on UK-EU trade?

Do we need to rethink Brexit’s impact on UK-EU trade?

With the weekend approaching, allow me to furnish you with a classic conversation starter for the pub or a dinner party; have you heard that the OBR...

21.03.2025 10

City A.M.

Christian May

PM’s growth rhetoric does not match reality

PM’s growth rhetoric does not match reality

Jonathan Brady/PA Wire Stirring words from the Prime Minister in today’s City AM , with Keir Starmer vowing to unleash the “animal spirits”...

19.03.2025 5

City A.M.

Christian May

Will Starmer’s chainsaw be Black & Decker or Fisher Price?

Will Starmer’s chainsaw be Black & Decker or Fisher Price?

Starmer won’t get very far with that On Monday I used this column to ask who, if anyone, will have the courage to take a chainsaw to the British...

14.03.2025 4

City A.M.

Christian May

Labour’s growth agenda? Necessary but not sufficient.

Labour offers some welcome reforms but the plan is nowhere near radical enough if we’re to enjoy good growth in the future Ministers will be deeply...

12.03.2025 8

City A.M.

Christian May

Watch the Week in Business: Tax Blame Game

Play Video You can hear the spin a mile away; as the Chancellor’s team prepares for the Spring Statement the political groundwork is...

07.03.2025 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Reeves is gearing up for a blame game

You can hear the spin a mile away; as the Chancellor’s team prepares for the Spring Statement the groundwork is being laid. Despite the fact that...

07.03.2025 30

City A.M.

Christian May

Net Zero: weak economic growth, high energy prices and stagnant productivity?

No laughing matter: Net Zero policy needs cool heads How many times have we heard the argument that there is no trade-off between pursuing Net Zero...

06.03.2025 6

City A.M.

Christian May

A win on the world stage masks mounting trouble at home

Prime Minister Keir Starmer Keir Starmer has won plaudits for his decision to increase defence spending (albeit by less than the amount he’s given...

05.03.2025 2

City A.M.

Christian May

Week in Business: Will more defence spending mean higher taxes?

Play Video Cutting the international aid budget to boost defence spending – sounds like a fair exchange in a time of war and hazard...

28.02.2025 2

City A.M.

Christian May

Budget policies coming home to roost

(Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) With each passing day, the government’s insistence that economic growth is its “number one priority” sounds...

19.02.2025 10

City A.M.

Christian May

Labour has sucked the confidence out of wealthy Brits

The government defines a high net worth individual as someone with an income of at least £170,000 and net assets of more than £430,000. Such people...

14.02.2025 4

City A.M.

Christian May

BP’s Net Zero push has crashed into reality

BP seems poised to row back from recent pledges on Net Zero I remember when I first encountered a hard copy FTSE 100 annual report. I was a first...

13.02.2025 10

City A.M.

Christian May

Week in Business: Growth hammer blow means Reeves must change course

Play Video If the Chancellor was still on a high from last week’s big growth-focused speech, the Bank of England has just pulled her...

08.02.2025 7

City A.M.

Christian May

Is Reeves heading for a fiscal car crash?

Boxed in: the Chancellor faces tough choices Rachel Reeves has a deep respect for officialdom and institutions and was aghast at the way Liz Truss...

07.02.2025 20

City A.M.

Christian May

Trump’s tariffs reveal reality of Dealmaker-in-Chief

It’s Trump’s world now and the rest of us are just living in it Things happen quickly in Trump’s America. On Saturday, the US President...

05.02.2025 7

City A.M.

Christian May

The Week in Business: is Reeves right to be an optimist?

Play Video This was the week when Barclays became the latest big employer to tighten up its work from home policies, now requiring...

01.02.2025 4

City A.M.

Christian May

Politicians should drop their obsession with Silicon Valley

Successive British politicians have reached for Silicon Valley – or the idea of Silicon Valley – every time they’ve wanted to project a vision...

31.01.2025 1

City A.M.

Christian May

Glaring contradiction at heart of government growth agenda

Growthbusters: Starmer and Reeves have embarked on a contradictory growth agenda In the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act of 2013 (stay with me)...

29.01.2025 3

City A.M.

Christian May

The Week in Business: Reeves tries to rescue the non-doms

Play Video It’s a funny old world when the pleas of pensioners, farmers and shopkeepers fall on deaf ears but a Labour chancellor...

25.01.2025 8

City A.M.

Christian May

Going for growth is a game of risk that ministers must embrace

In the words of the Lord Mayor of London, “the only way you get growth is via risk.” Alastair King made this observation early in November last...

22.01.2025 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Reeves has dodged a bullet but she’s surrounded by landmines

Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Isabel Infantes/PA Wire After all the excitement of a ministerial resignation, it’s time to check in on the...

17.01.2025 5

City A.M.

Christian May

Tulip mania was only ever going to end one way

A short-lived ministerial career Yesterday, I asked whether Tulip Siddiq would still be the City minister by the end of the day, and just as the sun...

16.01.2025 4

City A.M.

Christian May

Disastrous school reform agenda is a solution in search of a problem

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson (Photo by Richard Pohle – WPA Pool/Getty Images) A long time ago I got...

10.01.2025 4

City A.M.

Christian May

Zuck rediscovers love of free speech – just in time for Trump 2.0

Mark Zuckerberg outside Meta HQ (Source: MZ FB) Will Mark Zuckerberg’s drastic policy changes tempt me back to Facebook? Nope. I quit the platform...

09.01.2025 3

City A.M.

Christian May

With expectations so low, Starmer might just carve out a win

(Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) From a news perspective, the Christmas break was more Deck the Halls than Silent Night. Keir Starmer ended last...

08.01.2025 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Starmer’s diplomacy downplays “epic scale” of Chinese spying

Yang Tengbo insists that he is not a spy and that he would “never do anything to harm the interests of the UK.” He was speaking yesterday after...

18.12.2024 4

City A.M.

Christian May

Growth is easier to destroy than to build

Labour’s policy changes have already had a clear negative impact on the economy Missions, milestones, foundations and pledges; Keir Starmer has...

17.12.2024 3

City A.M.

Christian May

All hail Rayner, destroyer of NIMBYs

Raise a glass to a Deputy PM on a mission to build Since Christmas is a time for hope, it’s worth appreciating the good news when we see it. The...

11.12.2024 10

City A.M.

Christian May

No Christmas cheer for employers as 2024 draws to a close

Tuesday December 3, 2024. PA Photo. Jonathan Brady/PA Wire There are plenty of reasons to be cheerful at this time of year, but the state of the...

09.12.2024 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Starmer needs a rethink, not a relaunch

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer giving a speech shortly after taking office (Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire) It doesn’t take a huge stretch of the...

04.12.2024 5

City A.M.

Christian May

Business leaders brace for a cold winter

Storms are coming. Jeff Moore/PA Wire Temperatures are set to fall again as a mid-week cold snap muscles in, bringing icy winds to accompany the...

02.12.2024 5

City A.M.

Christian May

Ministers are in denial over the Budget’s impact on jobs and growth

Any growth over there? Well, that didn’t last long. Barely 48 hours after the Chancellor told the CBI conference that the tax-hiking Budget was...

28.11.2024 2

City A.M.

Christian May

Critics circle under-fire watchdog

The FCA needs to restore trust What unites firebrand socialist MPs and stalwarts of the Tory establishment? The answer – somewhat unbelievably –...

27.11.2024 7

City A.M.

Christian May

Reeves played fast and loose with business leaders’ trust

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference at the QEII Centre, London. Picture date:...

26.11.2024 9

City A.M.

Christian May

Substance must overtake style if Jaguar’s to stay in the race

The British car maker has taken new cars off sale to the general public for more than a year as it reinvents itself to launch three new electric...

25.11.2024 2

City A.M.

Christian May

Starmer’s war on farmers will end in tears

Farmers protest in central London over the changes to inheritance tax (IHT) rules in the recent budget. PA Photo. Photo credit: Gareth Fuller/PA...

20.11.2024 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Starmer risks resurrecting Cameron’s failed China script

President Biden infuriated China by calling Jinping a “dictator” The Prime Minister has been mingling with world leaders in Brazil, and while his...

19.11.2024 4

City A.M.

Christian May

Labour’s assault on the private sector will come back to haunt them

Labour’s first few months in power have caused huge concern among employers The weekend’s papers groaned under the weight of business leaders’...

18.11.2024 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Bosses believe WFH will come to an end – wishful thinking?

WFH, or join the commute? Given the City of London is a major destination for commuters (especially those working in professional services) the...

13.11.2024 2

City A.M.

Christian May

All hail the regulator going for growth

At last month’s Investment Summit in the City, Keir Starmer set out an admirably clear view of how he wants this country’s regulatory bodies to...

12.11.2024 2

City A.M.

Christian May

Ministers either don’t understand private sector, or don’t care

The government’s first Budget heaps hundreds of millions of additional costs on business No politician could actually get away with telling...

11.11.2024 4

City A.M.

Christian May

It turns out Kamala never stood a chance

A huge majority of Americans felt the economy wasn’t working – and they wanted change In the end, the race for the White House was not determined...

06.11.2024 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Labour cheered 1p off a pint but the Budget leaves a vicious hangover

The Budget has hammered hospitality and retail with massive cost increases As Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget one week ago, the loudest cheer...

06.11.2024 3

City A.M.

Christian May

As America votes, can US democracy survive without a WaPo endorsement?

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, which this year hasn’t endorsed a presidential candidate The US election has given rise to a...

05.11.2024 3

City A.M.

Christian May

Badenoch wants a battle of ideas – we should wish her well

Kemi Badenoch is congratulated by her husband Hamish after she was announced as the new Conservative Party leader (Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire) One...

04.11.2024 2

City A.M.

Christian May