Connect with us

Published

on

The outgoing chief of Ofsted is among the candidates for one of the biggest jobs in British broadcasting after being included on the shortlist to chair the BBC.

Sky News has learnt that Amanda Spielman, who has spent nearly seven years as the education watchdog’s chief inspector, is in the frame to replace Richard Sharp as the Corporation’s long-term chairman.

Industry sources said that Ms Spielman was one of about eight contenders for the job, with the preferred candidate subject to sign-off from the prime minister.

Her involvement in the process will come as a surprise given that her recent career has been spent in regulating aspects of Britain’s education sector.

Prior to Ofsted, Ms Spielman chaired the exam regulator, Ofqual, for five years, before which she had spent 15 years in finance, strategy and consulting roles.

She is also a trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum, while Samir Shah, one of the other contenders for the BBC chairmanship, has also served on the board of the London museum.

Ms Spielman is due to leave Ofsted next month, and in a recent interview with The Times said that the fact that she had not been a teacher had not hindered her work there.

More on Bbc

“Nobody expects the chief executive of CAA to have been a pilot or the chief executive of the Office of Rail and Road to be a train driver or a lorry driver,” she told the newspaper.

Sky News revealed earlier this month that Mr Shah was also on the shortlist for the job.

He has more of a media pedigree, having been on the board of the BBC and spent decades in television programme-making.

The search for a successor to Mr Sharp, who resigned in April amid a row over his role in helping to facilitate a six-figure loan to Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, is expected to be concluded in the next few months.

Interviews for the post recently got under way, with more than a handful of contenders still in the frame to take on one of the most prestigious posts in the British media industry.

A number of prominent business and media figures have, however, declined to apply.

Sir Damon Buffini, the deputy chairman and chair of the BBC’s commercial arm, was expected to be the frontrunner for the job, but is reported not to have thrown his hat into the ring.

Other prominent media executives, including Sir Peter Bazalgette, the former ITV chairman, have publicly ruled themselves out.

Dame Elan Closs Stephens, the acting chair, is thought to be in the frame to take the post on a permanent basis.

The appointment of Mr Sharp’s long-term successor will come at a sensitive time for the BBC, which has been plunged into a series of crises this year involving current and former presenters – including the newsreader Huw Edwards and Russell Brand.

It has also been grappling with a long-running challenge over the impartiality guidelines to which it expects its broadcasters – such as the Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker – to adhere.

Those sensitivities are likely to become even more acute during the next year with a general election on the horizon.

Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, is grappling with longer-term questions about the corporation’s future funding model, with recent culture secretaries such as Nadine Dorries having signalled the end of the licence fee after 2027.

The broadcaster has been forced to implement significant cost cuts affecting parts of its news and current affairs output, including long-running programmes such as BBC 2’s Newsnight.

Saxton Bampfylde, the headhunter, is overseeing the search for the BBC chair.

A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesman declined to comment.

Continue Reading

Business

Reynolds to hold talks with bosses amid business budget backlash

Published

on

By

Reynolds to hold talks with bosses amid business budget backlash

The business secretary will next week hold talks with dozens of private sector bosses as the government contends with a significant corporate backlash to Labour’s first fiscal event in nearly 15 years.

Sky News has learnt that executives have been invited to join a conference call on Monday with Jonathan Reynolds, in what will represent his first meaningful engagement with employers since Wednesday’s budget statement.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, unsettled financial markets with plans for billions of pounds in extra borrowing, and unnerved business leaders by saying she would raise an additional £25bn annually by hiking their national insurance contributions.

An increase in employer NICs had been trailed by officials in advance of the budget, but the lowering of the threshold to just £5,000 has triggered forecasts of a wave of redundancies and even insolvencies across labour-intensive industries.

Sectors such as retail and hospitality, which employ substantial numbers of part-time workers, have been particularly vocal in their condemnation of the move.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

On Friday, the Financial Times published comments made by the chief executive of Barclays in which he defended Ms Reeves.

“I think they’ve done an admirable job of balancing spending, borrowing and taxation in order to drive the fundamental objective of growth,” CS Venkatakrishnan said.

More on Budget 2024

His was a rare voice among prominent business figures in backing the chancellor, however, with many questioning whether the government had a meaningful plan to grow the economy.

Mr Reynolds held a similar call with business leaders within days of general election victory, and over 100 bosses are understood to have been invited to Monday’s discussion.

A spokesman for the Department for Business and Trade declined to comment ahead of Monday’s call.

Continue Reading

Business

Markets react on second open after budget – as traders concerned over some announcements

Published

on

By

Markets react on second open after budget - as traders concerned over some announcements

The cost of government borrowing has jumped, while UK stocks and the pound are up, as markets digest the news of billions in borrowing and tax rises announced in the budget.

While there was no panic, there had been concern about the scale of borrowing and changes to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules.

At the market open on Friday, the interest rate on government borrowing stood at 4.476% on its 10-year bonds – the benchmark for state borrowing costs.

It’s down from the high of yesterday afternoon – 4.525% – but a solid upward tick.

The pound also rose to buy $1.29 or €1.1873 after yesterday experiencing the biggest two-day fall in trade-weighted sterling in 18 months.

On the stock market front, the benchmark index, the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 list of most valuable companies was up 0.36%.

The larger and more UK-focused FTSE 250 also went up by 0.1%.

While there was a definite reaction to the budget, uniquely impacting UK borrowing costs, the response is far smaller than after the UK mini-budget.

Many forces are affecting markets with the upcoming US election on a knife edge and interest rate decisions in both the UK and the US coming on Thursday.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

Continue Reading

Business

Budget: Hostile market response as chancellor suffers Halloween nightmare

Published

on

By

Budget: Hostile market response as chancellor suffers Halloween nightmare

First things first: don’t panic.

What you need to know is this. The budget has not gone down well in financial markets. Indeed, it’s gone down about as badly as any budget in recent years, save for Liz Truss’s mini-budget.

The pound is weaker. Government bond yields (essentially, the interest rate the exchequer pays on its debt) have gone up.

That’s precisely the opposite market reaction to the one chancellors like to see after they commend their fiscal statements to the house.

In hindsight, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.

After all, the new government just committed itself to considerably more borrowing than its predecessors – about £140bn more borrowing in the coming years. And that money has to be borrowed from someone – namely, financial markets.

But those financial markets are now reassessing how keen they are to lend to the UK.

More on Budget 2024

The upshot is that the pound has fallen quite sharply (the biggest two-day fall in trade-weighted sterling in 18 months) and gilt yields – the interest rate paid by the government – have risen quite sharply.

This was all beginning to crystallise shortly after the budget speech, with yields beginning to rise and the pound beginning to weaken, the moment investors and economists got their hands on the budget documentation.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Chancellor challenged over gilt yield spike

But the falls in the pound and the rises in the bond yields accelerated today.

This is not, to be absolutely clear, the kind of response any chancellor wants to see after a budget – let alone their first budget in office.

Indeed, I can’t remember another budget which saw as hostile a market response as this one in many years – save for one.

That exception is, of course, the Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng mini-budget of 2022. And here is where you’ll find the silver lining for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.

The rises in gilt yields and falls in sterling in recent hours and days are still far shy of what took place in the run up and aftermath of the mini-budget. This does not yet feel like a crisis moment for UK markets.

But nor is it anything like good news for the government. In fact, it’s pretty awful. Because higher borrowing rates for UK debt mean it (well, us) will end up paying considerably more to service our debt in the coming years.

Rachel Reeves and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones prepare to leave 11 Downing Street
Image:
Rachel Reeves leaving 11 Downing Street before the budget. Pic: PA

And that debt is about to balloon dramatically because of the plans laid down by the chancellor this week.

And this is where things get particularly sticky for Ms Reeves.

In that budget documentation, the Office for Budget Responsibility said the chancellor could afford to see those gilt yields rise by about 1.3 percentage points, but then when they exceeded this level, the so-called “headroom” she had against her fiscal rules would evaporate.

Read more:
Chancellor defends £40bn tax rises
Hefty tax and spending plans a huge gamble – analysis

In other words, she’d break those rules – which, recall, are considerably less strict than the ones she inherited from Jeremy Hunt.

Which raises the question: where are those gilt yields right now? How close are they to the danger zone where the chancellor ends up breaking her rules?

Short answer: worryingly close. Because, right now, the yield on five-year government debt (which is the maturity the OBR focuses on most) is more than halfway towards that danger zone – only 56 basis points away from hitting the point where debt interest costs eat up any leeway the chancellor has to avoid breaking her rules.

Now, we are not in crisis territory yet. Nor can every move in currencies and bonds be attributed to this budget.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

Markets are volatile right now. There’s lots going on: a US election next week and a Bank of England decision on interest rates next week.

The chancellor could get lucky. Gilt yields could settle in the coming days. But, right now, the UK, with its high level of public and private debt, with its new government which has just pledged to borrow many billions more in the coming years, is being closely scrutinised by the “bond vigilantes”.

A Halloween nightmare for any chancellor.

Continue Reading

Trending