Ian King: The people and events that defined my 11 years at Sky News
It’s 6.25pm on Monday 2 June 2014 and my heart is racing.
After 20 years as a national newspaper journalist, plus a few years of working in the City before that, I am about to learn whether I can cut it as a television presenter.
I’d done plenty of broadcast journalism over the years – for BBC Radio Five Live’s Weekend Business and Wake Up To Money, BBC Radio Four’s Today programme and regular appearances on Sky News – but these were as a guest pundit or, in media jargon, what is known as the “presenter’s friend”.
This was different. Sky News had entrusted me to step into the sizeable shoes of Jeff Randall, its influential business presenter from September 2007 to March 2014.
After four or five rehearsals using Jeff’s old scripts, under the tutelage of experienced director Neil Hunter and with colleagues Dafydd Rees, Katie Mandel and Hannah Capella acting as guests, I was deemed ready.
Broadcasting from Sky’s original City Studio, on the 15th floor of the iconic Gherkin building on St Mary Axe, I awaited Neil’s cue before uttering the introductory words:
Ian King Live was first broadcast from the Gherkin building in the City of London
“From the heart of the City, this is Ian King Live.”
That first half hour show whizzed by: our guests were Dorothy Thompson, chief executive of power generator Drax; Clive Efford, the shadow minister for sport; and Lily Cole, the model and actress. Not bad on a slow news day although during the programme, overseen by my first producer Peter Hoskins, we also broke news that Frank Lampard would be leaving Chelsea.
The adrenalin was still pumping after the show but abated somewhat after John McAndrew, then executive editor and director of content at Sky News, called to declare it “a bloody brilliant start”.
Other guests that week included Andy Griffiths, UK chief executive of Samsung; Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor; Sir Tom Hunter, the billionaire entrepreneur and Tom Crotty, director at the chemicals giant Ineos.
Sir Terry Leahy was among the early guests on Ian King Live
The following week our guests included Sir Terry Leahy, the former Tesco chief executive, giving his first public comments on the accounting black hole recently disclosed by the supermarket; Paul Pester, the TSB chief executive, giving his first broadcast interview ahead of the bank’s stock market flotation; Keith Cochrane, chief executive of the FTSE 100 engineer Weir Group; Justin King, in his final broadcast interview as chief executive of Sainsbury’s and James Quincey, then head of Coca-Cola’s European business but now its global chairman and chief executive. We were up and running.
Now, some 11 years on and after more than 2,000 editions of Ian King Live (the show was rechristened Business Live with Ian King at the end of June 2023), Sky News and I are parting company.
Ian often took his show on the road, broadcasting from trading floors to farms and fishing ports. Pic: Martin Kimber
The worlds of business, markets and economics have changed immeasurably in that time. In April 2014, when I joined Sky News, Walmart was the world’s biggest company. It is now only the 15th largest in the S&P 500 – dwarfed by tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia. Reflecting that increase in importance, US companies now make up around 65% of global stock market capitalisation, compared with just 52% then.
Mark Carney was governor of the Bank of England, David Cameron was prime minister and George Osborne was chancellor; in the US, Barack Obama was president; Jack Lew was US Treasury secretary and Janet Yellen was chair of the Federal Reserve. It all seems such a long time ago now.
The central bank chief with the hardest role back in April 2014, though, was Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank.
Although Ireland and Portugal were about to exit the bailout packages they received at the height of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, there was still a sense that the fire had not quite been extinguished, which was why the ECB’s main policy rate was still zero. The Bank of England and the Fed still had interest rates at close to zero, too, with the latter becoming the first major global central bank to tighten monetary policy in December 2015.
So there was a real sense of crisis still in the air and, over the subsequent decade and a bit, very little has changed. The 2016 Brexit referendum led to some spectacular gyrations in the value of UK equities, bonds and the pound: the day after I did my first live broadcast – from the trading floor at Monex, a stone’s throw from the Bank of England – at 5.30am and was still broadcasting 11 hours later.
Mark Carney, now Canada’s prime minister, was at the helm of the Bank of England ahead of, and after, the EU referendum in 2016
A few months later, Donald Trump was elected for the first time, with markets rattled by his instigation of a trade war with China soon afterwards.
Then, in 2020, came COVID and, for a few months, it felt as if I was never off the air, bringing news first of the market turmoil that accompanied the lockdowns and then, later, the financial responses to the pandemic from governments, central banks and businesses alike.
By then, having relocated initially to the ‘Baby Shard’ in 2017, Sky’s City Studio had moved again, this time to Fleet Place, close to the Old Bailey. Everyone will have their own memories of lockdown, suffice it to say, going into a deserted City every day was a weird and depressing experience. Not as depressing, though, as interviewing distraught business owners weeping at what the lockdowns were doing to their livelihoods and those of their employees.
Some people, even some in the media industry, disparage business news as being somehow distanced from the human condition. They do not know what they are talking about.
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s boss. Pic: Reuters
The post-COVID bounce back in late 2021 and early 2022 was great fun to report on. Animal spirits, especially in the US, were back. But then, in September 2022, came Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget and the eventual departure of both him and Liz Truss.
The latter, incidentally, was one of the more surprising interviews I did at Sky News.
While in the post of justice secretary, she appeared on the programme on the evening of Philip Hammond’s autumn statement in November 2016 and, in response to one particularly tricky question on the public finances, replied: “I don’t know.”
That episode serves to remind just how many changes of personnel we have had during the last 11 years. Past and present chancellors I interviewed at Sky News included Nigel Lawson, Norman Lamont, Ken Clarke, Philip Hammond and Rachel Reeves.
The Bank of England has proved rather more stable although I still interviewed three governors past and present: Lord King, Mark Carney and Andrew Bailey.
Companies too have undergone frequent changes of leadership. During the last 11 years I have interviewed three different chief executives of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and BP, two each from – to name a few – Rio Tinto, Centrica, Land Securities, Lloyds Banking Group, Marks & Spencer, GlaxoSmithKline, BAE Systems, National Grid, British Airways, John Lewis Partnership, Prudential, easyJet, Greggs and RBS/NatWest.
Few have had the same chief executive for the entire period but two CEOs who have remained in place throughout are easily among the most outstanding of their generation. One is Sir Pascal Soriot, the French genius who helped AstraZeneca stave off an unwanted takeover bid from Pfizer, before building the drugmaker into the UK’s most valuable company.
The other is Michael O’Leary of Ryanair, a man with a rare talent for judging customer demand and for ruthlessly exploiting gaps in the market, even though some may cavil at his communications style.
And now, sadly, it is over.
Thank you to the thousands of guests who submitted themselves to interview over the years and to colleagues past and present. While the presenter is the only person the viewers see on air, TV is a huge team effort, with producers, directors, runners, lighting and sound technicians and make-up artists all contributing.
Above all, thank you to Sky News viewers from around the world and especially those who would get in touch with feedback. It has been a pleasure and a privilege appearing on screens on your laptops, mobile devices, trading floors, gyms, hotels and, even now, living rooms.
Santander is to buy TSB, becoming the UK’s third biggest bank in the process.
Once completed, the combined bank will have the third-largest number of personal account balances in the UK, and be fourth in terms of mortgage lending, with a total of nearly 28 million customers, Santander said.
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The deal is still subject to approval by regulators and shareholders of TSB’s parent company, Banco Sabadell, but is expected to conclude in the first three months of 2026.
It could mean the TSB brand is no longer visible on the high street, as Santander said it “intends to integrate TSB in the Santander UK group”.
Job losses may also result.
Santander‘s interest in tabling a bid for TSB was first reported by Sky News.
TSB has five million customers, offers business and personal accounts, and is the UK’s tenth largest lender for mortgages and deposits. After cutting jobs and branches last year, it currently employs roughly 5,000 staff and operates 175 branches, the seventh largest network in the UK.
It comes just months after speculation that Santander would leave the UK market, despite denials from the Spanish-owned lender.
File pic: iStock
In recent months, it had rejected takeover attempts from rivals NatWest and Barclays.
Barclays had also bid for TSB.
Banco Sabadell said it was selling TSB “to focus our strategy on Spain”, its chief executive, Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno, said.
Santander has agreed to pay an initial £2.65bn for TSB, with the final price expected to rise to £2.9bn when yet-to-be-announced financial results are factored in.
The price is 1.5 times the value of TSB’s assets.
“This is an excellent deal for customers, combining two strong and complementary banks, creating one of the most substantial banks in the UK and materially enhancing the competitiveness of the industry,” said Mike Regnier, CEO of Santander UK.
A major component within household energy bills is set to rise sharply from next year to help pay for efforts to maintain energy security during the transition to green power.
The industry regulator Ofgem’s draft determination on how much it will allow network operators to charge energy suppliers from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031 would push up network costs within household bills by £24 a year.
These charges currently account for 22% of the total bill.
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The findings, which will be subject to consultation before a final determination by the end of the year, reflect demands on network operators to make power and gas networks fit for the future amid expansion in renewable and nuclear energy to meet net zero ambitions.
Ofgem says the plans it has given provisional approval for amount to a £24bn investment programme over the five-year term – a four-fold increase on current levels.
A total of 80 major projects includes upgrades to more than 2,700 miles of overhead power lines.
If rubber stamped as planned, the resulting network cost increases threaten further upwards pressure on bills from next April – a month that has now become synonymous with rising essential bills.
The watchdog revealed its plans as the 22 million British households on the energy price cap benefit from the first decline for a year.
It is coming down from an annual average £1,849 between April and June to £1,720 from July to September.
That’s on the back of easing wholesale costs seen during the spring – before the temporary surge in wholesale gas prices caused by the recent instability in the Middle East.
A new forecast released by industry specialist Cornwall Insight suggested households were on track to see a further, but slight, decline when the cap is adjusted again in October.
At the current level it is 28% lower than at the height of the energy-led cost of living crisis – but 10% higher than the same period last year.
The price cap does not limit total bills because householders still pay for the amount of energy they consume.
Ofgem is continuing to recommend consumers shop around for fixed rate deals in the market as they can offer savings compared with the price cap and shield homes from any price shocks seen within their fixed terms.
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Jonathan Brearley, the regulator’s chief executive, said: ”Britain’s reliance on imported gas has left us at the mercy of volatile international gas prices which during the energy crisis would have caused bills to rise as high as £4,000 for an average household without government support.
“Even today the price cap can move up or down by hundreds of pounds with little we can do about it.
“This record investment will deliver a homegrown energy system that is better for Britain and better for customers. It will ensure the system has greater resilience against shocks from volatile gas prices we don’t control.
“These 80 projects are a long-term insurance policy against threats to Britain’s energy security and the instability of prices. By bringing online dozens of homegrown, renewable generation sites and modernising our energy system to the one we will need in the future we can boost growth and give ourselves more control over prices too.
“Doing nothing is not an option and will cost consumers more – this is critical national infrastructure. The sooner we build the network we need, and invest to strengthen our resilience, the lower the cost for bill payers will be in the future.”
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