Shell has denied it is in talks with BP over a possible takeover of its smaller rival.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a number of sources, reported on Wednesday evening that discussions between the two UK-based energy firms were at an early, but active, stage.

The US publication added that BP was considering the approach.

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Its story was published soon after the London Stock Exchange had closed for the day, but US-listed depository shares in BP were 10% up in New York shortly after publication, while those for Shell were down.

However, Shell responded to the story by telling Sky News: “This is further market speculation. No talks are taking place.

“As we have said many times before, we are sharply focused on capturing the value of Shell through continuing to focus on performance, discipline and simplification.”

The rally for BP shares fell back in the wake of the statement. BP declined to comment.

The company has been widely seen as a possible takeover target for years, as its market value has lagged behind the growth of industry peers.

It was valued at nearly £59bn as of Wednesday, while Shell had a market capitalisation of over £153bn.

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The gulf between them has widened since 2020, when BP, under the then-chief executive Bernard Looney, embarked on a fundamental shift towards a green energy future.

The lofty ambitions were slowly chipped away following record leaps in oil and natural gas costs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Much of the strategy was overturned in a reset by current boss Murray Auchincloss in February this year, under pressure from shareholders.

BP’s debt pile has been seen as a potential barrier to takeover interest.

More people than ever are struggling to live on their current income – while just a third say they are living comfortably, according to new research.

Rising prices and sluggish pay increases have put many people’s finances under strain in recent years.

A record 26% now say making ends meet is difficult. Before the pandemic, it was 16%.

Two-thirds also say their incomes haven’t kept up with inflation, according to the British Social Attitudes report.

That’s only marginally better than the 70% recorded during the height of the cost of living crisis in 2023.

Frozen tax thresholds also appear to be hitting home, with 61% saying taxes on low earners are too high, while 44% believe middle income earners also pay too much.

Those figures are up nine points and 13 points respectively since 2016.

However, when it comes to the highest earners, 44% believe their taxes are too low.

The report also asked people about the welfare system – a timely insight with Labour MPs currently rebelling over plans to save £5bn from the budget.

It found support for more spending on disability benefits is at a record low of 45%, down from 67% in 2017 – but only 11% think spending should be reduced.

About 29% of those polled think it’s “too easy” for people to get disability benefits – but the same percentage also feel it’s “too difficult”.

Meanwhile, long waiting times appear to have played a part in the finding that a record 59% are now dissatisfied with the NHS. In 2019, it was just 25%.

Only 21% said they were satisfied with the health service.

The report is based on a representative, random sample of more than 4,000 people in the UK and was produced by the National Centre for Social Research.

It’s the longest-running measure of public opinion in Britain, having started in 1983.

Professor Sir John Curtice, senior research fellow, said: “The public are well aware of Britain’s problems – not least those of a failing health service and an economy in which many are struggling to make ends meet.

“Yet rather than turning their back on the state, for the most part, the public are still inclined to look to government to provide solutions.”

Defence was also a key theme of the report – and researchers found about 40% of Britons support spending more money on weapons and troops.

A fifth (20%) said they would like to see a reduction.

It comes as the government revealed it was buying at least 12 stealth jets that can carry nuclear weapons, and as NATO countries, including the UK, promise to increase defence spending.

The National Security Strategy also said the UK must prepare for the potential of a “wartime scenario” in the “UK homeland” for the first time in many years.

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Almost everyone surveyed (90%) considered Russia a serious threat to world peace, followed by Iran (78%), North Korea (77%), Israel (73%), and China (69%).

The percentage supporting more defence spending remains relatively unchanged since 2016, before Russia invaded Ukraine.

However, the share supporting an increase is significantly higher now than that in 2006 (28%) and in the 1990s (17%).

For more than a year, we have been tracking the flow of sanctioned items out of the UK and towards Russia.

Electronic equipment, radar parts, components used to make aircraft and drones. These are all items that have been banned from going to Russia. For good reason: while Britain is far from a global manufacturing powerhouse, it nonetheless still makes certain prized components used to make machinery.

In some hands, these components could be used for peaceful purposes, but they could also be used to wage war. All of which is why they are among the items sanctioned by G7 nations and banned from entry to Russia.

A glance at the trade figures might lull you into thinking those sanctions have been extraordinarily successful. Look at the flows of these so-called “dual use” goods from the UK to Russia and they drop to zero shortly after the invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of those export bans. But that’s not the whole story – because over precisely the same period, exports of those same items to countries neighbouring Russia have risen sharply.

At this point, the data trail goes cold. As far as the statistics tell us, those components stay in the Caucasus and Central Asia. But there are two powerful pieces of evidence that suggest otherwise. The first is that we have travelled out to the border of Russia and filmed European-sanctioned goods (in this case cars, the hardest of all goods to disguise) passing across the border.

The second is that Ukrainian forces have repeatedly found weaponry and equipment containing European and British components inside them on the battlefield in their country. British technology has been used to kill Ukrainians – in spite of sanctions. That was one of the messages President Volodymyr Zelenskyy relayed in his interview with my colleague Mark Austin.

So, in the wake of that interview, we revisited the databases to see if those flows of goods to Russian neighbours had slowed in recent months.

But, far from slowing, they’ve accelerated. In the past nine months, the flow of dual-use goods to Russian neighbours has risen by an average of 9%, compared with the monthly average between the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and last June. Those flows are 111% higher than they were before the invasion.

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Nor are the flows of British goods to Russian neighbours the only trend suggesting these components are being trans-shipped via third countries. Look at exports of sanctioned items to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey and they are up by a similar proportion.

In short: the evasion of sanctions continues much as it has done since the beginning of the war. For all the talk about the toughest sanctions regime in history, the reality on the ground is somewhat different.