Labour will be both “pro-worker and pro-business” if it wins the general election, Rachel Reeves will pledge on Tuesday.
The shadow chancellor will seek to reassure the corporate world of her credentials in her first major speech of the campaign, promising to “lead the most pro-growth Treasury in our country’s history”.
But speaking to an audience of company bosses, she will say their success depends on that of their workforce, claiming only Labour can deliver on both.
It comes after more than 120 business leaders, including chef Tom Kerridge and Wikileaks founder Jimmy Wales, signed an open letter giving their backing to Labour to “achieve the UK’s full economic potential”.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott pointed to attacks on the “French-style union” policies from Asda and Currys, saying they “risk damaging the economy [and] costing jobs”.
She added that “Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have a clear plan that businesses can rely on”, while Labour would “tie businesses in red tape and raise taxes”.
More on General Election 2024
Related Topics:
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Pointing to the change in direction, the shadow chancellor will say: “Our plans for growth are built on partnership with business. A mission-led government, prepared to take on the big challenges we face and ready to seize the opportunities of the future.”
Referencing decisions taken by the Conservative government of the past 14 years, she will add: “It is clearer than ever that in this election, in the face of Tory chaos, stability is change.
“Stability, so that we never again see a repeat of the mini budget and the damage it did to family finances. Stability, so that families and business can plan for the future.
“Stability of direction, so we can bring together government, business and working people in common purpose, to meet the great challenges of our time.”
Image: Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Pic: PA
Ms Reeves will say that by having business on their side, Labour can bring both investment and hope back to the country.
“If we can change this party to bring it back to the service of working people, if we can return it to the centre ground of politics, if we can bring business back to Labour, then I know we can bring business back to Britain,” Ms Reeves will add.
“To bring investment back to Britain. To bring growth back to Britain. To bring hope back to Britain.
“Because by bringing business back to Britain we can deliver a better future for working people, by creating good jobs that pay a decent wage. Bringing in investment to build strong communities with thriving high streets. Putting more money in people’s pockets. And having pride in the good and services made in Britain, but exported around the world.”
Making her election pitch, she will say the vote on 4 July will be “a chance for the British people to pass judgement on fourteen years of economic chaos and decline under the Conservatives”, adding: “The choice at the next election is simple: five more years of chaos with the Conservatives or stability with a changed Labour Party.
“We will fight this election on the economy. Every day we will expose the damage they have done, and set out Labour’s alternative.”
But the SNP’s Drew Hendry said the upcoming speech “cynically ignores the most fundamental reason for the economic decline of the United Kingdom – Britain is broken and Brexit broke it”.
He added: “If Labour were actually interested in backing business and growing the economy, they wouldn’t have foolishly ruled out a return to the European single market and the customs union.”
Claiming the move will cut people’s taxes by £100 next year, Rishi Sunak will say: “I passionately believe that those who have worked hard all their lives should have peace of mind and security in retirement.
“This bold action demonstrates we are on the side of pensioners. The alternative is Labour dragging everyone in receipt of the full state pension into income tax for the first time in history.”
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats will be focusing on crime, promising a “burglary response guarantee” so all domestic burglaries are “attended by the police and properly investigated”.
Pointing to official government figures showing almost 76% of burglaries went unsolved last year, party leader Sir Ed Davey will say: “Too many families now feel unsafe in their own homes because this Conservative government has decimated frontline policing for too long.
“Victims are being denied justice because Conservative ministers can’t even get the basics right on solving crime. That is why the Liberal Democrats would deliver a burglary response guarantee, to ensure all home burglaries are attended by the police and properly investigated.”
The debut of the Canary Capital XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) is signaling renewed demand for altcoins, after the fund posted the strongest first-day performance of the more than 900 ETFs launched in 2025.
Canary Capital’s XRP (XRP) ETF closed its first day with $58 million in trading volume, marking the most successful ETF debut of 2025 among both crypto and traditional ETFs, said Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a Thursday X post.
The new fund garnered over $250 million in inflows during its first trading day, surpassing the recent inflows of all other crypto ETFs.
Part of the reason behind the successful launch was the ETF’s in-kind creation model, according to ETF analyst Nate Geraci.
“A few people asking how it’s possible to have ‘only’ $59mil trading volume, but nearly $250mil inflows… The answer? In-kind creations, which don’t show up in trading volume,” wrote Geraci in a Thursday X post.
The in-kind redemption model enables the creation and redemption of ETF shares through the underlying asset, as opposed to cash-only transaction models. In this case, Canary Capital’s ETF shares can be exchanged for XRP tokens.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved in-kind creation and redemption for cryptocurrency ETFs on July 29, Cointelegraph reported at the time.
SEC press release permitting in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETPs. Source: SEC
Smart money traders rotate into XRP longs after ETF debut
The launch of the ETF inspired a bullish rotation among the industry’s most successful traders, as tracked by returns and labeled as “smart money” traders on the crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
Smart money traders have added $44 million worth of net long XRP positions over the past 24 hours, signaling more upside expectations for the token.
Smart money traders top perpetual futures positions on Hyperliquid. Source: Nansen
The cohort was net long on the XRP token, with a cumulative $49 million, but remained net short on the Solana (SOL) token, with $55 million worth of cumulative short positions on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
“XRP is holding near $2.30, showing relative stability but still feeling the effects of declining liquidity and cautious investor sentiment,” Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget exchange, told Cointelegraph.
“For now, the setup looks like a healthy reset, not the end of the cycle, with both SOL and XRP well-positioned to lead the next wave once confidence snaps back.”
Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $866 million worth of negative outflows on Thursday, their second-worst day on record, after the $1.14 billion daily outflows on Feb. 25, 2025, according to Farside Investors.
The multibillion-dollar scam known as “pig-butchering,” once treated as a consumer-fraud issue, has crossed a new threshold and is prompting concerns over national security.
In a podcast, Chainalysis head of national security intelligence, Andrew Fierman, and former prosecutor Erin West, founder of cross-sector anti-scam nonprofit Operation Shamrock, discussed how pig butchering is becoming a threat to national security.
“So if anybody is touching money in any way, you’re part of this. So you need to be prepared to understand the threat and the gravity of what’s happening on a national security level,” West said, highlighting the importance of education and awareness in combating crypto scams.
A pig-butchering scam is a long-term fraud strategy in which criminals attempt to establish trust with a victim, often through romance or friendship, before steering them into a fake cryptocurrency investment platform and draining their funds.
The growing scale of pig-butchering scams
In the podcast, the duo discussed how fraud rings across Southeast Asia operate dormitory-style scam compounds where trafficked workers contact unsuspecting victims, foster trust through romance and then push them into fake crypto investments with the goal of draining funds.
In 2023, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seized about $112 million in crypto linked to pig-butchering scams. In a February report, Chainalysis said that pig-butchering scams increased by almost 40% year-over-year in 2024, while overall crypto scam revenue exceeded $9.9 billion.
In addition, one under-reported area of pig-butchering is that victims are often hit twice. The duo said in the podcast that after the initial scam, victims sometimes received follow-up contact from fake recovery firms claiming to assist in recovering the money.
“Once this happens to you, you will be put on a list […] and you are even more likely to get hit up again,” West said.
Fierman and West said these scams have matured into a transnational crime model, blending human trafficking, money laundering and crypto rails, making them far more complex than your everyday fraud.
Fierman suggested that blockchain’s transparency offers an opportunity for regulators, exchanges and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to disrupt the scams.
“One of the benefits of the blockchain, at least as the mechanism for this, is that there is potential opportunity for disruption if it’s enabled right,” he said. “And the transparency of the blockchain gives that opportunity to potentially disrupt at the point of cash out.”
How authorities are stepping in
With the scams having a much wider impact, governments are stepping in. On Nov. 12, the DOJ announced the formation of a “Scam Center Strike Force” to target Chinese-linked transnational criminal organizations behind crypto investment fraud in Southeast Asia.
Simultaneously, regional law enforcement departments are enforcing freezes and sanctions to combat the issue. On Aug. 27, law enforcement in Asia Pacific (APAC) collaborated with Chainalysis, OKX, Tether and Binance to freeze $47 million in pig butchering funds.
The strategy is not simple, but it is clear. This is to disrupt the on-ramp and off-ramp points for scammers, sanction the facilitators and build private-public partnerships.
“My advocacy about transnational organised crime has been consistently: Use every tool in our arsenal. Sanctions, indictments, diplomatic pressure,” West said.
Like many scams, there are ways to spot a pig-butchering scam. The scam often involves manipulating feelings, which means someone expressing strong feelings for you too quickly through online channels, especially without meeting, may be a scam.
It becomes more suspicious if whoever you’re in touch with refuses to share personal information or professional credentials.
One of the main signs it’s a pig-butchering scam is when the person starts asking for money, even if they claim it’s for an emergency.
This also takes the form of risk-free investments and easy money, often showing fake screenshots of massive profits to convince their victims to invest.
Demand for Bitcoin and crypto-linked investment funds continued to decline Thursday, despite the long-awaited end of the 43-day US government shutdown.
US spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw $866 million in net outflows on Thursday, marking their second-worst day on record after the $1.14 billion daily outflows on Feb. 25, 2025, according to Farside Investors.
This marked the second consecutive day of outflows for the Bitcoin ETFs, as the end of the 43-day US government shutdown failed to reignite investor appetite.
The $866 million outflows occurred a day after President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill on Wednesday. The bill provides funding until Jan. 30, 2026.
Bitcoin ETF flows (in USD, million). Source: Farside Investors
The lack of ETF demand is causing significant concerns among crypto investors, as these funds were the primary drivers of Bitcoin’s momentum in 2025, alongside Michael Saylor’s Strategy.
However, Bitcoin’s bull market is still intact until the price falls below the key $94,000 level, or the average cost basis of investors who bought Bitcoin in the past six to 12 months, according to Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of crypto intelligence platform CryptoQuant.
“Personally, I do not think the bear cycle is confirmed unless we lose that level. I would rather wait than jump to conclusions,” wrote Ju in a Friday X post.
Other industry watchers argued that the four-year cycle theory is no longer relevant, given the introduction of Bitcoin ETFs and the new US administration.
“Since the launch of the Bitcoin ETFs and new administration, we’ve entered a new market structure,” wrote Hunter Horsley, the CEO of asset management firm Bitwise, in a Thursday X post.
“I think there’s a pretty good chance that we’ve been in a bear market for almost 6 months now and are almost through it.”
“The setup for crypto right now has never been stronger,” Horsley added.
“Congrats to $XRPC for $58m in Day One volume, the most of any ETF launched this year (out of 900), BARELY edging out $BSOL’s $57m,” wrote Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a Thursday X post.
“The two of them are in league of their own, tho as 3rd place is over $20m away,” he added.
As for the other crypto funds, Ether (ETH) ETFs logged $259 million in outflows on Thursday, but the Solana (SOL) ETFs received $1.5 million in inflows, extending their 13-day winning streak, according to Farside Investors.