Day: May 14, 2018

    The former Labour foreign secretary will share a stage on Monday with former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and the Tory chair of the Commons Treasury committee Nicky Morgan to urge MPs to vote down Theresa May’s Brexit deal with Brussels if it risks damaging the UK economy. Reports have suggested the prime minister is braced to drop her favoured plan for a customs union with Europe amid pressure from hardliners in her cabinet. Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, Miliband told the Labour leader not to back the government’s plan to leave the single market. The warning for Jeremy Corbyn is if he is not very careful he will be the midwife of a hard Brexit that threatens the living standards of the very people he says he wants to stand up to represent, he said. The ...

    Shoppers are deserting the high street in greater numbers than during the depths of the recession in 2009, creating a brutal climate that is putting thousands more retail jobs at risk. The coming days will be crucial to the future of a handful of household names, including Mothercare and Carpetright, which are trying to persuade investors to make vital cash injections so they can jettison unwanted stores. There is also the spectre of job losses at Poundworld, the struggling discount chain, which is being cut adrift by its American owners. Dwindling shopper numbers tally with weak spending figures for April, which show Britons slashed spending on gadgets, furniture and even nights out. Consumer spending dropped 2% last month, according to Visa’s consumer spending ind...