Siobhan Kennedy is the Washington Correspondent for Channel 4 News, based in DC.
Siobhan joined Channel 4 News in 2008 where, as Business Editor, she covered the financial crisis, austerity and its impact on the British economy and more recently, Brexit.
Before that, as a reporter for The Times, she worked as Politics and Business Correspondent and prior to that was a correspondent for Reuters in London and New York, where she covered the tech boom and bust and 9/11. She returns to the US just in time for the 2020 election campaign.
There is an over supply of gas around the world. Wholesale prices are almost rock bottom. And yet British Gas has hiked its electricity prices by a searing 12.5 %. Faced with a barrage of outrage, it states that this is the first rise in 4 years, and blames government energy subsidies and the rising price…
The UK economy grew by 0.3% in the three months to June, mainly thanks to the retail and film production sector. But the Office for National Statistics said there’s still a “notable slowdown” in growth from last year. And economists have warned that it’s the underlying trends that really matter.
Household debt can be dangerous when it’s taken to excess, the Bank of England has warned – telling high street banks, credit card firms and car loan providers they risk fresh action against reckless lending. The bank’s director for financial stability Alex Brazier said banks were getting into a “spiral of complacency” over mounting levels…
Inflation has been on the rise while wages are being squeezed, and now there’s even more gloomy news for the British economy. The IMF has slashed its growth forecast for the year in its first downgrade since the Brexit vote, blaming the UK’s “tepid” performance in the first three months of the year.
The cabinet is “united” around a transition deal allowing continued free movement for EU citizens after Brexit. That’s according to Environment Secretary and prominent Brexiteer Michael Gove. He claimed the Government would take a “pragmatic” approach, after reports that a transition could last up to four years. That hasn’t impressed hardline Euro-sceptics, while many businesses just want the Government to provide some proper direction.
The Prime Minister’s review into workers’ conditions has called for all work in the UK to be “fair and decent”, paying particular attention to short-term, so-called gig economy roles. Mrs May said she’d take the report’s recommendations seriously, but it has been criticised by trades unions for tinkering at the edges.
All work should be fair and decent and staff should be treated like human beings, not cogs in a machine. The words of Matthew Taylor, who’s been carrying out an independent review for the Government on what’s known as the gig economy, and how workers at new-style companies like Deliveroo or Uber should be better…
The head of the CBI has said that Britain should stay in the single market beyond the deadline for leaving the EU in March 2019. That contradicts what the Prime Minister previously promised. But now that business leaders think that with Theresa May’s authority weakened, there’s a chance for them to have their say.
Downing Street has insisted there won’t be a change of heart over public sector pay, as more high-profile Conservatives join calls to lift the 1% cap on annual pay rises. Policing Minister Nick Hurd told MPs that paying frontline workers fairly was under “active discussion”. Earlier the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson claimed wages could be…
Rupert Murdoch’s £1.7 billion bid to take full control of Sky looks set to be investigated by the competition watchdog – after the Culture Secretary said she was “minded” to refer it for further inquiry.
If you want find a bargain online you might think you should Google it. But if you do that you might not be getting what you bargained for. The European Commission has just slapped a massive £2.1 billion fine on Google for putting its own price comparison adverts at the very top of its search…
It will be the first case of its kind in Britain: four senior bankers facing criminal charges over their money-raising operations during the 2008 financial crash. After a five-year investigation, the Serious Fraud Office has accused the men – and the bank itself – of fraud over arrangements with Qatari investors to help Barclays Bank…
It’s difficult to overstate the significance of the Serious Fraud Office’s charges against Barclays PLC and the four senior Barclays bankers- including John Varley, its former boss and one of the most high profile names in the City.
The cost of living has soared to its highest level in four years, increasing the squeeze on consumers. Inflation in May rose to 2.9%, higher than expected and fuelled by the rising cost of things like food, clothes, computers and toys. It means prices are going up faster than wages for many people, and there’s…
The turmoil in the political world has also emboldened business leaders, many of whom had doubts about the hard Brexit that Mrs May seemed to want before the election. Now they see a window of opportunity to shift the Prime Minister’s thinking on the single market, the customs union and the control of immigration. But…