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Good morning and welcome back. In today’s newsletter:
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Starmer signals tax rises
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Liechtenstein’s ‘zombie trusts’
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Famine spreads further in Sudan
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The meaning of Zohran Mamdani
We begin in London, where UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has put Labour MPs on alert for hefty tax rises in this month’s Budget — including a possible income tax increase.
What to know: The prime minister told Labour MPs at a private Westminster meeting yesterday that the Budget would be based on “tough but fair decisions” and admitted the backdrop to the crunch fiscal statement was “worse than even we feared”.
Starmer heightened speculation of an income tax rise when he told the Westminster meeting that the November 26 Budget would reject “austerity” — deep cuts to public spending.
What lies ahead: Many Labour MPs are resigned to chancellor Rachel Reeves breaking the party’s election manifesto promise not to raise the rates of income tax, national insurance or value added tax.
Reeves will deliver a speech in Downing Street today where she will set out in more detail the “Labour values” that will inform her Budget. Read more on what to expect from her speech.
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Explainer: Reeves is examining a wide range of tax rises ahead of her Budget on November 26. Read what options are on the menu, and their pros and cons.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
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Eurozone: European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde speaks at a central bank conference in Bulgaria, which joins the single currency area next year.
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US: Several cities, including New York, hold mayoral elections. New Jersey and Virginia also hold gubernatorial elections.
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Results: Associated British Foods, BP, Pfizer, Saudi Aramco, Spotify, Telefónica and Uber report earnings. See our Week Ahead newsletter for a fuller list.
Five more top stories
1. Liechtenstein’s crackdown on Russia-linked trusts has begun to spill into the offshore wealth system, leaving service providers fearing unpaid fees and stranded assets in the British Virgin Islands, Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. Read more on the Alpine principality’s “zombie trusts”.
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‘Ratings arbitrage’: Insurers shopping for better ratings on their private credit assets are creating a “looming systemic risk” to global finance, the chair of UBS has warned.
2. The wife of former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg is plotting a long-shot bid to shake up Spain as she warns her home country is “losing a generation” of young people who are recoiling from politics. Read the FT’s interview with Miriam González Durántez.
3. Eli Lilly has called on European nations to scrap clawback taxes on drug sales, as the pharmaceutical industry puts pressure on governments to pay more or risk losing access to new medicines. Read more comments by Lilly chief executive David Ricks.
4. Famine has spread in Sudan, a global monitoring network said. Areas under the most catastrophic stage of hunger now include El Fasher, where Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries have been accused of mass killings, abductions and rape since capturing the city last week.
5. A former Moët Hennessy employee who claimed whistleblower status after alleging discrimination and mismanagement is facing off with LVMH’s luxury alcohol division in a Paris courtroom in a case that started yesterday. Read details of the complaint.
The Big Read
© FT montage/Bloomberg
If polls are correct, Zohran Mamdani is on course for a historic victory in today’s election in New York, becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor. But his sudden rise has also sharpened debate within the Democratic party about what path it should take to become relevant again. Will the mayoral favourite be a boon to the Democrats, or a millstone around the party’s neck?
We’re also reading . . .
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Quantum computing: The UK has achieved its own advantage in the sector. Its promising start-ups and their investors must hold their nerve to keep it, writes John Gapper.
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China tech state aid: Some of the country’s largest data centres are enjoying relief from electricity costs after Beijing increased subsidies that cut energy bills by up to half.
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Digital assets: Two tiny banks are fuelling the Trumps’ crypto empire, benefiting from close connections with Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
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Job progression: People pay a lot of attention to the work immigrants do when they arrive. But that is only half the question, writes Sarah O’Connor.
Chart of the day
Big technology stocks have driven half the gains in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index this year, raising concerns among some investors that the fast-growing US artificial intelligence sector is fuelling a bubble in equity markets in other parts of the world.
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Take a break from the news . . .
Matt Abé launches his debut solo restaurant Bonheur at one of the UK’s most celebrated culinary addresses this week. FT Globetrotter gets an exclusive preview.
© Billy Barraclough
