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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Graeme Wearden

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter and unlock ‘extraordinary potential’ – as it happened

United States British Airways FA Network Rail easyJet European Central Bank PO Ferries Simon Calder London Dover
Elon Musk says Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company, as he launches a bid for the company
Elon Musk says “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company”, as he launches a bid for the company Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters

Closing post

Time to wrap up - here’s our news story on Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter

And our analysis of his plans:

Q: Is there a plan B if Twitter’s board does not accept your offer? You’ve said you won’t go higher.

There is, Musk replies, after a hammy, head-nodding pause.

Q: We’d like to hear a bit about plan B.

More head-nodding, then.... “For another time, I think”, Musk replies.

Updated

Musk blasts SEC over 'funding secured' case

Q: Is funding secured for your offer for Twitter?

Musk grin at the reference to his infamous 2018 tweet about taking Tesla private at $420 per share, which let to fraud charges from the SEC.

Stroking his chin, billionaire Musk says:

I have sufficient assets.. I can do it if possible.

Musk then claims funding was actually secured back in 2018, and that he doesn’t have respect for the SEC because its San Francisco office knew that, but pursued an active investiation anyway.

Musk says Tesla was in a precarious financial situation and the banks told him that they’d cease providing working capital, and Tesla would go bankrupt immediately, if he didn’t settle.

That’s like having a gun to your child’s head.

In an astonishing passage, Musk say he was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully, calling them ‘those bastards’, and that he was forced to say he lied (which he says he didn’t) to save Tesla’s life.

Under the settlement, Musk stepped down as Tesla’s* chairman, paid a $20m fine, and agreed that lawyers would scrutinise market-sensitive tweets (an agreement the SEC says he then broke).

Musk adds that Tesla was under relentless pressure from short-sellers on Wall Street at the time, the most-shorted stock in stock markets history.

Those short-sellers have made losses since, though, given the surge in Tesla’s share price in the last few years.

(* typo corrected)

Updated

Musk says an edit button is coming at Twitter, if he has his way.

[Twitter confirmed last week it was working on an edit button, so it may be coming either way.]

And he gets some applause for saying that removing spam and scam bot armies on Twitter is a top priority.

But how do you get around the problem of someone who tweets “Elon Rocks”, gets two million retweets, and then changes it later to “Elon Sucks”?

Musk suggests the edit capability would only be there for a short time, and all retweets and favourites could be zeroed out after the edit.

Q: How could a town square like Twitter be owned by the world’s richest person?

Elon Musk repeats that Twitter’s algorithm should be made open-source, and any manual adjustments to tweets should be visible.

I won’t be in there editing tweets, he pledges.

And on the issue of media ownership, he points out that Mark Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with a share ownership structure that will have “Mark Zuckerberg the 14th controlling those entities... like literally.”

We won’t have that at Twitter.

More highlights from Elon Musk’s Ted talk:

Musk: Free speech is when someone you don’t like can say something you don’t like.

Elon Musk is discussing his plans for Twitter on a Ted talk now - it’s being streamed here.

Musk explains that he wants to see Twitter open source their algorithm, and put the code on Github so people can examine it. That would give more transparency about which tweets are emphasized, and get a lot of attention, and which are not, and don’t.

Q: But who would decide whether a tweet should stay up? What would the cut-off be?

Musk says that if in doubt, let it exist. If it’s a grey area, let the tweet exist.

But in a case where there’s a lot of controversy, you should not want to necessarily promote that tweet, says Musk, adding that he’s not saying he’s got all the answers.

The Tesla CEO says he’s very reluctant to delete things, very cautious with permanent bans. Time outs are better then permanent bans, he argues.

Musk says he wants speech on Twitter to be as free as reasonably possible.

A good sign as to whether there is free speech is, is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like?

If that is the case, then we have free speech.

That’s a sign of a health, functioning free-speech situation, he adds.

Chester Spatt, a former SEC chief economist, has predicted that the regulator could punish Musk for hurting other investors by taking too long to disclose his buying up of Twitter shares, but it’s unlikely that it will do anything to stop a takeover.

“This is going to play out reasonably quickly,” said Spatt, now a finance professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

The SEC, he said, “weighs in after the fact for the most part.” (via AP).

The White House has declined to comment on Elon Musk’s $43bn cash takeover offer for Twitter, saying market regulators operate independently from political leadership.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said:

“This is an offer by a private investor, and we don’t have any comment here. The SEC is independent and would handle any review processes if this moves forward.”

Twitter’s share price reaction doesn’t suggest Musk’s offer is certain to succeed....

The main challenge for Twitter’s board is whether they can take Musk at his word, writes Rob Cyran of Reuters Breaking Views, who says they are right to be careful.

It’s less than a week since Musk walked away from the deal to buy no more than 14.9% of the company. In 2018, he claimed he had secured financing to possibly take Tesla private, but that turned out not to be true. Musk’s offer also depends on government approvals and due diligence, giving him potential excuses to back out. Musk’s late disclosure of his initial Twitter stake might also delay the process.

Musk’s offer depends on completing financing, though that should be less of an obstacle. He sold over $16 billion in Tesla stock last year, and still owns a roughly 17% stake in the $1 trillion automaker. Banks have been happy to lend against Musk’s shares in the past.

Then there’s the question of price. Twitter’s stock was trading about 30% higher than the bid in the summer of 2021. Companies like Disney and Salesforce.com have kicked the tires at Twitter in the past and might jump in if the company put itself up for sale.

Updated

Twitter shares have lost most of their earlier gains, and are now only up 0.8% at $46.24.

They fell back after Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an investor in several tech firms, tweeted that Musk’s offer, $54,20, undervalued Twitter, and rejected it:

The prince tweeted:

“I don’t believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 per share) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects.”

Back in economics...the number of Americans signing on for jobless support rose last week, but remains historically low.

There were 185,000 new claims for unemployment support, a rise of 18,000 on the prevous week when initial claims hit their lowest since 1968.

That’s still suggests a strong jobs market, despite rising inflation pressures and concern over the Ukraine war’s impact on the global economy.

JP Morgan analysts have kicked the tires of Musk’s offer, and aren’t too impressed:

Updated

Analysis: How ‘free speech absolutist’ Elon Musk would transform Twitter

Change is on the cards if Elon Musk succeeds in taking control of Twitter, our global technology editor Dan Milmo writes:

Musk said in a letter to the board on Thursday that Twitter is “the platform for free speech around the world” but cannot achieve this “societal imperative” in its current form and “needs to be transformed as a private company”.

His main concern appears to be with Twitter’s moderation policies. In March he tweeted a poll asking users whether the site adhered to the principle of free speech. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” he said. “What should be done?” He has declared himself a “free speech absolutist” and, in that context, the Twitter-banned former US president Donald Trump must be hoping Musk’s bid succeeds.

However, the regulatory environment for social media is getting ever tougher. In the UK, the forthcoming online safety bill will require the platforms to monitor their content closely for harms such as pile-ons (one of Twitter’s nastier phenomena). Even if the site is under private ownership, it will not be able to swerve legislators on both sides of the Atlantic who want to make the internet a safer place.

Other suggestions from Musk are less contentious. Last week he asked users if they wanted an edit button to rewrite posts after launching, prompting the company to confirm it was working on such a function anyway. He also mooted changes to the premium service, Twitter Blue, such as removing advertising, which raises the prospect of a radical commercial departure for a business that makes 90% of its $5bn annual revenue from ads.

Meghan McCain, the TV columnist and author, explains why proper moderation on Twitter is so important:

Daniel Clarke, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, argues that Twitter has huge potential, which Musk could potentially release:

“The offer to buy Twitter outright reflects Elon Musk’s distaste for orthodox board bureaucracy and what he sees as unnecessary regulatory hurdles.

“Board membership requires certain behavioral standards. Becoming a board member might not have been the most effective way for Musk to achieve his goals.

“Twitter is a platform that has barely changed its user interface for over a decade. It is struggling to add new users, but its existing users are the most loyal across all social media platforms.

“The potential for growth and commercialization of the platform is huge. Perhaps most importantly, Twitter is the social media platform where political debate, business announcements, and popular culture intersect. It is the best place for a tech billionaire like Musk to curate his image.”

Twitter’s shares are pushing higher, now up 4% at $47.81 each (but still short of Musk’s $54.20 proposal).

Tesla are down 3.3%, at $988 each (see earlier post for some reasons why).

The message Elon Musk sent to make his takeover offer

Elon Musk kicked off his approach to Twitter with this message to chairman Bret Taylor.

As I indicated this weekend, I believe that the company should be private to go through the changes that need to be made.

After the past several days of thinking this over, I have decided I want to acquire the company and take it private.

I am going to send you an offer letter tonight, it will be public in the morning.

Are you available to chat?

The SEC filing also contains a voice script, in which Musk says Twitter shareholders will love the high price he’s offering, in a ‘Best and Final’ offer.

The billionaire said:

Best and Final:

a. I am not playing the back-and-forth game.

b. I have moved straight to the end.

c. It’s a high price and your shareholders will love it.

d. If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

i. This is not a threat, it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.

ii. And those changes won’t happen without taking the company private.

2. My advisors and my team are available after you get the letter to answer any questions

a. There will be more detail in our public filings. After you receive the letter and review the public filings, your team can call my family office with any questions.

Twitter shares open higher, but below Musk's offer

Shares in Twitter have opened higher, but are notably shy of Elon Musk’s takeover offer of $54.20 each.

Twitter shares have risen 2.5% to around $47, up from $45.85 last night.

That suggests investors aren’t very confident that Musk’s $41bn will succeed, and possibly concerned that he could sell his 9% stake if rebuffed.

This is interesting about how Musk might finance his offer:

Tesla and JP Morgan fell out over Musk’s notorious ‘funding secured’ tweet. JPMorgan launched a lawsuit, accusing Tesla “flagrantly” breaching a 2014 contract relating to stock trading options it sold to the bank.

Tesla countersued, saying JPM was seeking a “windfall” over the dispute.

Updated

Twitter’s board will meet at 10am ET (3pm UK time) to evaluate Elon Musk’s bid, reports CNBC’s David Faber:

Updated

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor says Musk’s non-binding takeover approach is ‘deeply hostile’:

This is a deeply hostile move from Elon Musk who has threatened to ‘reconsider’ his 9.2% stake in the company if his 100% acquisition offer is rejected.

Musk has priced his offer attractively at a significant premium to yesterday’s close making Twitter decision even more difficult. While shares initially spiked more than 12% pre-market, the stock is now up 6.5% to around $48 a share, suggesting the market isn’t fully convinced the $54.20 a share offer will be accepted.

Given that the share price is closer to yesterday’s close than the offer price, the market is pricing in a higher likelihood that the deal is rejected than accepted.

Although Musk has said he’s not playing the ‘back-and-forth game’ the question is whether he would up his offer if it is rejected, which is difficult to predict just like Musk himself.

Elon Musk and Parag Agrawal are locked in a tussle to control Twitter, says Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at social investment network eToro:

“Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has offered to buy all of Twitter for $41 billion, only two weeks after buying a 9% stake to become the largest shareholder in the microblogging social network site.

“Musk’s offer of $54.20 per share is a punchy 38% higher than when he disclosed his initial stake but is still 30% below the share price highs of last year. This opens a battle for control between new CEO Parag Agrawal, who is trying to engineer a company turnaround, and Musk’s’ view that Twitter will ‘neither thrive nor serve [its] societal imperative in its current form’.

Shares in Tesla have dipped 2% in pre-market trading, as investors wonder what Musk’s interest in Twitter will mean for the electric car company.

Barrons says that investors may be concerned Musk would be distracted from leading Tesla, or that he may sell some Tesla stock to raise cash to buy Twitter.

Full story: Elon Musk's audacious bid to buy Twitter for over $40bn

Elon Musk has launched an audacious bid to buy Twitter for more than $40bn and release its “extraordinary potential” to boost free speech and democracy across the world.

The Tesla chief executive and world’s richest person revealed in a regulatory filing that he had launched a hostile takeover of Twitter just days after he bought a 9.2% stake. He was subsequently offered a seat on the social media company’s board but in a last-minute twist refused to take up the position.

In a letter to Bret Taylor, Twitter’s chair, Musk said the site was not thriving as a company or a tool for improving freedom of speech, and “needs to be transformed as a private company”.

Last month, Elon Musk criticised Twitter’s efforts to moderate its users, arguing the ‘de facto public town square’ should maintain free speech principles, or risk undermining democracy.

Bloomberg Matt Levine points out the irony of trying to take the public town square private:

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, predicted earlier this week that Elon Musk would buy as much Twitter stock as needed to take control of the company.

Reich condemned Musk’s libertarian vision of an “uncontrolled” internet as “dangerous rubbish”, writing in the Guardian that:

There’s no such animal, and there never will be.

Someone has to decide on the algorithms in every platform – how they’re designed, how they evolve, what they reveal and what they hide. Musk has enough power and money to quietly give himself this sort of control over Twitter.

Reich also warned that Musk’s idea of defending ‘free speech’ online is actually all about power:

Musk says he wants to “free” the internet. But what he really aims to do is make it even less accountable than it is now, when it’s often impossible to discover who is making the decisions about how algorithms are designed, who is filling social media with lies, who’s poisoning our minds with pseudo-science and propaganda, and who’s deciding which versions of events go viral and which stay under wraps.

Make no mistake: this is not about freedom. It’s about power.

In Musk’s vision of Twitter and the internet, he’d be the wizard behind the curtain – projecting on the world’s screen a fake image of a brave new world empowering everyone.

In reality, that world would be dominated by the richest and most powerful people in the world, who wouldn’t be accountable to anyone for facts, truth, science or the common good.

Here’s the full piece:

Twitter has confirmed it has received Musk’s unsolicited buyout offer of $54.20 a share in cash, and will review it, saying:

“The Twitter Board of Directors will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders.”

Usually, the share price of a takeover offer is simply determined by how much the bidder wants to pay to take control.

But this time, it’s not a coincidence that Elon Musk’s offer of $54.20 per Twitter share includes a ‘420’.

Back in 2018, Musk infamously tweeted that:

Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.

That sent Tesla’s shares jumping, and also led to the SEC suing Musk, saying the privatization plan was at best in an early stage, and financing was not in place. Musk settled the charges by agreeing to step down as Tesla chairman and pay a $20m fine.

He also agreed that Tesla’s lawyers pre-approve written communication with material information about the company. But Musk subsequently violated that settlement, the WSJ reported last year.

The SEC has also been urged to make an example of Musk, over the late filing of his Twitter stake.

4/20 is also known as Cannabis day in the US, as it was first legalised on April 20 in some states a few years ago.

Musk smoked marijuana on a live webshow in 2018 during a podcast with comedian Joe Rogan, and also shared a photo of the event last week, suggesting he might light up at Twitter’s next board meeting.

Neil Campling, head of TMT research at Mirabaud Equity Research, predicts Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal would be looking for new opportunities if Musk succeeds:

Clearly there is no love lost between Musk and the CEO, so the CEO – who has only been in the job for a proverbial five minutes but has already made plenty of contradictory comments – will be tapping up his LinkedIn connections for a job.

Campling also points out Musk’s interest in Twitter could possibly just a publicity stunt (if so, it’s working...).

Is this just another diversion tactic, given that Tesla is losing market share, its factory is still shut in China and hundreds of thousands of cars being recalled?

Analyst: Just because Musk can, doesn't mean he should

Freetrade senior analyst Dan Lane has fired over some thoughts on Elon Musk’s takeover bid for Twitter.

Sowing the seeds of championing ‘free speech’ is one thing. But let’s not forget Elon’s view of simply voicing opinion has been seen as reckless by regulators in the past.

The headlines might inject a bit of life into Twitter’s share price but it could mean SEC scrutiny bleeds over from Musk’s mere use of the platform to the platform itself. That’s not something the firm will want hanging over it.

Musk’s original filing, showing he had built up a stake in Twitter, came several days later than the SEC’s rules demand.

A Twitter shareholder is already Elon Musk for failing to disclose his stake within the time limit, arguing this cost him money.

There’s also the question of whether this is “just a vanity project” for the billionaire, Lane continues:

It’s hard to see, as an avid user, how Musk can detach himself from being a disgruntled tweeter and objectively view the opportunity as a special situation that needs fresh eyes to get it going again.

Maybe the firm actually needs a highly-engaged user to iron out the wrinkles that only a frustrated customer could identify but it has the potential to just become a pet project for the world’s richest man. Just because he can doesn’t mean he should. The whole thing isn’t that different to how the media organisations of old came to be mouthpieces for their owners.

Musk might not have ambitions to peddle political views on Twitter but the point here is that he would ultimately have the power to do so if he takes it private and makes whatever changes he likes.

Musk: Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it

Elon Musk says he has made his ‘best and final offer’ for Twitter, which he says needs to be ‘transformed as a private company’.

In a letter to Bret Taylor, Twitter’s chair, Musk argues that he will unlock Twitter’s ‘extraordinary potential’ if he succeeds in buying 100% of the company.

I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.

However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.

As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.

Updated

Shares in Twitter have jumped 11% in pre-market trading to $50.96, following Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company at $54.20 per share.

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter

Newsflash: Billionaire Elon Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter.

Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, according to an updated 13D filing with the SEC.

Musk offered to “acquire all of the outstanding Common Stock of the Issuer not owned by the Reporting Person for all cash consideration valuing the Common Stock at $54.20 per share.”

The filing adds:

This represents a 54% premium over the closing price of the Common Stock on January 28, 2022, the trading day before the Reporting Person began investing in the Issuer, and a 38% premium over the closing price of the Common Stock on April 1, 2022, the trading day before the Reporting Person’s investment in the Issuer was publicly announced.

Earlier this month, Musk revealed he’d bought a 9% stake in Twitter.

He was due to join join its board last weekend, but surprisingly u-turned, which had fuelled speculation that he could be planning a bid for the social media site.

Anti-fossil fuel activists have stopped traffic in Chiswick, West London today, by sitting on the roof of an Eddie Stobart tanker.

The demonstration, by supporter of the Just Stop Oil group, is part of an ongoing campaign for more action to address the climate crisis, that has also seen blockades at oil terminals.

ITV News have more details:

Four climate activists climbed on top of the Eddie Stobart tanker surrounded by police at the Chiswick roundabout in West London. Some glued themselves to the roof.

Police closed part of the road but, at first, made no attempt to move the tanker or remove the protesters.

“We saw a tanker that’s transporting around the death of our future and our loved ones,” protester Cameron Ford told ITV News London.

“It came to the traffic lights and two people stepped out in front of the tanker with a banner and told the driver his tanker had been stopped and two people climbed up on the back while that happened,” he added.

Breakdown service Green Flag have sent over some tips for getting through the challenge of Bank Holiday travel:

  • Walk around the car and look for signs of potential issues, including flat tyres or lights that need replacing
  • Have a regular service on your vehicle to ensure your car is at tip top condition for driving and ultimately prolonging the car’s overall life span
  • Check your tyres, both for tyre pressure (including the spare if you have one) and tyre tread. Tyres do have their own built-in tread wear indicators, but this can also be checked by using a 20 pence coin; if the outer band on the coin is visible when placing the coin in the groove between the treads, it means they’ve worn too low, and the tyres need replacing
  • Check all fluid levels, making sure to top up if necessary and carrying water, oil, and screen wash with you just in case
  • Make sure you have fuel, if you’re driving a petrol or diesel car ensure you have enough fuel to get you to your destination and back, or plan your fuel stops in advance if you’re going on a longer journey that will require you to refuel your vehicle. If you’re driving an electric vehicle, make sure your car is fully charged before you head off, and try and locate charging points on the route so you’re fully prepared for your journey
  • Make sure your phone battery is topped up prior to your journey and pack a portable charger. In the event of a breakdown, using an in-car phone charger without the engine running can flatten a car battery in a very short space of time
  • Make sure you have breakdown cover to ensure you’re covered in the event of a breakdown situation.

Here’s our news story on P&O Ferries suspending passenger services across the Channel over the Easter bank holidays, due to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s safety concerns over the Pride of Kent and Spirit of Britain.

The UK transport network grew busier last week, as the Easter holidays began in some parts of the country.

The ONS reports that road traffic rose by 2 percentage points, while daily UK flights rose by 3% (and were 337% higher than a year ago, during the lockdown).

Economic news: UK consumer activity has cooled this month, according to real-time data just released by the Office for National Statistics.

Visits to retail and recreation locations dropped 1% last week, and were 16% below pre-coronavirus levels.

Fewer people were dining out last week too, which may show how the cost of living squeeze is hitting spending.

The ONS says:

  • Most of the consumer behaviour measures we monitor were down in the latest week, with falls in visits to “grocery and pharmacy” (2%)“, “retail stores and recreation areas” (1%), and “workplaces” (4%), according to Google Mobility data.

  • Transactions at UK Pret A Manager locations mostly decreased in the latest week, while UK seated diner numbers fell by 2 percentage points

The data also shows that people spent more filling their cars last week; “work-related” spending, which includes the purchasing of road fuel, increased by 6 percentage points.

Updated

With the AA expecting some 28 million car journeys to be made over the Bank Holiday weekend, LBC have identified some of the likely busiest spots on the road:

  • The M6 north between Junction 26 (Orrell Interchange, Greater Manchester) and Junction 36 (the Lake District).
  • The M25 clockwise from Junction 8 (Reigate Hill Interchange, Surrey) to Junction 16 (Denham Interchange, Buckinghamshire).
  • The A303 near Stonehenge, Wiltshire.

Update: My colleague Helen Pidd covered the likely congestion and delays in more detail earlier this week:

Updated

It appears that P&O Ferries has been forced to cancel Easter weekend sailings between Dover and Calais after the Pride of Kent failed a safety inspection for a second time.

This will add to the UK’s travel disruption, and affect the holiday plans of thousands.

The ferry firm announced last night it would not be running any passenger services between Dover and Calais this weekend, apologised sincerely, and advised customers to re-book directly with another operator:

Travel Weekly has more details:

The Pride of Kent will remain detailed alongside Spirit of Britain after inspectors from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) reportedly found safety and crew “deficiencies”.

An MCA spokesperson said: “The Pride of Kent will remain detained following the re-inspection of the ferry which found a number of additional deficiencies including safety systems and crew documentation.

“We have advised P&O to invite us back once they have addressed the issues. We do not know yet when this will be.”

The decision came a day after Dover-based Spirit of Britain also failed a safety inspection.

A contactless access point for Oyster and bank cards.

In London, there will also be a number of closures on the London Underground, Overground and DLR lines across the four-day weekend which could cause disruption.

That includes the closure of the Hammersmith and City line (which runs from Barking in east London to Hammersmith in west London) for the whole bank holiday weekend.

The District line will be closed between Tower Hill and West Ham, as well as Earl’s Court to Kensington (Olympia). Plus, on Sunday it will be closed between Turnham Green and Richmond for track maintenance.

From Friday 15 to Monday 18 April, the Piccadilly line will be closed between Acton Town and Heathrow, and Rayners Lane and Uxbridge for track works.

On the Northern Line, there will be no service from Charing Cross to Stockwell and Battersea Power Station, or from Euston to Moorgate on Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Services will run northbound from Charing Cross, and between Stockwell and Morden.

Here’s the full details from Transport For London, which says the closures will allow “vital improvement work”.

There’s also more details on London World, which might help anyone visiting the capital this long weekend as well as living there.

Metro has more details too.

Travel journalist Simon Calder has the latest flight cancellations at BA and easyJet:

Traffic on a UK motorway in England at sunset.

Motorists are advised to travel on Thursday or early on Saturday if they can, to give themselves the best chance of avoiding long queues over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Edmund King, AA president, said:

“All our polling suggests that Good Friday will be the busiest getaway day for Easter trips and staycations. If some drivers can leave on Thursday or early Saturday, they may miss some of the jams.”

Railway engineering works on FA Cup semi-final weekend

Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain’s railways, has advised passengers to travel either side of the long weekend because it is closing parts of the system to carry out engineering works.

Trains running on the west coast main line, which links London to Scotland, will start and finish at Milton Keynes between Friday 15 and Monday 18 April, while Euston station in north London will also be closed.

Parts of the railway between Birmingham International station and Coventry will also be closed, as will lines around Crewe station.

The railway closures will affect tens of thousands of Liverpool and Manchester City football fans travelling to Wembley stadium in London to watch their teams compete in the FA Cup semi-final. A crowd of 90,000 is expected, but the FA has advised ticketholders not to take the train from the north-west.

The Football Association said it was chartering 100 buses from Anfield and the Etihad Stadium to transport up to 5,000 supporters from each club. An spokesperson said approximately 2,000 seats were still available on buses for Liverpool supporters.

The chair of Network Rail, Sir Peter Hendy, recently told MPs on parliament’s transport select committee that the FA had scheduled the men and women’s fixtures in the capital, despite ample warning of railway closures.

“Network Rail told the FA in 2019 that we were closing the west coast main line, yet they seem to have arranged a football match between Manchester and Liverpool at Wembley on a day when we have effectively given the world two years’ notice of the closure.”

Introduction: Travel problems abound amid Easter disruption

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the world economy, the financial markets, and the latest travel problems hitting the UK.

Travellers are being warned to expect delays and disruption on the roads, rails, sea and air this Easter weekend, as people try to get away for a break.

Staffing shortages and sickness are continuing to cause flight cancellations and long queues at airports. On Wednesday, British Airways cancelled at least 53 flights planned for domestic or European routes to or from Heathrow, while easyJet cancelled 23 Gatwick flights.

There will also be traffic jams as millions of drivers take to their cars, despite record fuel prices pushing up the cost of motoring. The RAC has estimated around 21.5 million leisure trips will be made by car between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

There will be pain on the railways too, as Network Rail carries out engineering projects, including a four-day closure of the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Milton Keynes from Good Friday.

That’s bad news for football fans travelling from the North West to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Manchester City; the FA is chartering a free return bus service for up to 5,000 fans from each club.

And in Kent, P&O’s Ferries services between Dover-to-Calais remain cancelled today after a second ferry failed an inspection, nearly a month after the company suddenly sacked 800 staff and replaced them with agency workers.

The Pride of Kent will remain detained alongside Spirit of Britain, after surveyors identified “a number of deficiencies”, which could halt P&O’s Ferries’ plans to restart the Dover-Calais route before Easter.

This is likely to mean more delays on the roads approaching the Port of Dover, as the capacity for lorries and tourists crossing the Channel has been cut.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has predicted it will be “extremely busy on our roads, potentially at our ports, particularly at Dover”.

And transport minister Robert Courts said his department is “working closely with operators to minimise disruption” during the break, but advised people to “plan ahead and check for updates from operators”.

We’ll be tracking the latest developments.

Also coming up today

The cost of living crisis is hitting tenants, with private rents in Britain are rising at a record rate. They jumped 14% in a year in London and by more than 19% in hotspots such as Manchester.

The average advertised rent outside London is 10.8% higher than a year ago as tenants grappled with “the most competitive rental market ever recorded”, according to property website Rightmove.

On the economic front, the latest US retail sales and weekly unemployment data later today will show how America’s economy is faring.

Last week, the US jobless claims figure dropped to its lowest since 1968, as firms held onto workers in the tight labour markets.

Investors will also be watching the European Central Bank today, as its governing council meets to set monetary policy. The ECB faces a tricky dilemma, with inflation soaring to 7.5% last month (over a target of 2%), and the Ukraine war hitting Europe’s economy, but it’s not expected to raise interest rates yet.

The agenda

  • 12.45pm BST: European Central Bank interest rate decision
  • 1.30pm BST: European Central Bank press conference
  • 1.30pm BST: US retail sales for March
  • 1.30pm BST: US weekly jobless claims

Updated

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