Closing summary: Transport strikes and cancellations ahead
School is not yet out, but the UK’s transport network appears to be readying itself for summer disruption.
EasyJet has cancelled 1,700 summer flights, primarily from London Gatwick, potentially disrupting the holiday plans of thousands of passengers.
And London Underground drivers will strike on Wednesday 26 July and Friday 28 July in a dispute over pensions and working conditions, the Aslef union has announced.
In other business news today:
Thames Water has secured £750m of emergency funding from its shareholders but the debt-ridden company warned it would need further funding in the years ahead.
Some of the UK’s largest mobile phone and broadband providers have been accused of burying cheaper deals for vulnerable customers on their websites.
The turmoil in the UK mortgage market is continuing: average two-year fixed rates stood at 6.63%, up from 6.54% on Friday and a fraction below their peak of 6.65% on 20 October, during the chaos of the Liz Truss premiership.
Chinese consumer prices remained unchanged year-on-year in June, leaving the world’s second-largest economy on the brink of deflation.
And a slightly longer read on Rachel Reeves, who wants to be a Labour chancellor.
In the UK, Downing Street plays down reports of UK-US split over Ukraine Nato membership after Sunak-Biden meeting
In our coverage of the BBC crisis: minister tells broadcaster to get ‘house in order’ over suspended presenter
In the US, campaigners to call for formal investigations into alleged supreme court corruption
In our coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: Nato chief ‘absolutely certain’ summit will have ‘unity and a strong message’ on Ukraine membership
Thank you for following our live coverage of business, economics and financial markets. Please do join us bright and early tomorrow for more of the same. JJ
Transport for London (TfL) has been locked in a long-running dispute with unions over plans to reduce staff numbers to save costs.
The cost-cutting programme was part of the conditions of the transport body’s reduced funding settlement with central government after Covid slashed revenues.
Aslef said it had a long list of issues that were not resolved, as it announced it would join strike action.
Finn Brennan, Aslef’s London Underground organiser, said there were problems around:
A new attendance procedure which would “mean no right to representation or appeal at stage one of the disciplinary process and the length of all warnings would be doubled from 26 to 52 weeks.”
The ability of TfL to redeploy drivers if they are sick for longer than one week.
A programme of “trains modernisation”, which the union said could drive shifts up to 10 hours long.
The replacement of all existing agreements, “allowing them to cut hundreds more jobs and forcing those of us who remain to work harder for longer”.
