Only 20% of train services are running today, due to the RMT Union strikes

Only 20% of train services are running today, due to the RMT Union strikes. Rail workers are walking out today and tomorrow, and again on Friday and Saturday, after 64% of RMT members rejected the latest pay offer from Network Rail yesterday which would have included a 5% and 4% pay rise over two years.

The number of working days lost to strikes reached the highest in more than a decade last month, Sam Beckett, head of economic statistics at the Office for Natio nal Statistics, has told the BBC. She said the sectors that have been hardest hit by strike action are transport and storage as well as information and communications. In total, some 417,000 working days were lost because of labour disputes in October 2022, the highest since November 2011.

Members of Unite and Unison working in the NHS in Scotland have voted to accept an improved pay offer, diminishing the risk of strike action in the country. However, ballots of GMB, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and Royal College of Nursing members are ongoing, the BBC reports. The Scottish Parliament Health Secretary Humza Yousaf welcomed the decision to accept the "record pay offer," which averages a 7.5% pay increase, meaning most NHS staff in Scotland get a rise of just over £2,200 a year.

Hospitals in England have paid out as much as £5,200 for a shift by a doctor through an agency, according to figures obtained by The Labour Party via Freedom of Information requests (FOI) covering the 2021/22 financial year. Labour blamed the high agency fees on the Conservatives, arguing they had failed to train enough doctors and nurses. A Conservative spokesperson said "record numbers" had been recruited. The most expensive reported shift was £5,234 - paid by Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust in northern England. This covers the agency fee and other employer costs as well as the money going to the doctor. There was a response rate to the FOI requests of about 40% of major hospital trusts in England. Labour says one in three of those who responded paid an agency more than £3,000 for a single doctor's shift last year, while three quarters paid more than £2,000. The NHS Confederation said the "staffing crisis" was so "desperate" that NHS trusts were being forced to pay large fees to make sure rotas were "staffed safely".

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said yesterday that the country's economy was "likely to get worse before it gets better" after figures on Monday showed a bounce-back in growth in October but the weakest three-month performance since early 2021. Hunt also told the BBC he did not know whether inflation had peaked or not.

Microsoft is to buy a 4% stake worth $2 billion in the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). LSEG said the deal would bring a "meaningful" upside to revenues after 2025 from selling more of its existing products via Microsoft apps to broaden the customer base, along with better pricing of products, but it declined to give any specific estimates. Microsoft has a longstanding relationship with LSEG, and the exchange group's CEO David Schwimmer said they began talks on a more strategic relationship about a year ago. "It's a long term partnership. In terms of the products we will be building together, I would expect our customers to start to see the benefits of that 18 to 24 months out and we will continue building from there," Schwimmer told Reuters. As part of the deal, LSEG has made a contractual commitment for minimum cloud-related spend with Microsoft of $2.8 billion over the term of the partnership.

British engineering giant Babcock has been awarded a £45 million contract to maintain the UK’s fleet of three oceanographic and polar research vessels – including RRS Sir David Attenborough.

Clothing company Superdry's founder Julian Dunkerton has allegedly held discussions with private equity firms surrounding a potential buyout. According to the Sunday Times, talks between Dunkerton, who owns 23.9% of the firm, and potential investors have taken place throughout the course of 2022, with the chief executive said to be mulling over the idea of rolling his stake into a new private vehicle. However, a source close to Superdry said there were no active talks on a take-private deal and highlighted that no advisers had been appointed for a potential sale.

GSK will move its global headquarters back to central London in 2024, relocating from its current base in Brentford, West London - which it has occupied since 2002 - to new offices on New Oxford Street close to Tottenham Court Road. The new six storey building is under construction and due to be completed next year. Around 3000 people will work there on a hybrid basis including the GSK global leadership team headed by CEO Emma Walmsley.