Marketing Newscast

(Edited 14 April 2025)

Parliament passed a new law allowing for the nationalisation of British Steel over the weekend, and the King to approve it, within the space of just six and a half hours. The emergency Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act will prevent the Chinese-owned company closing the Scunthorpe plant with the loss of up to 3,500 jobs. The Act gives Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds the authority to direct the British Steel board and order the raw materials to keep two blast furnaces going at the plant, potentially saving up to 3,500 jobs. The taxpayer will foot the bill. Current owner Jingye claims it is losing £700,000 a day and that the plant is unviable; it wants to close the blast furnaces, which will be extremely difficult if not impossible to re-start. Jingye has stopped ordering raw materials for the site and had begun selling off existing supplies. Last year, Jingye rejected a £500m bailout plan offered by Ministers.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has called in the Army to sort out the mountain of rubbish that has piled up in the streets of Labour-run Birmingham because of an all-out strike by refuse collectors begun just over a month ago. She visited the city on Friday last week to urge trade union Unite - one of the Labour party’s largest donors - to end the strikes, which she said are causing “misery” for residents, and accept the Council’s latest offer. It seems that plea fell on deaf ears, so military personnel with operational planning expertise will help the Government with logistics to remove the public health hazard. Some 17,000 tonnes of rubbish is thought to to be awaiting collection.

Rail minister Lord Hendy reported himself to the police after being seen texting while driving his vintage Routemaster bus through central London for charity last month, it has been revealed. His spokesman said: “Last month, Peter Hendy used his phone while driving. He has apologised in full for this error of judgment and has contacted the police.” The Metropolitan Police said: “Police received a report on March 31 of a man aged in his 70s using his mobile phone while driving a vehicle. The incident is alleged to have taken place near Paddington Station at approximately 17:00 on March 28. As there was insufficient evidence to progress the case, the investigation was filed”.

Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission has issued an arrest warrant for the former Business Minister Tulip Siddiq over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from the former Bangladeshi government when it was run by her despot aunt, Sheikh Hasina.

Three prison offers at HMP Frankland were attacked on Saturday with weapons and cooking oil by Hashem Abedi, the brother of one of the Islamist terrorists behind the Manchester Arena bombing. They suffered burns and stab wounds. Two are seriously ill in hospital, having suffered life-changing injuries; one of the men had emergency surgery after being stabbed in the throat and the face. A third, female, officer was released after treatment. The incident happened at a separation centre within the prison holding the most dangerous and extremist offenders. The Ministry of Justice said there will be “a full review into how this attack was able to happen”, which will run alongside the police inquiry. Abedi, 28, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 55 years in 2020 for helping his brother carry out the 2017 suicide bombing. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to three years and 10 months for a “vicious attack” on a prison officer in the high-security unit of Belmarsh prison in May 2020.

Having last week revealed that all police forces in England and Wales discriminate in some way against white recruits, The Telegraph now reveals that so do NHS trusts, by manipulating interview shortlists in favour of black and ethnic minority candidates. NHS England documents encourage the use of the ‘Rooney Rule,’ an American football policy that makes it mandatory for ethnic minorities to be shortlisted for interviews if they apply, the newspaper says. Other so-called ‘inclusive recruitment practices’ range from making managers justify hiring white British nationals to using race as a “tie-breaker”. It cites NHS England guidance called A Model Employer, which also encourages recruiters to always involve at least one minority person in interviews, and says hiring managers are “accountable for institutionalising diverse shortlisting and interview panels” and that there “would seldom be acceptable exceptions for not having a BME member”. It also states that managers who opt to hire white Britons should be required to explain themselves, saying: “Justification should be sent to the organisation’s chair setting out, clearly, the process followed and the reasons for not appointing the BME candidate.” The London Ambulance Service and Royal Free Hospital in north London are among those to have adopted policies requiring interview panels to explain why a shortlisted ethnic minority candidate is not appointed to a role, the report says.

Sky News is reporting that Hilco Capital is close to sealing a deal to buy home and kitchenware retailer Lakeland. Previously, Hilco, which calls itself a "special situations investor" and asset-based lender, has backing high street retailers including HMV in 2013 and Superdry in 2024. Lakeland, a family-owned business, put itself up for sale in January after 61 years of operation, citing rising cost pressures, including the increase in employer national insurance contributions. The firm employs around 1,000 people across a network of nearly 60 stores, a head office and distribution centres.

The Financial Conduct Authority has given the green light for controversial Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein to list on the London Stock Exchange, Reuters said on Friday, with Shein eyeing a $50bn IPO. Wall Street refused to allow Shein to list because of well-documented concerns about the company's environmental impact and alleged human rights abuses, including claims of forced labour, all of which the retailer has denied.

And finally…. FTSE 100 advertising agency WPP has begun offering free lunches to lure employees back into the office on Fridays, The Times reports. From April, WPP’s team of 108,000 people is expected to be in the office at least four days a week.