Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said yesterday that 4th July will be the date of the next General Election. “Parliament will be prorogued on Friday 24th May. Dissolution will take place on Thursday 30th May. The General Election will take place on Thursday 4th July. The new Parliament will be summoned to meet on Tuesday 9th July, when the first business will be the election of the Speaker and the swearing-in of members, and the State Opening will be on Wednesday 17th July,” he said, outlining the timetable of events.

For one take on why the election is being called now, listen to our editor, Suzanne Evans’ podcast: https://politicalinsight.substack.com/p/podcast-sunak-has-given-up-thats?utm_source=substack&publication_id=874818&post_id=144900259&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=1hilz6&triedRedirect=true

The retail sale of Natwest shares has been derailed by Rishi Sunak’s move to call a snap election, City AM understands. Ministers had been gearing up to offload a chunk of the government’s remaining stake in Natwest to retail investors this summer, but Treasury sources have confirmed those plans are now on ice.

Ofwat, the water regulator, is also expected to delay a critical series of decisions on the business plans of companies including Thames Water (which is hovering on the brink of collapse) beyond the scheduled date of June 12 until after the general election, Sky News reports.

How has business reacted?  The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) national chairman Martin McTague thinks an election victory “is not in the bag” for Labour. The head of Britain’s largest small business lobby group told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme either party “needs to win the votes of these business owners” if they are to secure victory on 4th July. Karim Fatehi MBE, CEO of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry told City AM he wanted political parties to prioritise the issues that are hindering growth, such as skills shortages, an unfair business rates system, infrastructure planning and high crime rates.  “London’s success is the UK’s success – and policy makers must recognise that when London’s businesses succeed, the whole country prospers,” he said, adding that they must “ensure the concerns of businesses are heard” to “ensure the best possible operating conditions to unlock productivity and economic growth”. Rain Newton-Smith, CEO of the CBI said: “This General Election needs to be about how our political leaders will get the UK economy firing on all cylinders and deliver sustainable growth for the benefit of our society. Whoever forms our next government can’t tackle these momentous challenges alone – they will have to partner with business to harness the insights, innovation and optimism needed to deliver real and lasting change”.

Vets: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a formal investigation into the £2bn veterinary practice market, over concerns pet owners are overpaying for medicines and are not always aware of the best treatment options available. “The message from our vets work so far has been loud and clear – many pet owners and professionals have concerns that need further investigation,” CMA CEO Sarah Cardell said. Possible remedies, she said, if poor practice is found, are for firms to be forced to provide certain information to consumers; imposing a maximum cap on prescription fees; or ordering the sale or disposal of businesses or assets. Cardell added: “While we’re aware of acute staff shortages and difficult working conditions for vets, we consider a formal market investigation is essential to ensure good outcomes for the millions of pet owners in the UK as well as professionals working in the sector”. An initial review of the vet market by the CMA in September prompted 56,000 responses from pet owners and those working in the industry. CVS, the AIM-listed veterinary practice group that is one of the UK’s six largest corporate vet groups – said it was looking forward to updates from the CMA, but stressed it had a “clear strategy with its purpose to give the best possible care to animals and its vision to be the veterinary company people most want to work for”. Britain's other five large veterinary groups are IVC, Linnaeus, Medivet, Pets at Home and VetPartners.

Royal Mail fined some 158,000 customers a total of £686,000 for using counterfeit stamps before the penalty was dropped following an investigation by The Telegraph which revealed many may have been incorrectly issued. The newspaper also uncovered China was flooding Britain with the highly convincing fakes, which had been sold for around 40p each. The fines, collected between July 2023 and March this year, doubled from £2.50 to £5 during that time, but the postal service maintains it did not profit from the surcharges, which were payable by mail recipients when they went to collect post that Royal Mail had refused to deliver because of the suspected fake stamps.

GB News has launched a formal legal challenge to Ofcom, which last week threatened to fine the start-up broadcaster for allegedly breaching impartiality rules during a programme in which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced questions from an audience made up of members of the public. GB News has issued a statement accusing the regulator of “trampling” on free speech and making decisions against journalists’ and broadcasters’ rights to make their own editorial judgements in line with the law.  B News said it chose to be regulated by Ofcom and takes its obligations under broadcasting rules very seriously, but added: “Ofcom is obliged by law to uphold freedom of expression. Ofcom is also obliged to apply its rules fairly and lawfully. We believe that, for some time now, Ofcom has been operating in the exact opposite manner. We cannot allow freedom of expression and media freedom to be trampled on in this way”. Ofcom has carried out more than 20 investigations into the channel since it launched. Veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil, who resigned from GB News just three months after helping to launch the channel, has been a vocal critic of the broadcaster’s output, but told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this week that Ofcom had “chosen the wrong ditch to die in” by threatening fines against GB News over the Question Time-style programme with the PM.

The Nationwide Building Society plans to pay around £385m directly into customers’ accounts as part of its Fairer Share policy after posting a pretax profit of £1.78bn for the year ending 4th April. The lender, which has more than 16m members, said the payments will be made to eligible current account customers with a savings account or a mortgage. Meanwhile, Virgin Money shareholders have voted in favour of £2.9bn deal that will see Nationwide take it over. Just over 89% of voting shareholders said yes to the deal at a general meeting yesterday. The deal includes the sale of Richard Branson’s 14.5% stake in the bank, which he founded in 1995. Nationwide will pay £15m in annual royalties to Virgin Group to use the brand name over the first four years, before paying £250m to exit the contract, and eventually phase out Virgin Money’s name entirely. The deal will require formal approval from the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, as well as the Competition and Markets Authority.

Airbus is to hire 400 engineers at its wing manufacturing plant in Wales in a race to extend its lead of crisis-hit Boeing, The Telegraph reports. The plant, in Broughton, near Chester, makes aircraft wings, and is now set to increase monthly production of wings for the Airbus A320 from an average of 48 last year to 75 by the end of 2026.

The Barclay family have been forced to put their online retailer Very Group up for sale after lenders led by US private credit giant Carlyle demanded the terms in return for pushing out the repayment deadline on a £280m loan owed by Very’s immediate parent company, The Telegraph reports.

Hargreaves Lansdown has rejected a 985p per share takeover offer from a consortium comprising of CVC, Nordic Capital and Platinum Ivy, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The trading platform said the offer “substantially undervalues Hargreaves Lansdown and its future prospects”.

ITV has made an investment in online estate agent Strike, which trades as Purplebricks. As part of ITV Adventures Invest, the company's Media for Equity investment fund, ITV has agreed to subscribe for £1.5m convertible loan notes in Strike, with the option for an additional two tranches of £1.5m each, in return for advertising inventory across ITV's channels and ITVX. Strike bought online estate agent Purplebricks last year for just £1. Meanwhile, Dame Carolyn McCall, ITV CEO, told staff in an email this morning that around 200 people are expected to be made redundant as part of a restructuring programme to save £50m a year. ITV will offer workers a chance to take voluntary redundancy, though some of the cuts will be compulsory. 

Johnson Matthey has reported a fall in full-year underlying profit, attributable it says to lower metal prices. In the year to the end of March, underlying operating profit declined to £410m from £465m as PGM (platinum group metals) prices fell. Excluding the £85m impact from PGM prices, underlying operating profit was 11% higher on the year, "driven by transformation benefits and higher pricing". Revenue at the FTSE 250 sustainable tech firm fell to £12.8bn from £14.9bn.

National Grid shares were slipping this morning as it announced a £7bn equity raise through a rights issue to support future investments. The FTSE 100 energy company also reported underlying operating profit of £4.8bn for the year ended 31st March, marking a 4% increase at actual exchange rates, driven by revenue growth in UK electricity transmission and higher rates in New York and New England. However, statutory operating profit for continuing operations fell by 8% to £4.5bn due to non-cash exceptional charges.

Mark Thurston, the former HS2 boss who quit last year after six years in charge of the controversial rail link, will be named tomorrow as the next chief executive of Anglian Water, the biggest British water utility by geographical area, Sky News says.