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, WED., OCT. 7, 2026No. 3 · 6:00 p.m. BST6 p.m. BST
FTSE 10010,458.50▼0.79%10/7GBP/USD1.3213▼0.41%10/7S&P 5007,818.93▲0.58%10/6WTI$89.44▲0.01%10/6Gold$4,187.10▲0.73%10/6
Economy · MarketsPress ✓ 6 outlets · yields and index levels from Reuters, Bloomberg and data providers

The 30-year gilt yield hits 6.036%, a 28-year high, and the FTSE 100 drops 0.8%. Healey's Budget is three weeks away

A global bond sell-off and oil back above $100 pushed UK long-term borrowing costs to their highest since January 1998. The Treasury says the Chancellor is sticking to his fiscal rules.

The cost of the British government's longest borrowing climbed to a 28-year high on Wednesday. The yield on the 30-year gilt rose 13 basis points on the day to peak at 6.036% at 13:41 GMT, the highest since January 1998, Reuters reported. It first broke through 6% a week ago, as City AM reported, and the FTSE 100 had already fallen 2.2% in the week to 2 October, its worst week since April. Wednesday's move is therefore a second leg of a sell-off, not a one-day shock. The 10-year yield rose by about 10 basis points as well. The move was not made in London alone. US 30-year Treasury yields returned to their highest since 2002, Bloomberg reported, with oil back above $100 a barrel, and France's bond market was under strain, though the head of the Banque de France said the European Central Bank did not need to intervene. Demand at home held up: the Debt Management Office sold £1 billion of 2031 gilts at an average yield of 4.842%, with a bid-to-cover ratio of 4.39. The pound slipped from about $1.325 in the morning to roughly $1.3213 late in the day, after the dollar gained on higher oil and expectations of further Federal Reserve rate rises, StoneX noted.

Shares fell with bonds. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.79% at 10,458.50, according to Yahoo Finance and BBN Times data. Banks led the decline: Prudential lost 4.6%, Standard Chartered 4.5% and HSBC 4.2%, with Asia-focused lenders hit hardest. The politics is plainer than the market. Chancellor John Healey presents his first Budget on 28 October, and the Bank of England decides on rates soon after. Reuters reported that the finance ministry said he stressed fiscal credibility and reaffirmed the government's fiscal rules, and that Bank of America economists expect the Budget to raise public borrowing. Pressure is coming from several directions at once. The IMF's Kristalina Georgieva urged governments to rein in spending, the Financial Times reported, and the Guardian's morning briefing asked whether it is time to end the Bank of England's independence. The Chancellor must now persuade bond investors, not just voters, that the sums add up. Higher gilt yields also feed into mortgage and business loan pricing, which is why a single number on a Bloomberg screen can reach a kitchen table within weeks. The Times reported that house prices are flat amid concern about inflation. Elsewhere in the City, the FT said HSBC plans sweeping job cuts in its UK wealth business as it pushes into artificial intelligence, and the Times reported that a top UK builder is pulling out of London because the economic case has "evaporated". The next test is the Budget itself, twenty-one days away, and the market will not wait politely until then.

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By the numbers
6.036%30-year gilt yield peak at 13:41 GMT, the highest since January 1998 (Reuters)
10,458.50FTSE 100 close, down 0.79%; Prudential, Standard Chartered and HSBC fell most
21 daysuntil the Budget on 28 October
Politics · ConservativesPress ✓ 6 outlets · pledges as reported; costings not published

Badenoch promises that no family will pay inheritance tax on their home, and attacks Reform over its 'standards'

In her speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Kemi Badenoch promised that a future Conservative government would stop anyone paying inheritance tax on their family home, and raise to £1 million the amount a couple can leave tax-free. She said she would like to abolish the tax altogether "as soon as we can afford it", but that she cannot propose that now because of commitments on defence, prisons and the economy. The party says the changes would cut the number of families paying the tax by more than half. Rival parties said they favour wealthier people. She also turned on Reform UK, citing the jailing of its former Wales leader Nathan Gill and the Farage associate George Cottrell, with the line "Character, conduct, and standards matter", a sign that any plan to unite the right is over while she leads. The Spectator hailed "the return of conviction politics", the Times said she resurrected the low-tax, low-spend Tories, and the Guardian's Owen Jones called her the most rightwing leader in Tory history. The FT's verdict was cooler: a work in progress. The Independent reported Tony Blair warning Andy Burnham not to do a coalition deal with the Greens, a reminder that the speech was also about who governs after the next election, and Sky News's debrief of the speech asked the same question the Independent put to its writers: is she ready to be prime minister?

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Word of the day
Inheritance taxTax

A tax of 40% on the part of a person's estate above a tax-free threshold when they die. Couples can currently pass on a combined allowance. Badenoch's pledge would remove the tax on family homes and raise the couples' allowance to £1 million; no costing was published.

Business · RetailPress ✓ 5 outlets · deal terms as stated by the buyer and sellers

Boots is sold to Canada's Weston family in a £6.7 billion deal

The Weston family's investment vehicle, Wittington Investments, has agreed to buy Boots from the private equity firm Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family for about £6.7 billion ($8.9 billion), including debt. The Financial Times, the Independent and Sky News all reported the deal. Fairfax Financial is backing it with up to $2.3 billion of equity and is expected to take a 50% stake, while Wittington keeps operational control and its chairman Galen Weston will chair Boots. The purchase covers Boots' retail operations across the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company and its Thailand and franchised businesses.

Boots has about 1,800 stores and more than 50,000 staff in the UK and Ireland. The sellers keep their stakes in Mexico's Farmacias Benavides and Germany's Alliance Healthcare Deutschland. Wittington says it will keep investing in stores, the online offer and healthcare services. We found no statement on jobs. Completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027 and depends on regulatory approval.

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Politics · Reform UKPress ✓ 4 outlets · the inquiry was commissioned by the party itself

Reform's own inquiry clears its advisers over the Channel 4 donations sting. The Met's criminal investigation goes on

Reform UK said on Wednesday that an internal inquiry had cleared two of its advisers over a Channel 4 undercover investigation into foreign donations, Sky News and The Times reported. The 27-page report concluded that James Orr and Dan Jukes did not breach electoral law, that the broadcast gave a distorted account, and that polls at the centre of the story were commissioned by a contractor on his own account and at his own risk. It said no money was received, and no agreement made to transfer any, in relation to a proposed £500,000 donation. It made seven recommendations on procedures.

The report is the party's own. Both men stepped down from party duties after the programme and deny wrongdoing. The Metropolitan Police's criminal investigation remains open, GB News reported. Reform says the production company, Verbatim, acted unlawfully and that it will take legal action; Channel 4 and Verbatim had not responded in the coverage we found. A recent YouGov projection linked Reform's slide to this police investigation and to a parliamentary probe over a £5 million gift to Nigel Farage, which both deny.

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Crime · NorfolkPress ✓ 5 outlets · charge only; allegations are untested in court

A man is charged with murdering his wife, a Norfolk GP described as a doctor to the royal family

Mark Cain, 45, of Dersingham, Norfolk, has been charged with the murder of his wife, the GP Dr Hannah Terry, known in law as Hannah Cain, the BBC, Sky News, The Times and the Independent reported. Police were called to the family home shortly after 2.20am on Sunday and found her dead. A post-mortem recorded blunt-force injuries to the head and neck injuries consistent with compression. She was the mother of three. At his first hearing Mr Cain spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth, and was not asked to plead. He was remanded in custody to a plea hearing at Norwich Crown Court, provisionally on 3 December.

Several outlets describe Dr Terry as a doctor to the royal family, who practised near Sandringham; Norfolk Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have not confirmed any royal connection. The King and Queen are thought to have been told of her death but have not commented. Her family said they were "devastated". The charge is an allegation, and nothing has been tested in court.

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In brief
  • Eva Marie Saint, Oscar-winning star of On the Waterfront and North by Northwest, dies aged 102Sky News · Guardian
  • Scientists unveil the first ultra-accurate nuclear clocksFT · Independent
  • Lionel Messi scores and assists in his last Argentina gameThe Times · US press
  • India raises its repo rate for the first time in more than three yearsFT · Forbes India
  • Separatist party wins power in Quebec, though separation from Canada is not necessarily closerGuardian · BBC
  • Southampton manager Tonda Eckert is handed a suspended ban over the "spygate" scandalIndependent · Sky News
  • The Houthis fire missiles at Riyadh and AdenFinancial Times
Seven minutes every evening, one front page — see About

Unverified — what we could not confirm

"Reform has been cleared of wrongdoing." The inquiry was commissioned by Reform itself and cleared two advisers of breaching electoral law. The Metropolitan Police's criminal investigation is still open.
"A second plague case has been confirmed in Russia." The WHO says it will investigate reports of a second case of pneumonic plague after the laboratory worker's death. Nothing is confirmed. The UKHSA rates the risk to Britain "very low", and Trump says he will speak to Putin.
"Badenoch will abolish inheritance tax." She pledged to end it on family homes and raise the couples' allowance to £1 million. Abolishing the tax entirely is an ambition "as soon as we can afford it", not a policy.
Glossary · dotted words — economics, law, security and science terms explained in the context of the story. The list grows every day.
INSIDEThe 30-year gilt yield hits 6.036%, a 28-year high, and the FTSE 100 drops 0.8%. Healey's Budget is three weeks awayEconomy · MarketsBadenoch promises that no family will pay inheritance tax on their home, and attacks Reform over its 'standards'Politics · ConservativesBoots is sold to Canada's Weston family in a £6.7 billion dealBusiness · RetailReform's own inquiry clears its advisers over the Channel 4 donations sting. The Met's criminal investigation goes onPolitics · Reform UKA man is charged with murdering his wife, a Norfolk GP described as a doctor to the royal familyCrime · Norfolk