Podcasts

Georgie Frost was joined by finance expert from moneysupermarket.com Kevin Pratt this morning. Today on the agenda, they discussed Chancellor Philip Hammond defending his U-turn on increasing National Insurance contributions for some self-employed workers. Plus they look into why around 2-million pounds was lost to financial fraud every day of 2016. All these stories and more on The News Review.

This week the European Court of Justice ruled, it's effectively OK for an employer to ban the wearing of headscarves in the workplace This will not be direct religious discrimination providing the employer has a dress code policy banning any display of religious belief and not just because a customer says so. To discuss the implications of this case Georgie was joined by Kevin Charles, Director of Crossland Solicitors.

To go through all the political headlines this morning, Georgie Frost was joined Josh Lowe from Newsweek. The Chancellor says his u-turn over tax hikes for self-employed people was necessary to maintain voters' trust. Philip Hammond's reversed a National Insurance increase announced in his budget, because it broke a Tory pre-election pledge. Plus the Conservative Party has been fined £70,000 following an investigation into election campaign expenses. The Electoral Commission says there were significant failures by the Party to properly record how much was spent on canvassing. And a far-right party which called for mosques to be closed and the Koran to be banned has failed to win a general election in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom came second, winning fewer seats than expected.

Joining Georgie Frost to discuss the latest market headlines was Share Radio's very own Nigel Cassidy starting with this morning's company announcements. We've heard from Sainsbury's and Eurostar this morning. And we have the Bank of England's interest rate decision later. It will be the last before the UK starts formal proceedings to exit the EU. This comes after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday by a quarter of a percentage point to 1 per cent. It's the second rise in three months - and only the third-time rates have been put up since the 2008 financial crisis. So what can we expect?

Now how important is your pension to you if you're a young worker? Research shows that under-35 year olds are more likely to proiritise flexible working hours and holiday allowance over workplace pension contributions. But is this a generational preference or are auto-enrolment pensions schemes not desirable enough? Our reporter Anviksha Patel spoke to Alistair McQueen, Head of Savings and retirement at Aviva to find out more. Alistair began by explaining Aviva's research.

Today at 12pm the Bank of England will be releasing its latest interest rate decision. It's likely that the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will unanimously vote to hold rates at 0.25% in the face of potential economic upset from Brexit negotiations. Members of the Shadow MPC for the North East are supporting a rise in interest rates, arguing that it would be a positive move at the moment, especially for regional economies. Nigel Cassidy was joined by Christopher White, Financial Director at Darlington Building Society.

Morgan Mckinley, the specialist recruitment consultancy has today released their latest London Employment Monitor. The results show the job market is in decline in light of Theresa May's Article 50 deadline and with Brexit on the horizon in general. It seems as the government continues to send inconsistent messages about what kind of deal it is seeking for British businesses, larger institutions in particular are exercising hiring caution. Nigel Cassidy spoke to Hakan Enver, Operations Director, Morgan McKinley to discuss their results.

So the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's defeated a challenge from a far-right group in the country's elections. He's ahead of three other parties including one led by anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders. Speaking after a victory party the Prime minister said: , the [Dutch] people have said no to another country where the domino stone of the wrong side of populism would topple over. Geert Wilders is putting a brave face on coming second. He tweeted that he is proud of the more than one million people who voted for his Party of Freedom (PVV). To give his analysis, Nigel Cassidy was joined by Jeremy Cook, Chief Economist at World First.

On today's edition, Simon and Lord Lee are joined by Louis Hall, CEO of Cerillion.

It's time to talk politics. Today: Philip Hammond has dropped plans to hike national insurance; in the Netherlands, voters are heading to the polls; the chair of the Brexit Committee tells how he got on grilling the Government's Brexit minister today.