![British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks to US President Joe Biden from London, UK, January 23, 2021 [Downing Street Handout via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-01-23T232106Z_1683145568_RC2YDL91H82S_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN-BRITAIN-JOHNSON.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
British PM ‘looks forward to deepening alliance’ with the US in first phone call with Biden since his inauguration.
Boris Johnson
![British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has extended support measures to companies several times already and has said his response to the pandemic will cost nearly $380bn [File: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/367351422.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The UK’s biggest lobby group has asked the government to extend its job support programme until the end of June.
Why is the virus that causes COVID-19 mutating? Should we be concerned about the more contagious...
![Last month, the government announced Johnson's intention to visit India as part of efforts to speed up talks on trade, with the UK in search of new bilateral deals after leaving the EU [File: Jeff J Mitchell/Pool via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2019-08-25T163915Z_2041539272_RC175A1088D0_RTRMADP_3_G7-SUMMIT.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The UK is in search of new trade deals after leaving the EU but alarming rise in COVID cases forces...
![For 65 years, NORAD has tracked Kris Kringle's merry progress as he flies around the world in his sleigh delivering toys [File: Henning Bagger/EPA-EFE]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/h_56496405.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
Small businesses surviving COVID, Brexit trade and tracking Santa
We round up the numbers to know from the week’s biggest economic stories so you can impress yourself and your friends.
![The UK will exit the EU’s single market and customs union on December 31, when the Brexit transition period ends [File: Olivier Hoslet/Pool via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-12-09T194326Z_1702997055_RC2VJK9H5Y28_RTRMADP_3_BRITAIN-EU-JOHNSON.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
UK PM and top EU official set for crunch call as fractious talks over post-Brexit trade deal drag on.
![PM Johnson says London and southeast England - with about a third of the English population - are currently in the highest level of a three-tier system of rules and will now be placed in a new Tier 4 level [Toby Melville/Pool/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/AP_20354591609916.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson scales back plans to ease restrictions over Christmas in England as infections soar.
![Since leaving the European Union in January, Johnson wants to promote what he calls 'global Britain' [File: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2017-01-18T120000Z_947003005_RC1DAAEFCFC0_RTRMADP_3_BRITAIN-EU-JOHNSON-INDIA.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Amid Brexit fears, UK PM picks India for first bilateral visit in hope of boosting ties with countries further afield.
![The UK and the EU are trying to reach some sort of agreement before the Brexit transition period ends [File: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/366511815.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Both the UK and the EU fear they will be unable to reach a deal before the Brexit transition period ends.
![British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed on Monday to meet in person 'in the coming days' to see whether they can find common ground on a post-Brexit trade deal [File: Henry Nicholls/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-12-05T114756Z_1862395786_RC2ZGK90RJJO_RTRMADP_3_BRITAIN-EU.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is heading to Brussels to try and break a deadlock over a post-Brexit trade deal.
With BBC in the crosshairs of Boris Johnson’s government, we look at network’s century of struggle with British state.
![An anti-Brexit protester in London, UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is trying to negotiate trade agreements for when the UK leaves the EU [File: Toby Melville/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/brexit.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The UK is negotiating bilateral trade deals to come into force once it exits a transition arrangement with the EU.
![Scotland voted to remain in the UK in a 2014 independence referendum that was billed as a once-in-a-generation event [File: Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-10T164704Z_1556946139_RC2G0K9D6WA4_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRITAIN-STURGEON.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Boris Johnson’s office says he was not criticising devolution, only its use ‘to break up the UK’.
![Johnson was hospitalised with the coronavirus in April [File: Toby Melville/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/5f1175b3375c4e49a40c43729c73afef_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
British PM says he is well after coming into contact with someone with COVID-19 and will run the government via Zoom.
