Holidaymakers warned of Dover ferry queues; survey shows UK economy slowing – as it happened

Rolling live coverage of business, economics and financial markets as retail sales and factory surveys suggest UK economy losing momentum

Away from public markets, there were notable comments on the future of the Port Talbot steelworks last night from the boss of Tata, the Indian conglomerate that owns it. He wants as much as 1.5bn from the government to upgrade the plant.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chair of Tata Group, told the Financial Times that he was considering the closure of the plant without aid from the UK government to upgrade the furnaces to be able to run on electricity rather than fossil fuels.

A transition to a greener steel plant is the intention that we have ... But this is only possible with financial help from the government.

We have been in discussions over the last two years and we should come to an agreement within 12 months. Without this, we will have to look at closures of sites.

This intervention from Tata is shocking, and has been made without any consultation with the trade unions. For months we've been in discussions with the company, but we should be clear there is no agreement on the decarbonisation roadmap.

The unions have been working with our experts exploring low carbon options that will protect our country's steelmaking capacity, jobs and communities. That process is unfinished, but Tata's comments make a mockery of the company's commitments to an open and transparent dialogue with the unions.