Here are the business stories making the headlines across Aberdeen, Scotland and the UK this morning.
Reform sinks to third place as Tories enjoy Badenoch bounce
Reform UK has been pushed into third place behind Labour and the Conservatives for the first time since the general election as Kemi Badenoch enjoys a polling bounce from her party’s conference last week.
A YouGov survey for The Times has found that the Tories have risen three points in the polls to 23 per cent, the party’s highest rating since Badenoch became leader.
It follows her pledge last week to scrap inheritance tax on family homes if the Tories won power and give free access to childcare for voters earning over £100,000.
Read more in The Times.
Gordon Brown attended exorcism in bid to sign player for Raith Rovers
Sometime in the autumn of 2006, three government Range Rovers roared into a car park in Kirkcaldy, Fife. In one of the cars was Gordon Brown, the local MP and, at the time, chancellor of the exchequer.
He was in a hurry: Brown, a sober son of the manse, was on his way to an exorcism.
The story of how a future prime minister attended a service “to cast out demons” only emerged this week. But the identity of the teller of the tale, Craig Levein, gives some clue as to how the adventure came about. Levein was the manager of Kirkcaldy’s football club, Raith Rovers. And Brown was — and still is — the team’s most famous fan.
Read the full story in The Times.
Bumble shares soar after report dating firm in $1bn takeover talks
Shares in dating app company Bumble soared by almost 50% on Monday after a report that it is in advanced talks to be bought for around $1bn (£757m).
Technology holding company Ithaca could announce a deal to buy the Texas-based firm as early as this week, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The jump in Bumble's shares pushed its stock market valuation to over $580m but that is still far below a peak of more than $14bn it reached after listing on the Nasdaq in 2021.
Read more on the BBC website.
Schools and public services ‘shortchanged’ across north-east and Highlands as local funding gaps revealed
Schools, social care, roads and housing have been “short changed” by millions of pounds across councils including Aberdeenshire and Highland.
The claim follows analysis of cash given to local authorities for frontline services over more than a decade.
A gap emerges when actual grants are compared with the total councils could have gained if kept up with financial packages from Westminster to Holyrood.
Read The Press and Journal article here.
Shetland MSP defends hiring artist with public money
Shetland MSP Hannah Mary Goodlad has defended her decision to hire an "artist in residence" for her constituency, at a cost of £11,000 of public money.
The SNP public finance minister is recruiting a Shetland-based creative, of any discipline, to engage with the community and deliver projects reflecting policy priorities.
The 35 hour-a-week job - a four-month-long contract paid from Goodlad's parliamentary staff budget, has been criticised by Reform MSP Max Bannerman as "state-funded propaganda."
Read the BBC article here.
Nando’s: ‘We are renovating Belmont Street spot because we believe in Aberdeen city centre’
Nando’s chiefs are “putting their faith in Aberdeen” with a major revamp to their Belmont Street spot under way.
Restaurant manager Neil Matheson told The P&J how the chain is putting its money where its mouth is and doing up the branch for the first time since 2012.
He’s been working for the Portuguese staple for many years, starting off part-time before rising through the ranks to run the Belmont Street branch.
Andy Burnham: We’re ready for closer ties with the EU
Britain’s relationship with the European Union is “not good enough”, Andy Burnham has declared as he set out plans for further integration with Brussels.
The prime minister confirmed he would attend a summit with European leaders on November 20, which is expected to lead to agreements on food exports, illegal immigration and youth mobility.
He claimed the deals being negotiated would add up to £10bn per year to the UK economy by 2040 and make it easier to tackle the small boats crisis by giving the UK access to EU migration databases for the first time since Brexit.
Read more in The Times.
Fridges in French supermarkets hit by cyber attack
Hundreds of French supermarkets have been hit by a cyber attack that caused their fridges and freezers to heat up, spoiling fresh and frozen food estimated to be worth millions of euros.
Hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units, forcing some to warm to 50C (120F) overnight, according to one supermarket chain affected.
The chief executive of Coopérative U said several of its supermarkets had been hit by the "extremely serious and unprecedented" attack.
Find out more from the BBC.