Retailers have endured their worst September month in more than 20 years amid the political "gridlock" surrounding Brexit, according to an index.
With the spectre of a potential no-deal Brexit weighing on consumers' purchasing decisions, it was the worst September since records started in 1995, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC)-KPMG retail sales monitor.
Total retail sales fell by 1.3% year-on-year in September, compared with a 0.7% annual increase in September 2018.
On a like-for-like basis, UK retail sales decreased by 1.7% annually. In September 2018, like-for-like sales had fallen by 0.2%.
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Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: "With the spectre of a no-deal weighing increasingly on consumer purchasing decisions, it is no surprise that sales growth has once again fallen into the red.
"Many consumers held off from non-essential purchases, or shopped around for the bigger discounts, while the new autumn clothing ranges suffered from the warmer September weather."
She said the "ongoing political gridlock surrounding Brexit is harming both consumers and retailers".
She continued: "Clarity is needed over our future trading relationship with our closest neighbours and it is vitally important that Britain does not leave the EU without a deal."
Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said: "Worryingly, even online sales moved closer to stalling."
Tesco Bank has appointed former Treasury official Sir John Kingman to its board but did not confirm reports that the Legal & General chairman would take over as Tesco Bank's next chairman.
Sir John, who was put in charge of restructuring the UK's banks during the financial crisis, will take up the role of non-executive director next month.
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He had previously been earmarked as a potential successor to Mark Carney at the Bank of England.
The announcement came after reports that Sir John had been lined up to replace current Tesco Bank chairman Graham Pimlott, who has been in the role for seven years.
Mr Pimlott welcomed Sir John to the board, describing his experience as "invaluable" to the supermarket's finance arm.
HSBC is planning a major cost-saving drive which could result in up to 10,000 jobs being cut from the bank's world workforce, it is reported.
Noel Quinn, who took over on an interim basis in August, is also looking to Europe for redundancies among the bank's approximately 238,000 employees, according to the reports.
This would come on top of around 4,700 job cuts which the London-headquartered bank announced in August, it is claimed.
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