June 4 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Headlines

- KKR feared political risk from Thames Water rescue deal

- UK Serious Fraud Office probes company that sold solar farms to Thurrock Council

- British industry exempted from Trump's doubling of steel tariffs

- British finance minister Rachel Reeves to back Manchester-Liverpool rail link in transport spending boost

- Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey defends UK ringfencing rules for lenders

Overview

- Thames Water suffered a major setback in its fight to avoid nationalisation after U.S. private equity firm KKR KKR.N pulled out of a multi-billion pound rescue plan, partly due to concerns about political interference.

- Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it had launched an investigation into Rockfire Investment Finance, a company that sold a bond investment scheme linked to solar farms that led to an English council being effectively declared bankrupt in 2022.

- UK industry was exempted from a doubling of U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump, as British bosses called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to move swiftly on a trade deal that would eliminate the levies entirely

- UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has approved plans to invest billions of pounds in a new railway line between Manchester and Liverpool along with other transport schemes as part of next week's Whitehall spending review.

- Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has defended the ringfencing rules that force UK lenders to separate their retail operations from other activities, saying that removing them would make mortgages and other loans more expensive.

(Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)

((globalnewsmonitoring@thomsonreuters.com))