I poured a cup of tea on my laptop and now need to buy a replacement 
What do people recommend? I don’t game, I use my laptop almost exclusively for work, which involves video conferencing, emailing, and using MS Office. I already have an iPad for personal use and my laptop rarely leaves my study so I’m not bothered about portability.
Do you need a laptop designed to operate faster due to tea ingestion, or is that not a requirement? 
Sorry, back to the question…
A lot of people I know have the same level of need and are using Chromebooks rather than laptops, as a cheaper (well, sometimes!) alternative. Might be worth considering?
Used thinkpads my trusty steed for when I flee from hell at home for a few hours.
Business build at a fraction of the price of a consumer laptop.
https://wiki.installgentoo.com/wiki/ThinkPad (Little outdated but still good)
I’ve had my eye on this for a while. Only reason I haven’t pulled the trigger is that I’m holding out for the new Ryzen 4 4500u models.
I have an iPhone. I’d like it to be be as cheap as possible, but I’m expecting it to be between £300-£400.
Awkwardly I was in the middle of a conference call with a client so had to end the session early (losing that pay) and cancel all of that day’s work 
This is your opinion.
I think it is possible to get a laptop for £400 - it won’t be a super powerhouse but don’t think that’s being asked for.
@anon28892155 would you consider used/refurb or does it have to be brand new?
I think you need to decide on an OS before deciding on specific laptop.
If you decide on Windows I’d second @desu recommendation of ThinkPad if willing to buy used/refurb. If not, might be a bit too expensive.
this is cheap and cheerful but is a good spec and good price https://www.amazon.co.uk/CHUWI-Herobook-Ultrabook-Playback-Supports/dp/B088WQRFK5/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=laptop+chuwi&qid=1599320769&sr=8-3 according to my IT friend
I went for the Cheapest Windows OS I could find and it was a HP and about £285(This is due to me having a desktop as well). A caveat with laptop is it doesn’t have much storage but I use google drive
I’d probably rather have an iPad and keyboard than a cheap laptop.
I think it would depend what you’re doing in Office. If you’re using a lot of excel, you might want the laptop but if it’s more word related, I’d just get a keyboard for you iPad.
Does @anon28892155 want to use their personal ipad for work use?
I think you would be looking at a very basic device with £400 - which might struggle with multi tasks.
How much do you use PowerPoint & Excel with video conferencing?
If it’s infrequent then either of the above suggestions fit the bill.
If it’s a little more heavier than that then I think you may need to be looking at £450-500.
It depends what you mean by garbage? For £400 to £500 you’re going to get better specs (CPU, RAM, storage) than an entry level MacBook Air.
The Air will have better build quality, a nicer screen, infinitely better trackpad and MacOS.
And even then you can get a surprisingly nice machines for £400-£500. The Magicbook I linked to is a complete Air ripoff, by which I mean the build is very nice.
Thanks for the replies guys. My husband has suggested this: https://www.johnlewis.com/acer-aspire-3-laptop-intel-pentium-processor-4gb-ram-128gb-ssd-15-6-inch-black/p4869259
But I’ll take onboard your comments regarding quality and power and see if it’s worth pushing the budget to something that can give a little more.
MacBook Pro, it’s the only way to go. Lasts for years. Just swapped out my 5 year old workhorse (still functions perfectly well apart from needing a battery service) for the new 16 inch one.
Macbook Pro 13inch is £2,399 retail. The 16inch is £2,799.
As the OP had a top budget of £400 they could buy the same laptop every year for that price and still not reach the kind of money needed for a Macbook after 5 years.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like Apple products – they are well-made and fairly future-proof – but they are incredibly expensive for what you get. I am blessed with an iMac at present but should it die on me it will be a serious struggle to replace like-for-like, never mind going for the latest model!
I understand @anon28892155 may not have the cash but I was just throwing it in there, tons of affordable suggestions have been offered also. What I find with PCs is that you tend to have to replace them more often and they just don’t last as long. Its an investment.
Base MacBook with education discount is about £800 o think. Plus free AirPods.
Try and get something with 8GB and 256GB SSD if you can
The advice my IT friend gave me is that you’ll find even with minimal usage a 128GB SSD will run out very quickly.