London banking sector to begin moving business overseas 'by early 2017'

Business reporter(wp/es):
London's financial services industry is already planning to move business overseas due to the uncertainty of the Brexit process, the head of the British Bankers' Association has warned.
Anthony Browne blamed fears that European Union (EU) politicians will want to erect trade barriers in an attempt to weaken the City of London during the Brexit negotiations for the planned moves.
Smaller banks could begin moving some operations overseas within weeks, with larger institutions following in the first few months of 2017, he predicted.
"Their hands are quivering over the relocate button," he said.
Writing in The Observer, he said: "Banking is probably more affected by Brexit than any other sector of the economy, both in the degree of impact and the scale of the implications.

"It is the UK's biggest export industry by far and is more internationally mobile than most. But it also gets its rules and legal rights to serve its customers cross-border from the EU.
"For banks, Brexit does not simply mean additional tariffs being imposed on trade - as is likely to be the case with other sectors. It is about whether banks have the legal right to provide services."

The industry would like to see the continuation of the EU's "passporting" regime, which allows financial services firms based in the UK to operate throughout Europe without seeking separate authorisation.
He warned that in European capitals and among British Eurosceptics "the rhetoric is hardening" and politics could trump the economic advantages of allowing the present system to remain relatively untouched.
"The problem comes - as seems increasingly likely, judging by the rhetoric - when national governments try to use the EU exit negotiations to build walls across the Channel to split Europe's integrated financial market in two, in order to force jobs from London.

"From a European perspective, this would be cutting off its nose to spite its face.
"It might lead to a few jobs moving to Paris or Frankfurt but it will make it more expensive for companies in France and Germany to raise money for investment, slowing the wider economy."
Banks have called for transition arrangements to be put in place after the UK leaves the EU but the uncertainty over the future - with years of negotiations with Brussels ahead - has left them with little option but to take steps to protect their futures.

Mr Browne said: "Banks might hope for the best but have to plan for the worst.
"Most international banks now have project teams working out which operations they need to move to ensure they can continue serving customers, the date by which this must happen and how best to do it.
"Their hands are quivering over the relocate button. Many smaller banks plan to start relocations before Christmas; bigger banks are expected to start in the first quarter of next year.
"London will survive as a global financial centre. Finance is inventive and will find a way through.
 "But putting up barriers to the trade in financial services across the Channel will make us all worse off, not just in the UK but in mainland Europe."

Suzanne Evans and Paul Nuttall announce plans to stand for UKIP party leadership

Political reporter(wp/es):
Suzanne Evans and Paul Nuttall are poised to go head-head in the battle to become the next Ukip leadership after they both joined the race to head up the crisis-hit party.
The politicians both promised to press the Government on Brexit if they are elected as leader.
But while Mr Nuttall pitched himself as the "unity" candidate, Ms Evans pledged to clean the party of its "toxic" image during a scathing attack on the Ukip hierachy.
She warned Ukip risked being turned into a Donald Trump-style party by Nigel Farage and his allies, but dismissed this strategy, insisting there is no groundswell of support for "far-right" polices in the UK.

Her announcement comes after Arron Banks, the party's most high-profile donor and former aide to Mr Farage, announced he is backing Raheem Kassam for the leadership.
Ms Evans told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "Our future as a political party in Britain does not lie in that far-right wing. I don't see a groundswell of opinion in this country for more far-right wing policies."
Ms Evans said she "absolutely" thought Mr Kassam will take Ukip in a far-right direction but "our members don't want that".

She said: "We've taken a lot of stick in Ukip because perhaps we have had a slightly more toxic image than we should have had.
"And our members, the ones that are doing the campaigning, have felt the brunt of that - being abused, being physically and verbally assaulted on the streets.
"They don't want to have a fresh injection of toxicity that's going to make it even more difficult for them, they want policies that help us win."
Ms Evans, who wrote her party's 2015 manifesto but has since fallen out with Mr Farage, was unable to stand in the last leadership election after being suspended from the party for disloyalty.

But she tried to brush off claims that her unpopularity with the Ukip leader and his close ally Mr Banks would harm her chances of being elected to lead the party.
She said there has been "too much testosterone" in Ukip and it is ripe for change.

She said she has "more than enough signatures" on her nomination form already, and dismissed claims the party's finances are in a perilous state.
And making her pitch for leader, she told the show: "I think I'm the right person to lead Ukip into the challenges ahead, to be able to beat the first past the post system that we have at the moment by broadening our appeal and getting MPs into Westminster.
"But first and foremost I think I am absolutely the right person to champion the cause of those 17.4 million people who voted to leave the European Union and are now seeing their democratic choice being undermined by the political class."
Mr Kassam hit back at the comments, saying: "It is sad that 60 seconds after she launched her campaign on the BBC, Suzanne Evans attacked me and my thousands of supporters as 'far right'. This is a project fear tactic and Ukipers are sick of these smears.

"But we're going to rise above it. When she goes low, we go high, to quote Michelle Obama."
Mr Farage criticised Ms Evans' remarks and said she should not be leader.
He told ITV's Peston on Sunday: "For her to talk about the party being toxic, for her to already declare one of the candidates who is running, Raheem Kassam, as being far-right, I don't view this as being a very good start.
He added: "I won't be voting for her no."
The leadership election was triggered after Diane James quit after just 18 days in the job.


Steven Woolfe, the frontrunner to replace her, quit the party in the wake of an altercation with another party member after which he ended up in hospital.
Announcing his decision, Mr Woolfe said the party had fallen into a "death spiral of their own making".
Paul Nuttall, North West MEP for Ukip, told BBC's Sunday Politics: "I've made the decision that I'll put my name forward to be the next leader of Ukip.
"I have huge support out there across the country, not only among people at the top of the party in Westminster and with the MPs, but also among the grassroots.

"And I want to stand on the platform of being the unity candidate - Ukip needs to come together. I'm not going to be on here and gild the lily. Ukip at the moment is looking over the edge of a political cliff, it'll either step off or it will step back.
"And I want to be the candidate that will tell us to come back."