Theresa May told not to risk humiliating Commons defeat as she is pressured to postpone vote

Pic:Under pressure: Theresa May ( AFP/Getty Images )
Poitical reporter(wp/es):

 has been urged by a leading Tory backbencher to delay the crucial vote on her Brexit deal to avoid a humiliating defeat.

Sir Graham Brady said “clarity” on the controversial backstop was more important than the timing of the vote on the Prime Minister’s agreement.

It comes after Mrs May was urged by some Cabinet ministers to postpone the vote, which many of her fellow Conservatives expect she will lose.

Sir Graham, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, said he would welcome the vote being deferred if no solution could be found to differences within the party over the Northern Ireland border backstop.

He told BBC Two's Newsnight: "I think the most important thing is to have clarity about how we might remove ourselves from a backstop ... if we were to enter into one in the future.

"It's having the answer to that question of substance that is most important, not the timing, so if that question can be answered in the course of the next few days then all well and good.

"If it can't, then I certainly would welcome the vote being deferred until such time as we can answer that question."

MPs tabled earlier tabled an amendment to the meaningful vote on the deal that would give MPs some control over the controversial backstop, which has been the main sticking point after two years of negotiations

The alteration would mean Parliament will have to approve a decision to trigger the backstop arrangement or extend the transition period beyond December 2020.

It was tabled by Northern Ireland minister Sir Hugo Swire, Richard Graham and Bob Neill, hours after the Prime Minister indicated Parliament would choose between the two options after the UK formally quits the EU.

The move is likely to be seen as a bid to bolster flagging support for Mrs May ahead of a crunch Commons vote on her EU withdrawal deal next Tuesday - a showdown the PM made clear on Thursday morning she would not postpone.

But it remains to be seen whether it goes far enough to win over enough Tory Brexiteers to get the deal through the Commons.

DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose party opposes Mrs May's deal, warned that the amendment would not be enough, tweeting: "Domestic legislative tinkering won't cut it.

"The legally binding international Withdrawal Treaty would remain fundamentally flawed as evidenced by the Attorney General's legal advice."

The backstop, intended to prevent the return of a hard border in Northern Ireland, is highly controversial as Brexiteer MPs claim it traps the UK into obeying rules set by Brussels without a say over them.

The Government says it aims to conclude a comprehensive trade deal with the EU before a backstop arrangement would be needed.

Under the Withdrawal Agreement, the backstop would be introduced if a trade deal had not been agreed by both sides by the time the transition period ends in December 2020.

However, the transition period could be extended for a maximum of two more years.

UK temporary workers enjoy biggest pay rise since 2007 - REC

business correspondent(wp/Reuters):

Temporary staff in Britain had their biggest pay rises in more than a decade last month as the approach of Brexit made workers wary about changing jobs, leaving employers scrambling to fill positions, a survey of recruiters showed on Friday.

Pay for temporary staff employed via recruitment agencies grew by the most since the eve of the financial crisis in July 2007, while starting salaries for permanent staff rose at one of the fastest rates in nearly four years.

Sectors such as hospitality and warehousing struggled to fill their vacancies in the run-up to Christmas, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said.

The number of permanent and temporary staff being hired grew at the slowest rate since the summer, though in outright terms demand remained strong.

“It’s very much a candidate’s market at the moment and demand for workers is driving a sharp increase in starting salaries,” said James Stewart, vice chair of accountants KPMG, who sponsor the survey.

As fears of a no-deal Brexit spark concerns about job security, fewer people are willing to risk changing jobs.

“Candidates who are prepared to take a chance and job hop can often bag a pay rise as a result,” Stewart said.

Companies have complained of fewer foreign workers coming to Britain in the run-up to Brexit and official figures have shown the lowest net immigration from the European Union since 2012.

Past REC data showing stronger growth in starting salaries and temporary wages has not always translated into stronger earnings across the British workforce as a whole.

However, the most recent official data for average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, for full-time employees showed the sharpest annual growth in almost a decade, with wages up 3.2 percent on the year in the three months to the end of September.

The Bank of England has said it expects to raise interest rates gradually as wages rise, generating inflation pressure.

Senior Conservative lawmaker said would welcome delay to Brexit vote - BBC

Political reporter(wp/Reuters):

A senior lawmaker in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party said he would welcome a delay to parliament’s planned Dec. 11 Brexit vote if she cannot provide clarity on how Britain would leave the so-called Irish backstop, the BBC reported.

BBC reporter Nicholas Watt said on Twitter that Graham Brady, who chairs the influential 1922 committee of Conservative lawmakers and who would run any leadership contest if May is ousted, made the comments in an interview on Thursday.

Worries about the backstop, intended to ensure no return of border controls between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, are a key driver of opposition to the deal.

Former Tesco bosses Chris Bush and John Scouler cleared of £250m fraud after case collapses

Business correspondent(wp/es):

Two former Tesco directors have been cleared of fraud and false accounting after they were accused of manipulating the company's profits. 

The firm's shares plummeted by nearly 12 per cent, wiping £2billion off the share value, when Tesco announced in September 2014 that a statement the previous month had overstated profits by £250million.

Chris Bush, ex-UK managing director, and John Scouler, the then UK food commercial director, were accused of being aware that income was being wrongly included in the company's financial records to meet targets and make Tesco look financially healthier than it was.

But on Thursday at Southwark Crown Court, the jury was told that they had been acquitted at the Court of Appeal.

The acquittal came after trial judge Sir John Royce dismissed the case brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), bringing the trial to a halt after the prosecution presented its case.

The SFO went to the Court of Appeal regarding the dismissal, but its appeal was dismissed on Wednesday.

Mr Scouler, 50, from St Albans, and Mr Bush, 52, of High Wycombe, were each cleared of one count of fraud and another of false accounting.

During the trial, the jury was told the case was a retrial, and that a third man, former UK finance director Carl Rogberg, is charged with identical offences but was not currently well enough to stand trial.

A decision will be made in due course about what action should be taken in relation to Rogberg following the acquittals of Mr Scouler and Mr Bush.

The trial of Mr Scouler and Mr Bush, which began on October 8, had been expected to last three months.

Mr Bush said: “While I am delighted that my innocence has finally been established, it is troubling that Mr Scouler and I were ever charged. 

“Put simply, these charges should never have been brought, and serious questions should be asked about the way in which the SFO has conducted this investigation.”

Richard Sallybanks, partner at BCL Solicitors, representing John Scouler, added: "We are delighted that Mr Scouler leaves court today knowing that the judge, having heard the entirety of the prosecution evidence, reached the firm conclusion that he had no case to answer.

"That decision was obviously correct yet the SFO chose to pursue an appeal which was rejected yesterday when the Court of Appeal refused even to grant leave.

"We have long argued that the SFO's prosecution of Mr Scouler was fundamentally flawed, that he should not have been charged and that the SFO should not have proceeded with this trial."

Sterling's fate hangs on Brexit, UK growth to be weak - Reuters poll

Business correspondent(wp/Reuters):
Sterling’s near-term fate hangs on whether British Prime Minister Theresa May manages to get her Brexit withdrawal deal through Parliament, according to Reuters polls that also found economic growth will be weak.

May faces deep opposition in parliament ahead of a Dec. 11 vote on her withdrawal agreement, raising the risk of a no-deal Brexit shock to the economy in less than four months’ time.

She suffered embarrassing defeats on Tuesday at the start of five days of debate over her deal to leave the European Union that could determine the future of Brexit and the fate of her government.

If the deal is agreed, sterling GBP= will gain 3.5 percent, according to the median in a poll of foreign exchange strategists taken mostly as Parliament debated the deal, but if it fails to pass the pound will fall by 2.75 percent.

“Our colleagues are right to flag the risks that Parliament could initially reject the deal. This inevitably leads to a knee-jerk sell-off in GBP,” noted BofAML analysts.

“We think there is likely to be a material repricing of the UK rates curve once a deal is announced and ratified, which in turn is likely to be bullish for GBP.”

Sterling has ricocheted on each piece of Brexit news, largely ignoring economic data. As predicted in Reuters polls ahead of the June 2016 referendum on EU membership, it has fallen versus the U.S. dollar, down well over 10 percent on Wednesday from pre-vote levels.

There is still only a median 25 percent probability no agreement is reached before Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, unchanged from a November poll. It has been between 20 and 30 percent since Reuters began asking in July 2017.

Instead, almost 90 percent of economists who answered an additional question expect the most likely outcome to be the two sides agreeing a free-trade deal, as they have since Reuters began polling on this in late-2016.

Still in second place was leaving without an agreement and trading under basic World Trade Organization rules. And once more in third place was Britain being a member of the European Economic Area, paying into the EU budget to maintain access to the EU’s single market.

While the second and third outcomes were a close call, Brexit being cancelled was seen as unlikely and no respondent pegged this as the most likely scenario.

“The outcomes are obviously up in the air at present. But as it currently stands, some form of Free Trade Agreement looks to be the most likely option,” said Peter Dixon at Commerzbank.

Median forecasts in the wider foreign exchange poll pegged sterling at $1.29 in one month, $1.34 in six months and $1.37 in a year’s time, little-changed from a November poll. It traded around $1.275 on Wednesday.

The dollar has enjoyed unrivalled performance against its peers this year but will be undermined in 2019 on increasing concern about slowing U.S. economic growth, a poll showed. [EUR/POLL]

Against the euro EURGBP= the pound will be little moved from Wednesday’s level in one month when a euro will get you 89.0 pence. In six months and a year it will be worth 87.0p.

SLOW GROWTH

With little clarity about the terms under which Britain and the EU will part ways, British services firms were clobbered last month, leaving the economy at risk of contracting, a survey showed on Wednesday. [GB/PMIS]

The poll predicted Britain’s economy will expand 0.3-0.4 percent per quarter from here through to mid-2020, largely underperforming its peers.

It will grow 1.3 percent this year and a still modest 1.5 percent next year and in 2020, according to the poll of 76 economists, slower than ahead of the EU vote.

Still, a post-referendum recession never materialised and economists gave only a median 25 percent chance of one in the coming year and 30 percent within two years.

Inflation has held stubbornly above the Bank of England’s 2 percent target - and is not expected to be back there until the third quarter next year - yet the central bank has kept monetary policy loose.

It is not expected to raise the Bank Rate from the current 0.75 percent until at least April, when it will add 25 basis points. A subsequent 25 basis point increase is not expected until early-2020.

Only one of 77 economists polled expects the Bank to increase borrowing costs at its next policy decision on December 20.

Britain suspends £2 million golden visas to tackle money laundering

Staff reporter(wp/Reuters):
Britain will suspend its top tier investor visas, which require 2 million pounds ($2.55 million) in investment, as part of a drive to crack down on organised crime and money laundering.

From Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern oil barons to newly-minted Chinese entrepreneurs, the wealthy have flocked to London over the past two decades, snapping up everything from opulent homes to soccer clubs.

The influx of super-rich has brought tens of billions of pounds in investment and helped London preserve its position as one of the world’s top two global financial capitals, though the government has been concerned by the provenance of some of the wealth.

“I have been clear that we will not tolerate people who do not play by the rules and seek to abuse the system,” Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes said.

“That is why I am bringing forward these new measures which will make sure that only genuine investors, who intend to support UK businesses, can benefit from our immigration system,” Nokes said.

The tier 1 investor visas, which offered non-European Union residents over three years entry in return for 2 million pounds in investment in United Kingdom bonds, share capital or loan capital in UK companies, will be suspended from midnight on Dec. 7.

After the changes, applicants seeking to invest in the United Kingdom will have to provide comprehensive audits of all their financial and business interests, the interior ministry said. The audits will have to be carried out by UK registered auditing firms.

Those seeking such visas will have to prove they have control of the investment needed. Such investors will not be able to simply buy government bonds.

Around 1,000 applications were made for such visas in the past year.

Britain’s National Crime Agency, which tackles serious and organised crime, said in September it was stepping up efforts to tackle dirty money funnelled into or through the United Kingdom by “corrupt elites”.

It said it planned to extend the use of Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs), one means by which the assets of corrupt “politically exposed persons” or those with links to serious crime can be seized.

In October, it was revealed that the first target of a UWO was the wife of a jailed Azeri banker from whom the authorities seized property worth about 22 million pounds.

pharmacist Mitesh Patel jailed for life after murdering wife to start new life in Australia with boyfriend

Crime reporter(wp/es):

An "evil" pharmacist has been jailed for life after murdering his wife so he could start a new life with his boyfriend in Australia.

Mitesh Patel, 37, received a minimum sentence of 30 years for killing Jessica Patel at their Middlesbrough home in May.

Patel injected the 34-year-old with insulin and strangled her with a Tesco "bag for life".

He then staged a break-in to make it look like an intruder had attacked her and bound her with tape.

Jailing him at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Goss told Patel: "You have no remorse for your actions.

"Any pity you have is for yourself."

The victim's younger sister, Divya, had read a statement on behalf of the victim's sisters and close cousins ahead of the judge passing sentence.

She said: "The one thing we hope and prayed for, above anything else, was that in her final moments she did not suffer.

"The cruel reality is that she did in fact suffer, she knew exactly who her killer was, and he mercilessly ignored her attempts to fight for her own life as he ended it.

"We can only imagine the fear and panic she must have felt knowing herself this was it. Thinking of that moment makes our hearts so heavy."

Addressing her brother-in-law in the dock, she said: "As will she rest in heaven, you will rot in hell."

She added: "Only Mitesh himself can truly answer why he did this. Everything he has done has been purely for selfish reasons.

"He could've divorced her, taken everything he wanted - he did not need to take her life, he had no right to take this evil, cruel and malicious step."

Patel had been found guilty on Tuesday after a 12-day trial.

The couple ran a successful pharmacy together but their marriage was unhappy, with the husband repeatedly seeking sex with men he met on the Grindr dating app.

And he was secretly in a relationship with his "soulmate" boyfriend, who had emigrated to Sydney.