Friday newspaper round-up: Brexit debate, soft services, RBS, Sky

Ministers have been forced to postpone next week’s debate on the EU withdrawal bill on a chaotic day that saw Michel Barnier warn of a “disturbing deadlock” in the divorce talks in Brussels and a growing whispering campaign against the chancellor in Westminster. Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, told MPs the key piece of Brexit legislation would not be debated next week, as they had planned, as the government struggles to respond to a deluge of hostile amendments. - Guardian

Rapid growth in manufacturing is failing to offset the lacklustre performance of the services sector, suggesting economic performance remains subdued, the British Chambers of Commerce said. A survey of more than 7,000 businesses showed that the economy grew at a “muted” rate in the third quarter.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has said that she cannot "not imagine" a no-deal Brexit scenario. The movement of people and aviation logistics were not covered by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules that would come into force should a deal not be agreed by March 29 2019, Ms Lagarde said, as she explained that such a scenario was unthinkable. - Telegraph

Treasury committee chair Nicky Morgan has threatened to use parliamentary powers to force the disclosure of a report into the conduct of RBS’s controversial business restructuring arm. Ms Morgan has written to the report’s authors, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), warning that if a forthcoming summary of the findings is not satisfactory, it will step in to ensure full publication. - Telegraph

James Murdoch has narrowly survived a rebellion by independent Sky shareholders to be re-elected as chair of the British satellite broadcaster. Just 51.6% backed Murdoch to stay in the top job. Concern among the dissenters centres around what they see as a potential conflict of interest, given his role as chief executive of 21st Century Fox, which is trying to buy Sky in an £11.7bn deal. - Guardian

Britain’s tax authorities have not prosecuted a single company or individual for online VAT fraud, an offence that costs the exchequer £1.5 billion a year in lost revenue. In written evidence to parliament, officials at Revenue & Customs revealed that they had investigated more than 2,500 sellers believed to be using Amazon and eBay to flout UK tax rules and make multimillion-pound profits. - The Times

Royal Dutch Shell has accelerated its drive into the electric car market with the acquisition of NewMotion, one of Europe’s largest electric vehicle charging providers. The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major paid an undisclosed sum for the company, which operates more than 30,000 charging points in homes and businesses and provides access to more than 50,000 public charging points across Europe. - The Times

Sir Richard Branson has invested in the futuristic transportation technology Hyperloop, promising to build the "world's most revolutionary train service". Sir Richard led a $85m (£65m) investment in Hyperloop One, a California-based company that is the first to successfully test the high-speed magnetic levitation technology. As part of the deal the company will be renamed Virgin Hyperloop One and enter Sir Richard's Virgin Group umbrella. - Telegraph

At least 17,000 Britons sought the citizenship of another EU member state in the year after the Brexit vote. While comprehensive figures for the previous year are not available, the larger countries surveyed all reported a jump in applications, suggesting a significant overall increase. - Guardian

More than six million homes will be insulated over the next 15 years to save families up to £650 a year on heating costs, under government plans for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. All “fuel poor” homes, in which residents spend more than 10 per cent of their income on heating, will be upgraded to a new minimum energy efficiency standard by 2030. - The Times

No inheritance tax has been paid on the vast bulk of the late Duke of Westminster’s £8.3 billion family fortune after his death last year. Probate records disclosed yesterday that Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, who died aged 64 in August 2016, left a personal estate of £616,418,184 after payment of debts and liabilities. - The Times

If they think it’s all over, it probably is. The collective wisdom of football fans on Twitter can often be a better guide to the final score in Premier League games than odds set by the betting markets, researchers suggest. The advantage of fans’ knowledge is so big that a punter who bet £1 on all their recommendations in a season could be £20,600 in profit compared with a £48,900 loss if they ignored it. - The Times

Chevron has become the second big oil company to abandon plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, almost exactly a year after BP ditched its more advanced plans for the untapped basin. Oil companies have compared the potential of the bight to the Gulf of Mexico, where there are thousands of oil rigs. - Guardian

Saudi Aramco’s minority listing in London has come under fresh fire from a good governance specialist that speaks for some of the most influential investment funds on the stock market. The International Corporate Governance Network, whose members include big institutions such as Legal & General, Aviva Investors and Hermes Investment Management, raised concerns about the implications for the quality and integrity of the UK market of the creation of a category for sovereign-controlled companies to accommodate the listing. - The Times

A new plan to accelerate production of biofuels for passenger planes has drawn stinging criticism from environmentalists who argue that most of the world’s rainforests might have to be cleared to produce the necessary crops. Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, with an 8% leap reported in Europe last year and a global fourfold increase in CO2 pollution expected by 2050. - Guardian