Friday newspaper round-up: Brexit rumbles, DoJ climb-down, Lloyds

Theresa May faces a confrontation with pro-EU Conservative rebels after abandoning a compromise over how parliament should be consulted at the end of Brexit negotiations. After two days of talks ministers said they would not accept demands from more than a dozen rebels that parliament should be able to influence the direction of Brexit in a case of no deal. Instead, the government published an amendment to its main legislation that critics said would give MPs less control. - The Times

The lack of progress on Brexit is inhibiting business investment, the Institute of Chartered Accountants has said, as it downgraded its forecasts for economic growth. The institute said that no progress had been made by the government in the future of the UK’s trade and investment relationship with Europe, while rising oil prices would put pressure on households and companies. - The Times

President Donald Trump has approved a plan to impose punishing tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese goods as early as Friday, a move that could set his trade policies on a collision course with his push to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. Mr Trump has promised to fulfill a campaign pledge to clamp down on what he considers unfair Chinese trading practices. - Telegraph/PA

The public think that Theresa May is handling Brexit more badly than at any point since she became prime minister, according to a new YouGov poll. Only 21% believe that the government is doing well in the negotiations, with 66 per cent thinking ministers are doing badly. The net score of minus 45% is down from minus 39 points two weeks ago. - The Times

AT&T's takeover of Time Warner could close as early as this week, after the US government decided against seeking to delay the blockbuster deal. According to the joint filing, submitted to the court, the Department of Justice chose not to take up its option to seek a stay for the deal, which a federal judge ruled on Tuesday was legal. - Telegraph

A group of MPs have said they will publish a report into what Lloyds Banking Group knew about a fraud at its HBOS Reading unit, following years of campaigns for full disclosure by its victims. The fraud was one of Britain’s worst-ever banking scandals and the report claims that HBOS in 2008 concealed the fraud in an attempt to prevent the failure of a rights issue and its subsequent takeover by Lloyds during the financial crisis. - Guardian

Italy’s populist government escalated global economic tensions yesterday by threatening to sabotage the EU’s landmark trade deal with Canada. Gian Marco Centinaio, the Italian agriculture minister, said the country’s parliament would refuse to ratify the proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta). - The Times

The new £2 maximum stake on highly addictive betting machines will not be implemented until April 2020 after the Treasury struck a backroom deal with bookmakers. Campaigners expressed outrage at the delay, which they said would allow the industry to earn a further £4 billion. - The Times

One of Britain’s largest law firms, DWF, is set to list on the London stock exchange later this year with a valuation of up to £1 billion. The flotation would be the largest in the legal world and the first for a big law firm since Slater & Gordon listed on the Australian stock exchange in 2007. - The Times

The national living wage has fulfilled its purpose of cutting income poverty even though more than a third of the lowest paid live in well-off households with a high-earning partner, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Criticism of the living wage after its launch in April 2016 centred on the fact that it was not a substitute for in-work tax credits, which were cut at the same time, as many of those on low wages are second earners in the household. - The Times

The number of journeys on Britain’s railways has fallen as a result of strikes, price rises and overcrowding, the rail regulator said. The Office of Rail and Road said that passenger journeys on the network fell to 1.7 billion in 2017-2018, down 1.4 per cent on a year earlier and the largest decline in 25 years. - The Times

Theresa May is poised to increase the NHS’s budget by up to £6bn a year in a bid to capitalise on its impending 70th birthday and rescue the beleaguered service’s faltering fortunes. The prime minister will scrap the eight-year-long policy of limiting the NHSto funding rises of only 1% and, in a dramatic shift, hand it increases of between 3% and 4% for the next few years. - Guardian

Older people should receive free help with basic chores such as washing, dressing and eating in an overhaul that would see social care matching access to the NHS, ministers are to be urged. Personal social care should be “free at the point of need”, just like medical help on the NHS, according to a report by Lord Darzi, the ex-Labour health minister and Lord Prior, a Conservative health minister until 2016. - Guardian

The billionaire Sir Len Blavatnik has ploughed more than half a billion pounds into a bid to create a global “Netflix of sport”, an analysis of account has revealed. In 2017 alone the Ukraine-born investor, who made a fortune in post-Soviet heavy industry alongside oligarchs including Viktor Vekselberg and Mikhail Fridman, loaned Perform Group £410m to fund the expansion of its streaming service Dazn. - Telegraph

One of Britain’s most iconic seaside piers is set to be “flogged off for a song” to a controversial entrepreneur - just six years after it was saved for the nation with a £12m lottery grant. Hastings Pier is expected to be sold for a fraction of that cost to tycoon Sheikh Abid Gulzar, dubbed “Goldfinger” for his love of gold. - Telegraph