Monday newspaper round-up: Sports Direct, Just Eat, No-deal Brexit

Sports Direct did not tell its auditors that it faced a £605m tax demand until the day it was due to release its annual results. Accountants at Grant Thornton were only informed of the claim for VAT and penalties from Belgian authorities early on Friday, according to well-placed sources. - The Daily Telegraph

The American activist investor that urged Just Eat to merge with a rival will be a big winner from the group’s mooted £9 billion tie-up with Takeaway.com after it quietly raised its stake in the London-listed company. Cat Rock Capital Management, the Connecticut-based hedge fund, raised its stake in the food delivery company to 2.6 per cent this month from under 2 per cent at the start of the year. - The Times

Boris Johnson’s ambitious domestic agenda would be crushed by the pressing needs of the emergency that would follow a no-deal Brexit, a new report by a Whitehall thinktank has concluded. The Institute for Government (IfG) warned there is “no such thing as a managed no deal” and the hard Brexiters predictions of a “clean break” from the EU will not materialise. - The Guardian

Boris Johnson will seek today to bolster the Union by promising a £300m spending spree before a bruising encounter with Ruth Davidson. The prime minister’s whistlestop tour of the four nations comes with the offer of extra cash to realise the potential “in every corner of the United Kingdom”. - The Times

Every part of the economy is severely unprepared for a no-deal Brexit, as industries and governments on both sides of the Channel need to step up planning urgently, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned. - The Daily Telegraph

Tehran has announced that it is escalating its nuclear programme, putting back on stream a reactor that can produce weapons-grade plutonium. Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and nuclear negotiator, said that the talks yesterday in Vienna intended to salvage the international nuclear agreement had again failed to produce a breakthrough. “As we have said, we will continue to reduce our commitments to the deal until Europeans secure Iran’s interests under the deal,” he said. - The Times