Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tax cuts, Monzo, FirstGroup, climate change

Britain’s foremost tax and spending thinktank has said that Boris Johnson’s promise to cut taxes for millions of higher earners would cost £9bn and benefit the richest 10% of households in Britain most. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the proposal by the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race was expensive and potentially incompatible with the Tories’ promise to end austerity and safely manage the public finances. – Guardian

Digital bank Monzo has doubled its value to £2bn after closing a fresh round of investor funding. The valuation of the London-based bank leaped as it confirmed it had raised £113m from a group of investors led by Y Combinator, a US-based investment firm best known for backing holiday letting platform Airbnb, file hosting service Dropbox and online forum Reddit. – Guardian

FirstGroup will today face the music in an existential dust-up with its biggest shareholder. Coast Capital Management, a noisy Wall Street hedge fund, will have its plans to oust half of First's board put to the vote at an investor meeting. The ballot comes after a corporate ding-dong that could have been lifted from a Jeffrey Archer novel. In one corner, a British transport institution led by Matthew Gregory and Wolfhart Hauser; in the other, a Wall Street hedge fund run by charismatic Canadian James Rasteh. – Telegraph

When Andrew Bailey walks into the Wilson Room in Westminster’s Portcullis House this morning, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority will be braced for a rough ride. Mr Bailey, 60, and Charles Randell, 61, chairman of the City regulator, will update MPs on the work of the FCA in the second of their biannual hearings with the Treasury committee. But the conversation will not be one-way and Nicky Morgan, the Conservative chairwoman of the committee, has indicated that she will be asking both men tough questions. – The Times

A Labour government would hand the Bank of England climate change powers and would delist companies from the main London market if they failed to hit environmental targets, the shadow chancellor has said. John McDonnell said in a speech yesterday that Labour would harness “the full might of the Treasury” to force financial institutions to stop investing in polluting assets. Commercial and investment banks as well as pension fund and hedge funds would be scrutinised over contributions to climate change. – The Times