Wednesday newspaper round-up: LLoyds, BHP, Barclays, bacon and sausages
Donald Trump claimed “tremendous success” despite his party losing control of the House of Representatives in midterm elections last night after mixed results saw Republicans strengthen their grip on the Senate. The results were hailed as a turning point by Democrats in elections billed as a verdict on the first two years of Mr Trump’s divisive presidency but fell short of a “blue wave” of sweeping victories. - The Times
MPs could be blocked from scrutinising the economic fallout of the Brexit divorce ahead of a crucial vote on the issue. Nicky Morgan MP, head of the Treasury Select Committee (TSC) and a Conservative MP said that there needed to be at least two weeks between the production of Government analysis of the deal and the final vote to allow for proper scrutiny to be carried out. - Telegraph
Lloyds is making more than 6,000 roles redundant in another round of cuts by the bank that have shrunk its staff by more than half since the financial crisis. The lender, which received a £20 billion taxpayer bailout a decade ago, has shed 65,000 jobs since 2009, equivalent to 20 jobs a day for nine years. - The Times
One of the biggest cash prizes in world economics has been launched to find “radical ideas” to reinvigorate the British economy. Launched against a backdrop of deep public distrust in politicians to revitalise the UK economy, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank has lined up an £150,000 prize fund to uncover fresh ideas. - Guardian
The boss of Barclays’ investment bank failed to disclose for two months a loan from one of the lender’s biggest rivals in the latest breach of rules by a senior employee at the London-based bank. It revealed yesterday that Tim Throsby, chief executive of Barclays International, had taken out a “personal credit facility” with JP Morgan in September that it had not previously revealed to investors as required. - The Times
The star fund manager Neil Woodford faces a grilling at the High Court over his role in the failed boardroom coup attempt at Stobart Group earlier this year. Mr Woodford, 58, has been named as a witness for Andrew Tinkler, the former Stobart chief executive who was sacked as an executive director and then tried to unseat the company’s chairman Iain Ferguson. - Telegraph
The worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history has triggered one of the biggest legal claims ever filed in a British court. The Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton is being sued for about £5bn by Brazilian victims of the Samarco dam collapse in Mariana three years ago. - Guardian
The Financial Reporting Council has called on Aim-listed companies to improve the quality of their financial statements after accounting scandals at groups such as Patisserie Holdings and Yu Group. The regulator said that it had increased its scrutiny of accounts filed by companies listed on the junior stock market and was concerned that basic errors in compliance with industry standards were more frequent at smaller companies. - The Times
Casual dining chain Prezzo swung sharply into the red last year as it counted the cost of a painful restructuring. Trading entity Prezzo Limited posted a loss before tax of £65.7m in the year to December 2017, compared with a profit of £5.3m in 2016, according to accounts filed with Companies House. - Telegraph
England’s care regulator has warned that one of the country’s largest home care providers, private equity-owned Allied Healthcare, could stop operating at the end of the month. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has written to 84 local authorities telling them as many as 9,300 elderly and vulnerable people are at risk of losing their home care services after 30 November. - Guardian
A Qatari state-backed company is to buy the Grosvenor House hotel on London’s Park Lane, the latest in a string of acquisitions of the capital’s trophy assets. Katara Holdings, which is owned by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), has bought Grosvenor House for an undisclosed price from private American property investment firm Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation. - Guardian/Reuters
The cost of a fry-up would almost double under plans for a tax to combat the health problems caused by eating too much meat. Putting a 79 per cent tax on sausages and bacon and a 14 per cent tax on steak would prevent thousands of deaths a year, researchers at the University of Oxford claim. Taxing red and processed meat would also save the NHS millions of pounds by cutting consumption and therefore rates of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, they say. - The Times