Monday newspaper round-up: Labour leadership, Mark Carney, KPMG, HS2, RBS, Robin Hood Energy
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The next Labour leader has been urged by defeated and re-elected MPs to ditch Jeremy Corbyn’s policies. Seven former MPs who lost their seats in the party’s worst election result since 1935 said that it needed fundamental change and an unflinching look at the reasons for the defeat. - The Times
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Tough new emissions controls could see car manufacturers hit with mega-fines next year amid disappointing sales of electric vehicles. Fines relating to the sales of new cars begin on Jan 1 in accordance with EU emissions standards and are set to deliver another blow to the beleaguered sector. - Telegraph
The outgoing governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has said all companies and financial institutions must justify their continued investment in fossil fuels, and warned that assets in the sector could end up “worthless”. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme being broadcast on Monday, Carney said that although the financial sector was starting to cut back on investment in oil and gas companies, the process was not moving quickly enough. - Guardian
Tens of thousands of workers have lost up to £10billion of savings in Government-sanctioned pension scams. Army veterans, police officers, firemen, paramedics, care workers and teachers were among those fleeced under an almost decade-long loophole. Most agreed to transfer their nest eggs to the rogue schemes because they were enrolled with HMRC and the Pensions Regulator – making it appear above board. - Daily Mail
Investment banks are treating their clients more favourably than other companies in equity research coverage, an investigation by The Times has found. The study of the ratings given to listed companies by City brokers provides strong evidence of bias to customers. The findings suggest that reforms introduced by the European Union two years ago to reduce potential conflicts of interest are failing. - The Times
Accounting firm KPMG was on the receiving end of half of all fines issued by the audit watchdog this year. The “Big Four” firm and its partners were hit with penalties of £16.4m in 2019 out of a total of £32.2m for the industry as a whole. - Telegraph
Rebecca Long-Bailey has made her opening pitch for the Labour leadership, avoiding any direct criticism of Jeremy Corbyn but implicitly offering an alternative approach by promising to champion “progressive patriotism”. In her first substantive comments on the election result, the party’s worst in terms of seats won since 1935, the shadow business secretary uses an article for the Guardian to say Labour’s “compromise solution” on Brexit was partly to blame, but that trust was also an issue. - Guardian
The HS2 project risks becoming a 'bottomless pit' for taxpayers' money and the bosses running it should be sacked, according to a key architect of the scheme. Professor Roderick Smith, a former Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Transport (DfT), urged Boris Johnson to dramatically overhaul the project. The Prime Minister is currently examining an official review into HS2 and will announce within weeks if it will be given the go-ahead or axed. - Daily Mail
The CBE awarded to the former boss of Royal Bank of Scotland in the new year’s honour list has provoked a backlash from business owners and MPs. Ross McEwan, who left RBS in October after six years, was recognised for services to the financial sector, but the honour has angered businesses that claim they were damaged by the bank. - The Times
Global warming is threatening the traditional production of some of France’s most famed cheeses - from Saint-Nectaire to bleu d’Auvergne - due to increasingly frequent extreme weather affecting how much fresh local grass cows eat. With the world struggling to take sufficient action to rein in global warming, French producers say it is becoming physically impossible to respect appellation rules on a number of cheeses, which limits the amount of dry hay livestock can consume. - Telegraph
Champagne has slumped in popularity in the UK over the past year, while consumers also kept other forms of sparkling wine on ice. Sales of the premium French bubbly fell by 28% from about 18m to 13m bottles in the last recorded 12 months, leaving the UK market worth £613m – or about £47 a bottle. - Guardian
Almost £4bn has flowed back into UK equity funds after Boris Johnson’s election triumph, according to new data. The cash boost comes after analysts said certainty around Brexit had been restored following the decisive Conservative victory earlier this month. - Daily Mail
Two leading private schools have rejected scholarships of more than £1.0m for poor white boys from a philanthropist for fear of breaching anti-discrimination laws. Dulwich College and Winchester College turned down an offer from Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites, 96, to leave the funds in his will. - The Times
Tourists and firefighters were forced to flee vast fires burning in southeastern Australia on Monday, as a heatwave rekindled devastating bush blazes across the country. Authorities said "quite a number" of the 30,000 tourists visiting the usually picturesque southeast tip of the continent had heeded calls to evacuate. - Telegraph
After a year dogged by Brexit deadlock, political uncertainty and slow growth, optimism among small UK firms has slumped to an eight-year low. The Federation of Small Businesses’s confidence gauge fell in October-December for the sixth quarter in a row. Managers at firms across the UK reported worries about the domestic economy and pessimism about opportunities overseas. - Guardian
Two bosses of Jeremy Corbyn’s energy supplier have stepped down from the board amid a probe into their conduct. Gail Scholes, the chief executive of Robin Hood Energy (RHE), and finance director Robert Bain have resigned as directors as the firm scrambles to produce delayed accounts that are expected to raise further questions over its finances. - Daily Mail
An American hedge fund that blocked a rescue deal for Interserve, the giant outsourcer, has taken a £17m short position in Future, the fast-growing magazine and website owner. Coltrane Asset Management is betting that the publisher’s share price is heading for a fall. Future, which is based in Bath and owns print titles and websites such as PC Gamer and Total Film, has been the strongest performer on the stock market this year. Since the start of January its market value has trebled to £1.45bn. - The Times
The United States launched the first airstrikes for almost a decade against Iranian-backed militia forces in Iraq and Syria last night in an escalation of the two powers’ confrontation in the Middle East. The Pentagon said that it had hit five bases used by the Kataeb Hezbollah, a Shia militia built up by Iran to promote its security interests in Iraq. It said that three of the bases hit were in Iraq and two in Syria, where the militia has been deployed to bolster the regime of President Assad. - The Times