City to get ‘bonuses early’ and PM ‘backs thought police’
A number of the papers cover Rachel Reeves’s first Mansion House speech, an annual address to the City of London by the sitting chancellor, which she delivered on Thursday evening. The Financial Times says Reeves urged City regulators to allow financial service providers to take greater risks, saying that rules introduced after the 2008 crash had “gone too far” and were harming growth. The paper says the comments were part of an attempt by Reeves to “reassure City grandees that she had a growth strategy”.
The i says Reeves also backed a proposal that would allow bankers to receive their bonuses after a five-year deferral period, instead of the current eight years some have to wait. The paper adds that Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, who also gave a speech, made a “political intervention” on the UK’s relationship with Europe, saying the “consequences of Brexit” were damaging the economy.
More than 250 unpaid carers risk criminal prosecution after unwittingly building up debts because of overpayment of their benefits, according to the Guardian. The paper says as many as one in five claimants of the carer’s allowance have been punished for breaching earnings caps, where going just £1 over the weekly limit means having to pay back the whole benefit. It says 15,000 carers have been affected overall, with 50 being asked to repay at least £10,000. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, himself a carer for his teenage son, is quoted calling for a halt to repayment demands until a review is carried out.
The Metro reports that a lawsuit has been launched against Apple by consumer group Which? alleging that the tech giant is “ripping off” customers of its iCloud storage service. The paper says the group accuses Apple of forcing the service on customers and making it difficult for them to use alternatives. Apple said in a statement its customers are not required to use iCloud and said it will “rigorously defend” any legal claim against it.
Children are among thousands of people being investigated by police for non-crime hate incidents (NCHI), according to the Times. An NCHI is an incident which is “perceived… to be motivated – wholly or partly – by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic”. The paper says forces recorded one incident involving two secondary school girls who said another pupil smelt “like fish”. It adds that non-criminal classroom incidents are not supposed to be recorded, and quotes Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson saying the guidance on the issue is being reviewed.
The Daily Telegraph leads for a third consecutive day on a visit to the home of columnist Allison Pearson over a now-deleted social media post. Pearson said she was told by police she was being visited over a “non-crime hate incident”. But Essex Police said officers spoke to Pearson earlier this month in an investigation under the Public Order Act, which is understood to relate to alleged incitement to racial hatred. Writing for the paper, human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson says the state should not “suppress” free speech “unless it is intended to incite violence or is so inflammatory that it is likely to do so”.
Critics have said the growing number of NCHIs being recorded are a “waste of police time” and called on the government to “police the streets, not tweets”, according to the Daily Mail. The paper quotes Downing Street saying it’s “important that police can capture data” relating to such incidents where it is “proportionate and necessary to do so to help prevent serious crimes which may later occur”.
And the Daily Mirror’s headline calls for new laws to “stop the cosmetic cowboys”. The paper says it was moved to launch a campaign after one mum died and hundreds of other patients were injured after cosmetic surgeries carried out by unlicensed practitioners.
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