Covid loan fraud: More than 450 company directors disqualified in crackdown April 18, 2023 More than 450 company directors have been disqualified in a crackdown on covid fraud claims. The Insolvency Service announced that 459 of the 932 disqualifications overall for fraud were related to the coronavirus financial support scheme, introduced during the pandemic to help businesses in lockdown. This comes after the organisation published its monthly figures for [...]
Who has been hit hardest by £21bn of pandemic fraud, and will the taxpayer EVER get it back? March 30, 2023 The UK Government has lost £21bn worth of taxpayers money due to fraud since the start of the pandemic, that is “very unlikely” to be unrecovered, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). The NAO said that many public bodies are unaware of the amount of fraud they face, as it revealed that levels of [...]
Tui: Share price crashes 9.4 per cent over travel giant’s plan to raise £1.6bn for Covid loan repayment March 24, 2023 Shares in Tui today plummeted by more than 9.4 per cent after the travel company announced plans to raise €1.8bn (£1.6bn) to repay loans given to it by the German government during Covid-19. Tui, the world’s largest travel company, today set out plans to sell 328,910,448 new shares, at a 29.85 per cent discount of [...]
Defiant Boris Johnson insists ‘I did not lie’ and claimed boozy leaving do was ‘essential’ March 22, 2023 A defiant Boris Johnson insisted he “did not lie to the House” and claimed a boozy leaving do was “essential for work” in a fiery evidence session set to determine his political future. Johnson underwent a fierce grilling by the cross-party privileges committee, as MPs aimed to decide if he misled – intentionally or recklessly [...]
Allies fear Boris Johnson walking into a partygate ‘witch hunt’ – with a comeback at risk March 19, 2023 Former prime minister Boris Johnson could face a “witch hunt” before MPs at a grilling over his involvement in the lockdown-busting partygate scandal, a key ally has warned. Lord Greenhalgh, who was a deputy mayor during Johnson’s tenure at City Hall, said he was “concerned it will be a witch hunt” and hoped he would [...]
American candy stores or retail hub? What might be next for Oxford Street March 19, 2023 It has been three years since the UK was plunged into its first-ever full scale lockdown – forcing the majority of stores in London’s West End to temporarily cease trading and arguably altering the state of physical retail forever. The pandemic forced once seemingly indestructible retailers such as Debenhams, Topshop, and Gap off Oxford Street, [...]
Why AI tools, like GPT, are now at the frontline of the City’s talent war? March 19, 2023 Major advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology are rapidly transforming the ways that law firms and accounting firms work. The world’s top professional services firms are now increasingly starting to use increasingly sophisticated AI tech in their everyday work. However, increased use of AI technology is not just the inevitable result of technological innovation, but [...]
Partygate inquiry: Breaches ‘obvious’ to Johnson as ex PM feels ‘vindicated’ by Sue Gray Starmer switch March 3, 2023 Evidence strongly suggests breaches of coronavirus rules would have been “obvious” to Boris Johnson during partygate, the inquiry into whether he lied to MPs has said. The cross-party Privileges Committee said the Commons may have been misled multiple times as they set up a live showdown with the former prime minister for later this month. [...]
Matt Hancock leaked Whatsapps not ‘matter’ for data breach inquiry, says regulator March 2, 2023 Matt Hancock’s leaked Whatsapps about the Covid-19 pandemic are not a subject for a data breach investigation “at this stage”, a top regulator has said. Journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who worked with former health secretary Hancock on his book, Pandemic Diaries, handed over thousands of Whatsapp messages to the Telegraph. The paper published claims including that [...]
PMQs: Sunak escapes Brexit grilling amid Hancock WhatsApp row March 1, 2023 Prime minister Rishi Sunak has escaped a major Brexit grilling over the Windsor Framework amid a row over former health secretary Matt Hancock’s leaked Covid-19 WhatsApp messages. The PM – whose latest EU trade agreement is widely hoped to end the power-sharing deadlock in Northern Ireland – dodged intense scrutiny over the deal in the [...]