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(Bloomberg) —
UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab took one for the team Friday when he resigned after an independent investigation criticized his “abrasive” treatment of civil servants. Raab’s departure may mark an escalation and not the end of a bullying scandal that threatens to destabilize Rishi Sunak’s government, Alex Wickham writes.
And speaking of toxic workplaces, the trickle of companies quitting the Confederation of British Industry turned into a torrent after the Guardian published a second rape allegation involving staff of the lobby group. John Lewis, Aviva and Virgin Media were among the headline names abandoning the organization. The departures prompted the CBI to announce Friday that it was suspending large parts of its operations.
While we’re on the subject of an exodus, banks are increasingly betting that that the nexus of European finance may no longer be in London, and Paris can make a case that it’s becoming the EU’s pre-eminent hub. JPMorgan has about 550 markets staff in the city now, a 22-fold increase on 2019. Bank of America headcount — at 600 — is six times higher than before the 2016 Brexit vote.
UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch may also soon be departing the UK, but not of his own wishes. He’s set to be extradited to the US to face criminal charges over the sale of his Autonomy Corp. to Hewlett Packard after British courts closed the door on any future UK appeals.
Also on the way out are Meta’s London-based Instagram staff. The London office, with about 100 employees, was Instagram’s first international presence, opening in 2013.
UK household confidence shot up to its highest level since the war in Ukraine and sent living costs soaring after a “sudden flowering of optimism” over the economy and personal finances. Bank of England policy makers seem divided on how to respond to the inflation risk. Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said officials must not get “ knocked off course” in their effort to keep a lid on prices, while Silvana Tenreyro thinks rates have already been raised too far and inflation will fall below the BOE’s 2% target in the medium term as a result.
In sports news, hedge fund manager Tom Wagner is close to buying a stake in Birmingham City Football Club, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Wagner would join other US buyers targeting the lower UK leagues, boosted by a strong dollar and Americans’ growing interest in British football. He might want to first chat with Todd Boehly. The US businessman told a gathering of bankers and associates this week that mistakes had been made in his first year as co-owner of Chelsea, which was dumped out of Europe’s elite football competition days earlier.
British publicans may soon be shouting long live the coronation. Heineken predicts that Britons will drink more than 36 million pints of beer over the bank holiday weekend when King Charles III is crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6. Pubs and restaurants are expected to take in £350 million in extra sales when the UK celebrates the first coronation in 70 years. It’s back to the launchpad for SpaceX after Elon Musk’s Starship rocket blew up on its first flight. Still, for those eagerly awaiting a trip away from Earth, French startup Zephalto is planning to take passengers into the stratosphere in a balloon for about $132,000 per person. While not actually in outer space, which NASA says begins at about twice the height Zephalto’s airships would go, it offers customers a chance to experience something close to being in orbit, with some fine French cuisine and wine on the six-hour round trip.
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