The pound is up against the dollar this morning after the Supreme Court ruled that Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks was unlawful.
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The Supreme Court's ruling to be delivered this morning could throw Boris Johnson's Brexit plans into disarray, with an inevitable impact on markets.
If the justices decide he acted unlawfully in proroguing parliament, MPs could soon be recalled giving it more time to potentially scupper the prime minister's plans for exiting the EU on 31 October.
Elsewhere, the business secretary Andrea Leadsom has said bailing out Thomas Cook would have been a waste of taxpayers money.
Sterling is barely moving this morning.
Tourists going abroad can expect the following rates for the pound:
Australia 1.74 dollars
Brazil 4.63 reals
Canada 1.57 dollars
China 7.90 yuan
Euro 1.08 euro
Hong Kong 9.25 dollars
India 77.63 rupees
Japan 127.32 yen
Mexico 21.57 pesos
New Zealand 1.84 dollars
Norway 10.73 krone
Philippines 55.58 pesos
South Africa 17.36 rand
South Korea 1294.00 won
Sri Lanka 213.00 rupees
Switzerland 1.17 francs
Turkey 6.73 new lira
USA 1.19 dollars
(Rates for indication purposes only - PA news agency)
Thomas Cook bosses are under scrutiny over 'fat-cat' pay
'Boris Johnson has criticised travel firm bosses for paying themselves millions of pounds as their businesses “go down the tubes”, following the collapse of Thomas Cook,' writes The Independent's travel correspondent Simon Calder.
Mr Johnson said:
I think the questions we’ve got to ask ourselves now are how can this thing be stopped from happening in the future?” he told reporters in New York.
How can we make sure that tour operators take proper precautions with their business models where you don’t end up with a situation where the taxpayer, the state, is having to step in and bring people home?I have questions for one about whether it’s right that the directors, or whoever, the board, should pay themselves large sums when businesses can go down the tubes like that.
Simon's full story is here:
Google wins court case over 'right to be forgotten'
Google does not have to make the "right to be forgotten" available worldwide, Europe's top court has ruled.
Citizens within the EU can already demand that Google removes search results abut them that are "inadequate, irrelevant or... excessive", a measure that the tech giant has expressed strong disagreement with.
Results are only removed when the search is carried out within the EU. The web page containing the offending content still exists so a determined searcher will be able to find it.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) was asked to decide whether the rule should apply beyond Google's European sites such as Google.fr.
Judges decided that it should not because the balance between privacy and freedom of information varies in different parts of the worls.
It came into force in 2014, after Spanish national Mario Costeja sought to remove out-of-date links relating to unsettled debts that had since been settled.
France's data regulator, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL), had been probing the European Court of Justice to clarify whether the ability to de-list links should go beyond google.fr, the French site of Google, extending to other versions across the world.
It continued: "The Court adds that the right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right, but must be considered in relation to its function in society and be balanced against other fundamental rights, in accordance with the principle of proportionality."
Tui will fly home customers booked on Thomas Cook flights
Holidaymakers who booked through German tour operator Tui may be on Thomas Cook flights.
Tui's boss Friedrich Joussen, has sought to reassure those customers:
TUI is preparing measures to support. Where TUI customers are booked on Thomas Cook Airlines flights and these are no longer operated, replacement flights will be offered.We are currently assessing the short term impact of Thomas Cook's insolvency under the current circumstances, on the final week of our FY19 financial result.
Uber granted two-month London licence extension
Uber has been granted a two-month extension to its licence to operate in London which had been suspended in 2017 over concerns the company was not a "fit and proper" private car hire operator.
TfL previously removed Uber’s right to operate in the city in 2017 due to alleged failings in its approach to reporting serious criminal offences and driver background checks.
That decision prompted legal action, which led to a judge granting the Silicon Valley company a probationary 15-month licence in 2018 after it made several changes to its business model in London.
London is one of the most important markets for the firm in Europe.
Uber responds to two-month London operator's licence decision
Responding to TfL's decision, Jamie Heywood, regional general manager for Northern & Eastern Europe, said:
“TfL’s recognition of our improved culture and governance reflects the progress we have made in London. We will continue to work closely with TfL and provide any additional requested information.
“Over the past two years, we’ve launched a range of new safety features in the app, introduced better protections for drivers and our Clean Air Plan is helping to tackle air pollution.
“We will keep listening, learning and improving to provide the best service while being a trusted partner to London.”
UK budget deficit increases
The gap between government income and expenditure increased 28% in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2018.
Supreme Court says prorogation of parliament is 'justiciable', ie, a matter for the courts.
BREAKING: Prorogation was unlawful, Supreme Court rules
Sterling is up around 0.3 per cent against the dollar today to $1.245 but is now dropping back after earlier gains.
Union attacks TfL for 'failure to properly regulate Uber'
James Farrar, of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), said:
Once again, TfL's failure to regulate effectively and Uber's unwillingness to play by the rules has led to the jobs of 40,000 Uber drivers being thrown into uncertainty. Sadiq Khan must use this two-month license review period to insist Uber respect UK employment law as a condition of license."
What next for the pound after historic Supreme Court decision?
Sterling initially spiked higher but has now fallen back as markets digest the impact of the dramatic blow to Boris Johnson's Brexit plans.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com says uncertainty is the "new norm" for the pound.
Sterling will be exposed to more headline risk as MPs shuffle back to the Commons and we now need to see what Number 10 says about it all.
Fundamentally it’s hard to see how this gets the UK and EU any closer to a deal that will be approved by MPs, but it does really deliver a massive blow to Boris Johnson. It’s perhaps not fatal, but it’s not going to make life any easier and we are now faced with significant uncertainty of a different hue.I would simply suggest that the uncertainty is the norm now – we just have a different vector of uncertainty to contend with. We are heading for a General Election for certain that will decide matters, we hope.Quite what MPs think they can achieve in the next 3 weeks that they have not been able to do in the last 3+ years is beyond me. Like those old BT adverts used to tell us, it’s good to talk; and MPs love a good natter.
Pull plug on Uber's 'immoral' operation, taxi drivers urge
Responding to the decision this morning to grant Uber a two-month licence extension in London, Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, said:
Granting Uber a two month temporary licence clearly shows that the firm have failed their probation and are still a huge threat to public safety.Over the last 15 months Uber was supposed to change its operations for the better, but the firm has continued to shirk its responsibilities. The granting of the shortest operator’s licence ever shows the Mayor doesn’t trust Uber, and neither should Londoners.“It’s time the Mayor pulled the plug on Uber’s immoral operation for good.
BREAKING: German prosecutors charge Volkswagen CEO with market manipulation in diesel emissions scandal case, the Associated Press reports
Thomas Cook staff to take legal action against company
Ex-employees of Thomas Cook are investigating the possibility of legal action against the company for failing to consult about redundancies.
Law firm Simpson Millar, which is acting for employees of defunct airline Monarch in a similar case, said it had received dozens of calls from distraught former Thomas Cook staff.
Lawyers are seeking to secure what is known as a Protective Award, a payment granted by an Employment Tribunal in cases where an employer fails to follow the correct procedure when making 20 or more redundancies.
Aneil Balgobin, a specialist employment law Partner at Simpson Millar, said: “This has been a very upsetting and distressing time for the former Thomas Cook employees, many of whom were made redundant with a moment’s notice and who now face financial uncertainty whilst searching for a new role.
“It’s early days, but we are already receiving calls from those affected who are looking to pursue a Protective Award which, if successful, will see them compensated by up to 90 days' gross pay."
Criminal charges brought against current and former VW chief executives
Prosecutors in Germany have brought criminal charges against three current and former Volkswagen executives over the emissions scandal, agencies have reported.
CEO Herbert Diess and Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch, as well as former CEO Martin Winterkorn, have been charged with stock market manipulation. They intentionally told investors too late about the costs the company will incur as a result of the scandal, the prosecutors said on Tuesday. That gave the executives improper influence over the company's share price, the prosecutors argued.
The legal case is one of a number of lawsuits over VW's admission in 2015 that it had cheated tests to make its vehicles appear less polluting than they were.
'Lloyd's of London's bosses must set an example as harassment claims rock the market'
'Lloyd’s of London looks like a pretty unpleasant place to work,' writes our chief business commentator James Moore.
'You don’t have to take my word for that. Just take a look at the results of a survey the market conducted among the people that have that, shall we say, misfortune.'
'Some 6,000 people responded. One in 12 of them reported having witnessed incidents of sexual harassment during the last 12 months. One in five don’t believe employees have equal opportunities. It should be stated that women’s responses were more negative than those of men.'
Twitter cracks down on financial scams
PA news agency - Twitter is targeting financial scams in its latest attempt to deal with malicious activity on its platform.
The social network has outlined a new policy against any intent to deceive other users into sending money or personal financial information.
The social network has outlined a new policy against any intent to deceive other users into sending money or personal financial information.
Creating a fake account or posing as a public figure to trick people into sending cash online is among the list of specific activity Twitter said it is clamping down on.
So-called "money flipping" schemes, where a bad actor says they will send a large sum of money if the person sends them a smaller initial payment, is also banned, as well as fake discounts and phishing scams.
"Using scam tactics on Twitter to obtain money or private financial information is prohibited under this policy," the company said.
"You are not allowed to create accounts, post tweets, or send direct messages that solicit engagement in such fraudulent schemes."
'upside for the pound'
The pound could move higher because a no-deal Brexit on 31 October remains unlikely, says Dean Turner, an economist at UBS Wealth Management:
The UK's Brexit process continued to deliver twists and turns. But the bigger picture for Brexit remains unchanged, and we still believe that a no-deal Brexit on 31 October – the current deadline – is unlikely.
The longer term risk-return outlook for UK equities looks uncertain. We still advise being nimble on sterling. But given our belief that a disorderly exit on 31 October is unlikely, we still see upside for the pound and are overweight it versus the US dollar in our FX strategy.
