MPs have urged the Government to crack down on £4.9bn of Covid loan fraud amid reports that border police have seized suitcases stuffed with cash. Taxpayers are on the hook for “eye-watering” losses from Covid fraud, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said on Wednesday, as it accused the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy…
As 25m people in Shanghai enter their fourth week in stringent isolation, authorities are playing an increasingly desperate game of cat and mouse. But it’s not just omicron that they are attempting to stamp out. Chinese censors are battling to block an outpouring of online anger, including the “Voice of April” – a six-minute montage…
HMRC has been accused of lacking a “clear plan” to claw back £39bn in unpaid taxes after the debt mountain grew considerably during the pandemic. MPs on the Public Accounts Committee said the taxman must urgently ramp up plans to recover the missing cash, which is particularly crucial at a time when the public finances…
Every mobile phone owner in the UK will be sent a text message on Boxing Day urging them to get a booster jab if they have not already done so, following a request from ministers to BT and other networks. The appeal to those aged 18 and over is the latest attempt by the Government…
Online estate agent Purplebricks has delayed the publication of its half-year results this morning after it put thousands of landlords at risk of being fined through a failure to follow basic tenancy law. As revealed in today’s Telegraph, the firm has failed to properly serve legally required documents to tenants explaining their deposits have been put into a…
The former boss of Lloyds Bank has admitted breaking Covid rules after returning to Switzerland from the UK last week. Antonio Horta-Osorio, who is now chairman at Credit Suisse, travelled to Switzerland on Nov 28 where he was required to quarantine for 10 days. However, he flew to the Iberian peninsula on a private jet…
New car registrations remained well below pre-pandemic levels in November but demand for electric vehicles continued to grow, industry figures have revealed. Some 115,700 new cars were registered last month, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). That was 1.7pc more than a year ago, but 31.3pc below the pre-Covid five-year average. However, the green technology revolution continued to…
The FTSE 100 fell by nearly 1pc amid fears that omicron could slow the global recovery, as the US confirmed its first case of the covid variant. American markets were buffeted by the news and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s reiteration that officials should consider a faster reduction of monetary stimulus amid high inflation, with the…
