Sunday newspaper round-up: London Fisheries Convention, Healthcare spending, Google
Updated : 22:12
Fishing vessels from across Europe will no longer be allowed to operate close to the British coastline after the government decided to end a long-standing arrangement with the EU. Michael Gove, the new environment secretary, said withdrawing from the 53-year-old London Fisheries Convention would allow the UK to take the "historic step" of gaining tighter control over its fishing areas. The Irish government said today that Britain’s withdrawal from the convention was "unwelcome and unhelpful". - The Sunday Times
The UK's ageing population will force the Government to raise taxes, borrow more or cut back on healthcare spending even if Britons are forced to work until they are 75, according to Legal & General. Analysis of official projections showed raising the retirement age by a decade overnight would still result in “painful choices” for policymakers. L&G Investment Management (LGIM) said slower population growth and ballooning healthcare costs would put significant pressure on the public finances in the coming decades. - The Sunday Telegraph
Europe's competition chief has urged companies that believe they have been hurt by Google’s "illegal behaviour" to sue for lost earnings. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s anti-trust tsar, said any business with a potential claim against the internet search giant should use a damning report she is about to publish to bolster its legal case. Vestager hit Google with a €2.4bn (£2.1bn) fine on Tuesday for manipulating internet search results to favour its own price comparison shopping service, and crush rivals. - The Sunday Times
Shares in the gene science pioneer Oxford BioMedica soared almost 40% last week amid mounting expectations of a revolutionary new treatment for leukaemia. The Oxford University spinout’s technology is being used in a therapy developed by the Swiss pharma giant Novartis. The treatment is set to be reviewed by the US medical watchdog’s advisory panel next week. It uses a modified version of the HIV virus to insert a cancer-killing gene into patients’ cells. In trials, children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who failed to recover from chemotherapy were cancer-free within weeks. - The Sunday Times
The Mounties’ pension fund is lining up a £6bn swoop on Arqiva, the company behind Britain’s mobile phone and television transmissions. PSP Investments, which plots deals on behalf of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, has teamed up with London-based Arcus Infrastructure Partners to register its interest in Arqiva, sources said. PSP’s offer comes four years after the Mounties explored buying a minority stake in Arqiva. The infrastructure company is owned by Canada Pension Plan and Australian investment giant Macquarie. - The Sunday Times
Virgin Media’s £3bn network expansion plan is running badly behind schedule, threatening the growth targets of its parent company, the pan-European cable giant Liberty Global. Documents seen by The Daily Telegraph reveal that in June the Project Lighting scheme fell 61pc short of its goal for connecting new homes. Virgin Media completed work on 27,199 premises during the month, compared with plans for 69,278 new lines. In blocks of flats the operator added just 15% of the 16,467 new connections it was meant to complete. - The Sunday Telegraph
John Varley, the former chief executive of Barclays, will be among three former bankers to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Monday to face charges of fraud for events that took place at the height of the financial crisis. Varley is scheduled to appear along with Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath following the announcement by the Serious Fraud Office last month that they were to be prosecuted over the way Barclays raised billions of pounds from Qatar in 2008. - The Guardian on Sunday
Short sellers have piled into London-listed platinum miner Lonmin amid fears the company is burning through cash and may have to raise more capital. Around 14% of Lonmin’s shares are on loan to short sellers, seven times greater than the average for a UK stock and the highest amount since late 2015, when the company was forced to raise $400m (£308m) in a rights issue. That was the third time it had tapped investors for cash in six years. - The Sunday Telegraph