Thursday newspaper round-up: Apple, BT, William Hill, workers' rights

The chief executive of Google and the founder of WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service, have voiced their support for Apple in its fight with the FBI over encryption. Apple has said it would challenge a federal court order to unblock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, as the FBI tries to investigate their links to Isis militants. – Financial Times

David Cameron’s seven-month quest for an EU reform deal has taken the prime minister on a journey spanning 20 countries from Portugal to Lithuania. And at a two-day Brussels summit starting on Thursday, it could all come unstuck over £25m. The prime minister’s aides say his marathon diplomatic effort has left Britain in “a good place”; his supporters are already looking beyond a deal in Brussels to launching a referendum campaign to keep the UK in “a reformed EU”. – Financial Times

BT is facing fresh calls to split with Openreach, its broadband infrastructure division, ahead of a landmark review into the telecoms industry. Ofcom is set to unveil next week a widely anticipated set of proposals for the next decade of the telecoms sector, including BT's arm's length control of Openreach, after almost a year of fierce debate in the industry. - Telegraph

William Hill has told regulators that the £2.3bn merger of its two biggest rivals, Ladbrokes and Coral, will harm competition in the bookmaking industry even if the pair agree to sell swathes of betting shops. In William Hill’s submission to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is investigating the deal between Britain’s second- and third- biggest bookmakers, the company claimed Ladbrokes and Coral should be barred from a tie-up for the same reasons they were blocked from merging eighteen years ago. A first attempt to combine Ladbrokes and Coralcollapsed in 1998 when Peter Mandelson, who was then trade and industry secretary, warned the deal would damage competition. – Telegraph

The number of properties in Britain worth £1m or more is set to more than triple by 2030, widening the gap between the housing haves and have-nots, according to a report. Less than half a million homes in the UK are currently valued at £1m-plus, but a study by high street lender Santander claims this number will rise to more than 1.6m in the next 15 years. – Guardian

British workers’ rights to paid holiday, maternity leave and fair treatment at work would be at risk if the UK voted to leave the European Union, the head of the Trades Union Congress has warned. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the body representing British trade unions, said the EU debate had been too dominated by business interests, with not enough focus on the potential costs for ordinary workers. “Most of the rights that we depend on derive from Europe,” she said. - Guardian

The financial regulator faces the threat of a judicial review over its proposed deadline for payment protection insurance claims in what could be a huge blow to banks. A claims management company has warned the Financial Conduct Authority that unless it tears up its consultation over a two-year cutoff for all PPI claims, which is due to conclude on Friday next week, it will seek a judicial review on the basis of a legal opinion that the deadline might be unlawful. – The Times