Friday newspaper round-up: Boohoo, Post Office, Mike Lynch
A group of investors in Boohoo are seeking more than £100m in compensation from the online fashion specialist after reports in 2020 alleging its suppliers in Leicester were mistreating workers caused its share price to plummet. Shares in Boohoo dived more than 40% over several days, wiping more than £1.5bn off its valuation, after a 2020 Sunday Times report of labour rights violations at the group’s suppliers’ factories in Leicester suggested some workers were paid as little as £3.50 an hour, well below the legal minimum wage. – Guardian
UK government officials expressed serious doubts about Paula Vennells’ suitability as the chief executive of the Post Office and considered sacking her in 2014, five years before she resigned, the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal has heard. According to internal government documents shown at the inquiry on Thursday, officials and other Post Office board members had concerns about Vennells’ leadership a decade ago. – Guardian
Mike Lynch, the British technology tycoon, has been cleared of fraud over the multibillion-dollar sale of his software company Autonomy. A San Francisco jury acquitted Mr Lynch on Thursday in a remarkable redemption for the entrepreneur, who has been plagued by legal problems since the company’s sale 13 years ago. – Telegraph
Weak economic growth could send the national debt climbing by £28bn and blow both Labour and the Tories’ fiscal targets, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have been urged to set out plans for how they would deal with a downturn in the economy, amid warnings that public finances are on a knife edge. Both Labour and the Conservatives have made it their target to have the UK’s mountain of debt shrinking within five years, a key fiscal rule. – Telegraph
Labour will promise to get more young people on the housing ladder as it announces its "freedom to buy" scheme on Friday. The party will pledge to make the existing mortgage guarantee scheme - which sees the government act as a guarantor for people unable to save big deposits - into a permanent fixture if it wins the election on 4 July. – Sky News