Tuesday newspaper round-up: Brexit payment, WTO, term funding scheme, Carillion

Senior Tory Brexiteers demanded last night that Theresa May exploit Angela Merkel’s political weakness and suspend plans to offer billions of pounds more to the European Union. The prime minister’s allies said that she had bound her cabinet to Britain’s negotiating stance, including the offer of more money at a meeting before the European Council next month. - The Times

World Trade Organisation members may block British companies’ ability to bid for overseas government contracts worth $1.7 trillion as leverage in high-stakes agriculture negotiations. Liam Fox, the trade secretary, met members of the organisation last week to discuss plans by Britain and European Union to divide between them the agricultural quotas that set limits on the amount of produce that can be exported before prohibitive tariffs kick in. - The Times

Britain’s unusually weak pay growth could be caused by workers reining in their demands due to Brexit uncertainty, a senior Bank of England official has said. In his first speech since joining the Bank from the Treasury, Dave Ramsden said the impact of the EU referendum on inflation had persuaded him to vote against an increase in interest rates earlier this month. - Guardian

The Bank of England has been accused of “mishandling” part of its post-Brexit stimulus package after extending a cheap funding scheme for the banks by an extra £25 billion, a move that appeared to fly in the face of this month’s interest rate rise. In a letter to the chancellor, Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, asked for an extension to the term funding scheme because demand for cheap money by banks and building societies had overshot forecasts. - The Times

The government has come under fire after Carillion continued to win new contracts, despite Whitehall rules designed to limit taxpayer exposure to “financially distressed” companies. Cabinet Office policy states that departments and agencies should reduce “where possible” the additional work given to “strategic suppliers” designated “high-risk” under existing contracts to “contain the risk to the taxpayer”. - The Times

The Office for National Statistics is overhauling the way in which it measures the UK economy by including vast amounts of VAT data from small firms for the first time. Previously, GDP estimates have been generated from a survey of the turnover at 45,000 companies - including all of the country's largest businesses. - Telegraph

Non-executive directors at the London Stock Exchange have brought in a City law firm to advise them on what to tell shareholders about its boardroom upheaval, in a move that appears to lower the chances of a public airing of dirty laundry. Reports at the weekend suggested that the full details of disagreements between Xavier Rolet, the exchange group’s chief executive, and Donald Brydon, its chairman, would have to come out ahead of the shareholders’ meeting. - The Times

Imagine a world in which you don’t have to deal with your water company directly or search for the best energy rate on the internet. That is the vision that will be conjured today by Cathryn Ross, chief executive of Ofwat, in her last speech in the role before heading to work for BT. In a speech in which she had been expected to talk about the tough customer price-cap settlement for water companies from 2019, Ms Ross instead will tell utility providers that this is the least of their worries: by 2025, they may not even exist. - The Times

The widespread adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be stymied by the fact that they are not backed by a so-called 'lender of last resort', the French bank BNP Paribas has claimed. Replacing traditional currencies with Bitcoin would come with significant risks and undermine monetary policy, the French bank said. - Telegraph

Thirty years on from the first spade breaking ground on the construction of a fixed rail link under the English Channel, the company that was created to run it, Eurotunnel, is to change its name and start making significant sums of money from not running trains. Groupe Eurotunnel as a company emerged a decade ago after a period of administration, a multibillion-pound write-off of its debts and a move across the Channel, from the London Stock Exchange to the Euronext bourse in Paris. Now, the business is to become Getlink. - The Times

The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to block AT&T's planned $85.4bn (£64.5bn) takeover of CNN-owner Time Warner, citing concerns over higher prices for pay-TV subscribers. The head of the department's anti-trust division, Makan Delrahim, said the merger would "greatly harm American consumers". - Telegraph