Tuesday newspaper round-up: Singapore, Brexit dealing, NHS, WPP

Pro-European Tory MPs handed Theresa May a stay of execution last night after they signalled that they would not use a crunch vote to demand that Britain remain in a customs union with Europe. In a compromise brokered after hours of talks, a leading Tory rebel said that she would drop her support for a Lords amendment to the Brexit bill that would force ministers to negotiate a customs union with Brussels and instead table a fresh amendment committing Britain to negotiating a new customs “arrangement” with the EU. - The Times

The British economy is showing the greatest signs of stress since the eurozone crisis and fears of a double-dip recession six years ago, as worrying reports show the steepest fall in manufacturing output and the greatest degrees of pessimism among employers since 2012. Concerns over Brexit and a slowdown for high street spending are among the major factors contributing towards 2018 being the worst time in six years for British firms planning to take on new staff, according to a closely watched survey compiled by the recruitment firm ManpowerGroup. - Guardian

Business leaders will attack ministers’ “lack of focus” on trade today as they launch a fresh attempt to make their voices heard in Whitehall as Britain prepares to leave the European Union. Senior chief executives are to join a new council, established to help the government to “get this right”, as Brexit negotiations continue and as officials draw up plans for trade deals with the the United States, Australia and New Zealand and others. - The Times

Philip Hammond is preparing to raise up to £10 billion in extra tax to help to boost the NHS on its 70th birthday. Theresa May is also to lift a cap on skilled workers from outside the EU that blocks foreign doctors from coming to Britain. The move will precede the expected announcement next week of a package of measures to improve the health service. - The Times

New Look has reported an operating loss of £74.3m for the year to March 24, with UK sales falling by 11.7pc on a like-for-like basis. Alistair McGeorge, New Look's executive chairman, said: "Last year was undoubtedly very difficult for New Look, with a well-documented combination of external and self-inflicted issues impacting our performance. - Telegraph/PA

The purchase of Battersea Power Station, the biggest property deal in the UK, is under threat after the leader of Malaysia’s governing coalition said it would be investigated as part of “dubious” investments made by the previous administration. On a visit to London to meet British ministers, Anwar Ibrahim, who leads the recently elected Pakatan Harapan, said a series of deals paid for by Malaysian sovereign funds and pension funds had to be looked at again and renegotiated if there were any wrongdoing. - Guardian

Home secretary Sajid Javid has said that Arron Banks’s Russian connections are being examined “very seriously” by two ministers in two departments who want to establish if there was an attempt to undermine parliamentary democracy during the Brexit campaign. Javid’s unexpected intervention came on the eve of what is expected to be a stormy select committee meeting in which the Brexit-backing tycoon and his colleague Andy Wigmore are expected to be questioned by MPs over their links to Russian officials and business leaders. - Guardian

Citigroup has suggested that it will cut up to half of its 20,000-strong technology and operations staff in the next five years and replace them with machines, according to a report last night. Jamie Forese, the US bank’s president and chief executive of its institutional clients group, told the Financial Times that the technology and operations jobs, which account for almost two fifths of its staff, were the “most fertile for machine processing”. - The Times

Challenger stock exchange Aquis will float on the junior Aim market to bolster its war chest to take on larger rivals, such as the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse. Aquis, which has been dubbed the Spotify of trading venues, will raise £12m as it attempts to lure investors with its subscription-based model. - Telegraph

In Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Wall Street and the City, all eyes will tomorrow be focused on a courthouse in Washington DC for a decision that could the trigger a new wave of giant deals driven by sweeping technological change. The federal judge Richard J Leon is due to rule on whether the $85bn (£64bn) takeover of Game of Thrones maker Time Warner by the telecoms colossus AT&T can go ahead in the face of opposition from competition watchdogs and Donald Trump. - Telegraph

Invesco, which owns 17 per cent of the Invesco Perpetual Enhanced Income trust, has taken a rare step of serving a requisition order to the trust, compelling it to hold a general shareholder meeting to decide the future of two of its board members within two months. It has called for Donald Adamson, chairman of the trust’s board, and Richard Williams, chairman of the management engagement committee, to go. - The Times

Scientists have created the UK’s first ever "unhackable" fibre network in anticipation of the dawn of quantum computers, a technology that could render current security systems completely useless and leave critical infrastructure, banking and healthcare networks open to hackers. The network, constructed by researchers from BT, the University of York and the University of Cambridge over the past two years, is secured by the laws of quantum physics which dictate how light and matter behave at a fundamental level. Using this, it is able to block anyone attempting to crack into the fibre link. - Telegraph