Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit, outsourcing, Barclays, hotels

Theresa May is considering plans to bring forward a vote on her Brexit deal to next week in a bid to see off the threat of resignations by pro-European ministers. As the Prime Minister travels to Brussels, Downing Street is concentrating efforts on agreeing a new legal text stating that the backstop, which would tie Britain to a Customs Union with the EU, cannot be "indefinite". - Telegraph

An eighth Labour MP has quit the party to join an independent breakaway group, accusing Jeremy Corbyn of “presiding over a culture of antisemitism and hatred of Israel”. Joan Ryan said that she could not “be part of a party that allows racism to flourish”. She said that Mr Corbyn, the Labour leader, had introduced antisemitism to the party and was “a danger”, comparing him to President Trump. - The Times

The Government has pledged to take on a greater share of the risk on outsourced public sector contracts as part of a new set of rules drawn up to improve stability in the sector in the wake of Carillion’s collapse. Published later today, the Outsourcing Playbook will stipulate that responsibility for risks should “sit with the party best able to manage them” and that civil servants should not expect suppliers to shoulder unlimited liabilities when things go wrong. - Telegraph

Claims that Brexit had nothing to do with Honda closing its only UK manufacturing plant are “fanciful”, according to a former British ambassador to Japan. The Japanese government has become increasingly vocal in recent weeks about the damage a no-deal Brexit would cause, while a number of big Japanese corporations have announced restructures. - Gaurdian

Labour and Conservative parliamentarians are anxious that the new breakaway group formed by Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna has increased the chances of Theresa May calling an early election. On the Labour side, MPs and peers were worried that the prime minister would be tempted to exploit a split in the opposition if more of their number defected to the new political group. - Guardian

Barclays’ board worried that executive pay would be cut if the lender failed to raise private funds and succumbed to a government bailout at the height of the 2008 crash, the lender’s former chairman told a court on Tuesday. Marcus Agius is the first senior Barclays board member to be questioned during the trial at Southwark crown court in central London. - Guardian

InterContinental Hotels has promised to “up its game” as a battle with blue-chip rival Whitbread erupts in Germany, a country seen as one of a handful of “strategic markets”. But it faces growing opposition from its FTSE 100 peer. Whitbread boss Alison Brittain has vowed to “stamp across Europe” with Premier Inn; and Germany is her primary growth target. - Telegraph

The boss of the world’s biggest miner has admitted that the industry does not fully understand why its waste dams keep collapsing and needs to urgently invest in research to prevent more disasters. BHP joined calls for an “international, independent body” to oversee the thousands of dams holding mining waste worldwide, after the catastrophic collapse in Brazil last month believed to have killed more than 300 people. - The Times

Ford has announced its exit from the heavy commercial truck business in South America in a bid to restructure the company and return to profit in the region. The car manufacturer said that production of its F-4000 and F-350 trucks, along with the Fiesta car model will cease once inventories are sold. - Telegraph