Boris Johnson has announced plans for legislation to make it easier to scrap EU regulations and protections, amid criticism from Tory MPs that the government has not benefited enough from Brexit. The plans claim to cut £1billion in administrative costs for businesses, but Johnson gave no specific details on which regulations would need to be repealed or improved, instead setting out five principles that would be applied, including the value of sovereignty and the creation of new markets. – Guardian
Rishi Sunak is being urged by a leading centre-right think tank to limit the impact of April’s controversial £12bn rise in National Insurance contributions by shifting the tax burden from work to wealth. Underlining Tory concern over the impending National Insurance hike, a Bright Blue report called for higher capital, inheritance and rent taxes to make the system fairer. – Guardian
Rishi Sunak has sunk millions of pounds in public funds into an online betting company and a luxury Caribbean business selling private island vacations amid controversy over investments made by the £1.1bn startup scheme sterling from the government grows. Taxpayer groups and gaming charities have sounded the alarm over investments made under the Future Fund as criticism over the Chancellor’s wasteful Covid spending mounts. – Telegraph
Richard Caring, owner of The Ivy and The Sexy Fish, is considering a bid for the restaurant group that houses The Wolseley and The Delaunay after a row with its major shareholder plunged him into administration. Mr Caring, who also owns private club Annabel’s, is due to meet Corbin & King’s majority shareholder Minor International early this week over a potential deal, The Sunday Times reported. – Telegraph
London has been chosen by the gambling operator behind Ladbrokes and Sportingbet as the location for a £40m global innovation technology hub. Entain may be one of the biggest betting groups in the world, but it is increasingly focusing on entertainment and its first innovation lab will be in Farringdon, close to the UK headquarters of TikTok and Snapchat. – The temperature
Vodafone is set to accelerate its transformation after a Swedish activist investor with stakes in Aviva and Pearson formed his sights on the FTSE 100 telecommunications group. Cevian Capital, one of Europe’s biggest activists, has taken a stake in the company after a dismal share price performance, with the share value nearly halving to 128p since the start of 2018, valuing Vodafone at £34bn. – The temperature
