Tories ready to follow Obama’s lead - papers

The UK opposition Conservative party is likely to follow the lead of Barack Obama , US president, and introduce similar trading curbs for banks based in the City if elected, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said Thursday night.

The Tories - widely expected to win a general election which is due within four months - fired a warning shot across the bows of financial institutions including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and UBS, saying the Obama crackdown on proprietary trading was "definitely something we think needs to be done" reports the FT. See story...

A hike in VAT is ‘inevitable' after the election as the government grapples with a mounting debt crisis, experts warned yesterday said the Daily Mail.

The Treasury will have to lift the tax from 17.5% to 20% to raise an extra £12bn of revenue a year, according to analysts at consultancy Oxford Economics.

The next Government may also have to delay the state retirement age to 68 in order to cope with the biggest debt crisis since the Second World War, the report said. See story...

Fraud - including scams, online theft, insurance cheats and tax fraud - costs the UK £30bn a year, according to an official estimate reports the BBC.

The National Fraud Authority (NFA) has calculated the figure for the first time and said it equated to £621 per adult in the UK.

Some 58% of fraud was in the public sector, at a cost of £17bn, it added. See story...