Tories have been warned not to expect a direct boost in support from Chris Huhne's fall from grace as they unveiled their candidate for the Eastleigh by-election.

Maria Hutchings, who failed to topple Huhne in 2010, will fight the seat again after a guilty plea to dodging a speeding penalty ended the ex-cabinet minister's political career.

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps and Mrs Hutchings both spoke about "trust" ahead of a weekend blitz in what promises to be a brutal battle with their Liberal coalition partners. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had earlier urged voters not to exact retribution for his former leadership rival's disgrace.

But former Tory Treasurer Lord Ashcroft warned his party that though it started the contest in the lead, his polling suggested few voters were likely to "switch out of disgust". The survey conducted for the peer in the immediate wake of Huhne's resignation put the Tories on 34%, with Lib Dems on 31%, Labour on 19% and Ukip fourth with 13%.

Sources said the Tories were preparing a "big push" in the Hampshire town as local Lib Dems meet to select the party's candidate. It is defending a 3,864 majority.

Mr Clegg said: "I think the choice for the people of Eastleigh in the by-election is what kind of an MP do they want to have now. I hope that it will be on that basis rather than in a mood or spirit of retribution that the debate will be conducted in Eastleigh."

Labour sources are hoping for a strong showing, but privately accept they have little chances of winning despite being nine points up on their 2010 showing in the Ashcroft-commissioned poll. The figures represent a fall of almost 16 points in Lib Dem support since the 2010 general election, when Huhne scooped 46.5% of the vote.

Published: 08 February 2013

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David Cameron has arrived in Brussels for marathon EU budget talks, insisting there would be no deal unless the cost of running Europe for the rest of the decade comes down.

On the table is a seven-year budget plan the Prime Minister has warned he will flatly reject unless he sees savings which show the EU is sharing the pain of the austerity measures being taken back home.

He walked into the summit building with a curt declaration amounting to a direct challenge to those warning that the EU must have a big enough budget to foster jobs and growth and meet the costs of policies requested by EU leaders themselves.

"The numbers are much too high. They need to come down - and if they don't come down there won't be a deal," said the Prime Minister. "The European Union should not be immune to the sorts of pressure we have to reduce spending, find efficiencies and spend wisely - what we are all doing."

As he arrived, the official summit start time was put back to give more time for behind-the scenes efforts to reach a compromise - although there was little sign that gaps have closed since a first round of budget talks collapsed last November.

On that occasion Mr Cameron and other major contributors to the EU kitty rejected a cut from a planned spending package of about one thousand billion euros (£860bn) for 2014-2020 to about £756bn.

German chancellor Angela Merkel arrived for the latest effort to reach a deal admitting that national positions remained "far apart", and French president Francois Hollande went in saying compromise was needed, but making plain cuts in EU agriculture spending - from which France benefits hugely - were not on his negotiating agenda.

Published: 07 February 2013

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Two men have been arrested by detectives investigating allegations of historic child abuse centring around a guesthouse and a care home.

A man aged 66 from Norfolk and another aged 70 from East Sussex were held on Wednesday morning on suspicion of sexual offences.

The allegations are linked to Elm Guest House and the Grafton Close care home in Barnes, south west London.

The arrests were made as part of Operation Fernbridge, which was launched after concerns were raised by MP Tom Watson.

Speaking in Parliament in October last year, he said that a file of evidence used to convict Peter Righton of importing child pornography in 1992 contained "clear intelligence" of a sex abuse gang.

Mr Watson alleged that a member of the group had bragged about links with a senior aide to a former prime minister.

Published: 06 February 2013

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Banking giant Barclays is facing more boardroom upheaval after announcing that its finance director since 2007 is to leave the group.

Chris Lucas will remain in the post until the lender finds a replacement, a process which could take a "considerable time" to complete.

News of his departure and that of Mark Harding, general counsel, comes just days before new chief executive Antony Jenkins bids to repair the bank's battered reputation with a presentation on the company's new strategy.

Barclays shares opened 1% lower.

Mr Lucas is one of several past and present Barclays staff being investigated over whether the bank broke the rules when it took big cash infusions from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund in 2008.

Barclays has also seen several top executives, including chief executive Bob Diamond, leave since a rate-fixing scandal erupted last year.

The bank was hit with a 453 million US dollars (£289 million) fine after it emerged that executives had been involved in a campaign to rig a key interest Libor rate.

Published: 04 February 2013

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The trial of former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne and his ex-wife over claims she took speeding points for him a decade ago is set to start.

Huhne and former wife Vicky Pryce are both charged with perverting the course of justice relating to a speeding offence in 2003.

It is alleged the former energy secretary, who stood down from the Cabinet after he was charged last year, persuaded her to take the points so he could avoid prosecution. Both Huhne, 58, and economist Pryce, 60, deny the charge.

The events which led to the charges date back to March 2003 when Huhne's car was allegedly caught by a speed camera on the motorway between Stansted Airport in Essex and London.

It is alleged that between March 12 2003 and May 21 2003, Pryce, of Crescent Grove, Clapham, south London, falsely informed police that she was the driver of the car so Huhne could avoid prosecution.

Published: 04 February 2013

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George Osborne has told bankers they must give up their bonuses to pay international fines imposed for the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

The Chancellor is understood to have "laid down the law" to state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland in recent days as it braces itself for a major penalty from United States regulators.

Senior RBS figures were warned that leaving taxpayers to cover the US penalty for the bank's role in fixing the lending rate, which governs the price of more than 500 trillion US dollars-worth of loans and transactions around the world, would be 'totally unacceptable'.

RBS is rumoured to be preparing to hold back on some perks in preparation for the fines. The bank is thought to be close to reaching a deal with regulators in Britain, America, Japan and Singapore and faces paying out an estimated £350 million.

A senior Treasury source said: "Fixing the Libor market is a symbol of all that went wrong with the banking system over the past 10 years. We are now putting those things right.

"Ahead of any other country, we legislated to make abuse of the system a criminal offence and are stripping the banks of the power to administer it themselves.

"The authorities are rightly pursuing those individuals who abused the system; and the regulators are rightly fining the banks they worked for.

Published: 02 February 2013

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Hopes that Britain will avoid a triple-dip recession have been boosted by figures showing that output from the manufacturing sector rose last month at its fastest pace since September 2011.

The latest Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed overall activity expanded thanks to the rise in output, with a headline reading of 50.8 in January - above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction for the second month in a row.

While this was down on the 51.2 reading in December, it came despite last month's snow and adverse weather, which many had feared would impact on manufacturers badly.

The sector was a significant drag on the wider economy at the end of last year, contributing to the worse-than-expected 0.3% decline in gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Last week's GDP blow has raised fears that the UK is heading for an unprecedented triple-dip recession .

The economy would have to contract again this quarter to be back in recession, and there has been little optimism following the snow-hit start to 2013.

But the latest manufacturing report suggests the worst is over for the sector, which accounts for more than 10% of the economy.

Published: 01 February 2013

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Banking giant HSBC has appointed a team of heavyweights including a former UK tax chief as part of a crackdown on financial crime following its 1.9 billion dollar (£1.2 billion) money laundering settlement.

Dave Hartnett, previously permanent secretary for tax at HM Revenue & Customs, and Bill Hughes, the former head of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, are among a number of advisers who will lead a new financial crime committee, reporting directly to the board. HSBC has also hired former US deputy attorney general Jim Comey to HSBC's board as one of three non-executives who will sit on the committee.

The move comes in the wake of HSBC's record settlement with US regulators last month over accusations the bank had allowed rogue states and drug cartels to launder billions of pounds through its US arm.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) ordered the bank to establish a committee and independent monitor to oversee anti-money laundering activities after the alleged breaches.

HSBC was accused by the US Senate of ignoring warnings and breaching safeguards that should have stopped the laundering of money from Mexico, Iran and Syria - which led to the resignation of head of compliance David Bagley.

The bank has since split its compliance department in two, hiring Bob Werner - former head of the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network - as head of financial crime compliance and group money laundering reporting officer.

Ruth Horgan, who joins from KPMG on April 2, will lead the new regulatory compliance division. Mr Werner and Ms Horgan will also sit on the new financial crime committee.

Published: 30 January 2013

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Fashion chain H&M has vowed to step up its expansion by targeting more than 300 new stores this year.

The pledge came even though higher costs and investment in a new brand resulted in a slight dip in its fourth quarter profits to 5.29 billion kronor (£524.2 million).

Stockholm-based H&M, which recently unveiled & Other Stories as a new fascia for the business, is planning the net addition of 325 stores this year, with the highest rate of expansion in China and the United States.

This compares with the opening of 339 stores and closure of 35 during the last financial year to November 30, giving a net addition of 304. It had originally planned to open 275 outlets.

Chief executive Karl-Johan Persson said H&M "stands strong" in a challenging clothing market which in many countries was tougher in 2012 than in 2011.

He said an 11% increase in sales in local currencies in the last financial year - up by 1% on a same-store basis - proved that customers "appreciate our collections". Group profits for the year rose 7% to 16.87 billion kronor (£1.67 billion).

Mr Persson said long-term investments in areas such as online shopping and the launch of & Other Stories, which includes a store on London's Regent Street, weighed on fourth quarter results.

Published: 30 January 2013

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A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the case of a taxi driver who sent a message to the English Defence League (EDL) saying one of its marches was going to be bombed.

Father-of-five Sakander Mahmood, 26, admitted sending the right-wing group a hoax message through its website which said: "14th July in Bristol, You are getting bombed".

But he told Sheffield Crown Court he never meant it to be taken seriously.

Mahmood said he wanted to "to get under their skin a bit" but thought the EDL would ignore his message.

When arrested, he told police he sent the message on July 10 last year "just for a laugh".

Mahmood, of Firth Park, Sheffield, denied a charge of communicating a hoax bomb threat with intent.

Published: 24 January 2013

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