Closing post
Time to wrap up…
Tom Hayes, the first banker jailed over the Libor interest rate-rigging scandal in 2015, has cleared his name after the UK’s supreme court overturned a decade-old conviction against the former UBS and Citigroup trader.
A panel of five justices, led by Lord Reed, concluded on Wednesday that the judge in Hayes’s original hearing 10 years ago had given “inaccurate and unfair” instructions to the jury that found him guilty on several charges of conspiracy to defraud. This meant the former banker was ultimately “deprived” of a fair trial.
The judges stopped short of fully exonerating Hayes, saying there was “ample evidence” that could have led a jury, if properly directed, to find him guilty. “But the jury was not properly directed,” the ruling explained, adding:
“The convictions are therefore unsafe and cannot stand.”
The court also quashed the conviction of the former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2019 for rigging Euribor – the euro version of Libor. It stated that Palombo’s original case was also compromised as a result of directions by the judge.
Palombo told reporters that the case had been a ‘Kafkaesque nightmare’.
Lawyers for the pair suggested there could now be a path for other convictions to be challenged.
Financial markets around the world have rallied after Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Japan to minimise the level of tariffs imposed on Japanese goods imported into the US.
Share prices rose sharply in Tokyo, where the Nikkei index of leading Japanese companies increased by 3.5%. European markets followed, with the FTSE 100 gaining 0.5% to hit a record high of 9080 points in London.
Shares in Japanese carmakers rallied sharply. Shares in Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, surged by more than 14% and there were gains for Honda, Mazda and Subaru. London-based companies with the highest exposures to US tariffs – including GSK, AstraZeneca and Diageo – were among the biggest risers on the FTSE 100.
The EU has threatened to impose nearly €100bn (£87bn) worth of tariffs on US imports ranging from bourbon whiskey and Boeing aircraft in one fell swoop if Donald Trump does not agree a trade deal by the end of next week.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it now planned to combine two previously prepared separate lists of US goods to be included in any retaliatory moves against the US president’s import tariffs.
If Brussels follows through on the threat, it would mean tariffs on US imports to the EU including poultry and alcohol in the first €21bn list, as well as the more recent list of €72bn of goods, which featured cars and planes.
In the defence world, the UK is due to manufacture dozens of Typhoon fighter jets for Turkey, after Germany dropped opposition to exports on human rights grounds.
Defence minister John Healey today signed a memorandum of understanding - a prelude to a formal deal - with his Turkish counterpart, Yaşar Güler, paving the way for the first order of British-made fighter jets since 2017.
Analysts have said Turkey could order as many as 40 planes. Manufacturer BAE Systems last week said the UK could sell up to 100 planes between Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The Typhoon is made by the Eurofighter consortium, with manufacturing shared between the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. The UK, led by dominant weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, produces 37% of the parts, as well as assembling the final plane for the UK and allies who order the planes via the British government. BAE last week said it was confident of securing more orders.
The order, if confirmed in the coming months, will secure manufacturing at Warton, Lancashire, where unions had raised concerns about the future of the assembly line, which has ground to a halt after the last of the UK orders.
While the exports are likely to be welcomed by workers at the plant, it would mean the UK would have to turn a blind eye to concerns over the increasingly authoritarian actions of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose main political rival was last week given a prison sentence.
Germany’s opposition had been a key factor preventing the export of Typhoons to Turkey and also to Saudi Arabia, after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi allegedly on the orders of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Keir Starmer said the government was determined to secure the Turkish orders and that they would “keep us and our allies safer during these uncertain times”.
He said:
“The UK’s production of Typhoon fighter jets is an engine for economic growth - supporting the lives and livelihoods of thousands of British people right across the UK.”
