Sports Direct’s independent shareholders have blocked a proposed £11m payout to the brother of Mike Ashley, the company’s founder and majority shareholder. Shareholders voted by more than 70% to reject the plan for a payout to John Ashley at a special general meeting on Wednesday morning. Sports Direct received heavy criticism from shareholders and corporate governance experts last year after it emerged the sportswear retailer was paying a company owned by John Ashley to deliver its online orders outside the UK. The arrangement with Barlin Delivery Ltd, which was unwound…
Read MoreDay: December 15, 2017
Scottish jobless rise prompts calls for tax restraint
The Scottish government is facing renewed pressure from business leaders to temper its plans for income tax rises after the jobless total increased and inflation rates rose. Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance secretary, is expected to unveil modest tax increases for higher earners in Holyrood’s budget on Thursday to fund a public sector pay increase, higher NHS spending and more childcare spending. Mackay, who manages a budget of roughly £30bn, has complained bitterly about cuts to next year’s UK government grant. It will cut day-to-day spending by £200m in real…
Read MoreRobert Mueller’s Russia inquiry is no witch-hunt, says deputy attorney general
Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein defended special counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday and said he had seen no cause to fire him or received encouragement to do so. He also rejected Donald Trump’s characterization of the special counsel’s investigation as a witch-hunt. Rosenstein appeared before the House judiciary committee a day after the Justice Department provided congressional committees with hundreds of text messages between an FBI agent assigned to Mueller’s team and an FBI lawyer who was on the same detail. Those messages, which occurred before Mueller was appointed in…
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