GSK To Name RBS's Hampton As Next Chairman

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Britain's biggest pharmaceuticals company, will this week name Sir Philip Hampton as its next chairman, just days after it was fined nearly £300m for bribery by Chinese authorities.

Sky News has learnt that GSK will announce the appointment of Sir Philip as chairman-designate before the weekend, triggering a separate statement from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), where he has chaired the board since its taxpayer bailout in 2008.

Sir Philip, one of the UK's leading business figures, is expected to join GSK's board as a non-executive director around the turn of the year before taking over from Sir Christopher Gent sometime after the general election in May.

In a statement issued to Sky News on Wednesday, a GSK spokesman said: "Succession planning for the chairman is well underway."

The confirmation of Sky News' disclosure that Sir Philip was the leading candidate to replace Sir Christopher is likely to be welcomed by GSK investors, who are keen for the company's board to be strengthened with greater corporate experience.

A former finance director of BT, Sir Philip has also held the same role at British Gas and British Steel.

The process of recruiting a new chairman at GSK has been complicated by RBS's need to appoint a successor to Sir Philip, who is likely to want to know which party will form the next government given the state's majority stake in the bank.

Parachuted in alongside Stephen Hester shortly after the bank's £45.5bn taxpayer rescue in early 2009, Sir Philip will mark his sixth anniversary at RBS next February.

He has said repeatedly that company chairmen should look to serve for between five and seven years, although colleagues say he is unlikely to leave RBS until his successor is in place.

Sky News revealed last month that RBS's board had hired Egon Zehnder International, a headhunter, to identify its next chairman.

The Government remains years away from a full privatisation of its majority stake in the bank, while RBS faces uncertainty from a UK competition inquiry and regulatory probes covering alleged manipulation in foreign exchange markets.

Nonetheless, Sir Philip's in-tray at GSK could prove to be only slightly less challenging than the one with which he has been confronted during his RBS tenure.

One of his most important tasks at the drug-maker will be to identify a successor over the long term to Sir Andrew Witty, the chief executive, who apologised last week for GSK's misdemeanours in China.

The company's shares have also suffered, having warned on profits during the summer as the company seeks new blockbuster products to offset a decline in sales of Advair, its best-selling asthma medicine.

Mark Reilly, the former head of GSK's operations in China, was handed a three-year suspended jail term by Chinese prosecutors for bribing doctors to prescribe GSK products.

He will be deported back to the UK following his trial.

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Pubs And Bars Slash Prices In VAT Cut Campaign

Thousands of pubs, bars and restaurants will slash their prices today as part of a campaign to cut VAT.

Tax Equality Day - which will see 15,000 establishments reduce the price of food and drink by 7.5%, has been launched to show the benefits of cutting VAT.

Jacques Borel, the man behind the campaign, has managed to get VAT cuts in a number of European countries, including France, Germany, Belgium and Finland.

"Our message is clear - a reduction in the level of VAT on a long-term basis will generate growth and create jobs in the important leisure and hospitality sector," he said.

"At present all food and drink in pubs is subject to 20% VAT, compared to supermarkets which benefit from a zero VAT rate."

A Treasury spokesperson said: "We are committed to supporting the leisure and hospitality industry and have cut the tax on a typical pint of beer by one penny at Budget 2013 and by a further one penny at Budget 2014, making a pint of beer 8p cheaper than under inherited duty plans.

"We are also providing additional support to businesses in a number of ways.

"For example, from April 2014 businesses and charities have been able to benefit from up to £2,000 off their employer national insurance contributions bill and over £1bn of business rates support has been provided."

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BlackBerry Launches Square 'Passport' Phone

Struggling BlackBerry has pinned its hopes on a new smartphone with a large square screen.

The Passport device was unveiled in Toronto, Canada, and its unconventional design features a touch-sensitive tactile keyboard alongside a 4.5-inch square HD screen.

The screen width fits 60 characters rather than the 40 seen on a rectangular five-inch device, making it ideal for reading ebooks and viewing documents.

The company has pitched the device at professionals.

Chief executive John Chen said: "As we set out to design BlackBerry Passport, we were guided by a simple yet challenging idea - to set aside the limitations of traditional design and to instead simply build a device that fundamentally changes the way business professionals get work done on their smartphone.

The device is optimised for reading documents

"The BlackBerry Passport was created to drive productivity and to break through the sea of rectangular-screen, all-touch devices."

It is a key moment for the company, which was once the leading smartphone maker with its business-approved handsets.

But earlier this year, BlackBerry announced a quarterly loss of $423m (£254m) after suffering a revenue drop of more than 60%.

The device will be priced at £529 in the UK and $599 in the US.

The phone is now on sale in the UK and will be available in more than 30 countries by the end of the year.

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24-Hour Tube Launch Date Is Revealed

London's Tube trains are set to operate a 24-hour service at weekends from September 12 next year, it has been announced.

Night-time journeys in the capital are expected to be cut by 20 minutes on average, with some journeys expected to be reduced by up to one hour.

Transport For London said the new service, first promised by Mayor Boris Johnson and London Underground last November, had been made possible due to modernisation of the network and improved levels of reliability.

Half a million Londoners use the Tube after 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays

The launch of the "Night Tube" service will coincide with the Rugby World Cup, which is being hosted in England in September and October.

Fans attending at any of the three venues in London - Twickenham Stadium, Olympic Stadium and Wembley Stadium - will able to make use of the new service.

Mr Johnson said: "London is a bustling, 24-hour global city and by this time next year we'll have a 24-hour Tube service to match.

"Running trains all through the night was once thought impossible, but with the huge investment we've put in and upgrades that have been delivered we stand ready to take the Tube to the next level."

To meet the expected demand of the new service, there will be six trains per hour through central London on all Night Tube lines, including the Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and Northern lines.

There will be eight trains per hour on the Northern line to meet demand at busy stations between Leicester Square and Camden Town.

Boris Johnson: 'We stand ready to take the Tube to the next level'

Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, said: "We are now less than a year away from the first ever 24-hour services operating on London Underground.

"Already over half a million Londoners use the Tube after 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and the introduction of the Night Tube, which will cut journey times and open up new possibilities across the night time economy, is a historic step in our modernisation of the Underground."

While rail unions welcome the move, they have asked for talks with Transport for London managers to ensure it will not be a low cost, low management service.

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: "With Boris still wanting to axe 900 jobs and close all ticket offices, we want to ensure that the new service is properly staffed to ensure safe and secure travel for all passengers and that weekend maintenance work is not postponed to disrupt weekday services."

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Ed Miliband Forgets To Mention The Deficit

Ed Miliband is facing criticism after he forgot to mention the deficit during his 66-minute speech to the Labour Party conference.

In his last party conference speech before the General Election, the Labour leader set out his intention to put the NHS at the heart of the party's plan for the next 10 years.

However, speaking without notes, he left out entirely a passage on reducing the country's £75bn deficit.

The Labour leader told Sky News: "I cannot simply memorise a whole speech ..."

Ed Miliband's speech has been widely criticised

He said: "There was a bit I didn't deliver that was pre-prepared."

But he insisted that the whole speech was effectively about the economy.

He added: "I could have done it with autocue but I think what people want is somebody who will come and talk to them directly."

But he said he did not consider the speech had been a failure because he had delivered a message full of substance.

The Labour faithful clap Mr Miliband out

George Osborne tweeted immediately after the speech, which was overshadowed halfway through by Barack Obama's press conference on airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, to point out the omission.

A pre-prepared version of Mr Miliband's speech briefed to journalists and posted on Labour.org.uk on Tuesday afternoon contained a section on reducing Britain's deficit, however it was left out of his delivery.

He was also criticised by Conservative MP Harry Smith, who said: "Ed Miliband has let the cat out of the bag – he has no plan to deal with the deficit and no plan for the economy."

A Labour source explained it had been a slip and told Sky News: "This was a long speech and some things changed in delivery. He made clear no plans for additional borrowing."

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said Mr Miliband "failed to offer any serious plan to grow the economy".

He added: "Labour simply don't have a long-term economic plan to secure a better future for Britain. Our country, our children and our grandchildren would be worse off under Ed Miliband's weak leadership."

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls had made reducing the deficit the centrepiece of his speech on Monday.

Speaking without notes, Mr Miliband outlined his six national goals:

:: To reward people for hard work - raising the national minimum wage to half the number of people on low pay

:: To tackle the cost of living crisis and make sure wages increased with economic growth, breaking up banks and taking power from Whitehall

:: Britain to create a million jobs in green industries - helping to tackle global climate change

:: Making sure as many school leavers go on to apprenticeships as go to university. Companies who employ foreign workers will be expected to offer apprenticeships too, and those who want Government contracts will need to provide apprenticeships

:: Making the dream of home-ownership a reality by building more homes and making sure 400,000 first-time buyers a year get on property ladder

:: Save the NHS - provide a "truly 21st century health service" using the proceeds of a mansion tax on homes above £2m and a tax on tobacco firms

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Prezza In Chuka Umunna 'Chumbawamba' Jibe

Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott has mocked the shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna, referring to him as "Chumbawumba".

During the Labour Party Conference, Lord Prescott was asked for his view on the new generation of Labour politicians giving speeches.

In an interview with Matt Forde at the Comedy Store in Manchester, the Labour veteran was asked: "Do you find it difficult?… When you are watching people do speeches, like… Chuka Umunna?"

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna

Lord Prescott replied: "They can call him Chumbawamba."

The politician has had first-hand experience of the work of Chumbawamba - the band famously poured a bucket of ice cold water on him at the Brit Awards in 1998.

Chumbawamba perform their hit single Tubthumping

He got his revenge more than 10 years later when they announced their split in 2012, taking to Twitter to joke: "Chumbawho? #currentlyresidinginthewherearetheynowfile".

He added: "I might mark Chumbawamba's split by going out and buying their greatest hit album. #boom."

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Trinity Mirror Agrees To 10 Hacking Payouts

Trinity Mirror is to pay compensation to ten celebrities over alleged phone hacking - acknowledging its involvement in the practice for the first time.

The publisher of titles including the Daily Mirror and Sunday People admitted liability to four people but did not identify them.

The individuals are Eastenders star Shane Richie, who plays Alfie Moon, and Lucy Benjamin who left the soap in 2010 as well as fellow actor Shobna Gulati and the BBC's creative director Alan Yentob.

Those who have already received undisclosed payments are former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, actor Christopher Eccleston and David and Victoria Beckham's former nanny, Abbie Gibson.

Sven-Goran Eriksson is among those to have already been compensated

It has also agreed to pay ex-footballer Garry Flitcroft, celebrity agent Phil Dale, and Christie Roche, Shane Ritchie's wife.

The Trinity Mirror statement said: "The company today confirms that its subsidiary MGN Ltd has admitted liability to four individuals who had sued MGN for alleged interception of their voicemails many years ago.

"MGN has apologised to those individuals and agreed to pay compensation. The amount of that compensation will be assessed by the court if it cannot be agreed.

"The company can also confirm that six other voicemail interception claims have already been settled for agreed sums".

Trinity Mirror said in July that it had set aside £4m to deal with civil claims over phone-hacking allegations.

In the same month, reporter Dan Evans was given a suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiring to hack phones.

One charge related to his time at the Sunday Mirror between 2003 and 2005, the other to his subsequent employment from 2004 to 2010 at the now-closed News of the World.

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Bitcoin Computers 'Useful Only As Heaters'

They were marketed as supercomputers that could mine valuable Bitcoins - but the US government says they were useful only as room heaters.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is moving to shut down Butterfly Labs in Missouri, claims they deceptively marketed computer designed to "mine" Bitcoin. Butterfly Labs denies the claim.

It says the company charged firms a total of up to $50m (£30m) for computers and services which were delivered so late as to be useless, or not delivered at all.

According to the FTC, Butterfly sold dedicated Bitcoin mining machines costing up to $29,899 (£18,236) - which were useful only as "room heaters".

Bitcoins - a virtual currency - are mined using computers by carrying out increasingly complex algorithms.

Last August saw the launch of the Monarch, described by Butterfly as the fastest Bitcoin miner so far.

But while consumers were asked to cough up thousands of dollars up front, the company has yet to provide any of them with any of the machines.

Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's bureau of consumer protection, said: "We often see that when a new and little-understood opportunity like Bitcoin presents itself, scammers will find ways to capitalise on the public's excitement and interest."

But a spokesman for Butterfly Labs said: "It appears the FTC has decided to go to war on Bitcoin overall and is starting with Butterfly Labs.

"Butterfly Labs is being portrayed by the FTC as a bogus and fake company. To the contrary, Butterfly Labs is very real. As pointed out in court filings Butterfly Labs made last night, Butterfly Labs has shipped more than $33m (£20m) in products to customers and voluntarily granted refunds approximating $17m (£10m) to customers for cancelled orders."

A court hearing is set for Monday, and Butterfly Labs says it will fight the move to close it down.

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Car Insurance: New Rules To Reduce Costs

A regulator has published new rules it hopes will boost competition to help bring down the cost of premiums in the UK's £11bn private motor insurance market.

The clampdown may knock up to £20 off a typical bill under the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) plan.

Among its headline measures is a ban on exclusivity agreements between price comparison websites and insurers that prevent companies making their products available more cheaply online.

The CMA also demanded better information for consumers on the costs and benefits of no-claims bonus protection.

But it "reluctantly" decided not to recommend any changes to the current system of providing replacement hire cars for drivers following an accident, despite the fact they increase the average insurance premium by £3 a year.

The CMA said there was "no appropriate remedy", but the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said it was "bad news for consumers" and said the watchdog had "ducked" the issue.

The measures follow wider efforts to bring down the cost to drivers of personal injury claims and fraud, with premiums falling 19% in the last year alone to a four-year low.

Alasdair Smith, chairman of the private motor insurance investigation group at the CMA, said: "There are over 25 million privately registered cars in the UK and we think these changes will benefit motorists who are currently paying higher premiums as a result of the problems we've found.

"There need to be improvements to the way price comparison websites operate.

"They certainly help motorists look for the best deal, and this in turn has led insurers to compete more intensely, but we want to see an end to clauses which restrict an insurer's ability to price its products differently on different online channels.

"We expect this to lead to greater competition between price comparison websites."

He also moved to explain the lack of action on the cost of post-accident services to drivers who are not at fault in an accident, in particular temporary replacement cars.

He said: "Reluctantly we have had to conclude that we cannot see an effective way of addressing this problem fully short of a fundamental change in the law and, whilst this problem does increase premiums for motorists, the extent of the problem is not as high as was at first envisaged and does not warrant such a radical measure.

"However, we do wish to challenge the benchmarks typically used in awards for non-fault replacement cars, which do not reflect the cost of the services provided and which we think should be lower."

James Dalton, the ABI's head of motor insurance, said: "Today's CMA report is the culmination of three years of work and has cost taxpayers millions of pounds.

"The fact that it fails to do anything to address the excessive costs of replacement vehicles - a problem that the CMA itself identified - will be a bitter pill to swallow for honest motorists.

"Far from reducing the cost of car insurance, the CMA's inaction simply entrenches the business models of some replacement vehicle providers who profit from inflating car hire charges at the consumer's expense.

"The reality is that the CMA has ducked this challenge and when regulators fail, politicians need to step in to act."

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iPhone 6 Plus Reportedly Bends In Tight Pockets

Apple's new iPhone 6 Plus may bend substantially if put into a tight pocket for a prolonged period of time, some users claim.

A record 10-million units of it and the smaller iPhone 6 were sold within two days of the Friday launch, but some users have complained that their device is more fragile than they expected.

One user, Nelson Cardoz, posted a photograph of a misshapen phone on Twitter with the message: "The iPhone 6 could bend in your pocket! Haha, love you Apple."

He told Sky News that when he contacted Apple about the problem they offered to replace his device.

A YouTube channel called Unbox Therapy uploaded a video of a man using a tight grip to bend the phone out of shape.

The bend appears to occur just below the side-mounted volume buttons.

However, website Cult Of Mac said some users reported similar complaints about the iPhone 5s, as well as Sony, Samsung, BlackBerry and HTC smartphones.

On Monday Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch was its "best ever", and had "shattered" all previous sales records.

The iPhone 6 Plus is Apple's largest ever phone, and features a 5.5-inch screen. The increased size and reduced thickness may be responsible for the bending.

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