Protesters play 'scheiß AfD' song during interview with far-right co-leader Alice Weidel
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The Guardian
7 minutes ago
- The Guardian
City trader case always had a whiff of scapegoating
Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, the two City traders whose convictions for manipulating a key benchmark interest rate were quashed on Wednesday by the supreme court, were made 'scapegoats for the sins that led to the financial crisis', says Sir David Davis, the campaigning MP. It is impossible to disagree. And Davis is right that this 'major scandal' ought to prompt questions about how the traders' cases were prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office and why it took so long for their convictions to be overturned. There has been a weirdness about these cases from day one. Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud, the sort of sentence you might get for armed robbery. Hayes's alleged crime was the rather more technical one of encouraging his employer to make a dishonest submission in answer to this question: 'At what rate could the bank borrow funds by asking for and accepting inter-bank offers in a reasonable market size just prior to 11am?' Welcome to the world of Libor, or London inter-bank offered rate. The benchmark is now discontinued but it was used to reflect the rates at which banks could borrow from each other. A panel of 16 banks made submissions and an average was taken to set the benchmark daily. It exploded into public prominence during the financial crisis because the health of banks – as judged by their willingness to lend to each other – became a matter of huge public concern. As banks coughed up huge sums in settlements with regulators for Libor-rigging, as it became known, there was political appetite for prosecutions of individuals. Manipulating Libor came to be seen as the epitome of banks' and bankers' deviousness, even though, in truth, the benchmark had little to do with the source of the financial crisis – and even though individual traders tended to protest that their behaviour was well known to their bosses. But it must have seemed an easy thing to prosecute, not least because Hayes himself had admitted to the SFO over 80 hours of interviews that he had tried to influence Libor submitters to put forward numbers that would advantage his trading positions. The problem was the direction given to the jury in his trial. This is the critical passage in the supreme court ruling: 'It was wrong for the judge to direct the jury that, if the submitter took any account of the commercial interests of the bank or a trader, the rate submitted was for that reason not a genuine or honest answer to the question posed by the [Libor] definitions as a matter of law.' Palombo's trial was compromised similarly. The supreme court still said there was 'ample evidence' that could have led the jury to a guilty verdict for Hayes. But – critically – the judge's errors in direction 'were sufficiently material to make the conviction unsafe'. The troubling aspect is that Hayes's lawyers have been making the central point about misdirection for years. The court of appeal, however, dismissed appeals twice. The case made it to the supreme court only after US courts in 2022 decided two other Libor cases differently, saying there was 'no prohibition' on taking commercial considerations into account when making submissions. Charges against Hayes were dropped in the US. As Davis said at the time, the UK became 'an outlier'. Seven other Libor convictions in the UK now look likely to be challenged. If they, too, are overthrown little will be left of the SFO's post-financial crisis pursuit of traders. Davis referred to what he called a 'scapegoating exercise' that happened as a result of alleged collusion between the banks and government agencies, including the SFO and the Financial Conduct Authority. There has always been a whiff here of the authorities going after relatively lowly, if well-remunerated, traders such as Hayes and Palombo to satisfy a political wish for scalps. Hayes's legal team called for a public inquiry and for the SFO, which has powers to act as both investigator and prosecutor, to be abolished. One suspects neither will happen, although the former would add greatly to public understanding of what happened during the financial crisis. But one hopes that this prod will be acted upon because it came from the supreme court itself: 'The history of these two cases raises concerns about the effectiveness of the criminal appeal system in England and Wales in confronting legal error.' You bet it does.
The Guardian
7 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Labour must create green jobs or lose voters to parties who oppose net zero, unions warn
The Labour government needs to ramp up the creation of green jobs or risk workers being tempted to vote for parties opposing the shift to net zero, two major unions have said. The GMB and Prospect, who between them represent tens of thousands of energy workers, said there needs to be more of a focus on increasing green jobs as fossil fuel industry is increasingly phased out. They said without more tangible progress there is a danger of public support for the transition to clean energy being undermined – and potentially voters opting for a new government that does not support net zero. Their intervention comes after Reform UK pledged to rip up green energy contracts if the party wins power and the Conservatives also shifted away from support for net zero earlier this year, showing the political arguments over the shift to green jobs are not settled. Launching a new campaign group called Climate Jobs UK, Gary Smith, the general secretary of GMB union, said: 'How the UK makes the transition to net zero is hugely important. The voices of those working in the energy sector day in, day out, who have vast experience of dealing with change, need to be front and centre of the process. If not, it's doomed to fail. 'At the moment, the transition feels like something being done to workers – that can't continue. People need to see real jobs created where they live, and their local economy boosted, or we're going to see more and more tempted by the siren calls of those who deny the reality of climate change.' The campaign will aim to put energy workers and jobs at the centre of the UK's debate on decarbonisation. Unions say it is needed because they want more to be done to ensure good jobs are created in low carbon energy, and the government's industrial strategy focuses on supporting workers and communities who will see a decline in jobs in industries that are being phased out. GMB and Prospect said new research commissioned from YouGov shows that 55% of the public want to see jobs and the economy prioritised, while 17% of those surveyed said they would put the need for speed first. Only three in ten voters thought the energy transition would have a positive impact on job opportunities in the UK, and this fell to two in ten when asked about jobs in their own local area. Fewer than one in ten voters said the transition had led to more job opportunities in their area so far. The research found that overall the public feel more positively than negatively about the energy transition by 55% to 16% but that Reform voters have markedly more negative views at 48% and the party is seeking to capitalise on discontent in communities where the energy industry is declining. Mike Clancy, the general secretary of Prospect, said the biggest challenge with the energy transition 'is no longer climate technology, it is climate jobs'. 'We are going to need tens of thousands of workers to deliver this huge shift in the way we produce and use energy. Building on the clean energy industrial strategy, the opportunity is to deliver good, clean energy jobs for the people and places that most need them,' he said. 'But this research shows that people aren't yet seeing those jobs materialise, and if this continues then it will undermine support for the transition and drive people towards parties who oppose it and would put the future of the industry at risk. 'The government have raised the ambition on energy policy, which is welcome, now they need to be bigger and bolder when it comes to energy jobs and put energy workers at the heart of this agenda.' The Climate Jobs UK campaign will be supported by the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, which worked with unions in the US to run campaigns on how to create good union jobs while tackling the climate crisis.
The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Jess Carter thanks ‘incredible' England fans for support in wake of racism
Jess Carter has thanked England fans for their 'unbelievable support' after revealing she had been racially abused on social media at Euro 2025. The Lionesses defender said if her decision to speak up were to stop even one instance of abuse then it would have been worth it. The Lionesses defender said on Sunday that she was stepping away from social media, because of what her teammates labelled as 'online poison' aimed at her throughout this tournament. Before the extra-time win against Italy on Tuesday, England's substitutes stood arm-in-arm with Carter on the sideline to show their support after deciding not to take the knee before kick-off. Carter told Sky Sports News: 'I totally understand everyone has got their own opinions on how we play. Trust me, no one is more disappointed in some of my performances than what I am, but the colour of my skin has got nothing to do with that. 'It's been pretty tough. I'm not saying it [speaking out] is going to make a big difference and make a change but hopefully [it is] just making people aware that it's not OK. Racism is still going on and we're just here to do our job to the best of our ability and hopefully bring success back to England. 'I think the fans today were unbelievable and their support was incredible and I can't thank them all enough for being on my side and on the team's.' Speaking up in support of Carter the Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington, Matt Western, revealed on Tuesday that – within the space of three hours – 91 members of parliament had added their names to his call for the major social media companies to take serious action to combat what they called 'the appalling racism and misogyny' directed at Carter, with Western adding: 'They need to act. Here is our call on them to do so.' Those MPs have all co-signed a letter saying they were 'horrified, but not surprised' to learn of the abuse Carter received. Carter, who grew up in Western's constituency in Warwick and played for one of the local youth sides, Warwick Juniors, said when speaking to Hayters TV: 'I've got mixed-race nephews and nieces. I want them to grow up being strong, brave and powerful and believe that they can do whatever they want to do. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion 'If me speaking up makes one silly person keep their mouth shut with certain comments, then that's a big enough difference for me.' Carter, who won her 50th international cap when she was brought on as a late substitute on Tuesday, also told Sky of her pride at England's performance on the pitch, as they struck late to beat Italy, saying: 'The way our team just keeps fighting until the end of every single game just shows the character that we have in this team. 'I think we'd all agree that we are hating the way that we are winning these games, from maybe not performing to the best way that we want, also leaving it so late, everyone's aged about 20 years in the past two hours. It's not the way we want to win games but, at the end of the day, we won and the most important thing is that we're through to the final.'
