May 16, 2025 • 21 mins
Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
(1) Keir Starmer's plan to reset Britain's relationship with the EU has been met with challenges, particularly on immigration and defense, during negotiations with European leaders.
(2) Hopes faded for a Ukraine ceasefire after Vladimir Putin sent a low-level delegation to talks in Turkey, while attention shifted to bids on Capitol Hill for fresh sanctions to bring the Russian leader to the negotiating table.
(3) At least five sizable companies are considering initial public offerings on European stock exchanges in the coming weeks, taking advantage of easing market volatility.
(4) Britain may be able to squeeze more out of its richest 1% despite them already paying a quarter of all personal tax revenues, according to the UK spending watchdog.
(5) Exclusive: UK Visa Scams Squeeze Millions From Would-Be Care Workers. Recent changes to immigration policy won’t do anything for people who’ve been exploited while seeking jobs in the UK. But they may worsen the care-worker shortage.
Podcast Conversation: Why Are the British Becoming So French?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Bloomberg Daybreak Youre podcast, available every morning
on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. It's Friday, the
sixteenth of May in London.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I'm Caroline Hepke.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
And I'm Stephen Carroll.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
Coming up today, the UK and European Union confront their
differences as they race to finalized deals on immigration and
defense ahead of Monday summit.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Bloomberg understands that at least five sizeable companies are mulling
European IPOs in the coming weeks. In news that could
help fuel a revival of public listings.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
Plus an exclusive report on the would be care workers
who've been exploited and squeezed for millions whilst seeking jobs
in the UK.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
With days to go before a key EU UK summit
in London, the two sides are struggling to agree to
a text on a defense and security partnership. Bloomberg has
learned top about the UK joining a one hundred and
fifty billion EUROEU military fund have been held up by
other issues on things like phishing rights and migration post Brexit.
The East Filder stan Brovskis says, the tone around the
(01:12):
meeting is still upbeat.
Speaker 6 (01:14):
There is this positive momentum. There is williness from both
sides sort of say make a step towards each other.
So I'm confidence that we are going to see positive
outcomes from the summit and we are going to see
also follow up action from the summit.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
That's these Economy commissioner at Filder stan Bovskis there. Improving
the relationship has been a key ambition of UK Prime
Minister care Starmer's He tried to improve Britain's weak economic
outlook and build a closer alliance in uncertain geopolitical times.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
America's top diplomat is downplaying hopes they break through in
talks between ukraated Russia. Secutor of State Marco Rubio says
the likelihood of progress is low without a meeting between
Russian present Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. But
Russia has sent a low level delegation to talks in
(02:06):
Turkey today. Vladimir Putin's spurning and offered by the Ukrainian
leader to meet face to face, Vladimir Zolensky was not impressed.
Speaker 7 (02:16):
Yeah, I think that the Kremlin leader should show his leadership.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
If he's ready for negotiations, let's meet.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
We can't really run around the world looking for him.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Ukraine's Vladimir z Olinsky, speaking there through a translator. He
also called the Russian delegation a quote sham. Focus now
shifts to when President Trump could meet President Putin and
whether the US would opt to hit Russia with a
fresh round of sanctions. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has proposed
a bill with what he calls bone crushing sanctions against
(02:49):
the Moscow, which has enough support to pass the Senate,
but it's not clear if President Trump would sign it.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Bloomberg God just chands that several sizeable companies are considering
listing on your Upan stock exchanges in the coming weeks.
A flurry of deals in the region could help fuel
a global revival and IPO activity following recent market volatility.
With more here's Boomberg's crispet.
Speaker 7 (03:11):
At least five sizeable firms are mulling listings in the
region in the near future, according to sources who've spoken
to Bloomberg. The companies including Auto Doc, a German online
car parts retailer backed by Apollo Global, a medical technology group,
Brain Lab, Sweden's Hacksaw and Nordic Capital back Noba Bank
(03:33):
are also said to be considering imminent offerings. None of
the companies would confirm exact timings on any possible listing
when asked for comment from Bloomberg, but a successful IPO
season in Europe could be a major boost after regional
activity slow to a crawl in April in London Crispit
Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
As the UK Chancellor grapples with the challenge of her
upcoming spending review. Here in the UK, a report by
the country's independent public spending watchdog suggests that there is
more scope to prize revenue from Britain's wealthiest taxpayers. Bloomberg's
un pots has more the.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
Wealthiest one percent in the UK already contributes a quarter
of all personal tax revenues, but a report today from
the National Audit Office says the HMRC may be after
squeeze them for more. It gives credit to the Tax
Office for efforts to tackle non compliance, which generated five
point two billion pounds in the year to March twenty
twenty four, a full three billion pounds more than just
(04:32):
four years earlier. But the NAO says that the bumper
revenue secured so far suggests that the hmrc's estimate of
the tax gap for the wealthiest, currently one point nine
billion pounds, is actually far too low. It's a fair
bet that rach Reeves is casting a careful eye over
today's findings.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
In London, I'm youwing pots.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Bloomberg Radio Ukrainian Nationale has been charged with three counts
of arson following a series of fires at properties linked
to the UK Prime Minister kerstaf Armour. Twenty one year
old Roman Lavrinovitch is due in course later today. The
charges relate to a fire at the entrance of a
residential property owned by Starmer in the early hours of
(05:11):
the twelfth of May, as well as two other blazers.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Now two more Global News. Japan's economy contracted by zero
point seven percent on an annualized basis in the first
three months of the year. The decline is more than
twice what economists had estimated, and it raises concerns about
the economy's resilience as President Trump's tariffs take effect. Japan
says that it is continuing to seek a reprieve from
(05:34):
the American levies and hopes to reach some form of
agreement with the US next month.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Analysts say US President Donald Trump is likely to keep
thirty percent tariffs on China until at least the end
of this year. A Bloomberg survey of dozens of fund
managers reveals low expectations of further levy cuts in the
near future despite ongoing negotiations. Whoever, the Director General of
the World Trade Organization, and Gozio konjo Awala says she's
(06:00):
still optimistic after both sides agreed to temporarily lower charges
on each other's goods for ninety days.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I'm very encouraged, to be honest, because we had felt
that I need decoupling of China US. So breakdown in
the trading relationship would have quite negative spillovers on the
rest of the world, but especially on poor countries, especially
if trade really fragments into two trading blocks. So the
fact that there's been a d escalation and agreement to
(06:30):
reduce tariffs so the extent they have, I think is
a good sign.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Gozio kondri Aula there, speaking as Bloomberg Economics projector that
current rates could still wipe out seventy percent of Chinese
shipments to the US in the medium term.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Now those are our top stories. Let's get to the markets.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot index is weakening for a second
session in a row, two tens of one percent lower
the En and Swiss frank among the beneficiaries. Tenure treasury
yields are slightly lower. Traders in our pricing in two
FED rate cuts this year.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You've also got.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Surging Japanese yield especially on the long end. Stocks though,
and our trading basically like last month throughout didn't happen.
The S and P five founded only about four percent
away from an all time record high. So just looking
at the stock futures for the European market open, we're
up about a tenth of one percent. But oil markets
have also just moved. We're up by four tenths of
(07:22):
one percent for Brent and WCI crude futures. After comments
from Iran oil takers taking this series of headlines from
Iran as positive, potentially a for crued the fact that
Iran is talking about having hearing many contradictory US positions
That seems to have moved those oil.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Markets in the moment will bring you more on the
latest of wrangling over the EU UK reset ahead of
Monday's summit, and the results of a month's long investigation
into the exploitation of care workers coming into the UK.
But first a word and another story that's caught a
eye this morning. Adrian Wildridge has drawn up an interesting
(08:03):
comparison is the direction that he sees the UK going in.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yes, of course, and this one is close to your
hearts even of course, because the comparison is to France.
He points to French style policies coming to the UK,
things like the Labor Employment Rights Bill, a National Energy Champion,
Great British Energy, the UK basically adopting more presidential style
of government, emulating perhaps a little bit the French system.
(08:30):
He calls it the Frenchification of Britain.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Yeah, I mean, look, it's an interesting The comparisons are
interesting because you know, he points to survey evidence around
people's attitude to work.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
You know, forty three percent.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Yeah, exactly, forty three percent of Britain's telling posters that
would be a good thing of less importance was compared
was placed on work. That's forty percent on the French
side as well. People high value of their ladder activities.
A lot of these comparisons look are things that are
and very up when we're thinking about EUUK relations, shared
values between countries in Western Europe that have large social
systems and you know, are used to the kind of
(09:05):
model of social democracy that exists in a lot of
this part of the world.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Except and Agent also makes an interesting comparison between Nigel
Farage akin maybe to the Gilejouan movement advance, which I
thought was interesting, but he points to one great difference,
of course, which is, yes, French workers may enjoy their
long August holidays, but they're very efficient, amongst the most
efficient workers in the world, and he's slightly worried that
(09:31):
the UK, with its low productivity, might not be able
to deliver the same.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
The tip for a good bakery and battersy in there
as well. Worth reading bloomber dot comentslash Opinion, or put
a link to the story in our show notes as well.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Speaking of that UK France relationship, Britain is set to
host European leaders next week for an historic summit where
the country wants to announce a reset of its relationship
with the EU, but Bloomberg is reporting that although the
mood music will be upbeat, talks between the two sides
about tangible changes really getting down to the wire are
UK politics reported.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
James Walcock joins US Now for more on this. Good
morning James.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
What's going awry then, in these crucial days ahead of
this summit are the Brexit divisions back?
Speaker 9 (10:14):
Caroline, You should know very well by now that Brexit
never left. Look the way America has pivoted on Ukraine
and on global trade has put a rocket under the
UK and the EUSE attempts to sort of reset this relationship,
especially around defense. But what we're reporting is this morning
the same old sows, be they fishing, be they migration,
(10:35):
be they sovereignty and oversight. All that legal wrangling are
likely to make what's announced on Monday a lot more
limited than what might have initially been hoped. Although talks
are still ongoing ahead of this big Monday summit, if.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
We were to be thinking optimistically around what could be
done within this as well, what would it mean for
the UK economically at a challenging time internationally if deal
were to get over the line, and there's still time
we should point out before the summertime Monday.
Speaker 9 (11:04):
I think to understand that you've got to break down
a bit of why they're what this deal could look like,
and why it's there and so on. That you've got
to give credit to Ellen Milligan and Alberton Idea, who
our reporters has.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Been weeks ahead of the competition on this stuff.
Speaker 9 (11:16):
So it all comes down starts with this EU Joint
Defense Bunt, which is worth one hundred and fifty billion
euros that was being set up. The UK wants to
be part of it. It's originally set up for the
twenty seven countries in the block. Two weeks ago we
reported that in the first draft of this agreement that
we're going to get on Monday, the UK wasn't mentioned
as being part of this deal and we were very
(11:37):
upset here in Britain. And so then we hear that
the EU coastal states, especially France, didn't want the defense
part to be included unless fishing was dealt with a
post Brexit fishing arrangement expires later this year. They wanted
it extended, maybe as much as up to seven years.
They also wanted to be involved EU UK food.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Checks along the border.
Speaker 9 (12:00):
It's also called phytocytology checks, they would like the deadline
for those to be attached to fish and so then
it expands to migration. Spain's Prime minister has talked about
a human mobility scheme. Then we wrap in the fact
that starm Kstar and the UK Prime Minister wants bilateral
migration deals, and before you know it, what was supposed
to be a defense packed now includes multiple other issues,
(12:23):
multiple old sores, and what we're going to get on
Monday is likely three documents a Defense and Security partnership,
pleasure common understanding and sort of talk about closer ties.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
And so to your point where economically.
Speaker 9 (12:34):
Stephen, there is a lot of money to be made
here on defense, there's a lot of GDPs to be
improved on trade, food checks and multiple things, but there
is so much murkiness on what is this future relationship
going forward.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, I mean, I'd add to that though.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
On the flip side, the UK of course is home
to a number of very big defense contractors, and that
is also something that is quite appealing in some quarters
in Europe to perhaps.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Be able to involve them those deals.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But look, kiss Darma made resetting relations with Europe a
kind of key plank of his agenda.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
So how is he going to be talking about this?
Speaker 9 (13:09):
Well, in many ways we're seeing the kind of what's
becoming quite the usual life cycle of a British Prime
minister come to power, where the series are great things
that you could give them only to run headfirst, and
sort of the rigid nature of negotiating with a block
of twenty seven different countries.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
But look, two things are different this time around.
Speaker 9 (13:26):
Firstly, defense, we keep coming back to the conversation is
genuinely quite different amongst countries in Europe and that has
changed the picture. But the other thing that's changed is
right wing sentiment across Europe has changed too. Now in
some ways that frees up starma and opens up new
possibilities that weren't there in sort of twenty nineteen when
breakstorts were going on. In the other ways, could you
imagine how it would look for on a week where
(13:48):
he has said the experiment with open borders and migration
is over. If he were then to agree to a
UK mobility and a youth mobility scheme for young people
in Europe. He's very concerned about domestic optics. So the
one thing that has stayed the same is although polls
in the UK have shifted and that increasingly a majority
people would favor a better economic relationship with the EU,
(14:10):
the Labor government's position on freedom of movements and on
the free exchange of goods with the continent has not
and blocks of europeanion specifically has not shifted at all.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Okay, James Wilcock are uka part of supporter, Thank you well.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
In a week where the UK government has also announced
those big changes on the immigration and migration system in Britain,
Bloomberg Business Week is reporting on how migrant care workers
coming to Britain are being scammed out of millions of
pounds by visa sharks. The government has failed to stamp
out exploitation of its own health and care workers visa program,
(14:47):
which has seen seven hundred thousand people, if you include dependents,
come to the UK to perform essential caregiving and our
reporter Lucy White has been investigating this for a number
of months for Bloomberg and she this morning, It's nice
to see you, Lucy. What has been going wrong with
this visa scheme? Can you give us the size and
scope of the abuse?
Speaker 10 (15:08):
Sure? So, I've been working on this story for about
a year now, and the cases that I've come across
have reached the hundreds, and I feel like I've only
very much touched the surface of this. So essentially what
happens is if you're a migrant care worker under the
system that exists at the moment and has existed since
(15:28):
around twenty twenty when Boris Johnson was in government. If
you think back to twenty twenty, we were in the
middle of the pandemic. We had a huge shortage of
care workers, the people who look after our elderly are disabled,
and we just had Brexit as well, so obviously a
lot of the European people who were working in the
country then had left and we had this huge staffing crisis.
(15:53):
Boris Johnson essentually wanted to create a system where we
could allow people into the country easy yet to fill
those vacancies in the care sector, and he created this
Health and Care Visa where employers in the country who
needed to recruit from overseas could hand out certificates of
sponsorship that essentially gave migrants in foreign countries the right
(16:16):
to work in the UK.
Speaker 11 (16:17):
It was a certificate that said you have a job
in the UK.
Speaker 10 (16:20):
The problem is people were selling these certificates for thousands
and thousands of pounds, which is illegal. It is illegal
for under international law for workers to pay for a
job opportunity for recruitment purposes. And the problem is is
that some of these people were getting legitimate certificates of
sponsorship and were able to come to the country, then
(16:40):
they were often being exploited when they got here, which
is a whole different cattle fish. But a lot of
people were being sold these certificates of sponsorship and never
actually got them. They were being sold them fraudulently. They
were being sold fake certificates, and the people who were
in the UK, the businesses who were involved in selling
those certificates of sponsorship often on the Home Office list
(17:01):
of approved sponsors that were approved to hand out these certificates.
So it really gets the heart of the fact that
the government was not doing proper checks. This system was
not properly regulated and it's ended up with millions of
pounds just in the cases the small number of cases
that we've seen essentially being laundered from people in developing
countries through the UK and used to buy what we've
(17:24):
seen range rovers property investments and it's absolutely sickening, to
be honest, and part.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Of your story attracks down some of the people who've
essentially taken matters into their own hands to try and
establish where the money has gone. But what about the
official response to this? What are the government and the
police doing about it?
Speaker 10 (17:42):
So I've had a number of conversations with various different
people within the Home Office over the last few months,
and to me it seems that they are not particularly
aware of the problem that exists. I don't think they
realized the scope of it. I don't think they realized
the scale of it, and I would like to hope
that there are some sort of internal conversations going on
(18:03):
about how they might address this, but at the moment
I haven't seen any evidence of that. When it comes
to the police, in terms of the people that we've
been in touch with, the victims of this that we've
been in touch with, we have urged them to go
to the police. They go to the body called Action Fraud,
which is part of the City of London Police, which
deals with nationwide fraud reports, and many of them have
(18:25):
now started reporting to Action Fraud. We saw over three
hundred reported last year, but Action Fraud then has the
right not to pass on those cases to the police
if they don't think there's a realistic chance of them
being followed up, or if they don't think the police
have the time to deal with these types of fraud.
And with every case that I've seen that has been
passed to Action Fraud, Action Fraud has said, we decided
(18:47):
not to pass this on to the police. We do
know there are a couple of cases that we have
reported to the police that are still under investigation.
Speaker 11 (18:53):
One of those is mentioned in the story.
Speaker 10 (18:55):
But at the moment it seems that the authorities have
largely decided to.
Speaker 11 (18:59):
Turn a blind eyed this.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So then how does this visa program fit in also
with the changes that the government is making to immigration
and visa schemes.
Speaker 10 (19:10):
Well, it's interesting you should say that because obviously we
had Kostama's Immigration White Paper announced this week, and that
announced them massive changes to the.
Speaker 11 (19:20):
Way migration works in the UK.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
We're still to see a lot of the detail of
that to come out, but we have one of the
biggest changes in that white paper, which was announcing the
end of overseas recruitment of care workers. So that means
essentially the end of certificates of sponsorship for these people,
and in a way that should stop future scams because
you know, if you're in a country like Zimbabwe in
(19:44):
Nigeria and you've heard about this, then you know that
there is no way to come to the UK as
a careworker anymore.
Speaker 11 (19:49):
I mean that there's several issues with this.
Speaker 10 (19:52):
A it depends on people in those countries actually knowing
about this policy and knowing that they can't come to
the UK anymore. So if someone tries to sell them
a dodgy certificate of sponsor, then they actually know that
it's unlikely to be real. And then you've also got
the issue that this is raising for the care sector.
They are really worried about how they're going to be
able to recruit enough staff now because we're still seeing
vacancies in that sector. And it's worth mentioning as well
(20:14):
that this does nothing for the people who have been
fall and prey to these scams over the past several years.
It's not addressing the fact that they have lost tens
of thousands of pounds. They've often sold everything they have
in their country of origin, you know, their house, their land,
their cars, the equipment they.
Speaker 11 (20:31):
Had for work.
Speaker 10 (20:33):
They are still out of pocket to the tune of
thousands of pounds, which is a large amount of money
when you're in a country like that, and they essentially
now have absolutely no hope of the dream that they
had of getting to the UK, because you know, many
of them literally pin their life savings, their life's hopes
on getting into the UK to be able to make
(20:54):
a better life for themselves here, and they're essentially left
now with no hope of ever doing that.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Look for us on your podcast feed every morning, on Apple, Spotify,
and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
You can also listen live each morning on London DAB Radio,
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Speaker 2 (21:19):
Our flagship New York station is also available on your
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Speaker 11 (21:26):
I'm Caroline Hepka and I'm Stephen.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Carol. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news
you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg
day Break Europe.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Bloomberg Daybreak Youre podcast, available every morning
on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. It's Friday, the
sixteenth of May in London.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I'm Caroline Hepke.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
And I'm Stephen Carroll.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
Coming up today, the UK and European Union confront their
differences as they race to finalized deals on immigration and
defense ahead of Monday summit.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Bloomberg understands that at least five sizeable companies are mulling
European IPOs in the coming weeks. In news that could
help fuel a revival of public listings.
Speaker 5 (00:39):
Plus an exclusive report on the would be care workers
who've been exploited and squeezed for millions whilst seeking jobs
in the UK.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
With days to go before a key EU UK summit
in London, the two sides are struggling to agree to
a text on a defense and security partnership. Bloomberg has
learned top about the UK joining a one hundred and
fifty billion EUROEU military fund have been held up by
other issues on things like phishing rights and migration post Brexit.
The East Filder stan Brovskis says, the tone around the
(01:12):
meeting is still upbeat.
Speaker 6 (01:14):
There is this positive momentum. There is williness from both
sides sort of say make a step towards each other.
So I'm confidence that we are going to see positive
outcomes from the summit and we are going to see
also follow up action from the summit.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
That's these Economy commissioner at Filder stan Bovskis there. Improving
the relationship has been a key ambition of UK Prime
Minister care Starmer's He tried to improve Britain's weak economic
outlook and build a closer alliance in uncertain geopolitical times.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
America's top diplomat is downplaying hopes they break through in
talks between ukraated Russia. Secutor of State Marco Rubio says
the likelihood of progress is low without a meeting between
Russian present Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. But
Russia has sent a low level delegation to talks in
(02:06):
Turkey today. Vladimir Putin's spurning and offered by the Ukrainian
leader to meet face to face, Vladimir Zolensky was not impressed.
Speaker 7 (02:16):
Yeah, I think that the Kremlin leader should show his leadership.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
If he's ready for negotiations, let's meet.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
We can't really run around the world looking for him.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Ukraine's Vladimir z Olinsky, speaking there through a translator. He
also called the Russian delegation a quote sham. Focus now
shifts to when President Trump could meet President Putin and
whether the US would opt to hit Russia with a
fresh round of sanctions. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has proposed
a bill with what he calls bone crushing sanctions against
(02:49):
the Moscow, which has enough support to pass the Senate,
but it's not clear if President Trump would sign it.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Bloomberg God just chands that several sizeable companies are considering
listing on your Upan stock exchanges in the coming weeks.
A flurry of deals in the region could help fuel
a global revival and IPO activity following recent market volatility.
With more here's Boomberg's crispet.
Speaker 7 (03:11):
At least five sizeable firms are mulling listings in the
region in the near future, according to sources who've spoken
to Bloomberg. The companies including Auto Doc, a German online
car parts retailer backed by Apollo Global, a medical technology group,
Brain Lab, Sweden's Hacksaw and Nordic Capital back Noba Bank
(03:33):
are also said to be considering imminent offerings. None of
the companies would confirm exact timings on any possible listing
when asked for comment from Bloomberg, but a successful IPO
season in Europe could be a major boost after regional
activity slow to a crawl in April in London Crispit
Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
As the UK Chancellor grapples with the challenge of her
upcoming spending review. Here in the UK, a report by
the country's independent public spending watchdog suggests that there is
more scope to prize revenue from Britain's wealthiest taxpayers. Bloomberg's
un pots has more the.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
Wealthiest one percent in the UK already contributes a quarter
of all personal tax revenues, but a report today from
the National Audit Office says the HMRC may be after
squeeze them for more. It gives credit to the Tax
Office for efforts to tackle non compliance, which generated five
point two billion pounds in the year to March twenty
twenty four, a full three billion pounds more than just
(04:32):
four years earlier. But the NAO says that the bumper
revenue secured so far suggests that the hmrc's estimate of
the tax gap for the wealthiest, currently one point nine
billion pounds, is actually far too low. It's a fair
bet that rach Reeves is casting a careful eye over
today's findings.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
In London, I'm youwing pots.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Bloomberg Radio Ukrainian Nationale has been charged with three counts
of arson following a series of fires at properties linked
to the UK Prime Minister kerstaf Armour. Twenty one year
old Roman Lavrinovitch is due in course later today. The
charges relate to a fire at the entrance of a
residential property owned by Starmer in the early hours of
(05:11):
the twelfth of May, as well as two other blazers.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Now two more Global News. Japan's economy contracted by zero
point seven percent on an annualized basis in the first
three months of the year. The decline is more than
twice what economists had estimated, and it raises concerns about
the economy's resilience as President Trump's tariffs take effect. Japan
says that it is continuing to seek a reprieve from
(05:34):
the American levies and hopes to reach some form of
agreement with the US next month.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Analysts say US President Donald Trump is likely to keep
thirty percent tariffs on China until at least the end
of this year. A Bloomberg survey of dozens of fund
managers reveals low expectations of further levy cuts in the
near future despite ongoing negotiations. Whoever, the Director General of
the World Trade Organization, and Gozio konjo Awala says she's
(06:00):
still optimistic after both sides agreed to temporarily lower charges
on each other's goods for ninety days.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I'm very encouraged, to be honest, because we had felt
that I need decoupling of China US. So breakdown in
the trading relationship would have quite negative spillovers on the
rest of the world, but especially on poor countries, especially
if trade really fragments into two trading blocks. So the
fact that there's been a d escalation and agreement to
(06:30):
reduce tariffs so the extent they have, I think is
a good sign.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Gozio kondri Aula there, speaking as Bloomberg Economics projector that
current rates could still wipe out seventy percent of Chinese
shipments to the US in the medium term.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Now those are our top stories. Let's get to the markets.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot index is weakening for a second
session in a row, two tens of one percent lower
the En and Swiss frank among the beneficiaries. Tenure treasury
yields are slightly lower. Traders in our pricing in two
FED rate cuts this year.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You've also got.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Surging Japanese yield especially on the long end. Stocks though,
and our trading basically like last month throughout didn't happen.
The S and P five founded only about four percent
away from an all time record high. So just looking
at the stock futures for the European market open, we're
up about a tenth of one percent. But oil markets
have also just moved. We're up by four tenths of
(07:22):
one percent for Brent and WCI crude futures. After comments
from Iran oil takers taking this series of headlines from
Iran as positive, potentially a for crued the fact that
Iran is talking about having hearing many contradictory US positions
That seems to have moved those oil.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Markets in the moment will bring you more on the
latest of wrangling over the EU UK reset ahead of
Monday's summit, and the results of a month's long investigation
into the exploitation of care workers coming into the UK.
But first a word and another story that's caught a
eye this morning. Adrian Wildridge has drawn up an interesting
(08:03):
comparison is the direction that he sees the UK going in.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yes, of course, and this one is close to your
hearts even of course, because the comparison is to France.
He points to French style policies coming to the UK,
things like the Labor Employment Rights Bill, a National Energy Champion,
Great British Energy, the UK basically adopting more presidential style
of government, emulating perhaps a little bit the French system.
(08:30):
He calls it the Frenchification of Britain.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Yeah, I mean, look, it's an interesting The comparisons are
interesting because you know, he points to survey evidence around
people's attitude to work.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
You know, forty three percent.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Yeah, exactly, forty three percent of Britain's telling posters that
would be a good thing of less importance was compared
was placed on work. That's forty percent on the French
side as well. People high value of their ladder activities.
A lot of these comparisons look are things that are
and very up when we're thinking about EUUK relations, shared
values between countries in Western Europe that have large social
systems and you know, are used to the kind of
(09:05):
model of social democracy that exists in a lot of
this part of the world.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Except and Agent also makes an interesting comparison between Nigel
Farage akin maybe to the Gilejouan movement advance, which I
thought was interesting, but he points to one great difference,
of course, which is, yes, French workers may enjoy their
long August holidays, but they're very efficient, amongst the most
efficient workers in the world, and he's slightly worried that
(09:31):
the UK, with its low productivity, might not be able
to deliver the same.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
The tip for a good bakery and battersy in there
as well. Worth reading bloomber dot comentslash Opinion, or put
a link to the story in our show notes as well.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Speaking of that UK France relationship, Britain is set to
host European leaders next week for an historic summit where
the country wants to announce a reset of its relationship
with the EU, but Bloomberg is reporting that although the
mood music will be upbeat, talks between the two sides
about tangible changes really getting down to the wire are
UK politics reported.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
James Walcock joins US Now for more on this. Good
morning James.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
What's going awry then, in these crucial days ahead of
this summit are the Brexit divisions back?
Speaker 9 (10:14):
Caroline, You should know very well by now that Brexit
never left. Look the way America has pivoted on Ukraine
and on global trade has put a rocket under the
UK and the EUSE attempts to sort of reset this relationship,
especially around defense. But what we're reporting is this morning
the same old sows, be they fishing, be they migration,
(10:35):
be they sovereignty and oversight. All that legal wrangling are
likely to make what's announced on Monday a lot more
limited than what might have initially been hoped. Although talks
are still ongoing ahead of this big Monday summit, if.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
We were to be thinking optimistically around what could be
done within this as well, what would it mean for
the UK economically at a challenging time internationally if deal
were to get over the line, and there's still time
we should point out before the summertime Monday.
Speaker 9 (11:04):
I think to understand that you've got to break down
a bit of why they're what this deal could look like,
and why it's there and so on. That you've got
to give credit to Ellen Milligan and Alberton Idea, who
our reporters has.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Been weeks ahead of the competition on this stuff.
Speaker 9 (11:16):
So it all comes down starts with this EU Joint
Defense Bunt, which is worth one hundred and fifty billion
euros that was being set up. The UK wants to
be part of it. It's originally set up for the
twenty seven countries in the block. Two weeks ago we
reported that in the first draft of this agreement that
we're going to get on Monday, the UK wasn't mentioned
as being part of this deal and we were very
(11:37):
upset here in Britain. And so then we hear that
the EU coastal states, especially France, didn't want the defense
part to be included unless fishing was dealt with a
post Brexit fishing arrangement expires later this year. They wanted
it extended, maybe as much as up to seven years.
They also wanted to be involved EU UK food.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Checks along the border.
Speaker 9 (12:00):
It's also called phytocytology checks, they would like the deadline
for those to be attached to fish and so then
it expands to migration. Spain's Prime minister has talked about
a human mobility scheme. Then we wrap in the fact
that starm Kstar and the UK Prime Minister wants bilateral
migration deals, and before you know it, what was supposed
to be a defense packed now includes multiple other issues,
(12:23):
multiple old sores, and what we're going to get on
Monday is likely three documents a Defense and Security partnership,
pleasure common understanding and sort of talk about closer ties.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
And so to your point where economically.
Speaker 9 (12:34):
Stephen, there is a lot of money to be made
here on defense, there's a lot of GDPs to be
improved on trade, food checks and multiple things, but there
is so much murkiness on what is this future relationship
going forward.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, I mean, I'd add to that though.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
On the flip side, the UK of course is home
to a number of very big defense contractors, and that
is also something that is quite appealing in some quarters
in Europe to perhaps.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Be able to involve them those deals.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But look, kiss Darma made resetting relations with Europe a
kind of key plank of his agenda.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
So how is he going to be talking about this?
Speaker 9 (13:09):
Well, in many ways we're seeing the kind of what's
becoming quite the usual life cycle of a British Prime
minister come to power, where the series are great things
that you could give them only to run headfirst, and
sort of the rigid nature of negotiating with a block
of twenty seven different countries.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
But look, two things are different this time around.
Speaker 9 (13:26):
Firstly, defense, we keep coming back to the conversation is
genuinely quite different amongst countries in Europe and that has
changed the picture. But the other thing that's changed is
right wing sentiment across Europe has changed too. Now in
some ways that frees up starma and opens up new
possibilities that weren't there in sort of twenty nineteen when
breakstorts were going on. In the other ways, could you
imagine how it would look for on a week where
(13:48):
he has said the experiment with open borders and migration
is over. If he were then to agree to a
UK mobility and a youth mobility scheme for young people
in Europe. He's very concerned about domestic optics. So the
one thing that has stayed the same is although polls
in the UK have shifted and that increasingly a majority
people would favor a better economic relationship with the EU,
(14:10):
the Labor government's position on freedom of movements and on
the free exchange of goods with the continent has not
and blocks of europeanion specifically has not shifted at all.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Okay, James Wilcock are uka part of supporter, Thank you well.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
In a week where the UK government has also announced
those big changes on the immigration and migration system in Britain,
Bloomberg Business Week is reporting on how migrant care workers
coming to Britain are being scammed out of millions of
pounds by visa sharks. The government has failed to stamp
out exploitation of its own health and care workers visa program,
(14:47):
which has seen seven hundred thousand people, if you include dependents,
come to the UK to perform essential caregiving and our
reporter Lucy White has been investigating this for a number
of months for Bloomberg and she this morning, It's nice
to see you, Lucy. What has been going wrong with
this visa scheme? Can you give us the size and
scope of the abuse?
Speaker 10 (15:08):
Sure? So, I've been working on this story for about
a year now, and the cases that I've come across
have reached the hundreds, and I feel like I've only
very much touched the surface of this. So essentially what
happens is if you're a migrant care worker under the
system that exists at the moment and has existed since
(15:28):
around twenty twenty when Boris Johnson was in government. If
you think back to twenty twenty, we were in the
middle of the pandemic. We had a huge shortage of
care workers, the people who look after our elderly are disabled,
and we just had Brexit as well, so obviously a
lot of the European people who were working in the
country then had left and we had this huge staffing crisis.
(15:53):
Boris Johnson essentually wanted to create a system where we
could allow people into the country easy yet to fill
those vacancies in the care sector, and he created this
Health and Care Visa where employers in the country who
needed to recruit from overseas could hand out certificates of
sponsorship that essentially gave migrants in foreign countries the right
(16:16):
to work in the UK.
Speaker 11 (16:17):
It was a certificate that said you have a job
in the UK.
Speaker 10 (16:20):
The problem is people were selling these certificates for thousands
and thousands of pounds, which is illegal. It is illegal
for under international law for workers to pay for a
job opportunity for recruitment purposes. And the problem is is
that some of these people were getting legitimate certificates of
sponsorship and were able to come to the country, then
(16:40):
they were often being exploited when they got here, which
is a whole different cattle fish. But a lot of
people were being sold these certificates of sponsorship and never
actually got them. They were being sold them fraudulently. They
were being sold fake certificates, and the people who were
in the UK, the businesses who were involved in selling
those certificates of sponsorship often on the Home Office list
(17:01):
of approved sponsors that were approved to hand out these certificates.
So it really gets the heart of the fact that
the government was not doing proper checks. This system was
not properly regulated and it's ended up with millions of
pounds just in the cases the small number of cases
that we've seen essentially being laundered from people in developing
countries through the UK and used to buy what we've
(17:24):
seen range rovers property investments and it's absolutely sickening, to
be honest, and part.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Of your story attracks down some of the people who've
essentially taken matters into their own hands to try and
establish where the money has gone. But what about the
official response to this? What are the government and the
police doing about it?
Speaker 10 (17:42):
So I've had a number of conversations with various different
people within the Home Office over the last few months,
and to me it seems that they are not particularly
aware of the problem that exists. I don't think they
realized the scope of it. I don't think they realized
the scale of it, and I would like to hope
that there are some sort of internal conversations going on
(18:03):
about how they might address this, but at the moment
I haven't seen any evidence of that. When it comes
to the police, in terms of the people that we've
been in touch with, the victims of this that we've
been in touch with, we have urged them to go
to the police. They go to the body called Action Fraud,
which is part of the City of London Police, which
deals with nationwide fraud reports, and many of them have
(18:25):
now started reporting to Action Fraud. We saw over three
hundred reported last year, but Action Fraud then has the
right not to pass on those cases to the police
if they don't think there's a realistic chance of them
being followed up, or if they don't think the police
have the time to deal with these types of fraud.
And with every case that I've seen that has been
passed to Action Fraud, Action Fraud has said, we decided
(18:47):
not to pass this on to the police. We do
know there are a couple of cases that we have
reported to the police that are still under investigation.
Speaker 11 (18:53):
One of those is mentioned in the story.
Speaker 10 (18:55):
But at the moment it seems that the authorities have
largely decided to.
Speaker 11 (18:59):
Turn a blind eyed this.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So then how does this visa program fit in also
with the changes that the government is making to immigration
and visa schemes.
Speaker 10 (19:10):
Well, it's interesting you should say that because obviously we
had Kostama's Immigration White Paper announced this week, and that
announced them massive changes to the.
Speaker 11 (19:20):
Way migration works in the UK.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
We're still to see a lot of the detail of
that to come out, but we have one of the
biggest changes in that white paper, which was announcing the
end of overseas recruitment of care workers. So that means
essentially the end of certificates of sponsorship for these people,
and in a way that should stop future scams because
you know, if you're in a country like Zimbabwe in
(19:44):
Nigeria and you've heard about this, then you know that
there is no way to come to the UK as
a careworker anymore.
Speaker 11 (19:49):
I mean that there's several issues with this.
Speaker 10 (19:52):
A it depends on people in those countries actually knowing
about this policy and knowing that they can't come to
the UK anymore. So if someone tries to sell them
a dodgy certificate of sponsor, then they actually know that
it's unlikely to be real. And then you've also got
the issue that this is raising for the care sector.
They are really worried about how they're going to be
able to recruit enough staff now because we're still seeing
vacancies in that sector. And it's worth mentioning as well
(20:14):
that this does nothing for the people who have been
fall and prey to these scams over the past several years.
It's not addressing the fact that they have lost tens
of thousands of pounds. They've often sold everything they have
in their country of origin, you know, their house, their land,
their cars, the equipment they.
Speaker 11 (20:31):
Had for work.
Speaker 10 (20:33):
They are still out of pocket to the tune of
thousands of pounds, which is a large amount of money
when you're in a country like that, and they essentially
now have absolutely no hope of the dream that they
had of getting to the UK, because you know, many
of them literally pin their life savings, their life's hopes
on getting into the UK to be able to make
(20:54):
a better life for themselves here, and they're essentially left
now with no hope of ever doing that.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Look for us on your podcast feed every morning, on Apple, Spotify,
and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
You can also listen live each morning on London DAB Radio,
the Bloomberg Business app, and Bloomberg dot Com.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Our flagship New York station is also available on your
Amazon Alexa devices. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 11 (21:26):
I'm Caroline Hepka and I'm Stephen.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Carol. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news
you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg
day Break Europe.
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