simonjack has the details, so bring us simonjack has the details, so bring us up to date.he is accused of sticking his nose in where ceos shouldn't stick their nose in. he is accused of hiring someone nose in. he is accused of hiring someone from jp morgan, someone he had known for years, who had had personal issues in the past, and somebody wrote to the members of the board of berkeley is questioning whether this new person was a suitable higher and saying maybe the fa ct suitable higher and saying maybe the fact thatjess staley was a friend of his meant that normal due diligence had been ignored. he saw this as a personal knifing of somebody who had had problems at the passport was now 0k, and it didn't sit well with him. he wanted to know who sent the letter, he was told to back off it was none of his he then mistakenly thought he was clear to restart the hunt and try to involve us law enforcement agencies into trying to find who wrote the letter, and was told that was not appropriate. whistle—blowing only works if the system is anonymous, which is why regulators get so

here's our business editor simonjack.es staley did not see this as whistle—blowing, you said this was a malicious smear against this person —— he said. trying to introduce their reputation, and he wanted to find out who the letter initially, the internal people are bart bles said, you should not be sticking your nose into this, —— the internal people at barclays. later he said it is not really a whistle blowing type of event, and said he could find out who wrote this letter and tried to involve us law enforcement officials. the regulators will take a dim view of this, because even if he thought this was a malicious smear, it is not your business, you have got to leave this to the compliance people to do, and in the post—crisis environment, whistle—blowers are a highly protected species and they are seen as very valuable by regulators as a way of bad things coming to light. no matter what this was, it wasn't for him tojudge, and internally the bank has come down hard on him and they have adopted by nissan he will probably

here's our business editor simonjack.us smear against this person —— he said. trying to introduce their reputation, and he wanted to find out who the letter initially, the internal people are bart bles said, you should not be sticking your nose into this, —— the internal people at barclays. later he said it is not really a whistle blowing type of event, and said he could find out who wrote this letter and tried to involve us law enforcement officials. the regulators will take a dim view of this, because even if he thought this was a malicious smear, it is not your

our europe editor, katya adler, is in paris tonight, but first let's speak to our business editor, simonjack the city this evening. what is your reading of the way that the markets reacted to the news today? well, this may be a political gamble but the folks who make bets in the offices behind me like theresa may's odds in this one. you saw the pound strengthen, they think the economy is doing well, unemployment rate is low and average earnings are going up a bit more than the cost of living and crucial to understanding the timing of this, thatis to understanding the timing of this, that is not expected to last for long, so get this done before inflation, widely expected to rise, sta rts inflation, widely expected to rise, starts eating into people's earnings. so the markets think she will win. they think she will get a bigger majority, possibly less beholden to some of the hardline eurosceptics in her own party and the markets think that will give her a stronger and a freer hand in the negotiations to come, so the pound has rallied. what is good for the pound is not so good for the stock ma

our business editor simonjack has this report.e company who could secure the rights to a lucrative field, called opl245. but doing deals in nigeria is one of the toughest challenges in the oil business. the building behind me is shell's uk headquarters. it's the most valuable company on the london stock exchange. if you have a pension, you almost certainly own some shares in shell. they've been operating in nigeria for nearly 60 years, so they have the size and the expertise to meet that challenge. in the way was this man, who acquired the field while he was oil minister. for the first time tonight, shell acknowledges they did engage with him to do the deal. shell and the italian oil company acquired the field in 2011, paying $1.3 billion to the nigerian government. that's more than nigeria's health budget, but it didn't go on public services. instead, more than1 billion of it was passed to a company called malabu, controlled by atete. from there, according to documents filed by italian prosecutors, nearly half was forwarded to th

simonjack has the story.r that appointment, letters we re and after that appointment, letters were sent to board members raising questions about the past conduct and personal issues in the background of this person and the nature of his relationship with jes this person and the nature of his relationship withjes staley, asking whether it was appropriate. jes staley said today in a letter that he wrote to ba rclays staff, he thought this was a whistle—blowing but an thought this was a whistle—blowing butan unfair thought this was a whistle—blowing but an unfair personal attack and an attempt to maliciously smear this person. the compliance due to berkeley said, back off, this is somewhere where the chief executive of ba rclays somewhere where the chief executive of barclays should be poking his nose in. he thought he could find out who said that letter and he was incorrect. now the regulators are taking a dim view of it because coming down, having powerful ceos, hunting down potential whistle—blowers is ta ken

there is a full write up by simonjack explaining this line that the bank's head of security now faceson over this trying to unmask a whistle—blower.” investigation over this trying to unmask a whistle-blower. i want to do paint. i bought five meters of paint, £96 of that's about $140 for five litres! it says tensions are rising between the owner of delux and elliott advisors. changes to a stamp duty loophole in hong kong have sent property shares reeling. sarah toms is in singapore. well, as you said hong kong, the hong kong government slapped a 15% tax on first time homeowners who are purchasing more than one flat at a time. so, what was happening was investors were coming in, snapping up investors were coming in, snapping up multiple units in one go to qualify for lower tax rates. these buyers were using one legal contract and they only had to pay 4% tax duty so now and they only had to pay 4% tax duty so now they are being charged the same 15% as someone buying a second property. there has been a lot of chinese capital snapping up some of the hong kong's best plots of land and at r

our business editor, simonjack, has this report.ut doing deals in nigeria is one of the toughest challenges in the oil business. the building behind me is shell's uk headquarters. it's the most valuable company on the london stock exchange. if you have a pension, you almost certainly own some shares in shell. they've been operating in nigeria for nearly 60 years, so they have the size and the expertise to meet that challenge. in the way was this man, who acquired the field while he was oil minister. for the first time tonight, shell acknowledges they did engage with him to do the deal. shell and the italian oil company acquired the field in 2011, paying 1. $1.3 billion to the nigerian government. more than1 billion to the nigerian government. more than 1 billion of it was passed to another company, controlled by atete. from there, according to documents filed by italian prosecutors nearly half was forwarded to the then president and members of his government. shell have always said they only paid the nigerian government. today shell

our business editor, simonjack, is in the newsroom. what has been happening? this was one of those. they have stabilised now. the pound is actually stronger. i think people realise there is an economic window of opportunity. the dire warnings of what would happen to the economy after brexit never came to pass. growth is solid. record numbers of people in work. and wages are rising faster than prices. that is expected to go the other way later in the year. that is why this timing makes sense. is mrs would prefer a government with a bigger majority to a smaller one. if that pans out, that would be betterfor them. —— business would prefer a government with a bigger majority. the focus will now turn to immigration, single market tariffs etc, that theresa may usesin market tariffs etc, that theresa may uses in the run—up to the election. they will be focusing on what kind of brexit she is looking for. that will be the focus. simon jack, thank you. we can find out how europe is reacting to the surprise announcement now. kevin connolly is in brussels for us. what has

our business editor simonjack is with me. what is this all about?re sent to board members raising questions about past conduct and personal issues in the background of this higher and his relationship with a man. whether they kept ties as they usually would on this appointment. ina usually would on this appointment. in a letter today, he said he thought this was not whistle—blowing, it was an unfair personal attack and an attempt to smear this person. the compliance people are barclays said, back. this is somewhere the chief executive should not be poking his nose. shortly they said, did they sort out the whistle—blowing stuff? he took it as light as he could find out about it that that was incorrect. regulators are taking a dim view of this. hunting down potential whistle—blowers is ta ken this. hunting down potential whistle—blowers is taken very seriously because they are the eyes and ears of the regulator sometimes in these organisations. this is a serious matter and penalties can be severe but they can disbar people from working in banking. whi

a little earlier our business editor simonjack explained to why this investigation had come about.ey‘s, they had worked together for years in a previous bank. after that appointment, a letter was written to board members raising questions about past conduct and personal issues in the background of this hire, and also about the nature of his relationship withjes staley, asking whether it was appropriate. now, staley said today in a letter that he said he wrote to ba rclays staff, he thought this wasn't whistle—blowing, he thought this was an unfair personal attack. an attempt to maliciously smear his person. but the compliance people said, back off, this is somewhere the chief executive shouldn't be poking his nose. soon after, he said, did we sort out that whistle—blowing stuff? and they said it wasn't really whistle—blowing. at which point he took the view, right, i can find out who sent this letter, he was incorrect on that. and now the regulators are taking a dim view of this, because coming down, having powerful ceos hunting down potential down potential whistle—blowers is take

our business editor simonjack is with me now. did they like his announcement? about 11am the kind of good and a bit of a cert and the market is therefore think the economic backdrop for this is favourable for theresa may. the economy has done better than many people predicted after the vote, the job markets look strong and, crucially, people's average earnings are going up just crucially, people's average earnings are going upjust a little bit faster than prices. that is expected to turn around in the not too distant future, so that part of the window is closing. what the markets are also seeing if they are basically saying that they think she will win, that the majority will be increased and thirdly, and this is what people think of a stretch, that will reduce the reliance on hardline eurosceptics within her own party and give her the latitude to deliver and give her the latitude to deliver a slightly softer brexit. the treasury for one thing that is going a little bit far but they are definitely telling us that the economic window for this political gamble is