Friday newspaper round-up: Butchers, contactless limit, energy providers

(Sharecast News) - The government has stepped in to counter a spiralling crisis on pig farms by allowing butchers to enter the UK on temporary visas, in the latest reversal of post-Brexit immigration policy. Butchers in abattoirs and meat processing plants dealing with pigs will be allowed to come to work in Britain for six months, the environment secretary, George Eustice, announced on Thursday evening. He said 800 butchers were needed to meet staffing shortages and get the situation under control. - Guardian People in the UK using contactless cards will be able spend up to £100 a time from Friday after the limit on payments was more than doubled. At the start of the pandemic the cap was increased to £45 to reduce the need for customers to handle cards and cash because of concerns about the virus being transmitted via surfaces. - Guardian

Energy providers have been accused of increasing households' monthly direct debit payments in a breach of industry rules as they battle to survive surging power costs. Citizens Advice is calling for action by Ofgem, the energy watchdog, after being contacted by a string of consumers hit with an unexpectedly high payment increase over the past few weeks. One household's bills almost doubled to £117 a month, it said. - Telegraph

Britain's biggest haulage lobbying group has been frozen out of meetings with ministers following claims it is biased against Brexit and deliberately sparked last month's fuel crisis. As businesses battle a national shortage of lorry drivers, relations between the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and the Government have entered a "deep freeze", sources said. - Telegraph

GlaxoSmithKline is embroiled in a row with an activist investor after it called for the replacement of the drugs group's chairman and chief executive. Sir Jonathan Symonds, GSK's chairman, replied to Bluebell's partners on Wednesday, two days after Bluebell sent its critical letter, saying that it was "disappointed" with the investor's account of a shareholder meeting hosted by the Investor Forum on Thursday last week to discuss the separation of GSK's consumer healthcare division. - The Times