Monday newspaper round-up: EU regulations, Vodafone, Entain

(Sharecast News) - Boris Johnson has announced plans for legislation to make it easier to rip up EU regulations and protections, amid criticism from Conservative MPs that the government has not taken sufficient advantage of Brexit. The plans claim to cut £1bn in red tape expenses for businesses, but Johnson gave no firm details on which regulations are intended to be repealed or enhanced, instead stating five principles that would be applied, including the value of sovereignty and creating new markets. - Guardian Rishi Sunak is being urged by a leading centre-right thinktank to limit the impact of April's controversial £12bn increase in national insurance contributions by shifting the burden of tax from work to wealth. Highlighting disquiet in Tory ranks over the looming national insurance rise, a report from Bright Blue has called for higher taxes on capital, inheritance and rents as a way of making the system fairer. - Guardian

Rishi Sunak has sunk millions of pounds of taxpayer funds into an online betting company and a luxury Caribbean firm selling holidays on private islands as controversy over investments made by the Government's £1.1bn startups scheme grows. Taxpayer groups and gambling charities sounded the alarm over investments made under the Future Fund as criticism over wasteful Covid spending by the Chancellor mounts. - Telegraph

Richard Caring, the owner of the Ivy and Sexy Fish, is considering a bid for the restaurant group which houses The Wolseley and The Delaunay after a row with its largest shareholder plunged it into administration. Mr Caring, who also owns private members' club Annabel's, is due to meet with Corbin & King's majority shareholder Minor International early this week over a potential deal, The Sunday Times reported. - Telegraph

London has been chosen by the gambling operator behind Ladbrokes and Sportingbet as the location for a £40 million global innovation technology hub. Entain may be one of the world's biggest betting groups, but it is increasingly turning its focus to entertainment and its first innovation lab will be in Farringdon, close to the UK headquarters of TikTok and Snapchat. - The Times

Vodafone is expected to accelerate its transformation after a Swedish activist investor with stakes in Aviva and Pearson trained its sights on the FTSE 100 telecoms group. Cevian Capital, one of Europe's biggest activists, has taken a stake in the company after a dismal share price performance, with the stock almost halving in value to 128p since the beginning of 2018, valuing Vodafone at £34 billion. - The Times