Friday newspaper round-up: Defence spending, Metro Bank, Aston Martin

17th Apr 2026 07:21

(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves has warned "difficult choices" are required to increase defence spending and other budgets may have to be cut, including welfare. Under pressure for a faster rise in the military budget amid the Iran conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine, the chancellor said she was "working through a range of options" but preferred not to increase taxes or add to government borrowing. - Guardian

Metro Bank's chief executive has been handed a £2.6m pay packet - the largest in its history - a year after slashing 1,000 jobs in response to the lender's near collapse. The figure is more than double the £1.2m Dan Frumkin was paid in 2024. Metro pushed through the pay bump and complex bonus scheme for the former RBS and Northern Rock banker at a shareholder meeting last year. - Guardian

One of the Labour Party's biggest donors is to make at least €1bn (£870m) from a deal to list the owner of Autoglass. Gary Lubner, a South African businessman who has donated millions of pounds to Sir Keir Starmer's party, is poised to cash in on the planned float of Belron, the car windscreen repair giant. - Telegraph

Aston Martin is suing one of China's biggest carmakers in an attempt to block it from using a wings logo similar to the badge it has used for almost a century. The British carmaker filed a new intellectual property claim against Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in the UK this week, seeking to stop it from registering three new logos. Aston Martin has argued that Geely's new logos, which display the head of a horse on a circular badge at the centre of a pair of wings, are too similar to the feathered wings it uses as an emblem on its own luxury cars. - Telegraph

One in five of Tesla's futuristic Cybertrucks were bought by other companies within Elon Musk's business empire at the end of last year, industry data shows. SpaceX, Musk's rocket and satellite maker, accounted for 1,279 - or more than 18 per cent - of the 7,071 Cybertrucks registered in the United States during the fourth quarter, starting in October, according to registration data from S&P Global Mobility. - The Times