Wednesday newspaper round-up: Train companies, Jes Staley, farmers IHT

24th Dec 2025 07:03

(Sharecast News) - Train companies have been warned over price claims made on their ticketing websites after the advertising watchdog banned ads run by three sellers. The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that claims made for fares booked via ScotRail and Greater Anglia's website, as well as by a third-party ticketing site, My Train Ticket, were misleading. In all three cases, the ASA said, it found the companies could not provide evidence to show that people would get the lowest available price by booking train tickets through them. - Guardian

The former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley and the ex-US Treasury secretary Larry Summers were appointed as executors of Jeffrey Epstein's estate, according to a newly released tranche of documents linked to the deceased child sex offender. Filings published on Tuesday by the US Department of Justice included various versions of Epstein's last will and testament, which showed the financier intended to hand responsibility of managing his affairs to associates including the two high-profile men in the event of his death. - Guardian

Billionaire Tory donor Alan Howard has quit Britain for Switzerland, becoming the latest entrepreneur to leave in the wake of Rachel Reeves's tax raid. The hedge fund tycoon, who founded Brevan Howard, shifted his residency to the low-tax haven earlier this year, according to filings seen by Bloomberg. - Telegraph

Sir Keir Starmer has watered down his inheritance tax raid on farmers following a backlash from rural voters. The threshold for the amount of agricultural assets that can be handed down without paying inheritance tax will rise from £1m to £2.5m. The move means couples will now be able to pass on a farming estate worth £5m to their children without incurring an inheritance tax bill. - Telegraph

Two bosses of the private equity group behind deals including an acrimonious takeover of Maker & Son, a luxury furniture business, have been banned from running companies over "unauthorised" banking transactions worth almost £14 million. The bans relate to what the government's Insolvency Service called "exploitation" of the banking system, which it said left "behind insolvencies worth more than £52 million". - The Times