THE TELEGRAPH: Sources reveal Chancellor was given 'hospital pass' as City fears destruction of multi-billion pound sector
George Osborne is to admit defeat on new European Union rules to regulate Britain’s multi-billion pound hedge fund and private equity industry and allow finance ministers to pass a new directive which could badly damage the sector.
Sources close to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer said that although the British Government still disagreed with large parts of the directive, the process was now too far down the track to be stopped. “We know we have to pick our battles and this was one we had already lost,” one source said.
Mr Osborne, who took up his post in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Government last week, called Elena Salgado, the Spanish finance minister and present head of Ecofin, on Friday to discuss the UK’s position.
The British Government initially called for a delay to the crunch meeting in Brussels on Tuesday because the Government had only just been formed, but the appeal was rejected. >>> Kamal Ahmed and Rachel Cooper | Saturday, May 15, 2010
