22/06/2010

Today's emergency budget is likely to see Chancellor George Osborne announce deep spending cuts and big tax rises, notably in capital gains tax and VAT. We speak to our specially formed Budget Panel, Linda Yeuh, economics expert from Oxford University, Tony Travers, public sector specialist from the London School of Economics and Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax at Grant Thornton.

Barclays Chief Executive John Varley will appear at a New York court today, to testify that the bank should not have to pay an additional 11 billion dollars to creditors of the collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers. Professor John Coffee, from Colombia Law School in the US explains why the bank is being accused of organising a sweetheart deal.

The Royal Mail says it should not have to pay 36 million pounds in compensation to business customers whose mail got caught up in last year's strike. Later today, it will submit a formal request to the postal regulator Postcomm asking it to suspend its Bulk Mail Compensation Scheme. We ask David Stubbs, an independent postal expert, whether Royal Mail has the right to ask for the scheme to be suspended.