Graduates from poorer backgrounds earn half as much as their more privileged peers in their first job after university because they put themselves forward for fewer roles and lack the family connections and financial support to hunt for top jobs, a survey has shown. The survey of 5,000 graduates suggested that those whose parents held professional roles, including chief executives, doctors and teachers, earned an average of £23,457 in their first job after university, compared with just £11,595 among those whose parents held technical, manual or service jobs. After university, poorer graduates applied for an average of six jobs compared with nine for their wealthier peers, the figures showed. – Guardian
Controversial plans to build a 305-metre high tower in the City of London have been thrown out by the government. The surprise decision, announced by the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, ends a long-running saga of contradictory decisions on the fate of the planned tourist attraction – designed by Foster + Partners and called the Tulip – at 20 Bury Street in London’s financial district. – Guardian
Striking workers at Clarks have been accused of shouting homophobic abuse at staff and attempting to damage cars as Britain lurches into a winter of discontent. Picketers scattered nails across the road to be run over by traffic outside Clarks’ factory in Somerset and a striker shouted “take that, gay boy” at a member of staff heading into the building, the 196-year-old shoemaker claimed amid an increasingly bitter dispute over pay. – Telegraph
Boris Johnson is facing calls from more than 40 cross-party MPs to table legislation to stop the use of UK property for economic crime, as a rise in ownership in offshore tax havens is said to have placed the country “at the heart of the world’s dirty money crisis”. Seventeen Tory backbenchers and peers are among those urging the prime minister to bring forward legislation to introduce a register of overseas entities that own UK property. Draft legislation has been ready since 2018. – The Times
An autonomous technology start-up went public in New York yesterday, bringing to the stock exchange one of the youngest chief executives of a listed American company. Embark Technology, which specialises in developing software and services for self-driving lorries, was valued at more than $5 billion in a so-called blank-cheque merger. – The Times
