Monday newspaper round-up: Job vacancies, Mike Ashley, John Lewis Partnership

(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves plans to end the UK's "fractious" post-Brexit accord with the EU, a relationship she said had been defined by "division and chaos", by promising closer ties in the first speech by a UK chancellor to eurozone finance ministers since 2020. Reeves will say she wants to adopt a "business-like" approach through an "economic reset" with the EU, offering the goal of driving up trade and growth. - Guardian The number of job vacancies in November fell at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic, as business confidence slumped to its lowest level in almost two years, according to two new reports. In a damaging blow to the government efforts to boost growth, the latest monthly report on the job market from accountancy firm KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found demand for staff declined at a "sharp and accelerated pace" last month, with the steepest fall in vacancies since August 2020. - Guardian

London's stock market is suffering from a "disease" that makes it more attractive to be private, a senior fund manager has warned. A major shareholder in Learning Technologies Group (LTG), who didn't want to be named, said the company's decision to sell itself to US private equity for $1bn (£802m) was "a symptom of the wider disease" in UK public markets. It came as other City money managers expressed "dismay" at the deal, saying the group is being acquired on the cheap. - Telegraph

Mike Ashley has called the co-founder of Boohoo "egotistical" and accused the struggling fast-fashion group's board of creating a "catastrophic mess" through "gross mismanagement", as he intensifies his campaign to force his way on to it. In a letter to "long-suffering" Boohoo shareholders before a vote on December 20 on whether to appoint Ashley, the founder of Frasers Group, and the restructuring expert Mike Lennon as directors, he said Debenhams should remain part of the Boohoo group and that "critical to that turnaround will be avoiding a fire sale of assets at knockdown prices". - The Times

The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose is attempting to win back more shoppers by opening Caffè Nero coffee shops in its stores. The John Lewis Partnership opened the cafés last week in five Waitrose shops - in Billericay, Godalming, Keynsham, Locks Heath and Stroud - offering coffee from Nero Roasting Company alongside Waitrose's food menu. A Caffè Nero outlet opened in the John Lewis in White City, west London, on Thursday. - The Times