The number of unemployed Britons has soared to the highest level for 17 years, increasing pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to do more to fuel growth and raising fresh questions about the wisdom of his government's fierce austerity drive, The Wall Street Journal reported. The jobless total rose 128,000 in the three months to October to 2.64 million, the highest level since the third quarter of 1994, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The jobless rate rose to 8.3%, its highest level since the three months to January 1996. Mr.

Unite, the union representing cabin crew at Thomas Cook Group's U.K.-based airline, said Tuesday that it struck an agreement with the company over pay and job cuts late last month to avoid putting the troubled travel group's future in jeopardy, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. The agreement, which neither Unite or Thomas Cook had disclosed until now, preceded an emergency-financing deal in late November in which Thomas Cook's bankers agreed to an extended GBP200 million ($310.7 million) loan facility and relaxed financial covenants on existing loans.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron's decision last week to veto a new European Union treaty aimed at solving the euro-zone debt crisis puts a spotlight on the slew of pending legislation in Brussels aimed at the EU-wide financial-services sector—and the stakes for London's financial sector if it isn't able to influence it, The Wall Street Journal reported. The freshly chilled relations between the U.K. and the EU resulting from Mr.

U.S. hedge fund Elliott Advisers LP is suing Vietnamese state-run shipbuilder Vinashin in the U.K. High Court, according to a filing seen by The Wall Street Journal. Vinashin defaulted on a $600 million syndicated loan last December, when the first repayment of $60 million was due. Other investors in the loan, which was arranged by Credit Suisse AG in 2007, include Dublin-based Depfa Bank PLC and Malayan Banking Bhd., as well as Credit Suisse.

State assets agency Nama and Lloyds Bank are likely to seek a buyer for Battersea Power Station after a court yesterday gave them and another creditor control of the landmark London site, the Irish Times reported. The British high court yesterday appointed accountants Ernst Young as administrator to subsidiaries of Battersea Power Station Shareholder Vehicle, which own the site, at the request of Nama and Lloyds, who were supported by a third creditor, Oriental Holdings.

David Cameron was at the centre of a furious row with Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday after Paris tried to isolate the prime minister at the EU summit by suggesting that Britain is seeking to exempt the City of London from all European regulations, The Guardian reported. In a move dismissed by officials in Brussels as an attempt to set Britain up as the "fall guy", senior French figures said Cameron wanted an "opt out" from EU financial services regulation.

Barratts Priceless, the footwear retail chain that survived administration in 2009, has appointed administrators for the second time, after a downturn in trading, the Financial Times reported. As reported on FT.com on Wednesday, poor trading and growing competition from cut-price competitors has threatened Barratts’ ability to pay December’s quarterly rent bill, due on Christmas day. Deloitte was confirmed as administrator to the Bradford-based group, which employs 3,840 staff, on Thursday morning.

Yell, the publisher of the Yellow Pages directories, is set to give its lenders more time to agree terms on a restructuring of its £2.6bn debts, the Financial Times reported. A deadline for the talks, which expired on Wednesday at 5pm, could be extended as far as the end of this week as two camps of lenders, a group of institutional investors and Yell’s lending banks, try to reach a compromise. Although meetings between the two camps had been held, no agreement was reached, people familiar with the situation said.

The U.K. government, struggling with a disappointing economic strategy, deserves some sympathy. It also needs to show some patience, Bloomberg reported in a commentary. In its first budget last year, Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition announced higher taxes and lower public spending, aiming to contain borrowing, shore up market confidence and spur growth. The policy was hailed by many at the time as bold and decisive. Now, with the economy at risk of falling back into recession, Cameron and his team are under fire.

Yell, the publisher of Yellow Pages, is seeking a compromise with lenders over the terms of its proposed £2.6bn debt restructuring. If a deal is not reached, people close to the situation said the company could withdraw the restructuring plans all together, the Financial Times reported. On Monday, the company was forced to extend the deadline for a vote on a debt restructuring after a group of lenders, holding over a third of the debts, voted against the proposals. Analysts have raised concerns that Yell could breach covenants in the second quarter of next year.