Bitcoin breaks $82,000 for first time on Trump trades; UK government sells £1bn of NatWest shares – business live

Cryptocurrency more than doubles since January on hopes of lighter regulation; latest share sale takes UK Treasury’s holding in NatWest to 11.4%

Kemi Badenoch has said it is “extremely disappointing” that it took the ITV drama about the Post Office scandal to get the government to accelerate compensation payments for wrongfully prosecuted post office branch owners, the inquiry into the Horizon scandal has heard.

Badenoch, the leader of the opposition who held the post of business secretary for 17 months until the general election, said she and then postal minister Kevin Hollinrake had been battling behind the scenes to get Treasury to sign off on funding to more rapidly and generously pay subpostmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal.

The inquiry was shown a letter sent last August by Badenoch to Jeremy Hunt, the then chancellor, asking for funding and a plan to increase payments to improve the compensation schemes.

Hunt rejected the request and “encouraged” Badenoch “to explore the full breadth of other options”. Badenoch, giving evidence on Monday, said:

I was not expecting the documentary [ITV Bates vs the Post Office drama] in January which helped speed things along. It suddenly turned it from a value for money question to a public perception question. This is the point I have been talking about. It is not enough to do the right thing, you have to be seen to be doing the right thing. Many people had not known the arguments [already] taking place behind the scenes at Whitehall. Work was being done by no one was seeing what was taking place.

It is extremely disappointing. If you look at it in the context of what is happening in government. There are 1000 things money is being requested for. After a while decision makers become very dispassionate, it becomes another line in the ledger. It is not irrational but it has to change, it is not helpful either. There is an absence of common sense in a lot of Whitehall. They don’t trust their judgement. People want legal cover.

Bitcoin always seemed a likely beneficiary of a Trump victory and so it is proving as the cryptocurrency hits a new record high.

It’s not just the incoming occupant of the White House which has helped bitcoin, there have also been down-ticket victories for candidates who have a positive stance on the asset class. Notably, one of its main critics, Senate banking chair and Democrat Sherrod Brown, fell to his Republican opponent and a crypto fan Bernie Moreno.