The Home Office has cancelled a contract between the Border Force and P&O Ferries

By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight

The Home Office has cancelled a contract between the Border Force and P&O Ferries with immediate effect, saying the move is a response to the “unacceptable” sacking of some 800 staff, without notice, to replace them with cheaper agency workers. The Department for Transport had previously announced it would review all links with the firm, and in doing so identified this one contract. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted the news, adding: “We’re reforming maritime law to stop firms exploiting legal loopholes and protect workers’ rights.”  
 
Petrol and diesel prices are at a record high again, with average prices hitting 172.73p and 182.59p per litre respectively on Sunday, the AA says. Filling the average 55-litre tank with diesel now costs over £100.
 
Lloyds Bank has issued an urgent scam warning after seeing a surge in so-called “advance fee” frauds in which victims are losing £231 on average. The scam involves criminals who contact those who have sought a loan from a seemingly professional firm online, then demand an upfront fee to secure a fake loan. “A genuine company will never ask for an upfront payment before releasing the funds,” the bank said.
 
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced an investigation into the takeover of convenience store McColl’s by supermarket Morrisons, to assess whether or not the deal, which has already completed, will reduce consumer choice. McColl’s went into administration in May, putting 16,000 jobs at risk. It operates over 1200 corner shops and newsagents nationwide, and has debts to the tune of some £170m. The investigation could force Morrison’s US private equity firm owner Clayton, Dublier and Rice to sell off stores in certain areas if it finds the takeover could lead to higher prices for shoppers, Yahoo Finance UK says.
 
FTSE 100 CEOs have taken home average pay of £3.6m according to Deloitte’s 2022 AGM-season report, showing their renumeration has recovered to the pre-pandemic levels last seen in 2018, and close to record highs of 2017. Pay fell during the pandemic, when company boards put pay restrictions in place, reducing the average median CEO FTSE 100 pay to £2.8m. Deloitt’s research also found a growing disparity between CEO pay and that of the average employee. The ratio is now 1:81, compared to 1:59 in 2020 and 1:75 in 2019.
 
British pharma GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to pay up to $3.3bn to acquire biopharma Affinivax to bolster its vaccine pipeline. Affinivax is in the process of developing next-generation vaccines, the most advanced of which are for pneumococcal diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis and sinusitis, GSK said.
 
Unilever has appointed activist investor Nelson Peltz to its board as a non-executive director. He will also sit on the board’s compensation committee. Peltz holds a 1.5% stake in the company via his hedge fund, Trian Fund Management, which has pushed to streamline other companies in which it has taken a stake.
 
Britishvolt has said it will invest more than £200m in a new facility in the West Midlands to test manufacturing methods that will be used at the UK battery start-up’s planned Northumberland factory.
 
B&M European Value Retail has announced its new CEO: current finance chief Alex Russo. He will replace long-time boss Simon Arora, who retires next year. The company operates over 1200 B&M home retail stores across the UK and France.
 
As expected, online fashion brand Missguided called in the administrators yesterday. Teneo has been appointed after the company was issued with a winding-up petition by suppliers who have not been paid millions of pounds. Some 140 jobs are now at risk.  
 
Virgin Atlantic has eased its policy on tattoos for cabin crew, becoming the first UK airline to allow them to be on show. Until now, Sir Richard Branson’s airline, in common with most other carriers, has banned visible tattoos, and only hired staff who could conceal any under their clothing.  
 
Car ownership has fallen in Britain for the second year in a row, dropping by 0.2% to 35 million vehicles on the road last year, according to research by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The trade body’s data also shows cars currently owned are older than ever before. “The first consecutive annual fall in vehicle numbers in more than a century shows how significantly the pandemic has impacted the industry, leading Britons to hold on to their cars for longer,” Mike Hawes, SMMT CEO said.
 
Russia has cut off gas supplies to The Netherlands with immediate effect, suspending all deliveries to GasTerra, which buys and trades gas on behalf of the Dutch government. The firm refused to bow to Moscow’s demands to pay its bills in roubles, even via an EU mechanism that would allow it to set up accounts to pay in euros which could then be swopped for roubles, and said it had contracted elsewhere for the gas it had expected to receive via Gazprom through to October. GasTerra is 50% owned by the Dutch government, with Exxon and Shell owning 25% each.

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