Published: 18 December 2023
By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight
Former Conservative Peer and lingerie tycoon Baroness Mone has admitted she lied when she claimed she was not connected to PPE Medpro, the firm run by her husband Doug Barrowman, when it secured Government contracts worth £200m to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid pandemic. Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday, Michelle Mone admitted she should have declared the connection and said: “I regret and am sorry for not saying straight out: ‘Yes, I am involved’.” However, she went on to claim that lying to the press was “not a crime” and that beyond that she “couldn’t see what [her and her husband] had done wrong”. However, until November 2022, she and Barrowman denied any financial connection PPE Medpro, but a leak of HSBC documents suggested he had received £65m of the company’s profits. She has also since confessed to the fact that she and her children are beneficiaries of some of the company’s profits via a financial trust. PPE Medpro is currently defending itself against legal action from the government which is seeking to recoup £122m plus costs for a “breach of contract and unjust enrichment”. The National Crime Agency is also investigating suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said this morning that Britain will begin implementing a new carbon levy on some imports by 2027. A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will apply to carbon intensive products in the iron, steel, aluminium, fertiliser, hydrogen, ceramics, glass and cement sectors, he said, with the charge applied dependent upon the amount of carbon emitted in the production of the imported goods, and the gap between the carbon price applied in the country of origin - if any - and the carbon price faced by UK producers. "This levy will make sure carbon intensive products from overseas – like steel and ceramics – face a comparable carbon price to those produced in the UK, so that our decarbonisation efforts translate into reductions in global emissions," Hunt said, adding that the CBAM will work alongside the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, it added. Reuters says that the EU has already launched the first phase of its system to impose CO2 emissions tariffs on imported steel, cement and other goods, which will kick in from 2026. This has “caused disquiet among trading partners,” Reuters says, with China's top climate envoy Xie Zhenhua urging countries not to resort to unilateral measures such as the EU levy at a recent forum.
Meanwhile, the National Grid has begun removing components supplied by a unit of China-backed Nari Technology Development Limited Co. from the electricity transmission network over cyber security fears, the Financial Times claimed yesterday. The Grid made the decision came in April after the utility sought advice from the National Cyber Security Centre, a branch of the nation's signals intelligence agency GCHQ, the newspaper quoted a Whitehall official as saying. However, National Grid declined to comment citing "confidential contractual matters".
BT and other telecoms giants have been ordered by Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan to stop forcing digital phone lines on the elderly after a number of “serious incidents” failed to activate pensioners’ telecare alarms during an emergency because of power and internet outages. An estimated 1.8m people in the UK rely on alarms to call for urgent medical help, but only traditional landlines will continue to work during power cuts. This morning, BT and Virgin Media have confirmed they will pause digital rollouts and, following meetings with officials, they, TalkTalk and Sky, have signed up to a charter pledging that those such as the disabled and the very old will not be switched to digital phone lines before checks to ensure their medical devices will continue to work at all times. Donelan said: “The recent issues families have had to endure are unacceptable and today’s agreements will help to protect consumers in future.” Customers will not be switched “until they tell us they are ready,” BT confirmed, while a Virgin Media spokesman said: “In line with the agreed commitments, we have paused switchovers as we review our processes to further support consumers, building on the range of measures that we already have in place.”
The Government has changed the law so that UK politically exposed persons (PEPs) must be treated as “inherently lower risk” than overseas politicians by banks. The move, announced by Bim Afolami, the economic secretary to the Treasury, comes in the wake of the Nigel Farage debanking scandal. “Accordingly, regulated firms must apply a lower level of enhanced due diligence to domestic PEPs compared to non-domestic PEPs, unless other risk factors are present,” Afolami said in a statement on Friday.
Royal Mail is under fire from MPs again as suspicion grows that the delivery service is prioritising parcel deliveries over letters. Members of Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee claim this puts households at risk of missing important bills and hospital appointments. This latest scrutiny comes following an undercover Sunday Times investigation which saw managers and postal workers at the company admit that first-class letters were deliberately left behind in local sorting offices so more-profitable parcels can be delivered instead. Earlier this year, the then Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson told the Committee no such policy existed, although staff whistleblowers contradicted his evidence, leading to his being hauled before the committee for a second time. Royal Mail is legally obliged to deliver letters to any address in the UK, six days a week, for standard prices within a certain time, but has repeatedly failed to hit punctuality targets. Last month, regulator Ofcom fined the firm £5.6m for missing these targets.
More British companies are keen to list in New York rather than London, according to Karen Snow, the global head of listings at Nasdaq, who says she “absolutely” believes the growing number of British businesses opting to join stock exchanges in the US over London has become a trend. This morning, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re having a lot of conversations with companies about listing in the US… We get a lot of inbound calls [from the UK] and we also make sure we’re in front of the right CEOs.” A large part of the attraction of New York was the ability to attract larger levels of investment, she said. This year, the Nasdaq has raised $13bn (£10.2bn) from 125 initial public offerings (IPOs) while in London, 23 companies had listed raising $1.2bn (£953m) in the year to September, according to EY. “Although there has always been a significant gap between the two exchanges, this year looks set to be the first time the LSE has failed to hit the $1bn mark for money raised for companies floating on it since records began in 1995, according to data from Dealogic,” the BBC website report says.
Also on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme earlier was Stephen Burns, the CEO of Hollywood Bowl, who said the latest increase in the minimum wage is "quite painful" and means Britain’s largest 10-pin bowling operator may need to raise prices next year. The National Living Wage for workers over 23 will increase to £11.44 per hour from April, from £10.42. The government has also applied the same rate to 21 and 22-year-olds for the first time, lifting it from the current rate of £10.18 an hour. The rises represent a 9.8% increase for over-23s, and a 12.4% jump for workers aged 21 and 22. Burns said the increase was "an unexpected hit - we budgeted for it to go up by around about 7.7%," and added it would cost the about £600,000 in the second half of the current financial year, and £1.2m on an annual basis. "Clearly it's put a bit of pressure on," he said. The London-listed leisure firm reported record revenues for the year to September.
The High Pay Centre says the UK’s FTSE CEOs now typically earn 57 times more than their employees, an increase from a 56-to-1 ratio last year. The ratio increases to 80-to-1 in the FTSE 100, however this is a drop from 83-to-1 in 2022. The think tank said the pay gaps had remained “constant despite the cost-of-living crisis”.
The Duke of Sussex (Prince Harry) won a substantial part of his phone-hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers. High Court judge Mr Justice Fancourt awarded him £140,600 in damages, saying there was "no doubt" former Mirror editor Piers Morgan and other senior editors, lawyers and executives at the newspaper group knew about phone hacking and other illegal information gathering. 15 out of 33 articles related to the Duke highlighted during the trial and published in either the Daily or Sunday Mirror or the Sunday People, were the product of hacking from his mobile phone or other unlawful means of information, he ruled, adding that the hacking was "widespread and habitual" from 1998. Paul Vickers, the group legal director, "certainly knew about phone hacking from about the end of 2003" while the ex-Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey knew of hacking and "turned a blind eye," the Judge said. In a statement read by his lawyer, the Duke said: "Today is a great day for truth, as well as accountability." He had been seeking £440,000 in damages. His case was heard alongside similar claims brought by actor Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin Webster in Coronation Street, actress Nikki Sanderson and comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife, Fiona Wightman.
Rolls-Royce is talking to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power company, about building a string of mini nuclear power plants (SMRs) there, on sites currently operating coal power stations, The Telegraph reveals. DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko said he expects nuclear power to form an important part of his firm’s future portfolio as Ukraine is rebuilt and his country switches away from fossil fuels, hence the conversations with the FTSE 100 manufacturer to make the conversions. Ukraine is already one of the world’s biggest users of nuclear power: the state owns four plants that generated more than half of the country’s power before it was invaded by Russia. However, “the SMR being developed by Rolls is a new and commercially-unproven technology that the company does not expect to deploy until 2030 at the earliest, with the first expected to be built in the UK” the newspaper reports.
Discreet Law, the London-based law firm that acted for Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close confidant of Vladimir Putin and the leader of private army the Wagner Group until he launched launching a rebellion against the Russian President in June 2023, has ceased practice following an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for allegedly breaching rules to protect free speech. Prigozhin used the firm to take libel action against journalists, including against Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat, in what was seen as a case of strategic litigation against public participation, known as SLAPPS, in which the legal process is abused to threaten legal action against journalists or whistleblowers. The High Court threw out the case. The SRA has now reported the firm is closing, and the Discreet Law website states it has ceased practice and is no longer authorised by the SRA. City AM says it understands that despite this, the SRA investigation into the SLAPP allegations will continue for the individual lawyers involved with the firm. Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash on 23rd August this year that was almost certainly caused by an on board explosive device.
The Competition and Markets Authority is launching an investigation into mattress seller Simba Sleep, focusing on whether the firm has misled consumers about price cuts and put pressure on them to make quick purchases.
The owners of Edinburgh Airport are to launch an auction of the business next year, Sky News has learnt, saying it could draw bids of £2.5bn. Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has hired HSBC and JP Morgan to orchestrate a sale. GIP has owned Edinburgh Airport since 2012, when it bought it from BAA, which at the time was the FTSE-100 airport infrastructure group behind Heathrow.
Sky News also reports that retail billionaire Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is in talks to buy Matchesfashion, the luxury clothing site, in a deal that would crystallise heavy losses for Apax Partners, its private equity backer since 2017. City sources told the broadcaster that Frasers was among a small number of parties who submitted offers earlier this week, with others including Next, which is run by Lord Wolfson. One insider said that if completed, Frasers was likely to pay in excess of £50m for the business, which has struggled under a succession of leadership teams prior to the arrival of Nick Beighton, the former ASOS chief, last year, since when performance has improved markedly.
Shell is selling its 37.5% stake in German oil refinery PCK Schwedt to Britain’s Prax Group for an undisclosed sum.
Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts has said in an interview with The Telegraph that customers are shunning the likes of Aldi and Lidl in favour of the ‘Big Four’ grocers because now they are back in the office they don’t have time to shop around for deals. Whereas previously “Customers would have come to us for some products and they might have gone to one of the limited-choice discounters for others,” now, “and especially around Christmas, we’re all short of time,” he said. Last month, Sainsbury’s recorded its biggest increase in shopper numbers in a decade, increasing its share of the grocery market to 15.6% from 15.2% in November, according to retail data collector Kantar.
Michelle Handforth, Network Rail's managing director for the Wales and Western region from Paddington, has resigned just days after infrastructure problems left hundreds of passengers stranded in carriages for hours in the dark in London’s Ladbroke Grove area. Handforth was paid a £330,000 salary and commuted to work from Aberdeen. She had been in the role for three-and-a-half years, and says she will continue working on "specific projects" until a permanent successor is appointed.
Why Media is an award-winning design, marketing, digital communications and PR agency offering tailored solutions to companies on a global scale. We have extensive experience in delivering design and marketing services to a spectrum of companies including professional services, property companies, financial institutions and shopping centres. We have offices in London UK, Hertford UK, Finestrat ES & Brescia IT.
Marketing Contact
Name: Claire White
E-Mail: claire@whymedia.com
Telephone: 01992 586 507
