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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Graeme Wearden

Tesco chair steps down after allegations of inappropriate behaviour; Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty lost £200m in a year – as it happened

United Kingdom United States Akshata Murty Gopi Hinduja Kevin McCarthy ​​Rishi Sunak Sir Richard Branson Infosys Janet Yellen Jim Ratcliffe
The Tesco Extra store in Slough, Berkshire.
The Tesco Extra store in Slough, Berkshire. Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

Closing post

Time to wrap up, after a day in which we got fresh insight into the wealth of the UK’s richest.

The number of billionaires in the UK fell by 6 according to the latest Sunday Times rich list, to 171, although their combined wealth climbed by over £30bn to £683.8bn.

Those whose wealth shank in the last year included Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty, who are down to their last half a billion pounds after their net worth fell by £200m, due to the fall in Infosys shares.

Richard Branson and family also slipped down the table.

But INEOS chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe had a better year, rising to be the second wealthiest person in Britain, with a near-£30bn fortune.

The list is topped for a fifth time by Gopi Hinduja and his family, with a fortune estimated at £35bn, up £6.5bn, the largest ever recorded in the 35-year history of the Sunday Times rankings.

The Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, claimed the title of the wealthiest under-35 year old, with £9.878bn, on a list of young rich including Ed Sheeran (£300m), Rory McIlroy (£200m), and Adele (£165m).

In other news today:

John Allan will stand down as chair of Tesco after allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Allan, who has been chair of the UK’s biggest supermarket since 2015, will step down at the retailer’s annual general meeting (AGM) on 16 June.

The announcement came on Friday, 10 days after the Guardian reported that Allan allegedly touched the bottom of a senior member of Tesco staff in June 2022, at the company’s last AGM.

In a statement, Tesco said it had conducted an extensive review into the allegation relating to the annual meeting but had “not identified any evidence or complaints”against Allan.

More here:

Global stock markets have hit a one-month high, on hopes of a deal to lift the US debt ceiling and avoid a destabilising default. Japan’s Nikkei hit a 33-year high, and Germany’s DAX climbed to a record level.

Soaring food prices will soon overtake energy as the main factor in the cost of living crisis, research shows…

… with household energy bills likely to finally drop this summer:

Here’s the rest of today’s news:

John Allan: I remain determined to prove my innocence

In a statement issued separately to Tesco, John Allan says:

“It is with regret that I am having to prematurely stand down from my position as chair of Tesco Plc following the anonymous and unsubstantiated allegations made against me, as reported by The Guardian.

“These allegations are utterly baseless, as the internal procedures undertaken by Tesco prove.

“Tesco undertook an ‘extensive internal review’ which included inviting Tesco employees and ex-employees to come forward on an anonymous basis if they had concerns about my conduct.”

“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing at that time or at any stage of my chairmanship at Tesco, and I remain determined to prove my innocence.”

Updated

Tesco shares have ticked slightly lower this afternoon, and are currently down about 0.5%.

The supermarket has seen shares fall for five straight days and is down more than 5% in the past two weeks, points out Bloomberg’s David Goodman.

Other retailers are under pressure today too, with JD Sports dropping 7.4% and Next off 1.4%. JD Sports weakened after athletic retailer Foot Locker reported worse than expected results for its first financial quarter, and cut its annual sales and profit forecast. Foot Locker’s shares are down 25%, sending a shiver through the retail sector.

Updated

UK households may soon see some relief on their energy costs, with the average bill set to fall to an average of £2,053 a year this summer.

Analysts at Cornwall Insight made the prediction, as the regulator prepares to lower its cap on energy prices next week.

My colleague Jillian Ambrose explains, though, that bills will still be rather higher than before Covid-19:

However, campaigners have warned that the lower cap on energy bills, to be announced on Thursday, is unlikely to provide much relief to households that struggled to pay their bills over the winter because the government’s support schemes have come to an end.

Households should also expect their energy bills to remain stubbornly high through the coming winter, at almost double the rates paid in 2020, and remain above pre-pandemic levels for the rest of the decade, according to analysts at Cornwall Insight.

AstraZeneca will seek to "love the Communist Party", says China boss

Over in Beijing, the China president of AstraZeneca has declared the global drugmaker will seek to be a patriotic company in China that “loves the Communist Party”, Reuters reports.

Wang Lei, who is also the company’s global executive vice president, made the comment at an event in the eastern city of Wuxi to celebrate the drugmaker’s 30th year in China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Reuters adds:

While many local companies have in recent years pledged allegiance to the ruling Chinese Communist Party as President Xi Jinping has strengthened its social and economic role, such messaging is still unusual from foreign ones.

“Build a local, transnational company that loves the Communist Party and loves the country,” Wang said in his presentation to an audience of a few hundred participants. Photographs showed the words flashing across a screen behind him.

In response to questions from Reuters on whether Wang’s pledge, and the contents of the presentation, were approved by AstraZeneca’s senior management, a spokesperson at the company’s headquarters in Cambridge declined to comment.

The spokesperson also declined to comment on what Wang’s comments meant for its business plans in China.

Back in the markets, hopes of a US debt ceiling deal are pushing stocks higher on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average, of 30 large US companies, has gained 0.25% or 81 points to 33,617 points, while the broader S&P 500 has risen 0.33%.

Analysts at UBS explains:

An agreement to raise the US debt ceiling remains elusive but investor sentiment has improved after a second meeting between President Biden and congressional leaders.”

Tesco chairman Allan to step down as allegations "risk becoming a distraction"

Newsflash: Tesco has announced that its chairman, John Allan, is stepping down in a month’s time, following claims of inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour reported by the Guardian earlier this month.

Allan will step down as chair of Britain’s largest supermarket at its AGM on 16 June.

Tesco says Allan’s tenure as Chair was due to end shortly, and that a succession planning process had “been initiated over recent months” and is expected to conclude soon.

In a statement to the City, Tesco explains that in recent weeks, four allegations have been made in the media in relation to Allan’s personal conduct.

The company says it has not received any complaints about Allan’s conduct, and makes no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction.

Three of these allegations are vigorously denied by Allan, for the other he unreservedly apologised for the comment he made, Tesco says, adding:

One of the allegations related to the Tesco AGM in 2022. In response, Tesco immediately instigated an extensive review of the allegation. This has involved an internal communication to colleagues inviting them to come forward if they had concerns regarding any conduct issues and specifically at the Tesco 2022 AGM. Tesco attendees at the meeting have been further contacted, including colleagues who have since left the Company. Available video footage of the meeting has been reviewed, as have internal complaints records, including from the Company’s confidential whistleblowing service.

The scope of the review has been considered by external legal counsel, who advised that the steps were reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

This review has not identified any evidence or complaints in relation to John at the Tesco 2022 AGM or at all in his tenure as Tesco Chair.

On 9 May, the Guardian reported that Allan allegedly touched the bottom of a senior member of Tesco staff in June 2022, at the company’s AGM.

It was also claimed that he touched the bottom of a member of staff at the business lobbying group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), at its annual dinner in May 2019, when he was the organisation’s president.

Sources also alleged that Allan, 74, made inappropriate remarks on those occasions as well as separate, similar comments to two other female members of CBI staff in November 2019 and in 2021 respectively.

Allan has denied all but one of the allegations – making a comment about a CBI staffer’s appearance that she found to be offensive in 2019. A spokesperson for Allan said the other claims were “simply untrue”.

Byron Grote, Tesco’s Senior Independent Director, says today that John Allan has made a valuable contribution, but the allegations against him risk ‘becoming a distraction’ to the supermarket.

Grote says:

“John has made a valuable contribution to Tesco during his 8 years as Chair.

He has successfully led the Board through the turnaround and Covid whilst helping to rebuild the business. While we have received no complaints about John’s conduct and made no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction to Tesco.

On behalf of the Board, I thank him for his substantial contribution to the business. We are well advanced in our search for a new Chair and will make an announcement in due course.”

Grote has been appointed as Interim Chair.

Updated

Gorman to step down as head of Morgan Stanley within a year

There’s a shake-up coming at the top of one of Wall Street’s biggest banks.

Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman plans to step down as chief executive officer in the next 12 months and assume the role of executive chairman, Bloomberg reports, adding:

“It is the board’s and my expectation that it will occur at some point in the next 12 months,” Gorman, 64, said Friday at the firm’s annual meeting.

“That is the current expectation in the absence of a major change in the external environment.”

Gorman became CEO of Morgan Stanley in January 2010, when the global economy had been rocked by the financial crisis, and chairman as well two years later.

Updated

Germany’s stocks hit record levels after new economic data today showed inflation pressures easing.

German producer prices posted their slowest annual increase in two years in April, rising by 4.1% in the year to April. That’s a slowdown on March’s 6.7% rise.

German blue-chip stocks hit record high

Germany’s DAX index has just hit a record high, as signs of progress in U.S. debt ceiling negotiations encouraged investors to pile into riskier assets.

The DAX index climbed 0.8% hitting 16,293 points for the first time ever. It had previously hit a record in November 2021.

It’s gained 17% so far this year, as shares recover from hefty losses in 2022.

Updated

This year’s expanded rich list of 350 individuals and families together hold a combined wealth of £796.459bn.

At the risk of comparing flows and stocks, that’s larger than the GDP of Switzerland.

It’s also four times as large as the biggest company listed in London, AstraZeneca (£185bn). However, it’s barely a third of the value of Apple ($2.75trn or £2.2trn).

Updated

The drop in stock market values last year has knocked some people off the rich list altogether.

Those relegated include Denis Sverdlov, the entrepreneur behind the electric vehicle manufacturer Arrival. Arrival listed on the US Nasdaq index in March 2021 at a valuation of roughly $13bn (£9.5bn). Today, though, it’s value has dropped to $35m (£28m).

Internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman has also failed to hit the £350m wealth needed to get into the list, following the 99% plunge in the share price of his car-selling start-up, Cazoo.

In the car sector… the UK government has offered Jaguar Land Rover £500m in subsidies in an effort to persuade the company to build a new electric battery plant in the UK.

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has offered a package of incentives to entice JLR, days after three global carmakers warned that Brexit rules on where parts were sourced threatened the future of the British automotive industry.

The Indian conglomerate Tata, the parent company of JLR, is in the process of deciding whether to build the new electric battery production facility in the UK or Spain.

The Treasury package includes a mixture of a cash grant and reductions in energy costs as well as covering the cost of upgrading the power network around the site JLR has identified in Somerset, according to the Times.

More here.

Hundreds of offshore workers are to strike after rejecting a pay offer, it has been announced.

Unite said hundreds of its members at Bilfinger UK will stage two 48-hour strikes, starting on 1 June and 8 June.

The union said the workers had rejected a basic pay rise of 6%, which was a “significant” real-terms pay cut as UK inflation is in double digit levels.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said:

“Unite’s offshore members working for Bilfinger have given a loud and clear answer to the company and oil operators.

“Simply put, below-inflation pay offers from a sector awash with billions in record profits is unacceptable.

“Our members remain resolute in their fight to secure good jobs, pay and conditions across the offshore sector, and they will have Unite’s full support.”

Inflation remains the biggest concern for Britons, followed by the health system.

When asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the Office for National Statistics reports, the most commonly reported issues continue to be the cost of living (91%), the NHS (82%), the economy (73%), and climate change and the environment (59%).

The ONS adds:

Around two-thirds of (67%) adults reported that their cost of living had increased, compared with a month ago.

The most common reasons reported by adults who said their cost of living had increased compared with a month ago were an increase in the price of food shopping (96%), an increase in gas or electricity bills (74%), and an increase in the price of fuel (38%).

Nationwide to dish out £340m to members after record financial results

Nationwide will pay £340m directly into customer accounts for the first time, after a jump in deposits and higher interest rates drove annual profits up 40% to record highs.

Britain’s biggest building society has tended to use profits to offer better rates on savings, loans and mortgages for its members but on Friday it launched an inaugural programme that will distribute funds directly to customers, akin to shareholder payouts made by banks.

The payout, which amounts to about 15% of its annual profits, will benefit 3.4 million eligible customers, who will receive about £100 directly into their accounts in June.

The Nationwide chief executive, Debbie Crosbie, said plans for the payout were influenced by the recent rise in living costs:

“We don’t see anyone else doing this, as such, and we think, in the cost of living crisis, it was really important to get people cash where we could, and we think it will have the most impact.”

It comes as Nationwide reported a 40% jump in annual pre-tax profits to £2.2bn, topping its previous record high of £1.6bn a year earlier. The building society benefited from the rise in UK interest rates, which have climbed to 4.5% over the past year and allowed lenders to charge customers more for loans and mortgages.

Britain’s billionaires will be pleased to learn that global shares have hit a one-month high today, amid rising hopes of a deal to lift the US debt ceiling.

MSCI’s broadest index of global shares has gained 0.2% to its highest level since mid-April, and is on course for its biggest weekly gain since late March.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX is on track for a record closing high, up 0.6% this morning.

In London, the FTSE 100 has gained 0.5% or 35 points to 7778 points.

The rally came after Democratic negotiators told President Joe Biden they were making “steady progress” on a deal to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, and avoid a disastrous default by the world’s largest economy.

As covered in the introduction, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also sounded optimistic last night, saying talks are in “a much better place” than they were a week ago.

While the UK’s billionaires keep getting richer, the rest of the country is facing a new phase in the cost of living squeeze.

The food price shock set to overtake energy bills rise as the biggest cost of living hit to family finances, the Resolution Foundation warn this morning.

We get April’s inflation data next Wednesday, and it’s likely to show a drop in price rises over the last year (as we catch up with the soaring energy costs in 2022).

But food inflation, which jumped over 19% in March, is likely to persist for some time to come.

Resolution say:

As a result, food prices are set to contribute more to overall inflation than energy in the months ahead. Between March and September 2023, food prices are expected to contribute around 2 percentage points to inflation each month, while the contribution of energy prices is set to fall from 3 percentage points to less than 1.

These rising food prices will hit poorer households the most, as Resolution’s CEO Torsten Bell explains here:

Updated

British INEOS Group chairman Jim Ratcliffe.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe looks to be the biggest riser on this year’s Rich List, as he secured second place with a fortune of £29bn.

Ratcliffe’s wealth swelled by £23bn in the last year, rising from £6.075bn in 2022 (which put him in 29th position).

The Sunday Times explains how the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s benefitted his INEOS group:

The self-made billionaire, part-time mountaineer and beekeeper built his fortune snapping up orphaned petrochemical plants from companies such as BP and ICI and turning them into going concerns.

When energy prices rocketed and Europe shivered at the start of the Ukraine war, he was on hand with a fleet of 20 ocean-going tankers to shuttle shale gas from the US, some from his own fracking wells.

A few years ago, Ratcliffe quit Britain for tax-free Monaco, a move expected to save him billions of pounds in tax.

Updated

Despite their wealth dropping (to £529m from £730m), Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty are “better placed than most to weather the cost of living crisis”, says the Sunday Times, with some understatement.

They explain:

Their main London home is a five-bedroom Kensington mews house worth an estimated £7m. Soon after the row over Murty’s tax status erupted, the family moved out of Downing Street and back into their west London home. The couple also own a flat on Old Brompton Road nearby, usually used for hosting friends and family.

In 2015 they spent £1.5m on a Georgian manor house in the North Yorkshire village of Kirby Sigston to serve as a constituency home. Estate agents estimate that the 12m x 5m indoor swimming pool, gym, yoga studio, hot tub and tennis court added by the couple have pushed the property’s value beyond £2m.

We also have a new breakdown of the wealthiest 35 Brits under the age of 35.

It’s topped by the Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, who announced his engagement to Olivia Henson last month. He has a weath of £9.878bn.

Grosvenor, 32, owns more than 300 acres in London’s in Mayfair and Belgravia within a global, family-owned property empire which, luckily for him, is held in trust so avoided inheritance tax.

The Sunday Times has more detail on “Hughie”, as he’s apparently known to friends:

The duke, 32, was educated at the Shropshire private school Ellesmere College and studied real estate management at Newcastle University. After graduating he worked for Bio-bean, the London-based eco-business which has since become the world’s largest recycler of coffee grounds into efficient and sustainable products. His fiancée is a senior account manager for Belazu, a food importer.

These days the duke focuses on overseeing his family’s charitable foundation, which has a focus on the mental health of children, and the property empire that includes 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia as well as buildings in more than 40 cities around the world.

Today’s Rich List reports that nepotism helped nine people get on the list, but most made their millions on their own.

It says:

  • The majority made millions on their own, but nine were born into money.

  • Those who inherited wealth are worth much more. So, 33 out of 38 individuals on this list built their fortunes themselves, a combined total of £5.8 billion; the other five, who owe at least some of their wealth to inheritance, account for £13.1 billion.

  • Four of the 35 under 35 were born outside the UK, the others mostly come from London or Worcestershire.

  • About half attended state schools, and at least a third didn’t go on to further education.

  • Five were friends at the same school, South Bromsgrove High School, including Ben Francis, 30, co-founder of the sportswear brand Gymshark

Hughie Grovesnor is followed on the list by Lady Charlotte Wellesley (£2.167bn), the daughter of the Duke of Wellington, who has married into a South American brewing dynasty, Johnny Boufarhat (£1.714bn) who built the video-conference app Hopin, Ben Francis (£900m), and India Rose James (£758m) the granddaughter of the property magnate and porn publisher Paul Raymond.

James, who founded the art gallery Soho Revue, insists her financial success shouldn’t be put down to nepotism. In an interview published this morning, the ‘Princess of Soho’ says:

At a party recently someone was complaining about “nepo babies” and a few faces turned to me. What can I say? I was left money, which undoubtedly gave me a leg up. But I set up the gallery on my own; I pay a higher percentage to the artists than most galleries because I want to invest in the creative community.

If I inherit some money, does that make me a nepo baby? I don’t think so.

Famous names on the 35-under-35 list include Ed Sheeran (£300m), Rory McIlroy (£200m), Adele (£165m), Harry Styles (£150m), Daniel Radcliffe (£92m), Dua Lipa (£75m), Gareth Bale (£70m), Raheem Sterling (£61m), Emma Watson (£60m), Niall Horan (£54m), Louis Tomlinson (£54m), Harry Kane (£51m) and Cara Delevingne (£50m).

Updated

Today’s Rich List, which shows Britain’s 171 billionaires collectively own over £683.8bn, shows the urgent need to tackle inequality, the IPPR thinktank say.

Dr George Dibb, head of the centre for economic justice at IPPR, says:

“While a rising number of households on the lowest incomes simply cannot pay their bills, the fact that a few of the UK’s richest people have seen dips in their wealth is outweighed by the growth in combined wealth of the 171 billionaires.

“Sky-high energy bills have fed into record profits for oil firms, who have passed this directly to those lucky enough to be shareholders, funnelling higher bill payments by everyone into the wealth of the richest.

“It’s more urgent than ever to address rising inequality in our economy: income from wealth should be taxed at the same rate as income from work, and we must ensure everyone benefits from a growing economy, not just a lucky few.

“That means aligning rates of income tax, capital gains tax, and tax on dividends. It’s also time for a fair, proportional property tax to replace the regressive system of council tax. And it’s long past time to ditch non-dom status.”

You can see the Rich List online here: The Sunday Times Rich List 2023 revealed.

They’ve tweeted the key points too:

Updated

Other fallers on this year’s UK Rich List include Matt Moulding, the founder of the online retailer THG, and Mike Lynch, who cofounded the cybersecurity firm Darktrace.

Moulding and his wife Jodie have fallen to 254th, from 230th, with their wealth dropping by £70m to £630m.

Shares in THG dropped by over 70% in 2022, as the company failed to meet the expectations set when it floated at a £5.4bn valuation in 2020. Its value has shrunk by almost 90% since.

Darktrace’s float has been volatile too – after an early surge, the stock has dropped back towards its IPO price in 2021.

Lynch, and wife Angela Bacares, together own around 10% of Darktrace. They dropped to 199 on this year’s Rich List, from 179, with their net worth down £136m to £852m.

That’s not Lynch’s only problem, though. Last week he was extradited to the US to face criminal fraud charges, which he denies, of duping the US firm Hewlett-Packard into overpaying when it struck an $11bn deal for his software firm Autonomy in 2011.

Branson slides down Rich List

Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty aren’t along in becoming poorer last year, and are far from the biggest fallers.

The Sunday Times reports:

In 12 months Sir Richard Branson’s fortune has shrunk by 42.6% to £2.41bn. Shares in his satellite venture, Virgin Orbit, have collapsed.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, easyJet’s founder, is another high-profile faller. The budget airline’s share price has continued to lose altitude and the other lines in his easy empire have failed to make up for it.

A year ago, Branson and family were 44th on the Rich List, with a fortune of £4.2bn.

This time, they’ve dropped to 77th with a net worth of £2.41bn.

Updated

Rishi Sunak and wife Akshata Murty lose £200m in a year

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty arriving by plane for the G7 Summit.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty arriving by plane for the G7 Summit. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty saw their wealth slide last year, the Sunday Times Rich List shows.

The prime minister and his wife made their Rich List debut in 2022 thanks to the near-1% stake Murty owns in Infosys, the Indian IT giant co-founded by her father.

But this time round, the prime minister and his wife’s wealth is estimated at £201m less than 12 months ago. That works out as an average daily loss of more than £500,000.

Their net worth is estimated at £529m this year, down from £730m in 2022.

This is due to a slide in Infosys’s share price, which fell by over a fifth during 2022, as the boom in tech stocks unravelled.

But Infosys has continued to swell the Sunak-Murty coffers – Akshata will receive nearly £6.7m in dividend payments from the company this summer,

Murty’s lucrative dividends from Infosys over the years far exceed the prime minister’s own earnings, the Sunday Times says, adding;

He published financial statements that showed he earned just under £2 million in 2021/22 — still more than 50 times the average full-time UK salary. It included his MP and ministerial wages as well as returns from his investment portfolio and other unspecified “gains”.

On all this he paid £432,493 of tax, according to information from his wealth adviser released by the government.

Updated

Rich List 2023: the top 20

These are the 20 richest people and families in the UK, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, released this morning.

  1. Gopi Hinduja and family – £35bn

  2. Sir Jim Ratcliffe – £29.7bn

  3. Sir Leonard Blavatnik – £28.6bn

  4. David and Simon Reuben and family – £24.4bn

  5. Sir James Dyson and family – £23bn

  6. Lakshmi Mittal and family – £16bn

  7. Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family – £14.5bn

  8. Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho – £13.1bn

  9. Kirsten and Jorn Rausing – £12bn

  10. Michael Platt – £11.5bn

  11. The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family – £9.9bn

  12. Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans Rausing – £9.3bn

  13. Andy Currie – £9.2bn

  14. John Reece – £9.1bn

  15. Alex Gerko – £9.1bn

  16. Denise, John and Peter Coates and family – £8.8bn

  17. Anders Holch Povlsen £8.5bn

  18. Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family – £8.4bn

  19. John Fredriksen and family – £8.3bn

  20. Mikhail Fridman – £8.2bn

Updated

UK Rich List shows first falls in billionaires since financial crisis

The billionaire Hinduja family have topped the Sunday Times Rich List again as their fortune jumped by more than £6bn last year.

The annual assessment of the UK’s wealthiest people, just released, found that Gopi Hinduja and his family, which is behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group, are Britain’s richest.

This comes just days after Mr Hinduja’s brother Sri died.

This is the fifth time the Indian-born family have topped the Rich List, making them the UK’s wealthiest dynasty.

The Hindujas were followed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the boss of the INEOS chemicals company, who is now bidding to take control of Manchester United.

But for the first time in 14 years, the number of billionaires on the list has fallen, by six to 171.

That’s the first top drop since the 2007-08 financial crisis, after heavy falls in international markets last year.

However, those whose wealth clocked in at at least ten-digits have grown even richer. The amount of wealth shared by UK billionaires climbed to £683.8bn, which is almost £31bn more than last year.

But, with inflation in double digits, that 4.5% rise represents a fall in real terms.

The Sunday Times, which has been weighing the wallets of the wealthy for many years, reports that the boomtime is over:

The Rich List has laid bare a golden era for Britain’s most minted for more than a decade. Each year the billionaire count rose. Each year their fortunes soared ever higher. The question was not whether the boom would end, but when — and what it would mean for the rest of us. That time has come. The party is over and it’s time to sober up.

“Years of cheap, cheap money ramped up the value of our companies and made it easier to expand,” said one anonymous billionaire retailer who has seen his wealth clipped in this year’s Rich List.

“A lot of us did very well out of it. The recession never turned up and I don’t think it will. Time for everyone to get back to work, get their heads down and frankly be a bit more sensible.”

Updated

UK’s £1bn semiconductor strategy criticised

The UK has finally announced its strategy to support the semiconductor industry, but the plan has been quickly criticised for being too small.

The 20-year National Semiconductor Strategy will “double down on design, research and advanced chip leadership”, to secure the UK’s position as a global science and technology superpower, the government says.

The package will aim to boost the UK’s strengths and skills in design, R&D and compound semiconductors, and grow UK chip firms.

As the government points out, the semiconductor marketis set to grow to $1 trillion by 2030, which is why other countries have been offering large subsidies to their industries.

And the UK’s package, worth £1bn over the next decade, isn’t enough, according to some experts.

Cambridge-based startup, Paragraf, which claims to be the only company in the world capable of manufacturing graphene to mass-produce semiconductors, said the taxpayer commitment would not cover a basic chip plant. Its founder and chief executive, Simon Thomas, said the content of the strategy revealed so far was “frankly flaccid”.

Thomas said:

“The strategy continues the trend of this Conservative administration proclaiming superlatives like ‘becoming a technology superpower’ without defining what ‘superpower’ actually means or delivering a plan of how we will even begin to reach this objective.”

UK consumer confidence recovery continues

Confidence among UK consumers is recovering, as people grow more optimistic over their personal financial situation and the economic outlook.

GfK’s Consumer Confidence Index, released overnight, has risen by three points this month to -27 – the fourth monthly increase in a row.

Although still negative, the outlook has improved since January when the index clocked in at -45.

A chart showing UK consumer confidence

Confidence in personal finances over the coming 12 months jumped by five points, to -8, which is 17 points higher than this time last year.

Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, says:

“The cost-of-living crisis has been part of our daily financial reality for a long time, with double-digit inflation and record-high food prices. But despite those pressures, May sees an encouraging three-point uptick in consumer confidence.

This is the fourth monthly increase in a row from January’s score of -45. While Brits have little control over the general economy, it’s good to see further improvement in how people view their personal finances in the next 12 months with a robust five-point jump to -8. This measure most keenly reflects our hopes and fears for the coming year, and it underpins our ability to spend on goods and services that drive our economy.

Of course, confidence is still far from the ‘sunny uplands’ territory, Staton adds:

However, the overall trajectory this year is positive and might reflect a stronger underlying financial picture across the UK than many would think. But everybody must hold on tight as it could still be a rocky ride out of these tough times.”

UK consumer confidence

Introduction: Nikkei hits 33-year high

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

Japan’s blue-chip stock index has climbed to a 33-year high today, lifted by optimism over the US debt ceiling deadlock.

The Nikkei climbed by another 0.77% today to close at 30,808.35 today. That’s its highest level since August 1990, when Japan’s stock market bubble was bursting.

Today’s rally came amid rising hopes that US politicians will hammer out a deal on the debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default.

Last night, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck an optimistic tone about reaching a deal with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid a default.

McCarthy told reporters that “We’re not there,” adding:

“But I see the path that we can come to an agreement, and I think we have a structure now.”

McCarthy, who met with the president and other congressional leaders earlier this week, said talks are in “a much better place” than they were a week ago.

“I know and I can see where a deal can come together, and I think that’s important.”

McCarthy’s Republicans had been demanding hefty spending cuts in return for approving a lifting of the debt ceiling.

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has repeatedly warned that the consequences of not increasing the debt limit could be disastrous. Yesterday, Yellen told bank CEOs that failing to raise or suspend the debt limit would be “catastrophic” for the financial system, families and businesses.

So far this year, the Nikkei has gained around 19%, outpacing other major markets – which are also looking calmer today.

Reuters points out that a series of strong corporate results, an economy that is showing signs of a revival and a renewed interest from foreign investors in the wake of increased investment by Warrant Buffett has also boosted the Nikkei.

But despite the recent rally, the Nikkei is still below its alltime peak over 36,000 set in 1989.

The agenda

  • 7am BST: German PPI index of producer prices in April

  • 11am BST: Spanish consumer confidence for April

  • 4pm BST: US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks on a ‘Perspectives on Monetary Policy’ panel

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