Thursday 6 July 2023

WOOD TO BRING THE SPARK ASHES ON THE LINE AS STOKES LEADS TEAM OUT IN LEEDS P22

CHALLENGER BANKS OUTDO BIG BOYS WITH BETTER RATES

FINTECHS ON THE MARCH AS THEY POACH CUSTOMERS AWAY FROM SLOW-TO-RAISE-RATES BIGGER PLAYERS

EXCLUSIVE

CHRIS DORRELL

MANY challenger banks have seen an influx in customers in recent months as clients abandon high street lenders because of their low savings rates.

High street banks have come under attack from regulators and lawmakers for offering “measly” rates on easy access savings accounts.

The five largest banks –HSBC, Natwest, Barclays, Lloyds and Nationwide –offer rates between 0.9 per cent and 1.75 per cent.

The influential Treasury Committee has repeatedly drawn attention to the low rates on offer at the high street banks.

Harriet Baldwin, chair of the Committee, has accused the major lenders of failing in their “social duty” to

A STRANGE LOOP MEET THE MAN

BEHIND LONDON’S BUZZIEST SHOW P20

encourage saving, while fellow member Angela Eagle said banks were “blatant[ly] profiteering”.

However, many challenger banks offer much higher rates. Monzo, Revolut and Starling all offer rates of 3.25 per cent or more, with Atom Bank offering 3.95 per cent on easy access accounts.

The better rates have attracted more and more customers to the challengers.

Atom Bank saw an 82 per cent increase in its customer base in the year to March, with the bank suggesting much of that increase was linked to its savings rates. Monzo told City A.M. it had seen 800,000 customers open an instant access savings account since February.

Mark Mullen, chief executive at Atom Bank, said: “The best way to stop them [high street banks] profiting at the expense of customers is to encourage

people to get online, vote with their fingers and move their hard-earned money to a better rate. We think savers should be getting paid, not played by their bank.” Meanwhile, Chase UK, which offers a rate of 3.8 per cent, said its customer numbers had tripled since May last year reaching 1.6m customers. Many were attracted by the competitive savings rate.

Ford Money, which offers 4.25 per cent on its easy access account, has taken on 34,000 new customers this year. Ford’s Will Davies said that the rates at large banks were as exciting as “watching paint dry”.

Yet another challenger said its savings balances had increased by around 50 per cent in the past six months, with anecdotal evidence suggesting customers were leaving high

street banks to choose better rates. While challenger banks have been pulling in the customers, the bosses of the high street banks have been summoned to a meeting with the regulator today to discuss rates. A range of proposals have been suggested – including a ‘savings charter’ to mirror the mortgage charter signed last week – but City A.M. understands the regulator is not pursuing any specific outcome.

£ Additional reporting by Abi Dean

British stars prove music to industry’s ears as UK record exports pass £700m high

JESS JONES

ED SHEERAN, Adele and Harry

Styles have helped ensure the UK’s music exports had a record year in 2022, topping £700m.

The value of UK music sales and streams overseas increased by 20 per cent last year to £709m –a jump of over £100m in a single year and

the first time that figure has ever breached the £700m mark, according to new stats from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The trade association for music companies and record labels attributes the success to chartbusting hits released by UK artists last year and streamed on services across the world.

‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles (pictured) was the moststreamed track globally of 2022, according to data from Luminate, with tunes by artists Glass Animals, Dua Lipa, Elton John and Kate Bush close behind in the top 10.

Interim BPI boss Sophie Jones said the record-breaking export numbers “represent an exceptional achievement in the face of unprecedented competition on the global music stage” and puts the UK on track to hit £1bn in the nation’s annual music exports by 2030.

“But for this growth to

continue the UK needs to remain a supportive environment for investment in music, and policymakers should continue to work with industry to maximise the overseas potential of UK music,” Jones said.

The industry saw increases in newer markets, including Latin America and the Middle East.

STANDING UP FOR THE CITY

The real winners of marketplace battles are the consumers

AFINNISH mobile phone maker, an American social media network and a Japanese camera company walk into a bar, and the barman says: “oh, my dad told me about you”.

Not necessarily the most promising comedy material but as a jumping off point for a discussion of the value of competition, the fates of onceseemingly-impregnable Nokia, Myspace and Kodak are worth

THE CITY VIEW

looking at.

All at one point we’re not so much market leaders as the market in their respective fields. All of them have been well and truly knocked about since then.

As consumers, we have ended up with better phones, better cameras

and, functionally at least, better social media, even if Myspace was more about bands on the make than questionable political provocation. New products have come along and, thanks to the power of a competitive marketplace, taken their own market share. The winners are consumers; the losers became fat, lazy or complacent. So it is with this in mind it seems impossible not to look at two very different companies this week;

Meta’s attempt to take Twitter’s crown, and Thames Water’s swift descent towards the plug hole. The battle between the former is capitalism red in tooth and claw; two consumer-facing products that

can only compete on scale. The latter, meanwhile, has been able to float along without competition. A captive audience has allowed bosses to asset-strip, investment be damned, and lead us into an almighty mess in which the British government in 2023 is forced to clarify that, yes, London will still be able to take a shower and clean the dishes. As an example of market forces go, it’s a pretty clear lesson. Let the battles commence.

CRANES OF UKRAINE Storks fly over a burning field near the town

of

Snihurivka, Mykolaiv region, this week amid Russia’s continued invasion

of Ukraine

City minister: Watchdog should prioritise probe into how banks treat politicians

ANNA WISE

THE CITY minister has written to the UK’s financial watchdog urging it to prioritise an “important” review into whether people are being denied bank accounts due to their political views.

It follows claims by former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage that his bank account had been shut down without justification and he had been refused services by several banks.

Andrew Griffith, in a letter to Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said the “strength of concern” on the issue

means it needs to be prioritised by the watchdog.

He wrote: “While I recognise the importance of ensuring appropriate measures are in place to prevent money laundering, it is crucial that an appropriate balance is struck.

“The government is clear that domestic PEPs (politically exposed persons) should be treated in a manner in line with their risk, and that banks should not be closing individuals’ accounts solely due to their status as a PEP.”

He asked the FCA to enact any “easy wins along the way” of its probe.

Farage, now a presenter on GB News,

said he believed he was being targeted because of his status as a PEP.

It refers to someone who can be treated with extra due diligence by financial institutions, as they could pose a greater risk of abusing their public office position for personal gain.

But the Treasury said it would be a “serious concern if financial services were being denied to those exercising the right to lawful free speech”.

It had already asked the FCA to review the current rules and publish its findings, including any recommendations, a process which could take up to a year.

WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

BLOOMBERG

FED MINUTES REVEAL DIVISIONS OVER DECISION TO PAUSE IN JUNE

Federal Reserve officials were less united at their June meeting than their decision suggested, as some favoured interest rate increases but went along with the move to leave policy as is.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES

PWC TIPPED OFF GOOGLE ON TIMING OF AUSTRALIAN TAX LAW

PwC tipped off Google on the timing of a controversial Australian tax law, based on inside information gleaned by one of the accounting firm’s partners, it has been revealed.

THE INDEPENDENT

TONY BLAIR SAYS NHS IS FINISHED UNLESS PRIVATE SECTOR USED MORE

Marking its 75th anniversary, Sir Tony Blair has warned the NHS will “continue down a path of decline” without radical reforms, including a greater role for the private sector.

Draft deal on UK rejoining EU Horizon scheme drawn up

SAM BLEWETT

BRITAIN and the European Union are edging closer to a deal on the UK’s re-entry into the Horizon Europe research programme.

Sources said negotiators have produced a draft document following months of talks, with Rishi Sunak expected to consider it in the coming days.

However, the Prime Minister could still reject the proposals over the move’s cost of £85bn.

Sunak will be meeting EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in Lithuania

next week, providing an opportunity for in-person talks.

First reported by Politico, a Whitehall source confirmed to PA that a draft deal had been drawn up. But they said: “The EU have moved a little on the money but not nearly as much as the PM wants.”

Sunak and the European Commission chief will be in Vilnius for the Nato summit on Tuesday, where they could meet one-on-one. The government did not deny a draft deal had been written, but a spokesman stressed that talks were ongoing and a deal not yet agreed.

UK borrowing costs at highest level since 2007

JACK BARNETT

THE AMOUNT of interest the UK government has to pay investors buying its newly minted debt has hit its highest level since the financial crisis.

Britain’s Debt Management Office (DMO) – the body tasked with issuing bonds – yesterday sold a tranche of gilts to traders with a yield just shy of 5.7 per cent, the highest return on the instrument since 2007.

Some £4bn of cash was raised by the sale, the proceeds of which will be used to finance government spending that is not generated from tax revenue.

Governments have to borrow money from international investors when the amount they spend tops the amount they earn from taxes. In the UK, the DMO issues gilts, a type of IOU.

The DMO last issued an instrument with such a high yield in June 2007. It was the highest yield on a two-year

gilt this century and the greatest return offered on any gilt in over 15 years.

Financial markets have been effectively asking the government to bump up yields on newly issued debt by pricing in further interest rate rises by the Bank of England (BoE).

Traders now think Britain’s official interest rate will peak at 6.25 per cent, so the government has to offer a higher rate of return on its debt otherwise investors may refuse to buy it.

Rates on the two-year and 10-year gilts are 5.37 per cent and 4.49 per cent respectively, signalling that investors think interest rates will rise in the short term before the BoE later cuts them in response to softening economic activity.

There is also concern the UK is suffering from high inflation, forcing yields up further.

UK inflation remained unchanged in May at 8.7 per cent. Experts and the Bank had expected it to fall.

The BCC’s analysis is another sign inflation is starting to be driven by domestic factors

FCA confirms investigation into Odey

CHARLIE CONCHIE

THE FINANCIAL Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed it launched probes into disgraced fund manager Crispin Odey (pictured) in mid-2021 to determine whether he was a “fit and proper person” to be working in financial services.

In a letter to MPs yesterday, FCA chief Nikhil Rathi laid out the scale of the watchdog’s existing investigations into the fund manager and his firm Odey Asset Management (OAM).

Less

than half of companies plan to hike prices in boost for BoE

JACK BARNETT

LESS THAN half of companies plan to lift prices over the coming months in a sign that inflation may finally be starting to budge after a year and a half, a new survey shows. The British Chambers of Commerce found companies are now considering scaling back their price rises.

The survey of 5,000 companies found a reduction in global gas prices is easing the cost of businesses’ finances. Just under half now plan to bump up prices over the next quarter, the smallest fraction since 2021. However, bottom lines are still being crimped by workers demanding higher wages to protect their finances from rising prices.

Odey has been accused of sexual assault by 13 women in a recent Financial Times investigation. He denies the claims.

The FCA said it had also been in contact with the police due to the “criminal nature” of some of the allegations.

OAM is also under investigation from the FCA for possible contraventions of the FCA’s ‘Principles for Business’.

UK set to miss £11.6bn climate pledge according to leaked memo

DAVID HUGHES

RISHI SUNAK’s promise to meet an £11.6bn climate and nature pledge looks set be missed, according to a leaked internal memo.

The briefing note to ministers sets out that the international funding commitment would be a “huge challenge” and require backing for other aid projects to

be slashed.

The government insisted it is delivering on the pledge and said suggestions the commitment could be dropped are “false”.

The memo, obtained by the Guardian, says the commitment to provide £11.6bn between April 2021 and March 2026 was made at a time when the government was meeting its legally-enshrined target of

spending 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid.

That commitment was dropped to 0.5 per cent as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on the nation’s finances. A government spokesperson said: “As the Prime Minister set out at Cop27, the government remains committed to spending £11.6bn on international climate finance and we are delivering on that pledge.”

BoE mulls forcing foreign banks to set up subsidiaries

CHRIS DORRELL

THE BANK of England is considering plans to force more international banks to set up subsidiaries in the UK as part of a response to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year.

According to the Financial Times, the Bank could reduce the threshold at which foreign banks have to set up subsidiaries which have their own capital and liquidity.

Unlike branches, subsidiaries are able to be seized by regulators in the event of a collapse. This makes it much simpler for regulators to take decisive action in crises.

However, subsidiaries are more expensive to maintain than branches, meaning any possible move is likely to be unpopular with international lenders. It may also conflict with the regulator’s new mandate to consider international competitiveness.

Currently, the Bank’s supervision suggests banks with £100m or more in retail deposits and “small company transactional deposits” should establish a subsidiary.

If a bank has more than 5,000 retail and small company customers, then it might also be required to set up a subsidiary.

As of March, there were 150 international bank branches, holding around £6.3 trillion in assets.

The plans are being discussed as part of a review of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year.

Silicon Valley Bank’s UK operation became a subsidiary six months before its US-based parent collapsed. This allowed regulators to step in and broker a £1 sale to HSBC when it imploded.

At the time, Sam Woods – head of the Prudential Regulation Authority – said Silicon Valley Bank’s failure “raises a legitimate question on whether the threshold at which firms subsidiarise is exactly in the right place or merits any adjustment”.

A Bank of England spokesperson said: “The UK is a very large host to branches of international banks, and that is a necessary condition of running a large financial centre.”

The Treasury was contacted for comment.

MAY THE BOURSE BE WITH YOU Star Wars anniversary celebrated with new 50p coin

thephoenixgroup.com/living-longer

Government urged to take global lead on digitised capital markets

CHRIS DORRELL

THE GOVERNMENT should take the lead in encouraging the digitisation of the UK’s capital markets to boost the City’s competitiveness, UK Finance has argued.

In a new report released today by Oliver Wyman and UK Finance, the government has been urged to take a bold approach to ‘tokenisation’ or risk losing investment to other countries.

“The UK is behind some other

jurisdictions with regards to tokenised securities issuances, but it is not irrevocably so,” it said.

Real estate and infrastructure are among the assets where tokenisation could enable much greater investment by dividing the asset into much smaller chunks which could then be traded.

The report suggests that prompt action from government and regulators can ensure that the UK takes a leading position in tokenisation.

We need to talk about 1 in 3 children born today having a good chance of living to 100. Let’s start having that conversation.

Let’s talk about making the most of living longer.

NEW COINS have been released to mark the 40th anniversary of the third Star Wars film Return of the Jedi. The coins will be released by The Royal Mint Experience in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf in what is set to be the first feature of the iconic Star Wars characters on the face of a coin. The Walt Disney Company and professional coin designer Ffion Gwillim collaborated on the design of the coins.

Legal & General pulls out of EV startup funding

LUCY KENNINGHAM

LEGAL & GENERAL (L&G) has pulled out of any future investments into Onto, which is one of Britain’s largest electric vehicle (EV) fleet operators, according to reports from Sky News yesterday.

Last year, the asset management and pensions giant led a $60m (£47.3m) funding round into the EV-focused startup.

At the time it called Onto “an ambitious company with a talented management team that will play a vital role in accelerating the transition to electric vehicles”.

Sources close to Sky News told the outlet that L&G had invested £22.5m of funds into Onto just last month.

Onto is an EV subscription company founded in 2018. It now boasts a fleet of over 7,000 electric cars and is one of Europe’s top outfits offering a subscription service for EVs.

However, it has been hit by the declining value of electric cars, with a car comparison site in May revealing that electric cars are losing their value twice as quickly as petrol vehicles.

Between 2020 and 2023, EVs have seen their prices plummet by 39 per cent.

This week’s news is understood to have left the startup in dire financial straits, with Alix Partners apparently making contingency plans for a potential administration.

Rob Jolly, CEO and co-founder of Onto told City A.M.: “L&G continues to be a supportive shareholder with Onto, however isn’t planning to invest further at this time.”

“We are therefore exploring a number of options regarding further investment while we continue on our path to profitability,” he continued.

Jolly expressed confidence in Onto due to strong demand for electric cars.

L&G declined to comment.

Crisis-hit LME hires ex-London Stock Exchange chief to step in

NICHOLAS EARL

LONDON Metal Exchange (LME) Clear has turned to a former London Stock Exchange (LSE) chief executive to chair its operations, as the trading house scrambles to restore investor confidence after the nickel price controversy last year.

David Warren will be the new

Thames Water backer USS to face grilling

NICHOLAS EARL

THE UK’s largest pension scheme faces a grilling from the regulator over its investment in Thames Water.

A meeting between The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the £90bn Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which owns a 20 per cent stake in Thames Water, will happen as early as this week, according to the Financial Times. While the meeting has been long anticipated, questions around the company’s stake in the water monopoly will be on the agenda.

chairman of the board with the incumbent Marco Strimer set to step down at the end of his term on 20 July.

Strimer will stay on as director until the end of the year, helping to smooth over the transition.

Warren has 30 years’ experience in the financial sector, and is a former interim chief executive and chief financial officer of the LSE.

TPR’s intervention follows widespread media reports that the government is working on contingency plans for a de facto nationalisation of Thames Water, which has a £14bn debt pile and is scrambling to secure a further £1bn capital injection from its investors. This includes international pension funds, including USS, alongside statebacked Chinese Investment Corporation and Infinity Investment. A TRP spokesperson said: “We are in regular contact with the trustee but do not comment on these discussions.” USS declined to comment when contacted by City A.M.

LME’s trading platform replaced its legal counsel and chair earlier this year

Chip industry in limbo as UK lags on strategy

JESS JONES

THE GOVERNMENT’s Semiconductor Advisory Panel (SAP) announcement is almost a month late, leaving chip experts questioning the effectiveness of the national semiconductor strategy. In the national semiconductor strategy, published in May, the government said it would formally launch the advisory panel at London Tech Week in June 2023.

It is now three weeks on from London Tech Week and there have been no updates.

“We should all ask ourselves how we ought to regard government pledges, given this lack of delivery at an early hurdle,” said Dr Simon Thomas, cofounder and CEO of graphene-based semiconductor company Paragraf.

“The government’s semiconductor strategy has thus far done little for scaling UK semiconductor manufac-

NOT QUITE THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT Center Parcs £4bn deal back in the spotlight

as frontrunners for British resorts film bail

turing businesses other than deliver promises of what we ought to wait for, the first of which was the UK government Semiconductor Advisory Panel,” he said.

Thomas emphasised that the issue at hand is not financial support, but rather attracting and retaining talent, developing infrastructure, ensuring competitive utilities and protecting domestic core intellectual property.

Andrew Thompson, partner at leading intellectual property law firm EIP, chimed in with Thomas, saying the industry was currently in “wait-and-see mode” until the government offers more clarity.

“Despite the huge build up to the strategy, and the prominent launch, the industry doesn’t really know what it means yet,” he said.

The government was approached for comment.

TWO FRONTRUNNERS to buy holiday resort chain Center Parcs have reportedly dropped out of the race, with sources telling the Times that CVC and Blackstone had withdrawn their bids for the firm. The holiday chain had hoped to fetch £4bn. KSL Capital Partners and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, are reported to still be in the race with the second round of bids ongoing

IPO market shutdown hits Numis revenue

CHRIS DORRELL

NUMIS struggled with the “effective closure” of the IPO market in the third quarter, with revenue falling ahead of the bank’s takeover by Deutsche Bank.

The London-based investment bank said revenue in the three months to the end of June came in below the first half, reflecting the “deteriorating market backdrop” across investment banking.

Although M&A revenue remained strong, intake from capital markets were hit by “cyclically low deal volumes”, Numis said.

Numis also noted revenue from capital markets was “materially below” the same period last year.

“Macro-economic concerns have resulted in a prolonged period of exceptionally low deal volumes across the market and the effective closure of the IPO market,” it said.

Macroeconomic volatility and surging interest rates have dented new listings and dealmaking as firms continue to swerve public markets.

Data from EY showed the City registered just 18 new floats in the first six months of the year, raising £593m.

Numis suggested things are unlikely to get better with macro-economic pressures likely to persist through the remainder of the year.

However, it noted its balance sheet was strong and it was “building the pipeline” to ensure growth when market conditions re-

The update comes ahead of Numis’s takeover by Deutsche Bank, which is expected to complete in the final quarter of the calendar year.

London homes’ value sinks as market rattles

LAURA MCGUIRE

SOME 68 per cent of west London homeowners have seen the value of their property decrease since last November, new data shows, due to soaring mortgage rates and a difficult buyer market.

The tile giant’s optimism saw shares close up yesterday

Topps Tiles stays in the black as soaring costs on supplies cools

LAURA MCGUIRE

TOPPS TILES is on track to deliver profit in line with expectations, aided by strong sales in the third quarter and an easing of supply pressures.

In an update yesterday, the home supplies retailer said inflationary pressures on the cost of goods and shipping costs had reduced.

The Enderby-headquartered

business posted like-for-like sales that were 2.5 per cent higher year on year in the quarter, and 3.7 per cent higher on a year-to-date basis.

In the 26 weeks to 1 April, the firm saw pretax profits plummet 69.6 per cent to £1.7m due to inflation, but the retailer said it was confident profit in the second half would be “materially higher” and it would meet expectations for the year as a whole.

As buyer confidence falls due to mortgage rates, 7,000 homes across west central London decreased in value over the past six months, according to figures from Zoopla.  Over the last six months, 11.1m (38 per cent) homes have recorded a decline in value, averaging a £7,700 drop per property.

Zoopla statistics last week showed 42 per cent of sellers are accepting discounts over five per cent on the asking price to secure a sale.  Moneyfacts found the average fiveyear fixed rate mortgage is up from 5.97 per cent to 6.01 per cent, the highest since the mini budget led by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.  Octane Capital’s figures show London faces the highest cost, with the average homebuyer facing a monthly mortgage repayment of £2,155 – 72 per cent higher than the national average.

Numis Co-CEO Ross Mitchinson

THE NOTE BOOK

SWIFTIES MOBILISE Supermarkets sound a positive note on inflation

SOME GOOD news on inflation

at last –Sainsbury’s says food inflation is starting to fall. Its CEO Simon Roberts said the company is “putting all our energy and focus into battling inflation”. This echoes a similar message from the UK’s largest supermarket by market share, Tesco. Last month, its CEO Ken Murphy said there are “encouraging early signs” that food inflation pressures are softening.

Although official grocery prices were still rising sharply by 18.3 per cent in May, according to the latest Office for National Statistics figures, this has come down from 19 per cent in April, suggesting the trajectory is moving in a positive direction at least.

The major supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda have been cutting prices in recent weeks in a bid to appeal to the increasingly price sensitive consumer amid the squeeze on living standards. The bigger players are also battling to retain market share against the growing, highly price competitive German discounters, Aldi and Lidl.

Last Friday for example, Tesco announced its second round of price cuts in recent weeks, reducing

over 500 items by an average of 13 per cent on goods such as pasta, milk and cheese. But Aldi, which overtook Morrisons to enter the ‘Big Four’ last year, also cut the price of four pints of milk by 10 pence.

Supermarkets have been getting some bad press lately, accused of ‘greedflation’ or profiteering from the backdrop of elevated prices including on wages, energy, food and drinks. But while Sainsbury’s reported strong like-for-like sales growth this week, it insists this is due to higher volumes rather than price hikes.

There have also been criticisms about fuel profits. Last year, UK petrol and diesel retailers were accused of ‘rocket and feather’ pricing by the UK competition watchdog whereby consumer prices shoot up but are slow to come down. Morrisons’ boss David Potts admitted last month “there is more profit at the retail end of fuel”. For investors though, supermarket shares have paid off this year, with the likes of Sainsbury’s and Tesco logging impressive percentage gains in the first half, significantly outpacing the FTSE 100.

More than a million fans queued online on Wednesday via Ticketmaster for Taylor Swift’s six shows in Singapore. There were complaints made on Twitter about issues logging onto the website after the pre-sale began at midday. Last month, Bloomberg reported that the singer is generating ticket sales of over $13m a night, making Taylor Swift the topgrossing artist in the world. Her tour is expected to gross over $1bn, which would be a record high as part of her tour. An average ticket costs a whopping $254 or around £200.

£ Shares in Coinbase surged on Monday, jumping as much as 13 per cent after the Cboe, an exchange operator, said it was working with the crypto platform to launch a bitcoin ETF. The Cboe posted an application to release this product with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator, on Friday. Bitcoin has staged an impressive recovery this year, up over 75 per cent so far in 2023 after last year’s dismal price action. Ethereum has also been on a tear, gaining more than 50 per cent year-to-date.

Matalan called out for ‘cowboy buying practices’

LAURA MCGUIRE

A GROUP of Asian suppliers has accused Matalan of “cowboy buying practices” after the value retailer reportedly attempted to haggle for 20 per cent price cuts on some orders.

The disgruntled supplier said the fashion and homeware brand displayed some of the “most aggressive, unreasonable buying practices” they had ever seen, speaking to The Times on condition of anonymity.

The anonymous source also accused Matalan of playing suppliers against one another in a plot to cut costs, all while “raising issues about quality and other issues in order to justify requesting huge discounts”.

Concerns have been raised that its practices could have a negative impact on vulnerable garment workers.

“As a garment maker, I am familiar with aggressive buying practices, however, Matalan has taken things to another level,” another Asian supplier told the outlet.

Matalan has disputed these claims, telling City A.M. it is “fully committed

to conducting all business in an honest and ethical manner and dispute these claims”.

“In line with industry standards, commercial negotiations for new orders take place each season and typically factor in multiple elements. These include notable upward or downward shifts in raw material costs as well as non-financial considerations.

They added: “We believe that open two-way negotiations are a valuable part

from Interactive Investor

of forging successful collaborative partnerships. We value our long-term and established supplier relationships in delivering better products for consumers.”

The Liverpool-headquartered retailer was rescued by a debt-for-equity swap with its lenders in January after it accrued £500m in debt.

Results for the year ending 26 February 2022 showed a rise in revenues from £744.1m in 2021 to £1.03bn in 2022.

£ UK five-year fixed-rate mortgage costs topped six per cent this week for the first time this year, according to Moneyfacts Group. This is painful news for the estimated 800,000 households with a fixed rate mortgage deal set to expire before the end of the 2023 and could have negative repercussions for the housing market. JP Morgan analyst Rajesh Patik has expressed concerns about new home sales in the UK, commenting the “potential softening in sales rates from here, given the uncertainty on rates, puts the 2024 volume recovery in jeopardy”.

CAN I QUOTE YOU ON THAT?

David Black, chief executive of Ofwat talking about the recent water crisis

Price pressures and interest rates have dominated discussions about the markets since inflation reared its ugly head post-pandemic. Fixed Income Explained is a podcast from Interactive Investor’s parent company Abrdn. It aims to provide insights into how current market conditions are affecting fixed income markets. Hosted by Peter Marsland, investment specialist at Abrdn, this podcast provides discussions with various senior members across the investment desks and specialist guests. The latest episode discusses uncertainty, factors that could influence investor sentiment, and key investment themes for the rest of 2023 with a range of guests to cover the investment landscape. One guest suggests inflation will continue to be the dominant force over the next 12 months.

Hey-oh, AO! White goods firm in profit

LAURA MCGUIRE

AO WORLD has swung back into profit on reduced costs and better margins, with the firm yesterday reporting a 17 per cent loss in revenue in its annual results.

The white goods retailer said revenue decreased by 16.8 per cent to £1.1bn last year compared to £1.3bn in the same period the year before ending 31 March, as the business introduced a “strategic realignment” plan to cut costs.

The womenswear brand warned sales had started to slow in recent months

Questions on inflation but Quiz reports jump in annual profit

HENRY SAKER-CLARK

FASHION chain Quiz has posted a jump in profits for the past year but cautioned over “tough” trading conditions in recent months as shoppers come under pressure from inflation.

The womenswear business said it saw a “strong recovery” over the year to March but has seen sales slide more recently.

Quiz recorded a 15 per cent decrease in revenues to £23.2m for the past three months to the end of

June as it was impacted by tough comparatives from the previous year and “inflationary pressures on consumer demand”.

Tarak Ramzan, founder and chief executive officer of the business, said: “The trading environment in the opening months of the new financial year has been tough reflecting the widely publicised external economic factors impacting demand.”

The retailer yesterday reported pretax profit of £2.3m for the year to 31 March, against £800,000 a year earlier.

This included ending a trial of a store-in-store format in Tesco and terminating its business in the housebuilder sector.

“While each had good long-term potential, their complexity, short and medium-term cash consumption and opportunity cost meant that they were no longer compatible with the pressing priorities of 2023,” the business said.

Thanks to the cost-cutting initiatives, adjusted Ebitda rose to £45m up from £23m in line with guidance it previously set out.

“The significant improvement in our profit performance speaks for itself,” AO’s founder and chief executive John Roberts said. “We intend to continue with this focus,” he added.

AO World recently had Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group carve out a near 20 per cent stake in the business.

Where the City’s movers and shakers get a few things off their chest. Today, it’s Victoria Scholar

We saw the same in the banking sector, there are some hard lessons to learn

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO AT THE MOMENT:

Matalan’s practices were called out as “aggressive” and “unreasonable”

Petrol prices rise for first time in eight months as retailers up fuel margins

GUY TAYLOR

PETROL prices rose for the first time in eight months in June just days after the competition regulator found supermarkets hiked up fuel prices last year.

Unleaded increased by nearly a penny (0.7p) to 143.9p, while diesel came down by 1.2p to 145.46p at the end of the month, marking eight consecutive monthly reductions, according to breakdown firm the RAC.

The RAC’s data also shows that on average retailers are making a margin of around 12p a litre on petrol and 13p on diesel compared to historical margins of 7p –which it said further underlined the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) findings earlier in the week.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “June marked the end of the price

of petrol falling at the pumps, purely because retailers are taking more margin per litre than they used to.”

“Looking at the wholesale price of both petrol and diesel, which is almost identical, average forecourt prices should be 5p lower for petrol and 6p for diesel.”

The CMA’s announcement on Monday confirmed that increased supermarket profit margins had led to drivers paying an extra 6p per litre at the pumps last year and followed a year-long investigation over pumped up fuel prices.

As a result of the investigation, supermarkets will in future be forced to publish live information on their fuel prices to ensure customers are able to get a fair price. A new ‘fuel monitoring body’ could also be introduced in a bid to hold industry to account.

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is bouncing back after a year scuppered by chip shortages

New car market ‘growing back and growing green’, say SMMT

GUY TAYLOR

BRITAIN’s new car market recorded its 11th consecutive month of growth in June with registrations rising 25.8 per cent.

Just under 1m new cars were registered in the first half of 2023, up 18.4 per cent on 2022, according to

SPORT

Van hire firm hails record annual results

GUY TAYLOR

VEHICLE hire firm Redde Northgate yesterday posted a record year on the back of strong vehicle hire demand, with appetite for light commercial vehicles (LCV) continuing to “outstrip supply”.

The Darlington-headquartered firm saw revenues of over £1.4bn, up 19.8 per cent year-on-year, with pretax profits at £178.7m, up 34.7 per cent.

Redde Northgate saw its total fleet number rise to over 130,000 vehicles, but noted the scarcity of LCVs.

figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Petrol vehicles remained the most popular choice for Brits, though electric cars also notched a notable rise, up 39.4 per cent in June.

“The new car market is growing backand growing green,” SMMT chief Mike Hawes said.

Acquisitions of Blakedale, which supply specialist traffic management vehicles, and frozen delivery van specialist Fridgexpress helped it deliver its goals, the company said.

CEO Martin Ward hailed the “excellent set of results” and said the company was primed to seize new opportunities.

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Notice of Making

PERMANENT MAKING OF EXPERIMENTAL PROVISIONS

One Way, Road Closures, No Entry and Loading Bay Provisions, Various Locations

1. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Common Council of the City of London Corporation has Act 1984(a) and section 8 of, and Part I of Schedule 5 to, the Local Government Act 1985(b), and of 6, 9 and 12 to this notice and making the provisions of these orders, as set out in sections 5, 8, 11 and 14 of this notice, permanent in their entirety, by amending the orders set out in section 2 to this notice.

2. The orders will be made by amending the following orders;

One Way

Road Closure - The City of London (Prescribed Routes) (Road Closures) (No. 1) Order 2017 (c) (as amended)

No Entry - The City of London (Prohibited and Compulsory Movements) (Consolidation No. 1) Order 2019(c) (as amended)

Loading Bays - The City of London (Loading Bays) (Consolidation No. 1) Order 2019(c) (as amended)

One Way

(Old Jewry) (No. 1) Experimental Order 2022; The City of London (Threadneedle Street) (No. 1)

Experimental Order 2022; The City of London (Threadneedle Street) (No. 2) Experimental Order 2022; and The City of London (Old Broad Street) (No. 1) Experimental Order 2022

Goring boss on a mission to give Londoners a hand into hospitality trade

The Hotel School, co-founded by Goring Hotel chief Jeremy, is helping homeless Londoners into work. He tells Andy Silvester why it’s needed more than ever

5. The effect of the Orders will be to:

cycles between its junction with Bishopsgate and its junction with Old Broad Street. between its junction with Bartholomew Lane and its junctions with Cornhill and Princes Street. pedal cycles between its junction with Threadneedle Street and its junction with London Wall.

Road Closure

London (Old Jewry) (No. 2) Experimental Order 2022

8. The effect of the Orders will be to:

(a) introduce a ‘no motor vehicles’ restriction operating ‘between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays’ in:-

(b) introduce a ‘no motor vehicles’ restriction operating ‘at any time’ in Old Jewry at its junction with Cheapside and Poultry.

Loading Bay

(No. 2) Experimental Order 2022

11. The effect of the Orders will be to:

(a) introduce loading bays operating ‘at any time’ and where waiting is limited to 40 minutes with no

(i) the north-east side outside No. 81; and

(ii) the south-west side outside the development site at No. 10.

(b) introduce a loading bay operating ‘at any time’ and where waiting is limited to 40 minutes with no return within 1 hour in Threadneedle Street on the south side outside No. 5.

(c) introduce a loading bay operating ‘at any time’ and where waiting is limited to 40 minutes with no return within 1 hour in Old Broad Street on the north-west side outside No. 111.

No Entry

12. The City of London (Cheapside) (No. 1) Experimental Order 2022

14. The effect of the Order will be to: that lies east of its junction with Bread Street.

hours on Monday to Fridays inclusive for a period of six weeks from the date on which the Orders were made at the Planning Enquiry Desk, North Wing, Guildhall, London, EC2V 7HH or on the City

16. Further information and copies of the documents may be obtained from Projects & Programmes,

17. Any person desiring to question the validity of the Orders or of any provision contained therein on 1984, or that any of the relevant requirements thereof or of any relevant regulations made thereunder has not been complied with may, within six weeks from the date on which the Orders were made, make an application for the purpose to the High Court.

Ian Hughes, Director, City Operations

JEREMY GORING, sat in the bar of his own Goring Hotel, has eyes everywhere. Impeccably turned out, much like the room, not much escapes the attention of the man behind one of the world’s famous hotels.

So perhaps then it’s no surprise that a man who can spot a glass out of place from across a crowded salon turned his attention more than five years ago to one of London’s biggest problems –homelessness.

That’s where Hotel School comes in –founded by Goring and Mick Clarke, chief executive of The Passage, the capital’s largest resource and centre for homeless and vulnerable people.

“I was sitting over there with a gin and tonic with Mick. This hotel has worked with The Passage before my time, but the purpose of this gin and tonic was to ask what the hell can we do that’s a bit more meaningful for us than donating things and helping out here and there,” Goring tells me –over a sparkling water, this time.

After kicking around some ideas, Goring proposed starting a school: one that could take vulnerable people that had come into contact with The Passage, teach them skills in the industry he knows best, and see them prosper in full-time employment.

“The best way to learn it is to do it. It turned out nobody had really done it in that way,” Goring says. Since that fateful gin and tonic, the School has helped support hundreds of homeless and vulnerable people into long-standing work in hospitality, with hands

held along the way as people move into full-time work.

“I had the connections in the hospitality industry, but I knew nothing about teaching. But I spoke to people at Westminster Kingsway College, and a woman called Veronique Bonnefoy said she’d do it with us. We built a space in the basement of The Passage.”

Of that first cohort, only around 50 per cent ‘graduated’ from Hotel School. That pass rate is now up above 80 per cent, with most in full-time work. Some who have gone through the three-month training programme work in Carousel or The Ritz; others in Nobu or, indeed, The Goring. Those individuals are mentored through their entry into work; some have gone on to

start their own street food enterprises.

“One guy had been out of work for 30 years. It took us three years to find him full-time work –and he got a medal from Prince William recently. That meant a lot,” he says.

The School has now outgrown its improvised kitchen in The Passage, using space in Westminster Kingsway College itself. Like all London businesses, space to expand is hard to find, but Goring firmly has his eyes

Everyone has a place in a hotel or a bar

on expansion in an industry he clearly loves.

“I think hospitality is quite a good thing for humanity,” he says, with understatement. “You meet people from everywhere, different backgrounds, different ages, all the kinds of human you can have. They all have a place somewhere in a hotel or a bar.

“For that reason, I think, we feel like pirates on a ship, and we’ll support each other.”

Goring has enough on his plate, running a luxury hotel in the middle of a tough time for the global economy. But Hotel School, it is clear, is very much a passion project –much like hospitality at large.

Jeremy Goring took over the running of one of London’s most luxurious hotels in 2005, now a four-generation family business

The Hotel School teaches vulnerable Londoners skills for a life in the always-staff-hungry hospitality industry

INTERVIEW

City grandee Jayne-Anne Gadhia on the Square Mile’s future, the menopause, and the next step for inclusivity

JUST before the pandemic, a group of the country’s top executives clambered aboard a coach at a Manchester hotel bound for the hallowed turf of Old Trafford. Their destination was not a United game but a corporate leadership shindig where stars from club’s heyday –the likes of Peter Schmeichel and Alex Ferguson –would address bosses on how to motivate, how to manage, and how to succeed.

Just like the booze-fuelled coaches heading to United’s HQ on a gameday, it was a male affair. But among the chiefs on board was Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the former boss of Virgin Money and the mastermind of the government’s 2016 review on female representation in the City.

She was among the last to board the bus and took a seat next to one of the attendees –a “famous male CEO”.

“Just as I sat down, he said ‘Before you even start, I haven’t signed up to your Women in Finance Charter’,” Gadhia tells City A.M. in an interview.

“Why?”, she asked.

“Well to be honest, there’s not enough good women,” came the response.

For Gadhia, the comments shone a light on a view still pervasive at the top of British PLC –a world where

You’re going to be more successful by being more inclusive

quiet resistance to change and a onesize-fits-all view of City culture still hold strong.

Her review of gender diversity in financial services cast a damning picture of the gender make-up of the sector. The report found women made up just 14 per cent of executive committees in financial services while a “permafrost” in middle management had frozen out women from the top jobs.

INTO THE BOARDROOM

Gadhia’s own rise might seem to counter that view, but her journey to the pinnacle of British business came outside of and in spite of the staid British boardroom rather than because of its willingness to embrace her.

Following a history degree at Royal Holloway, she jokes she and her Indian husband eloped to become accountants after bucking his family’s plans for an arranged marriage. That led to a stint at Ernst Whinney, the precursor to EY, before joining Aviva’s predecessor Norwich Union. But it was a chance meeting that kickstarted her rise up the ladder.

“I met someone that worked at Virgin, and I had just been reading about

Charlie Conchie interviews the biggest movers and shakers in tech, fintech and financial services

charter update. Some 77 per cent of signatories had either increased or maintained their proportion of women in senior management after a pandemic plateau.

However, while target numbers are “important” and being hit, she says there is still a uniform view of City culture holding back real diversity beneath the surface.

“We’re still in a place where some leaders [...] who run large organisations might say, ‘things have really changed now [...] 50 per cent of my board are women and we’ve got ethnic diversity as well. I love them all and they’re all doing great. All I ask is that they behave like me.’

“For me, that’s the big problem.”

“The reason that we want diversity is to change some of those behaviours we’ve been concerned about over the years. What we don’t want is a diverse group of people all behaving like a traditional white Anglo Saxon man.”

The uniformity in outlook has fed into a lack of understanding of female experience and an unwillingness to confront some of the more physical challenges facing women in the workplace, she says.

She has been a vocal champion for better understanding of the challenges facing menopausal women and says, frankly, it is a topic that has presented some tricky obstacles as her career has progressed.

“It’s not just the hormonal challenges that are a problem. Forgive me if I’m embarrassing you with this, but part of the problem with the menopause turns out to be it involves an awful lot of blood,” she says.

“You end up in meetings worrying

CHANGING THE CULTURE

Branson was at the time looking at how to expand the Virgin brand beyond records and planes and into the broader business world. Gadhia offered the traditional financial nous along with a desire to ruffle some feathers.

Winning round regulators to the idea of a Virgin financial services brand was not a straightforward task, however.

One senior watchdog asked the pair “how on earth” a record and aeroplane company was going to run a bank.

“Richard said, ‘well nobody would get on my aeroplanes if they thought they wouldn’'t get off the other end’,” she laughs.

Gadhia went on to launch Virgin Direct with Branson before leaving the firm and returning on the eve of the financial crisis, leading it through the downturn, through the £747m acquisi-

London might seem like a halcyon era now, but Gadhia says if she was making the same decision today, she’d still use London.

“The one thing that you can always be absolutely certain of in London is the rule of law,” she says. “So I’d be thinking very hard before listing anywhere else other than London if I’m honest, because of all of that history.”

RUFFLING FEATHERS

Gadhia –who left Virgin Money at the end of the last decade, spent time at the top of Salesforce UK and now runs the fintech Snoop, which helps you save where you shop –does not always champion the City’s history and structure.

Gadhia’s mission in the latter half of the 2010s turned to ripping up the unspoken rulebook that had held

obstacle to gender parity was the ruthless machismo ingrained in and rewarded at the UK’s top financial firms. The central question of her review was why half of senior jobs in financial services were not taken by women, and the answer, she says, was “very much around the culture”.

“Men would go to their boss, bang the table and say ‘I’ve had a really good year, I want a good bonus’, whereas women would not want to bang the table, and they would expect to be recognised,” she says.

But because of “weak managers”, those that were banging the table were seeing the results. That, she says, has started to change.

The average female representation increased to 35 per cent in financial services last year, according to the government’s latest Women in Finance

about what happens when you stand up. Or if you were me, I happened to be on Richard Branson’s private jet which had a white carpet in the toilet.

When I got off it wasn’t white anyEmpathy is the antidote here, she argues: fostering workplaces where topics like those can be brought out into the open and discussed openly. The levers that can be pulled to achieve it are still complex and varied, and sadly, she says, much of the heavy lifting needs to be done by men corralling their peers into action.

TOP DOWN CHANGE

At the Old Trafford leadership seminar, a male American general discussed the importance of diversity, the boss of UPS talked about gender diversity being key to the firm’s success, and Alex Ferguson spoke about how important diversity was in teams and in creating great results.

When she boarded the coach again at the end of the day, the same executive approached Gadhia and said he would sign up to her charter.

“What had changed? Male peers who he respected felt this was the right way to go,” Ghadia says.

“The moral of that story for me –and I don’t belittle it or decry it at all –is that real change is going to come by people that hold power now changing and being able to see they’re going to be more successful by being more inclusive.”

You end up in meetings worrying about what happens

THE SQUARE MILE AND ME

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?

It was as a butcher’s assistant in the meat department at Harrod’s. It was hard work, but I had a great time.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PROPER ‘CITY’ JOB?

That depends on your definition. I’d argue it was working on a building site just off Whitechapel High Street. I did it while completing my engineering degree and can just about see the building from the office I’m sitting in now. My first London law job was here at Reddie & Grose. 30 years on I’m still here, still learning and enjoying the experience.

WHEN

DID YOU KNOW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW WAS THE PLACE FOR YOU?

It was the moment I arrived at Reddie & Grose and discovered the opportunity to work with interesting clients, great partners and inspiring colleagues. Prior to that I’d worked for a brief stint in The Hague as an examiner at the European Patent Office in the field of medical equipment. It was a very useful grounding, but this role better brought together my interests in people, engineering, law and technology. Inventors and entrepreneurs are interesting people and it is fun to be part of their journey.

ANY

EMBARRASSING CITY FAUX PAS?

It would definitely be getting caught out moving up the platform to avoid someone on the morning commute. It’s nothing personal. I’ve lived in London on and off since the age of 11 so it’s deeply ingrained in me not to make conversation on public transport.

WHAT’S YOUR MOST MEMORABLE CITY DINNER?

It’s actually one that I’m anticipating. Pre-pandemic, a number of us in the intellectual property industry organised a very successful International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property conference in London and we’ve been promising to arrange a celebratory dinner ever since. By bringing it up in this interview I’m publicly committing to making it happen and getting it over the line! I’m very lucky to work in an industry where everybody – peers, partners and competitors – comes together to drive up standards and collaborate.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE CITY?

It’s the collective dynamism that I most admire. I love the City’s energy, its growing diversity and the constant pursuit for excellence. There’s a reason London is so successful. It’s that so many great people from across the UK and around the world make an active choice to want to work here.

... AND ONE THING YOU’D CHANGE

I’d love to bring back more of the social energy and spontaneity that existed before Covid. Hybrid working has brought us many benefits. But it also means everything has to be that bit more pre-planned.

I’m cautiously optimistic. It will be challenging but we’ll be fine. The City is pretty resilient and has shown it can cope with whatever comes its way.

WE’RE OFF FOR LUNCH AND YOU’RE CHOOSING.

WHERE DO WE GO?

That would have to be the Culpeper on Commercial Street. It’s where you’ll find me sharing a meal with colleagues or friends when given the chance. I can heartily recommend the fish and chips.

BEST PUB IN THE CITY?

It’s all about the people for me so it would be wherever my friends are and

QUICKFIRE ROUND

FAVOURITE...

FILM: THIS IS SPINAL TAP ARTIST OR BAND: STEVIE WONDER VIEW IN LONDON? KING HENRY’S MOUND; THE PROTECTED VIEW FROM RICHMOND PARK TO ST PAUL’S DRINK: TEA OR COFFEE? TEA, SPECIFICALLY A BLACK LAPSANG SOUCHONG

Often that’s a pub, but I’m always challenging my colleagues not to think of it as the default choice. The City has so many other great meeting points to pick from to best accommodate all faiths, beliefs and personality types.

WHERE’S HOME DURING THE WEEK?

Home for me is Clapham and has been for some time. I’m lucky enough to have had an international upbringing, but I've now put down some pretty firmly established roots.

IT’S A SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

WHERE WILL YOU BE?

That very much depends on the season. In summer you’ll commonly find me

likely be watching rugby from the sidelines, at Harlequins or Rosslyn Park.

YOU’VE GOT A WEEK OFF –

WHERE ARE YOU GOING, AND WITH WHO?

It would have to be northern Italy or southern France with my wife. She works in Monaco as the general counsel for World Athletics, so we enjoy exploring the towns and villages within a two-and-a-half hour drive. It’s the perfect mix of good food, great weather and beautiful countryside. If I could have everything it would also be a perfect spot for some fly fishing. Though my wife will have other ideas.

Each week we invite the City’s great and good to take a trip down memory lane. This week we speak to Jan Vleck, patent attorney and executive partner at Reddie & Grose LLP

CITY DASHBOARD

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LONDON REPORT BEST OF THE BROKERS

FTSE 100: Wilting China recovery keeps London mining giants lower

LONDON’s FTSE 100 sagged yesterday, dragged lower by industrial firms tumbling in response to signs that China’s economic recovery is running out of steam.

The capital’s premier index shed 1.03 per cent to close at 7,442.11 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, fell 0.76 per cent to 18,393.33 points.

Some of Britain’s largest mining and raw material companies suffered steep losses during opening exchanges in the City yesterday on the prospect of a huge source of demand for their products wilting.

Numbers from Caixin showed activity in the Chinese services economy slipped to 53.9 in June from 57.1 in May, the lowest reading since January when Covid-19 cases galloped higher after re-

strictions were rolled back.

That downbeat reading reinforced signs from the separate manufacturing purchasing managers’ index out earlier this week that activity is on a downward trend, indicating the world’s second largest economy’s rehabilitation from years of blanket lockdown measures is running out of rope.

Signals that China could become a less prosperous source of revenue put downward pressure on FTSE 100 miners’ share prices yesterday.

Anglo American tumbled 2.72 per cent, while Antofagasta lost 2.16 per cent.

Industrial firms represent a big chunk of the FTSE 100, meaning movements in their respective share prices have a heavy influence over the direction of the premier index.

Pound sterling weakened slightly against the US dollar.

Direct Line came under fire from the FCA last week, who ordered it to trawl through five years of claims after it admitted it underpaid customers who had their cars and vans written off. The review is the latest blow to the firm and follows a number of profit warnings caused by soaring inflation in its claims costs. Peel Hunt analysts reduced their target price from 210p to 150p but reiterated an ‘add’ rating.

Redde Northgate saw record profits and revenues in its full year results yesterday on the back of strong vehicle hire demand, with appetite for light commercial vehicles continuing to “outstrip supply.” Peel Hunt analysts think the outlook for the firm is “increasingly confident”. They say

OUCH “Markets are betting on at least a full percentage point hike by the BoE before the end of the year and they want compensating accordingly. Amid this backdrop, the FTSE 100 delivered a pretty torrid performance with only a handful of stocks ending the day in positive territory, dragged down by a toxic mix of global economic news.”

DANNI HEWSON, AJ BELL

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Connecting the Community

Watchdog urges government to protect kids with crypto bill

ADIGITAL watchdog is urging regulators to ensure children and young people aren’t left vulnerable to crypto scams and investment risks.

The UK government is currently drafting a swathe of regulations that will allow the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) a greater jurisdiction and flexibility over digital assets.

However, policy chiefs at internet safety organisation Internet Matters say they are concerned future legislation will not offer enough protection to youngsters tempted into cryptocurrency investment without understanding the risks that may be involved.

A report from the not-for-profit watchdog, set up in 2014 by the UK’s then largest internet service providers BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, yesterday revealed nearly a quarter of teenagers aged between 13 and 16 have invested or are planning to invest in cryptocurrency.

The polling of parents and children on crypto assets also revealed that eight per cent of children have already invested in cryptocurrencies, while 15 per cent were looking to invest.

The main reason (49 per cent) for children investing was to secure their financial future against the backdrop of the cost of living crisis.

Internet Matters say the report raises concerns about a gap in regulation which could leave youngsters vulnerable to scammers.

Four in 10 of those who had in-

vested in cryptocurrency cited the reason was ‘to earn lots of money’, while a similar number saw digital assets as ‘the future of money’.

“It is welcome that the government is beginning to clamp down on the risks posed by crypto and NFTs to consumers,” said Simone Vibert, Head of Policy and Research at Internet Matters.

“But there is no consideration of children in the measures being pro-

posed. We want to see specific protections for children built into forthcoming regulation.”

Emerging technology consultant Gary Nuttall highlighted how many children were already aware of digital rewards and the ability to buy and sell virtual assets in the gaming world.

“It comes as no surprise to therefore learn that 15 per cent of children surveyed expressed a willingness to invest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs,” he said.

CRYPTO NEWS IN BRIEF

ONECOIN FILM TO FOLLOW JEN’S BOOK

THE story of fraud victim Jennifer McAdam who lost her life savings in the OneCoin scam is releasing a book about her experiences next month.

Devil’s Coin, out on August 8, details the 52-year-old’s fight to bring down OneCoin’s mastermind – Ruja Ignatova –who featured in the hugely popular ‘The Missing Cryptoqueen’ BBC podcast. Hailed by director Scott Z Burns as ‘a modern-day Erin Brockovich’, Jennifer’s story is also being lined up as the subject of a major motion picture.

CARDANO’S MARLOWE TOOLKIT GOES LIVE

INPUT Output Global Inc – the company behind the Cardano blockchain – has launched an open source toolset allowing any user to develop apps.

Called ‘Marlowe’, the toolkit offers the community a simple way to create smart contract and decentralised applications (dApps) without the need for programming skills or experience with coding.

“The launch of Marlowe is a significant step towards empowering anybody, from a developer to a community newcomer, to add to the ever-growing Cardano ecosystem with innovative dApps,” said Tim Harrison, VP Community & Ecosystem.

OKX EXPANDS MAN CITY SPONSORSHIP DEAL

“Like traditional investing, children need to be supported with the appropriate education to ensure they are fully aware of the risks they are taking”.

Katie Watts, Head of Campaigns at MoneySavingExpert added: "This report brings to light a real gap in protection for young people who see crypto as a part of their financial lives, but are rightly worried about the consequences – and in particular, scams.”

ETF wave appears to bolster Bitcoin’s momentum

IT’S been another strong showing from Bitcoin (BTC) this week, with the market leader popping its head above the $31k parapet for the first time in more than a year. It’s since dipped back to around $30,500, flat over the course of the last week. The price of Ethereum is also flat, with Solana (SOL), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) the big winners – all seeing double figure gains since last week. Will recent price rises have a bit more longevity than short-lived rallies?

Rising volumes could give investors some hope, with crypto trading volumes rising in June for the first time in three months. The combined spot and derivative trading volumes on centralised exchanges climbed 14 per cent to $2.71 trillion, according to a report by CCData. Increased volumes in either direction tend to indicate that there is more substance to a price move.

The big event on crypto investors’ calendars this week is likely to be the release of minutes from the Federal

Reserve’s meeting in June, which could provide clarity on impending US interest rate hikes at the end of the month. Interest rates have slowed somewhat this year, but last year were highlighted as a major contributing factor to volatility in the crypto market.  All eyes are also on the US regulator, with the Securities Exchange Commission last week responding to the recent rush of Bitcoin ETF applications by saying that it wants BlackRock and others to revise and resubmit.

“The notion of a spot Bitcoin ETF is very emotionally charged for some people, but it’s not unusual for the SEC to send applications back and ask for clarifications,” said Sean Tuffy, a financial regulatory expert.

“I see this as very encouraging news as the SEC did not just go ahead and turn it down,”

MANCHESTER City and OKX have announced an expansion to their sponsorship deal with the crypto exchange becoming the Treble winners’ official sleeve partner.

As part of the expanded ‘multiyear’ deal, the OKX brand will feature on the left sleeve of both the men’s and women’s first team playing kits and will retain its position on the sleeves of the first team training kits, in addition to appearing across further club assets.

OKX’s partnership with Manchester City began in March 2022, expanding in July 2022 to become the club’s official training kit partner for the 2022/23 season.

ANKR AWAY AND GREEN

IN A week where steady gains being made over days of green candles quickly switched to red across the board, one token has shown remarkable resilience at maintaining its upward movement. Ethereum altcoin Ankr was able to notch a 24-hour gain of almost five per cent last night while almost the entire crypto market had pulled back into the red. This was matched with a weekly rise of almost 10 per cent and a seven-day high of $0.0265. Even more impressive was the 24-hour trading volume which touched 750 per cent as the $249m market cap token swam against the tide.

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OPINION

EDITED BY SASCHA O’SULLIVAN

Cricket’s racism problem is a lesson for firms ignoring discrimination

Will Cooling

BACKin 2019 I was on the shuttle bus from Edgbaston following England’s disappointingly limp defeat to Australia in the first Ashes Test of that summer. Despite being packed with cricket fans going back to the heart of one of England’s most racially diverse cities, everyone other than my two children were White; and to be honest, my youngest’s attendance was very much under protest.

I remember thinking at the time that this was a worrying sign for the sport’s future. The events of the past few years have shown such concern to be a gross understatement as cricket has been rocked by a series of racism scandals. We have seen Black and Asian people talk about the overt hostility and mockery they experienced at all levels of both English and Scottish cricket, and the lack of support they received when they tried to report such hate incidents.

As is often the case it took one whistleblower to pierce through the conspiracy of silence that had been created by decades of discrimination.

Azeem Rafiq had been a promising cricketer who captained England youth sides containing future legends Joe Root and Ben Stokes. But his relationship with Yorkshire County Cricket Club imploded due to the racist harass-

ment that he and other Asian players experienced at what was English cricket’s equivalent of Manchester United. At first his story was ignored or dismissed, but ultimately his testimony was the spark that ignited a debate that British cricket had been ducking for too long about how to make the game truly inclusive of all people.

Many in cricket resent the impact that Rafiq has had, even if they themselves believe that they would never be personally unwelcoming towards Black or Asian people. They see the de-

bate about racism in cricket as one that will do harm to the sport by bringing leading figures or institutions into disrepute or scaring people away from picking up the game.

But such concerns are misplaced and short-sighted. Whatever discomfort English cricket has felt in the wake of players coming forward with their experiences of racism, is discomfort it brought on itself by not being proactive when faced with clear evidence that race was distorting the opportunities available to people within cricket. That there was a real problem should

have been obvious to all. AfricanCaribbean participation in cricket had massively fallen away from its heights in the 1970s and 1980s just as Black British players started to become a real force in football. Meanwhile the high levels of participation of Asian people in recreational cricket was overwhelmingly concentrated in clubs that the community controlled where they could be free from White people’s hostility or condescension. Likewise, the inability of what few Black and Asian players there were in formal structures to secure county contracts or after re-

scorecards and

SIX months have now passed since Rishi Sunak’s big relaunch and the inauguration of his five goals. For a prime minister fond of business speak and performance indicators, his scorecard seems pretty dismal. With the election inching ever closer, this will only serve to undermine his and his party’s credibility.

In the last week, his most prominent pledges have both suffered significant setbacks. The Court of Appeal ruled against the government’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, while updated figures showed inflation was remaining stubbornly high. With little progress made on the other promises around cutting NHS waiting lists, growing the economy and reducing the national debt, Sunak is starting to look impotent.

This compounds the image prob-

lems he inherited from his predecessors – both in terms of policy and optics. The Conservatives have now had thirteen years in power and will be judged far more on delivery than promises. Failing on the former hamstrings the appeal of the latter. There are two key parts of winning elections. The first is offering the sort of things the public wants. The second is convincing people you can actually deliver them. The Tories have managed the first for four elections, but have now exhausted themselves on the second. A raft of policies have floundered, more petering out than levelling up. With each disappointment it becomes harder to pull the same trick again.

Political campaigning is essentially

meet them

a specialist form of marketing, and functions in a similar way. Bold sales pitches can win you interest, but if you fail to deliver that is all for naught. The Tories are seeing this now as their polls decline.

The danger is that voters simply don’t believe that the Conservatives can get stuff done. That no matter what they say, or aim for, the same drift and malaise will consume them, leading to more squandered opportunities and wasted potential. If there is no belief that you will follow through, even your staunchest supporters grow fatigued.

For the party, the danger is that this drift continues to a point where voters switch off entirely. Once you are no longer trusted to deliver, your pledges start to matter even less. They are mere puff in the eyes of the punters, something you are saying simply to lure them in. Cynicism starts to undermine every issue you talk about.

The Conservatives have around a

tirement secure jobs as coaches, officials or administrators should have underlined that all was not well.

Talking about race and racism is often painful, especially when people suspect that doing so will reveal past misdeeds and enduring privilege. But sometimes we must do things that are unpleasant if we are to grow and prosper. English cricket avoided no difficult conversations by ignoring the very real evidence that Black and Asian people were voting with their feet, boycotting a game that they felt disliked and demeaned them. It merely delayed those difficult conversations, thereby allowing the problems caused by racism to fester, ruining more lives and nearly destroying the largest side in the domestic game. One hopes that the implementation of The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket’s recommendations will go some way to repair the damage. Because imagine how much stronger English cricket would be today if it hadn’t chased so many people away? Or indeed, imagine how much weaker English cricket will be if it continues to exclude Black and Asian people as Britain rapidly diversifies. This is why it’s important for sports and organisations to not just sit around and passively wait for whistleblowers to prove beyond all doubt the injustices they have experienced. Seeking out evidence of discrimination and promptly addressing it is not only the legally correct and morally right thing to do, it also helps ensure that they recruit the best people to work for them and are open to all potential customers. Anti-Racism is, to be blunt, what’s best for business.

£ Will Cooling writes about politics and pop culture for the It Could be Said substack

year until the next election. That puts them in an invidious position. It is, in Westminster terms, not a lot of time to get stuff done. Things that require real heavy lifting, especially laws that must pass both Houses and then be implemented, aren’t going to have much effect. It is, however, far too long to be running down the clock, especially with an adverse economic situation.

Sunak has to find a way to build momentum. So far he has struggled to get on top of his self-appointed goals, as well as backing down when any action seems to generate a fight with his own party. If he is to stand a chance at the next election, he needs to show he has the determination, the mettle and the plan to get the results.

If he wants to have any hope of convincing the electorate, he needs to find some quick wins and show he’s busting a gut on the harder stuff. Otherwise, he runs the risk of looking like the latest incarnation of a party that habitually overpromises and underdelivers. It’s hard to get repeat business that way, and will likely prove impossible to win a fifth election on the trot.

£ John Oxley is a political commentator

Cricket is the second most popular sport in the UK after football

Sunak’s

KPIs won’t win an election if he can’t even

John Oxley

A raft of Sunak’s policies have floundered - more petering out than levelling up

WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR VIEWS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Old Lady, reviewed

[Re: Inflation falling rapidly but not enough to interest rate rise, July 5] I wholeheartedly welcome the news that the Bank of England will review how it makes and uses economic forecasts. This is long overdue. We must acknowledge the wins during a period of significant stress and more importantly learn from the lessons. The goldilocks period of excessive quantitative easing and rock bottom interest rates created a

generation of investors with a skewed attitude to risk and where moral hazard has proven to be a bad thing. This policy failure and excess liquidity has also created its own bubbles. I hope this review will be forensic in nature, carried out by both economists and generalists. The generalists, who should also have a place on the MPC, should bring pragmatism and less of a dependence on complex models and doctrine. Central Banks should be less reactive and more traditional. This will create a stronger and less reliant ecosystem going forward.

Charles White-Thomson

COMMENT AT: cityam.com/opinion

A digital pound can’t come with a trade-off for privacy

JUST a few days ago, the Bank of England and the Treasury closed a public consultation on a major financial policy change that would alter how our economy and society functions. The two institutions have put forward joint proposals to introduce a Central Bank Digital Currency, or “Britcoin”. This type of currency is on the rise, with 130 countries currently researching, developing or piloting their own versions. As a new form of money they will only be available digitally, not as physical notes and coins. Unlike cryptocurrency, they would be issued by a central bank.

Given the potential impact on the lives of ordinary people, significantly more scrutiny is needed. There could be benefits such as financial inclusion and keeping pace with digitalisation, but the threats that a digital pound would pose cannot be ignored. It could have serious ramifications for both privacy and equality, and before any step forward, these must be addressed.

To begin with, all transactions in such a system will be recorded on a “core ledger”, which can be accessed by permitted parties – or successful hackers. By creating records of people’s spending habits, CBDCs will generate vast amounts of data. Not only will this massively increase the opportunities for unwanted direct marketing and targeted ads by third parties, it will also increase the amount of information the state has access to regarding the public’s identity, income and transaction history.

Susannah Copson

and would provide a dangerous mechanism for bad actors - present or future –to exploit.

The Bank of England and government maintain they “would not see any personal data” through a CBDC system. But combined with our existing legal landscape of counter-terror, anti-money laundering, and investigatory powers laws, a CBDC would enable more financial surveillance than ever before.

There also needs to be serious legal protections around how a Britcoin is managed. Even the hypothetical possibility for a digital currency to be programmed in a certain way to direct public spending could cause anxiety and distrust in the system.

Instituting programmability functions would be very difficult to undo,

Even at a practical level, the Treasury has serious questions to answer about the extent to which a British CBDC could exacerbate digital and financial inequality in the UK. Those without digital access or the right documentation would almost certainly be left behind, with the brunt of this falling hardest on migrants, the elderly and the poorest in our society. The increasing lack of cash in circulation is already doing this.

The debate around these plans is in its infancy. However, within the context of such a serious catalogue of risks, any plans for a Britcoin must come with an equally robust blueprint to protect any threats a digital pound would create. So far, the plans have been criticised as a “solution in search of a problem”, driven by the desire to sprint ahead in the innovation race and do digital currency first; rather getting it right.

A digital pound would undeniably transform the financial landscape and rewrite the relationship between the government, banks, and the public. It’s vital that the creation of a CBDC is considered democratically and isn’t quietly ushered into creation.

The risks are too great to allow a complete rehaul of our financial systems and society without the adequate protections. In racing to innovate, the Bank of England and government must not accept a privacy trade-off.

£ Susannah Copson is a Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch

A digital pound would transform the financial landscape for better or worse

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the chief exec of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, was considering dropping oil from his company’s name to make it look just a bit more green. Jaber is also the chair of this year’s Cop28 conference in Dubai.

GOING OUT

HIT U.S. MUSICAL IS LOST IN TRANSLATION FOR BRITS

intrusive thoughts in his mind, from his daily Self Loathing to a “Financial Sidekick,” all of whom serve to further crush his confidence as he tries to write his big break for the stage.

A STRANGE LOOP BARBICAN THEATRE

A

It closed in January on Broadway, and now writer Michael R Jackson’s dizzying piece has transferred to the Barbican Centre.

Buzz had been building around A Strange Loop for months ahead of its premiere, and in a way that felt unusually strong for a new piece of writing not yet staged in the UK. Could it really be that good?

Marketed as a meta musical, it reflects the real life experiences of Jackson when he was working as an usher at the Lion King musical in New York. Protagonist Usher is a young gay man who is systematically oppressed by society, whether through the way he is treated on sex apps like Grindr, or by what he calls the “white gaytriarchy.”

A handful of other performers play

I must acknowledge here that I’m a white critic writing about a seminal black musical, and that fact – and the fact that many other reviews of this piece will be written by people who cannot relate directly to the themes –makes me a little uncomfortable. Nevertheless, A Strange Loop didn’t live up to the hype for me.

Strange Loop won every Best Musical award in New York, and was nominated for 11 Tonys. It was a New York Times Critics’ Pick and collected the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, one of only 10 musicals to do so, including 2015’s Hamilton.It’s filled with cultural references that just won’t land with UK audiences, such as recurring mentions of US actor Tyler Perry, which form a key part of the story. Most Brits don’t know who Tyler Perry is and these references take you out of the story.

Worse, the central concept of the ‘strange loop’ of repeating circumstances doesn’t reach the physical, mental or figurative heights that would make this a ground-breaking piece of work, instead feeling like a laboured metaphor for someone who’s stuck in life.

There’s value to that: Jackson stages interesting conversations around stigmatised subjects, such as penis sizeshaming, and body shaming more broadly, that shackle Usher in his mental cage.

Stephen Brackett’s direction is often tenacious; during one imaginary scene in which Usher goes on Grindr,

a series of spiteful, shaming men prowl around him in a way that feels seriously creepy.

Topless black male actors, playing men who assume uncomfortably dominant positions over Usher, declare that they are white guys in a thrilling subversion of power. A sublime set piece near the end takes us into a world of gospel music and kitsch US sit-coms that show how family settings, and other supposedly utopian scenarios, can be saccharine but not sweet.

It’s an audacious set of themes, with a powerhouse lead performance by Kyle Ramar Freeman, who also led the cast on Broadway. But the takeaway is how fascinating it is that a smash hit show in New York can feel middling –sometimes even baffling –in London. Some of the reasons, like the cultural references, are obvious. More broadly, Americans do have a slightly different sense of humour to us.

The archetype of the high-soaring individual, raised into a challenging environment and breaking free, is also the sort of heroic arc that’s distinctly American and not very British. The same goes for the conclusion, which tries to sum too much up instead of leaving us with any questions.

Oh, and one hour forty minutes straight through is too long: it’s desperate for an interval. But even considering these issues, the gulf in reception on either side of the pond is mystifying.

TOM CRUISE IS BACK BUT THIS FRANCHISE IS SHOWING ITS AGE

FILM

RECOMMENDED MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE DEAD

RECKONING – PART 1

DIR. CHRISTOPHER MCQUARRIE

BY VICTORIA LUXFORD

B

The terribly titled Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning –Part 1 is the seventh film in the spy franchise. It sees IMF agent (it stands for Impossible Mission Force, not International Monetary Fund, although the latter would be a movie City A.M. could get behind) Ethan Hunt brought out of hiding to save the world from The Entity, a genius-level Artificial Intelligence that has gained sentience and gone rogue.

Various governments around the

world want the tech for themselves, and Hunt must best both them and The Entity itself.

Making AI the villain of the movie is a double-edged sword. It’s certainly a topical choice, with the whole world speculating on what the rapidly evolving space might mean for our species.

arbie vs Oppenheimer may be the summer showdown everyone’s talking about, but one movie legend would like to remind you that he’s back. Despite some occasional headlinegrabbing bouts of odd behaviour, Tom Cruise is one of the last true movie stars, someone who can get crowds to turn up based on his name alone. But with both Indiana Jones and Batman meeting muted responses this year, does the nostalgia of his flagship Mission Impossible franchise still hold up?On the other hand, computer programs do not lend themselves particularly well to the visual medium of film. Here, a flashy name and wavy computer display give The Entity some presence, but after Sean Harris and Henry Cavill respectively impressed as M:I villains, something is missing this time around.

Esai Morales is menacing as The Entity’s human advocate, a man with a connection to Ethan’s past, and there’s a delightful henchwoman in Marvel actor Pom Klementieff, who plays the deadly assassin Paris. However, a flesh-and-bones mastermind would have completed the picture.

What isn’t missing is action. The film comes in at just under three hours, and it’s no exaggeration to say that half of it is made up of set pieces.

Whether he’s engaged in a tense catand-mouse chase around an airport or facing off against scooters in Italy, Cruise proves he can still deliver thrills almost three decades on.

This is all complemented by the kind of taut spy yarn that kickstarted the franchise, with the original 1996 Brian De Palma film being referenced

through both camera work and the return of Henry Czerny as former IMF director Eugene Kittridge.

But a shaky reliance to twists and turns, conveyed through a series of whispered meetings about the fate of the world, leads a ludicrously overplotted film; it ends on a cliffhanger that will be lost on you if you weren’t paying close attention.

Still, masterful storytelling isn’t why the crowds come. For the seventh time, Cruise proves himself an all-action hero and even sprinkles in some comedy with the help of new co-star Hatley Atwell. The British star plays a professional thief caught up in the espionage, and brings verve and energy to an otherwise underwritten role.

Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames are still on fine form as Ethan’s back-up men, while Rebecca Ferguson makes a thin return as his beloved co-agent, Ilsa. One female character who doesn’t feel like an afterthought is Vanessa Kirby as arms dealer Alanna, exuding charisma in a number of great scenes.

Director Christopher McQuarrie raised the bar with previous Mission movies Ghost Protocol and Fallout. Here, he falls short of that high standard, delivering a blockbuster that’s always thrilling but never groundbreaking. I expect more from next year’s Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning –Part 2 (and I’ll still hate the title when it comes out).

A PROPER WIMBLEDON BITE

The world’s most famous tennis tournament isn’t all about strawberries and cream –but they certainly help.

If you’ve struggled to secure tickets for centre court, heading over to the Great Marlborough St outpost of event sponsor Lavazza might just be the next best thing.

The flagship store is offering a Wimbledon Afternoon Tea designed to get you in the mood for the highs and lows of championship tennis. For £24 you will be served a host of dishes including:

£ Strawberry and basil macaron

£ Raspberry and cream choux

£ Honey cake

£ Focaccia dough with burst cheese

£ Courgettes, cheese, and salmon toast with raspberry dressing

£ Radish and endive salad

There will be other goodies on the menu, all washed down, of course, by a classic cup of Lavazza coffee or a nice cup of tea.

£ The menu is available at Lavazza Great Marlborough St; for more information go to lavazza.co.uk

PLAN YOUR DIARY WITH OUR MATRIX

SADLER'S WELLS FLAMENCO FESTIVAL

Proving that dance performances don’t have to be serious affairs, the annual Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival is a riotous celebration of the human body in motion, full of sensuous, steamy displays.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE FESTIVAL

Missing the Chelsea Flower Show? Head over to Henry VIII’s old haunt and soak up the pollen from an even bigger display of flora. Highlights include the festival of roses and the floral marquee.

SMALL HOURS AT THE PICKLE FACTORY

Get down and dirty at The Oval’s Pickle Factory this Friday, with Youandewan bringing his label Small Hours to the venue for its first UK label showcase, featuring legends of the Berlin underground house scene.

COPACABANA AT THE LONDON CABARET CLUB

Hit the famous Copacabana this weekend with this evening at the London Cabaret Club, which includes dinner and a show followed by drinks on the terrace and dancing until late into the night.

RECOMMENDED

ELEMENTAL DIR. PETER SOHN

BY VICTORIA LUXFORD

Elemental arrives on these shores with the unwanted title of worst performing Pixar movie. Struggling to compete with Spider-man: Into The Spider-verse, can the family comedy draw audiences here?

It imagines a world in which the elements – earth, fire, water, and air –are people living happily in separate communities, avoiding contact with each other. This is easy for Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis), an ambitious young fire element working to take over her family business. But her certainty is shaken when she falls for goofy water element Wade (Mamoudou Athie).

Few studios can build worlds as imaginatively as Pixar. The animation that brings the story to life is remarkable, and Elemental is never less than visually gorgeous.

It does, however, all feel a bit familiar. Pixar has walked this path before, telling many wonderful stories about characters finding out what truly makes them happy. Elemental suffers by comparison, with the studio's high bar meaning that simply being good constitutes a disappointment. There's the occasional lump-in-throat moment, but the Pixar name on the poster means audiences come expecting more.

Like director Peter Sohn's last film, 2015's The Good Dinosaur, there are many parts to Elemental that will entertain and divert; there's just nothing here that's particularly memorable.

Get in the mood for the big games with an afternoon tea designed for tennis aficionados

A surprise hit in the US, A Strange Loop has now landed a huge West End run. Adam Bloodworth speaks to the man who dreamed it up

Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, becoming the second ever musical to win the accolade. The other show? A little-known show called Hamilton. On Broadway, it landed 11 Tonys, and has now opened for a long run at the Barbican Theatre. ‘Hype’ is the word to describe A Strange Loop, arguably the most talked-about theatre opening this year.

What’s garnered the attention? It’s a warts-and-all depiction of what it’s like to be “fat, black and gay,” according to writer Michael R. Jackson, who worked as an usher at The Lion King in New York 20 years ago and used his experiences to inform this story about finding your identity.

A Strange Loop is a meta examination of a young writer who works as an usher, who’s writing a show about being a young writer who works as an usher. Off the back of the show’s New York success, Jackson’s rise has been seismic. Celebrities helping to bankroll the piece include Jennifer Hudson, RuPaul and Alan Cumming.

Four years on from the show’s offBroadway premiere, Jackson’s new life is a significant departure from his former career as an usher. “My highest aspiration was only ever off Broadway,” says Jackson. “I didn't imagine this show would make it to Broadway, so when that became a possibility, it was like this other, new dream came true.”

What about a West End opening in one of the smartest theatres in London, one with a heritage of putting on buzzy musicals like Anything Goes? “I would not have believed you,” he says. “This was not on my bingo card.”

“I was just struck by seeing this fourth incarnation of the show and thinking of all the years it was just me in my apartment, toiling away in obscurity. To see that it’s travelled this far, it gives me this weird boost of confidence because sometimes I forget about the power of it.

“I was reminded that there are people for whom this show will really resonate, which reminds me why I wrote it in the first place. It comes from me standing in the back of a theatre as an usher and seeing a huge audience embrace a piece of art and wanting to write something that a huge audience would embrace.

Everything about A Strange Loop is a strange loop.”

So has he been enjoying cocktails and japes with RuPaul and Jennifer Hudson since he became famous?

“The show has introduced me to a lot of interesting people,” he laughs. “But that doesn't mean I immediately de-

A Strange Loop director Michael R Jackson on writing the biggest musical since Hamilton

velop deep friendships with them. The entertainment business is still the entertainment business; people are very fickle and fleeting. In many ways my friend circles have gotten smaller over the last couple of years because I've had to really be discerning about who I put my trust in.”

The show is an “exploration of identity, about the exploration of the idea of ‘I’ or ‘self’”. In the two decades since Jackson worked at The Lion King, his impression of what his own queer, black identity looks like has drastically changed. Whereas in the early noughties he ro-

manticised the idea of partying with other gay people in places like New York’s queer destination Fire Island, these days his definition is more unusual.

“I’ve had to rethink what my relationship to the word ‘queer’ is – queer also means straight. My queer circle is not necessarily just people who are LGBTQIA+. It might mean people who have different views than I do, people who you would not expect I’d be friends with or in conversation with. It might not even be people who I agree with all the time. But there’s a queerness to that.

“There’s so much homogenous thinking and rigid political thought about how one has to be in this world and what’s acceptable and what are the ‘right’ cultural politics. I don't subscribe to that. I’m very much a ‘live and let live’ kinda human and artist and citizen, and so I've had to expand my friend group and expand who I’m willing to communicate with. And so I would say I do have a queer circle, but that doesn’t just mean homosexual or trans.

“The thing I learned during the pandemic is I just cannot become part of

the hive mind of online thinking. The thing about ‘cancel culture’ is it only is something we talk about because we live online. If you don't live online you can’t ‘cancel’ anyone. If all of free speech is just about your Twitter account and that becomes how people understand who you are, that is part of the darkness in the world that I’ve been fighting to get away from. I don't want a queer community that’s just based on that. I want it to be about actual people, dealing with each other and being honest and vulnerable with each other.”

A Strange Loop is one of the first big Broadway shows to really grapple with many of these issues, to examine them through one multi-faceted person, and to show how none of it is simple: “You can’t get away from identity politics, but at the core of A Strange Loop is a story about a human being.”

£ A Strange Loop plays at The Barbican until 9 September

I didn't imagine this show would make it to Broadway, so when that became a possibility, it was like this other, new dream came true

Main: Actor Kyle Ramar Freeman who plays the lead, Usher, in A Strange Loop; Inset: Writer Michael R Jackson

THE PUNTER

Wally Pyrah previews today’s card from Happy Valley Vincent Ho Hunting Luck to pip Purton as top Valley jockey

HAPPY Valley in Hong Kong holds its penultimate meeting of the season when racing gets under way with a nine-race programme starting at 11.45am today.

Although the championship titles for jockey and trainer were wrapped up some time ago, with jockey Zac Purton claiming his sixth championship and trainer John Size an unparalleled 12th, there is still plenty to play for at the Valley before the season closes.

Most superlatives have already been used to describe Purton’s incredible season, and he is now within touching distance of eclipsing Joao Moreria’s all-time seasonal record of 170 wins,

needing just five victories from the remaining four meetings.

However, he still finds himself chasing young pretender Vincent Ho to become top jockey at Happy Valley.

The Zac-Man, for so long the master of riding this unique, tight-turning track, is two behind Ho with just a week to go and won’t take kindly to losing his unofficial title.

Purton has two stand-out performers on paper from his seven rides; notably course and distance record holder Stoltz in the Hong Kong Park Handicap (12.15pm) over five furlongs and Reward Smile in the Waterfall Bay Park Handicap (3.50pm) over six furlongs.

Ho can strike back when he renews

his association with probable banker of the meeting, JOYFUL HUNTER, in division two of the Victoria Park Handicap (3.15pm) over six furlongs.

The Francis Lui-trained gelding looked the real deal when winning on his debut last month, coming with a storming late run and producing the fastest closing sectional time of the whole nine-race meeting.

His trainer has always held this son of Darci Brahma in high regard and reckons he has made further improvement, judging by his subsequent trackwork. Talking of top jockey or trainer at the Valley this season, trainer Caspar Fownes, for so long the proclaimed ‘King of the Valley’, finds himself

under pressure to retain that title, with rival Francis Lui snapping at his heels.

Fownes currently has a tally of 30 winners at the Valley this season, but finds himself only one win in front of Lui, who has two stand-out chances during the action in Stoltz and Joyful Hunter.

Former four-time champion trainer Fownes, who needs just one win to reach his half century for the current campaign, will be hoping that LUCKY GOR can return to winning form in the first division of the Victoria Park Handicap (2.45pm) over six furlongs.

Fownes has had to be patient with this talented sprinter since he won over the course and distance in Octo-

ber, as he suffered a leg injury which curtailed his career for six months and only returned to action last month.

Two encouraging performances showed he had lost none of his ability, and he now finally returns to his optimum distance with winning jockey Luke Ferraris back on board.

Despite carrying top-weight, everything appears in his favour, and he should be hard to beat in this company.

POINTERS

Lucky Gor 2.45pm Happy Valley Joyful Hunter 3.15pm Happy Valley

Smart Idea to play Lor’s galloper against the favourite

YOU DON’T need to be a rocket scientist to know that Reward Smile will go off as a short-priced favourite in the Waterfall Bay Park Handicap (3.50pm) over six furlongs.

The former UK galloper, who was then trained by Hugo Palmer, now represents the all-conquering John Size and Zac Purton partnership, and already has a win in Hong Kong by his name after he scored on his

debut back in April. Life hasn’t gone according to plan since then, with three consecutive runner-up spots, including when chasing home Wonder Kit from a wide draw on his latest appearance just over a fortnight ago. This time, with an important inside gate in his favour, his chance looks obvious, but in a typical ultracompetitive handicap it may pay to

look elsewhere to find some value. One horse who stands out like a sore thumb is the Frankie Lor-trained SMART IDEA, a winner of four races, who has finished in the frame in nine of his 14 starts over the course and distance.

The four-year-old suffered a setback with a bleeding attack back in January but returned to the track after a four-month absence looking

a rejuvenated galloper. After catching the eye when beaten in a three-way photo on his return in May, he subsequently suffered slight interference, before finishing strongly and closing fast behind Dancing Code last month. His closing sectional times in that contest make for impressive reading, with his final split times all faster than the standard.

With a middle draw that should allow him to take up his preferred midfield spot, he is capable of causing a surprise with his customary late charge down the home straight.

POINTERS

Smart Idea e/w 3.50pm Happy Valley

Vincent Ho narrowly leads Zac Purton in the race to be leading jockey at Happy Valley this season

Wood can spark Ashes revival after Long Room woe

IT’S incredible. Today sees a mustwin Ashes Test match for England against Australia and there seems to be more chatter about what’s going on off field than on it.

The unsavoury scenes in the Lord’s Long Room were not good for cricket but I do hope nothing changes – except the behaviour of the minority –with the tradition of it.

I remember when I made my Test debut against India in 2007, it was at Lord’s and it is a moment I will never forget. Walking through the pavilion at the Home of Cricket and being that close to fans is amazing, even looking

OPINION

SPORT COMMENT

Ed Warner

THROUGH the cloud of orange powder, I couldn’t check the privilege of the protester hauled off the Lord’s pitch by Jonny Bairstow last week to see whether he is “Type K”. No idea whether he ticks all the elitist boxes in the report of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, published the day before the second Ashes Test. Or whether he even likes the game; is perhaps a useful left-arm trundler or middle-order nurdler.

The new-ish chair of English cricket, Richard Thompson, looked pretty hollowed out when responding to the ICEC report. Short leg: the Ashes hopes of England’s men and women hang by slender threads.

Mid wicket: he has inherited a long TV commitment to The Hundred, the competition that Thompson derided when chair at Surrey but now seems commercially compelled to defend.

Long off: the implementation of all or most of the ICEC’s recommendations, which will likely drain the England and Wales Cricket Board’s energy and, crucially, its finances.

I’ve no personal stake in the current fight over cricket’s reputation. I simply buy tickets to watch the game and have

CRICKET COMMENT

Chris Tremlett

back now. I’ve had nightmares about being in there and needing to go out to bat but not having my pads on – it’s a cricketing scene instilled in my memory. I hope there’s a solution where this experience can be kept.

But on to Headingley and a decisive Test for England. It looks as though rain may force a draw and hand Australia the Ashes but we live in hope –we all remember what happened in 2019 when Leeds last hosted a Test against Australia. We were treated to another Ben Stokes masterclass last week – one of the all-time great innings – so why not this week?

And I am over the moon to see the return of Moeen Ali and Mark Wood. We all knew Wood would be in the mix if he was fit and he takes the place of Jimmy Anderson, who hasn’t hit his

usual heights thus far. Wood offers something special; he’s quick and threatening to face and will be a slight unknown for the Australians to front up to on the Leeds crease.

And it is only smart to return to a full-time spinner. We have seen in the past how this pitch can turn and Moeen will be vital as the match goes on. I just hope his injured finger is able to hold up.

STEP UP

England’s batters need to step up too and Chris Woakes will be key in adding some runs to the total as an impressive

IN A MONSOON WITHOUT A BRUMBRELLA

been giving some informal commercial advice to one of the first class counties.

And I’m not Type K, so can’t be personally affronted by the societal stereotypes drawn by the ICEC.

THE FIVE TYPES

I feel decently placed then to observe that by claiming cricket is institutionally elitist - racist, sexist and classist - the ICEC is impugning innumerable people in the game. That, plus the hectoring tone of much of its 300-plus page report (which brooks no dissent), and its kitchen sink of recommendations, may prove counterproductive - emboldening defences rather than collaboratively dismantling them.

The ICEC creates five social “types” in constructing a report that the ECB itself commissioned in response to the racism furore engulfing Yorkshire.

Type K: White men, private educated, who are straight and cisgender, and do not report a disability; Type L: men from non-White ethnic minority

groups; Type M: women from nonWhite ethnic minority groups; Type N: White men; Type O: White women. Just five? Such broad, homogenous groupings? Are these generalisations a valid means of analysing a complex problem? None of which is to deny that cricket has a problem –it very clearly does –but that such a blunt approach and conclusions from the commission may prove a misfire.

A business profile of Thompson last weekend made much of his having finished his formal education with a clutch of O Levels at a state school. Type N not K, then. But an establishment figure within cricket nonetheless, having been supported into his ECB post by

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almost all of the counties last autumn.

I fear Thompson’s tenure, however long, will be subsumed by the aftershocks of the ICEC’s report. Its recommendations would take years to implement. Some are effectively outside the ECB’s direct control. Others need massive investment/subsidisation. Many require a re-engineering of the amateur game that could overwhelm volunteers possibly miffed at being unfairly labelled elit-

One parallel is Seb Coe’s first two terms as president of World Athletics.

all-rounder. It is a shame to see Ollie Pope ruled out by injury — the England vice-captain is obviously seen as a core part of this current Test side and his loss will be felt, even if he hasn’t scored at his usual rate in this series.

I saw an astonishing stat this week that England’s collective batting average is higher than Australia’s. It just shows how close this series is, despite the tourists being 2-0 up.

I hope England can get a win up at Headingley. Stokes has spoken of the series from now as a three-match competition where England can win 3-0. Let’s see if they can make it happen.

He has worked admirably to tackle governance and corruption failings in track and field. However, its product has marked time over the past eight years, losing ground to other sports while Coe has focused on structural reform.

MONSOON

It is reported that one consultancy, Oakwell Sports Advisory, estimates the cost to the ECB of implementing the ICEC’s more expensive recommendations to be £15m a year.

Cricket in England is in hock to the revenue generated by the ECB from its men’s team –primarily broadcast income and sponsorship. Without it the infrastructure of the sport would collapse. The cost of reform at all levels of the game will ultimately have to be shouldered by that one sporting asset.

A cricket insider suggested to me that a silver lining from the report is that Thompson will be able to clear the stables at the ECB. But redundancy programmes are typically expensive. And the governing body will need to add specialist staff to implement an effective equality programme.

The ECB had reserves of £35m at 31 January 2023. Pretty good cover for a rainy day, but right now Thompson and team are stranded in the middle of the wicket in a monsoon without a brumbrella. Establishment figure or not, he needs and deserves help from all quarters, and all five “types”.

£ Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com

What ‘Type’ was the Just Stop Oil protestor at Lord’s?

England training squad keeps the status quo, that’s no bad thing

WHEN I looked at Steve Borthwick’s 36-man England World Cup training squad, which will be finalised next month, my first feeling was that it represented the status quo. There’s no huge shock inclusion; no Sam Burgess or Willi Heinz to throw fans into a frenzy.

And while there are some shocking omissions – Alex Mitchell and Zach Mercer – England have alternatives that are quality and able to make an impact. But World Cup squads don’t really need a bolter; why shock the England camp with an unknown outsider who will offer little but quotes for fans to over-analyse?

The 2015 World Cup, when England crashed out in the group stages, saw a fallout which cost Stuart Lancaster his job. But everyone was talking about the choice to pick Sam Burgess and the lessthan-ideal World Cup he ended up having. In 2019 there was a bolter in Heinz at scrum-half who, as part of a disastrous policy to take just two No9s, got injured and led to a player – Ben Spencer – being thrown in at the deep end in the World Cup final.

So this year let the other teams try and fail with bolters and just go with what you know, Steve.

His five uncapped players are of a good quality and have a realistic shot of displacing a more experienced name when the final squad is announced on 7 August. Harlequins winger Cadan Murley has been in squads before and offers the kind of strength that Jack Nowell or Jonny May do.

Tom Willis has been brilliant at Bordeaux since his move following the collapse of Wasps, while Theo Dan has been one of the standout hookers – and almost guaranteed a spot following the injury to stalwart Luke Cowan-Dickie.

But the interest for me lies with backrow Tom Pearson, formerly of London Irish and now with Northampton Saints, and Val Rapava-Ruskin of Gloucester.

These are boys who have been genuinely outstanding for their clubs in the last 12 months. Georgian-qualified Rapava-Ruskin has been, by far, the best

RUGBY COMMENT

Ollie Phillips

loosehead in the Premiership.

And Pearson is explosive, a proper Lewis Moody-style flanker. He is a real workhorse who can carry and step well.

So while there’s no Burgess or Heinz, the fringe players Borthwick has picked reinforce the feeling of status quo, but with the ability to add to the squad without causing too much of a stir.

IRISH ON THE MOVE

It is always sad when players don’t get new contracts, and it’s even worse when a whole club goes bust.

So it is great to see so many London Irish lads picking up deals at other Premiership clubs. Will Joseph’s move to Harlequins is a solid one,

2023 RUGBY WORLD CUP BAROMETER

PLAYER OF THE WEEK England No10 Owen Farrell

Even though he was backed in the Six Nations there was no guarantee of Saracens fly-half Owen Farrell being on the plane to France –head coach Steve Borthwick could have preferred former Leicester player George Ford or maverick Marcus Smith. But Farrell has been named England captain –with Ellis Genge and Courtney Lawes his deputies –for the Rugby World Cup in a move that goes a long was to telling us how Borthwick wants to shape up this autumn.

WHO’S HOT WHO’S NOT

as is Pearson’s move to Northampton. There were a lot of talented players at London Irish so I am just happy to see players finding futures.

ALL BLACK FEVER

The Rugby Championship – the southern hemisphere’s version of the Six Nations – kicks off this weekend and while the reigning world champions South Africa will fancy their chances and Australia will be aiming to cause a fuss under Eddie Jones, you just cannot write off New Zealand.

No matter how good or bad the All Blacks are at any given time in the World Cup cycle, they’re always there or thereabouts when it matters.

£ Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance, experts in leadership development and behavioural change. Follow Ollie on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

A LOOK AT THE FIVE UNCAPPED PLAYERS

CADAN MURLEY

Scored 15 tries for Harlequins,which was the most by any player in the Premiership.

TOM PEARSON

The London Irish man won breakthrough player of the year in the English game.

VAL RAPAVA-RUSKIN

Was voted the best loosehead in the

league with the Gloucester player even completing a coveted 50:22 kick.

THEO DAN

Impressed in the final for Saracens when Jamie George was taken off.

TOM WILLIS

Has been outstanding for Bordeaux since the collapse of Wasps.

Having played his entire career in New Zealand, 23-year-old forward Taine Plumtree has been called up by Warren Gatland and Wales.

South African prop Ox Nche will miss much of the Rugby Championship with injury. This will be a concern for the Boks going forward.

One of the first names on many people’s England squad lists, Zach Mercer was ditched from Borthwick’s squad last week.

Pearson has been a breakthrough player across this season

Having ditched the Springboks to play for Ireland, lock Jean Kleyn has returned to the South Africa set up in an astonishing move.

SPORT

Heads ought to roll at golf tours over LIV U-turn, says Poulter

FRANK DALLERES

IAN Poulter has called for heads to roll at the top of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour if there is to be a way back for him and other players who joined LIV Golf.

The chances of a reconciliation – and possible Ryder Cup return – appeared to increase with last month’s proposed union between the three circuits under a new single entity.

But ill feeling remains among some LIV Golf players such as Poulter and fellow Englishman Lee Westwood over their treatment by the two long-established tours.

Asked whether it would help “if a few heads rolled”, Poulter said: “Yes. Absolutely. People need to be accountable for their actions. There needs to be changes.”

Poulter did not mention individuals by name but Westwood appeared to reference PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan when he said: “There’s definitely a lot of people looking like hypocrites now.”

When LIV Golf launched a year ago, Monahan cited 9/11 as a reason for not dealing with the Saudi-backed circuit. Last month he agreed to work with LIV under the new entity, bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Speaking ahead of LIV Golf London this week, Westwood added: “He’s sat in front of the RBC signs, and RBC did

CRICKET

RISE FROM THE ASHES

England need another Headingley miracle, writes Chris Tremlett

the deal for Aramco to go public and made all that money from Saudi Arabia. The next minute he’s mentioning 9/11 families. It’s really uncomfortable to watch.”

Both players said they had continued to be penalised by the DP World Tour despite the proposed union. Poulter reported a £150,000 fine the day after the truce was announced; Westwood was denied entry to the Senior Open later this month.

Yet they have not given up hope of captaining Europe’s Ryder Cup team one day, with Brooks Koepka tipped for inclusion in the US team later this year despite play-

Murray to face Tsitsipas today at Wimbledon

MATT HARDY

ing on LIV Golf’s tour.

“If Brooks plays it would be silly for that not to happen,” said Westwood.

Poulter added: “There’s no question that having a conversation at a sensible level would lead you to believe that one day you might have the opportunity.”

What the calendar looks like once golf’s mega-merger is finalised remains uncertain, but both men – coowners of the Majesticks team –believe LIV will continue.

Poulter said: “There’s a multi-year deal with Valderrama announced last week, which is a pretty good indication where the commitment is.”

ANDY Murray will take on Stefanos Tsitsipas today in the second round of Wimbledon after the Greek player overcame Dominic Thiem in a thrilling five-set match.

The fifth seed’s Austrian opponent took the opening set before Tsitsipas hit back by winning the second and third sets.

Thiem ensured that the match would go to a decider when he won a tiebreak in the fourth set before Tsitsipas edged it 7-6 fifth set.

The result means the fancied Greek star will take on former Wimbledon winner and British favourite Andy Murray later today.

England turn to Wood, Moeen and Woakes for must-win Ashes Test

MATT HARDY

ENGLAND have rung the changes for today’s crucial third Ashes Test against Australia at Headingley. Head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes have made three alterations from the side that lost at Lord’s on Sunday to go 2-0 down in the series and leave Australia only needing a draw from the remaining three matches to retain the urn.

Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Moeen Ali will come into the side and replace Josh Tongue, James Anderson and the injured vicecaptain Ollie Pope. “I had to think

about what the game would look like if I didn’t bowl any overs,” said Stokes, who has a chronic knee problem. “Last week, I am not going to lie, it did take it out of me.

“That is not to say I am not going to bowl. When the game is on the line things might change, but it was a tough week last week.

“The message is ‘we know what we have to do as a team and do whatever you have to do, feel however you have to feel to get the best out of yourself’.”

Last time Headingley hosted a Test in the Ashes, in 2019, Stokes’ individual masterclass secured a dramatic England victory.

“I am not expecting anybody to support me,” Tsitsipas joked when asked about the second round meeting. “That’s not my first rodeo.

“A few years ago when I was a kid I remember witnessing his first Wimbledon title [2013 against Novak Djokovic] and thinking about it now it gives me goosebumps because I felt what he went through.

“He is someone that has done so much for the sport.

“That court over there [Centre] is like his living room. I have never played there.”

Elsewhere on Brit watch, Jodie Burrage fell to Russian No1 Daria Kasatkina 6-0 6-2 in her first

appearance on Centre Court while Arthur Fery was beaten in straight 7-5 6-4 6-3 sets by Daniil Medvedev. Heather Watson lost 6-2 7-5 to 10th seed Barbora Krejcikova while fellow Brit George Loffhagen went down fighting to sixth seed Holger Rune, losing 7-6 6-3 6-2.

Sonay Kartal completed the British interest on day three at the All England Club with a 6-0 6-4 defeat to 25th seed Madison Keys Environmental protestors from the Just Stop Oil managed to infiltrate SW19 despite increased security but were only able to discharge confetti on No18 Court, which was cleared up during a rain delay with minimal disruption.

£60m Mount joins Man Utd as Blues’ fire sale continues

MATT HARDY

MANCHESTER United yesterday confirmed the £60m signing of England midfielder Mason Mount from Chelsea.

The 24-year-old has left his boyhood club for Erik ten Hag’s United for an initial fee of £55m, plus a potential additional £5m in performancerelated bonuses.

“It’s never easy leaving the club where you grew up, but Manchester United will provide an exciting new challenge for the next phase of my career,” Mount said.

“Having competed against them, I know just how strong a squad it is that

I’m joining, and I can’t wait to be part of this group’s drive to win major trophies. Everyone can see that the club has made big steps forward under Erik ten Hag.”

Mount came through the Chelsea youth set-up and, following loan spells at Vitesse and Derby County, made 279 appearances for the first team, scoring 58 goals.

He is the latest name to depart Stamford Bridge as part of a major summer clear-out that has already raised around £150m. Kai Havertz, Kalidou Koulibaly, N’Golo Kante, Edouard Mendy, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben LoftusCheek and Tiemoue Bakayoko have all left the west London club.

GOLF

Ian Poulter said he had not given up on the Ryder Cup captaincy

TENNIS

FOOTBALL

Stefanos Tsitsipas toppled Dominic Thiem in five thrilling sets on No2 Court and will play Andy Murray in the second round