Closing summary
Time to recap…..
The former boss of Wilko has tearfully told MPs she was devastated by the collapse of the budget retailer as she claimed the family’s multimillion-pound fortune was not enough to rescue it.
Lisa Wilkinson, the company’s former chair who is granddaughter of the founder and was an important shareholder, was hauled in front of MPs on the business and trade committee after Wilko collapsed in August with the loss of more than 12,000 jobs, £625m in debt and a £50m pension black hole.
Wilkinson said £15m in dividends paid out to shareholders in the past nine years were in a holding company owned by family trusts and tied up in investments that were difficult to access.
Wilkinson told MPs:
“You today have given another opportunity to thank team members and customers will thank them to dying day. I appreciate each and every one of them. They were the bedrock of Wilko.
“I am devastated that we have let each and every one of those people down with the insolvency. I don’t know how to put into words how sad I am that we have let down all our customers team members, suppliers and advisers.”
MPs also heard that Wilko had lost £40m through a botched foreign-exchange-hedging trade, while the GMB union blamed “weak leadership” and Wilko’s failure to adapt to a changing market.
Nadine Houghton, the national officer of GMB, told MPs the collapse of Wilko was not inevitable, adding:
We think that actually, what brought about the collapse was weak leadership, and a failure of Wilko to adapt to a changing marketplace.
Here’s the full story:
And here’s the rest of today’s main stories:
Updated
Lloyds chief urges UK policymakers to keep their hands of banks’ profits
The chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group has fired a warning shot at UK policymakers, saying measures such as a windfall tax on banks should be ruled out before what is expected to be a hard-fought election year.
With Labour largely silent on its plans for City regulation despite its current commanding lead in the polls, Charlie Nunn said City firms and investors alike were “looking for more certainty and clarity around the future”.
His comments appear to be a call for assurances that the UK will not follow some European governments, which have put new taxes on banks accused of reaping billions in extra profit from rising interest rates over the past year.
Nunn urged policymakers to keep their hands off profits, dividend payments to shareholders and the amount of interest paid to lenders that park cash at the Bank of England.
More here:
