Kwasi Kwarteng to lift cap on banker bonuses; John Lewis slumps to £99m loss –as it happened

A picture of The Queen amongst the blacked-out windows of the John Lewis flagship store on Oxford Street. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

3.01pm BST

Closing summary

The UK chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is reportedly planning to scrap caps on bankers’ bonuses in a controversially timed move to attract more talent to the City of London.

A source close to Kwarteng confirmed the chancellor was considering lifting the cap but emphasised that no decision had been taken. The Unite union said “workers will be appalled and angry” at these plans, at a time when the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has repeatedly called for pay restraint.

Kwarteng will deliver his emergency mini-budget to bring in winter tax cuts for millions of people and set out more detail on energy support next Friday, the Guardian understands.

The John Lewis Partnership has warned its annual staff bonus is at risk this year after it slumped to a first half loss of £99m and said the outlook in the run-up to Christmas was “uniquely uncertain”.

The group, which is staff-owned and includes the Waitrose supermarket chain, blamed soaring inflation for the loss in the 26 weeks to 30 July, which compared with a £29m loss before tax in the same period last year.

Shell has appointed Wael Sawan, a 25-year company veteran , as successor to Ben van Beurden, the company’s long standing chief standing chief executive.

Our other stories today:

Setting a new example in environmental corporate leadership, the billionaire owner of Patagonia is giving the entire company away to fight the Earth’s climate devastation, he announced on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading, folks. We’ll be back tomorrow. Bye! – JK

Updated at 3.03pm BST

2.54pm BST

UK emergency budget next Friday

Kwasi Kwarteng will deliver his emergency mini-budget to bring in winter tax cuts for millions of people and set out more detail on energy support next Friday, according to sources, report our political editor Pippa Crerar and our economics editor Larry Elliott.

Although normal politics has been paralysed by the death of the Queen, the chancellor and his team have been putting the final touches to the budget with the aim of announcing it once the country emerges from national mourning.

However, with Liz Truss expected to be at the UN general assembly in New York next week and the government also planning to set out its priorities for the NHS, there was limited time available for a fiscal event.