Closing summary
Time to wrap up
The chief executive of Britain’s largest supermarket, Tesco, more than doubled his pay package to nearly £10m last year.
Ken Murphy received £9.93m during Tesco’s last financial year, up from £4.44m a year earlier.
Much of the increase was due to a Performance Share Plan (PSP) payout of £4.91m.
Tesco said the PSP payout reflected “strong performance against stretching targets over a challenging period.”
But the High Pay Centre said Murphy’s huge pay packet illustrated how the UK economy serves the interests of the super rich at the expense of everybody else.
The Unite union accused Tesco of giving struggling workers a “slap in the face”.
Details of Murphy’s pay were released on a day when UK unemployment rose to 4.3%, as firms cut back on staff.
But regular pay, which strips out bonuses, was unchanged, recording growth of 6%, meaning real wages continued to grow.
The Bank of England’s chief economist Huw Pill suggested that the BoE may be able to consider cutting interest rates this summer.
He told an online presentation organised by the ICAEW, an accountancy body, that:
“I think it’s not unreasonable to believe that through the summer we will begin to see enough confidence in the decline in persistence that Bank Rate will come into consideration.”
The money markets suggest that there’s an even change of a cut, or no change, at the Bank’s June meeting.
Elsewhere today, Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder has urged MPs to introduce a US-style law that would allow the government to confiscate frozen Russian assets to support military efforts in Ukraine.
Browder told the Treasury Committee that using around $300bn of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine could “change the whole nature of the war”, and act as an insurance policy in case Donald Trump wins the US presidency and cuts support for Kyiv.
Browder also named refineries in India, Turkey and China which he claimed were processing Russian oil and selling refined products to the West.
US president, Joe Biden, has announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of a package of measures designed to protect US manufacturers from cheap imports.
The global carmaker Stellantis is to sell cheap electric cars made by its Chinese partner Leapmotor in Europe, including the UK, as it criticised Joe Biden’s decision to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs imported to the US.
Spending on the NHS in England has risen less quickly than the Conservatives promised at the last election despite the extra demand created by the pandemic and record waiting lists, a leading thinktank has said.
Anglo American plans to sell the diamond business De Beers as part of a sweeping plan to break up the company to defend it against a £34bn takeover plot by its rival BHP.
But there are concerns that cuts to spending at its Woodsmith fertilizer mine in the North York Moors National Park could lead to job losses.
Vodafone has said its turnaround plan is starting to show results as Germany, its largest business, returned to growth last year after the sale of its Italian and Spanish operations.
Ofgem could allow energy suppliers to once more vie for new customers by offering them cheaper deals than existing policyholders receive, under proposals to reignite competition in the market.
Updated
Ken Murphy’s pay packet isn’t the only thing that has doubled.
Over on Wall Street, the meme stock fever is in full cry.
Shares in electronics retailer GameStop jumped by around 100%, before sliding a little, while cinema chain AMC Entertainment are up 90% in early New York trading.
Retail traders’ interest in GameStop, the struggling video games chain, has been reignited by the re-emergence of an influencer known as Roaring Kitty.
Earlier this week Keith Gill, the influencer known as Roaring Kitty, posted on X for the first time since the height of the meme stock frenzy in 2021. He shared a sketch of a gamer leaning forward, as if things were getting serious – and followed up with a string of clips from movies and TV shows.
Three years ago Gill’s videos on YouTube, and posts on Reddit, where he is known as DeepFuckingValue, placed him at the front of an army of meme-toting day traders who tried to mount a rebellion against Wall Street – and the financial titans dominating the market.
More here.
