BP chief defends profits plunge as board braces for investor turmoil
The chief executive of BP has defended its tumbling profits as the board braces for a campaign by an activist investor to overhaul the troubled oil company.Murray Auchincloss reported a sharp slump in BP’s annual profits to $8.9bn (£7.9bn) last year from almost $14bn in 2023, just days after it emerged that the activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management has taken aim at the oil major by building a stake in the company.The New York-based investor is expected to use its grip on the company to demand sweeping changes to BP which could include ousting the BP chair Helge Lund and a boardroom cull, or a break-up of the 120-year-old company.
The advance of Elliott, which was first reported by Bloomberg, has come amid growing concerns that BP could become a takeover target after a series of disappointing financial results and uncertainty over its green energy strategy,Auchincloss used BP’s annual financial results to argue that BP had “laid the foundations for growth” by “reshaping” its energy portfolio in 2024, and would now “fundamentally reset our strategy and drive further improvements in performance”,The company’s profits have fallen steadily since global oil and gas prices reached historic highs in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,Its earnings fell to $1,17bn for the final quarter of 2024, its lowest quarterly profit in four years and less than half the almost $3bn it reported for the same quarter the year before.
Auchincloss is on a mission to correct the company’s course by finding $2bn in cost savings across the business and reducing BP’s net debt,He set out plans last month to cut thousands of jobs from BP’s global workforce, amounting to 5% of its staff, and is expected to unveil a new strategy at BP’s investor day later this month,Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThe company has fallen from favour among many big investors in recent years since its previous chief executive, Bernard Looney, set a plan for BP to become a net zero energy company by slashing its oil and gas production by the end of the decade in favour of spending billions on renewable energy projects,
Labour peer calls for ‘arrogant’ attorney general to be sacked
An influential Labour peer has called the attorney general Richard Hermer an “arrogant, progressive fool” and called for him to be sacked, exposing a split at the heart of Keir Starmer’s government.Maurice Glasman, the founder of the Blue Labour group that has risen in prominence since Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, urged the prime minister to replace his attorney general.In an interview with the New Statesman, Glasman said of Hermer: “He’s got to go. He is the absolute archetype of an arrogant, progressive fool who thinks that law is a replacement for politics … They talk about the rule of law but what they want is a rule of lawyers.” He also called Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, a “drone for the Treasury”
Labour was told about ‘vile’ WhatsApp group more than a year ago, says councillor
Labour was warned more than a year ago about a “vile” WhatsApp group involving two of the party’s MPs, local councillors and a series of offensive messages, the Guardian has been told.It came as a cycling campaigner said he was “profoundly distressed” to learn that one of the MPs, Andrew Gwynne, joked about him being “mown down” by a lorry.Gwynne was sacked as a health minister on Saturday and suspended by Labour after he was accused of posting messages containing racist and sexist comments. A second Labour MP, Oliver Ryan, was suspended on Monday after he was revealed to be a member of the group, which also featured misogynistic and classist messages.The Guardian has seen previously undisclosed posts in the WhatsApp group, called Trigger Me Timbers, and can reveal that:Gwynne, the MP for Gorton and Denton, described a constituent as “an illiterate retard” and a fellow councillor as a “fat middle aged useless thicket”
Local elections delayed is democracy denied | Letters
The cancellation of local elections (Some councillors in England could stay for more than extra year under shake-up plans, 5 February) means that the government and those council leaders who will gain most from the planned reorganisation will not have to face voters to justify the cost to them.The proposed mergers of district councils and splitting up of county councils to form new unitary councils was examined in a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report commissioned by the County Councils Network in 2020. This showed that all the options to create multiple unitary councils were extremely expensive and disruptive.PwC predicted that the loss of economies of scale at county level would cost billions across the country. With local government already on its knees, spending a fortune on a reorganisation to create a more costly alternative is the last thing we need
Benefits system should protect, not punish, vulnerable people | Letters
Frances Ryan underestimates the effect of repeated attacks on benefits claimants and the damage that the potential changes being floated would unleash (As Labour touts more brutal cuts to benefits, how is this different from life under the Tories?, 5 February). As a mental health clinician, I cannot emphasise enough how many relapses have been triggered by the relentless media drumbeat about “cracking down” on benefits. This is not just political rhetoric; it lodges in the psyche, feeding precarity and self-doubt.When the government frames itself as the defender of the public purse at the expense of “fraudulent” claimants, it makes nearly all claimants feel like frauds. To combine this with the terrifying reality of what these speculative reforms could mean – sanctions for those too unwell to comply with back-to-work schemes, and the appalling prospect of removing or gutting the limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) group that overwhelmingly consists of people at substantial risk of mental collapse – is unconscionable
Burnley MP Oliver Ryan suspended by Labour over messages on WhatsApp group
The Labour MP Oliver Ryan has been suspended by the party over his membership and comments on a WhatsApp group that featured offensive messages, including alleged racism and sexism.The party took action against the Burnley MP after the emergence of details about the Trigger Me Timbers group, mainly involving a group of councillors and party activists in Greater Manchester.A Labour spokesperson said: “As part of our WhatsApp group investigation, Oliver Ryan has been administratively suspended as a member of the Labour party.“As soon as this group was brought to our attention, a thorough investigation was immediately launched and this process is ongoing in line with the Labour party’s rules and procedures. Swift action will always be taken where individuals are found to have breached the high standards expected of them as Labour party members
Watchdog recommends £2,500 pay rise for UK MPs
MPs should receive a £2,500 pay rise for the next financial year, an increase of 2.8%, the body that recommends their salaries has said.If the pay rise proposed by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) goes through, it would raise a backbench MP’s salary from £91,346 to just under £94,000.The year-on-year figure for consumer price index inflation in December was 2.5%, but it is expected to increase as the year goes on
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BP shares jump after feared US hedge fund Elliott takes stake