Bank of England governor calls for fightback against populism; South East Water restores service to most Kent and Sussex homes – as it happened

Time to wrap up…The governor of the Bank of England has urged the world’s leading global institutions to fight back against the rise of populism, warning it represents one of the biggest threats to improvements in living standards.In a thinly veiled response to Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere with the independence of the US Federal Reserve, Andrew Bailey said that he and the heads of other institutions had a duty to “challenge back” populist narratives.“Part of the purpose of international agencies is that from time to time they have to tell us what we don’t want to hear, let alone act upon,” he said. “Of course, they have to be accountable for the accuracy and quality of the assessment. But, accepting that, we have to call out messenger shooting

Top two bosses at City & Guilds placed on leave after bonus scandal

The two most senior executives at City & Guilds have been put on leave shortly after a scandal over millions of pounds of bonuses triggered a Charity Commission investigation into the vocational training body.The chief executive, Kirstie Donnelly, and the chief financial officer, Abid Ismail, will be “absent from work for a short period”, as its new owner, PeopleCert, commissioned an internal investigation into events before and after its acquisition of City & Guilds’ training and qualifications business.Last week, the charity watchdog launched a statutory inquiry into last year’s sale of the qualification awards business to PeopleCert, an international certification company. The investigation will examine a range of problems, including “concerns raised in public reporting relating to the sale and bonuses awarded to its executives”.The inquiry was announced after the Guardian revealed last month that City & Guilds executives received million-pound bonuses after the charity privatised its business arm

BP accused of ‘insidious’ influence on UK education through Science Museum links

Campaigners have accused BP of having an insidious influence over the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) in the UK through its relationship with the Science Museum.Documents obtained under freedom of information legislation show how the company funded a research project that led to the creation of the Science Museum Group academy – its teacher and educator training programme – which BP sponsors and which has run more than 500 courses, for more than 5,000 teachers.Campaigners say the documents reveal the extent of control the company had over the research project, called Enterprising Science. The contract setting out the collaboration states that major decisions would not be “validly passed … unless the representative of BP votes in its favour”.Chris Garrard of the campaign group Culture Unstained said: “BP’s toxic influence over young people’s learning is calculated and insidious

South East Water boss lasting weeks in post would be a surprise | Nils Pratley

Can David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, stay in his job long enough to bag a £400,000 bonus for turning up to work? With four and a half years to go, one can’t say his chances of landing the retention payment – or “service award” – are good. In fact, it will be surprising if he’s still infuriating the residents of Tunbridge Wells four and a half weeks from now.In the latest episode of this long-running double saga of outages that has left thousands of households in Kent and Sussex without running water for days, Ofwat has opened a first-of-its-kind investigation into whether South East complied with its obligation to provide “high standards of customer service and support”. That comes a day after Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence.Meanwhile, even the company’s shareholders, who normally shun the spotlight on these occasions, are spluttering into their bottled water

UK economy beats forecasts with 0.3% growth in November; Ofwat investigating South East Water over outages – as it happened

Newsflash: The UK economy has returned to growth, and more vigorously than expected.UK GDP expanded by 0.3% in November, new data from the Office for National Statistics shows, after shrinking a little in October.That’s faster than expected; City economists had expected growth of just 0.1%In another boost, September’s growth figures have been revised higher, showing that the economy didn’t shrink that month after all

South East Water boss in line for £400,000 bonus despite outages

The boss of the company that has left thousands of households in south-east England without water for days is in line for a £400,000 long-term bonus regardless of his performance, if he resists calls for him to resign over the outages.David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, is to receive the payout if he stays on until July 2030.Hinton is facing calls to give up his right to the previously unreported “service award”. The payment, which was disclosed in the company’s annual report, is not performance-related, meaning that as long as he remains, Hinton will receive it whatever the company’s record on water supplies or pollution.South East Water has faced immense pressure after 30,000 households in Kent and East and West Sussex endured days of water supply failures in November and again in January