Wellcome Trust charity criticised over £11m in payouts to investment team
The Wellcome Trust, the UK health research charity, has been criticised for paying its investment executives more than £11m last year, more than 10 times as much as its own governors.The pay packets, which included £5m for Wellcome’s chief investment officer, Nick Moakes, were awarded after its investment portfolio rose in value, generating more funds for its mission of tackling health inequalities.Wellcome’s investment portfolio returned 5.2% in the year to 30 September, or 3.5% after inflation, and is now valued at £37.
6bn, up from £36.8bn the year before.Moakes, who is stepping down in March, is among the highest-paid charity workers in the UK.Much of his pay packet is made up of long-term bonuses that depend on the portfolio’s future performance.The senior investment team’s total pay packet rose to £11.
1m last year, shared between 44 staff, up from £9.5m the year before.This dwarfed its governors’ remuneration of £803,665, which included £142,108 to Julia Gillard, the former prime minister of Australia, who chairs the board of governors.Andrew Speke of the High Pay Centre, the UK thinktank, said there was a “huge gap” in pay between Wellcome’s investment staff and its lowest-paid workers, which was hard to justify.“Those leading major nonprofit organisations deserve to be paid well, as like with their counterparts in the private or public sector, these roles come with great responsibility.
”“That said, a figure of £5m is likely to be more than 100 if not 200 times the pay of Wellcome’s lowest-paid workers, and it’s difficult to see how such a huge gap in pay can be morally justified or necessary in order to attract competent leaders,” Speke said.Wellcome said much of the pay would be deferred, depending on the future performance of its investment portfolio.“Having an in-house investment team rather than outsourcing to external investment managers saves us hundreds of millions a year which we can spend on science to solve urgent health challenges,” Wellcome said.Moakes said: “Wellcome is in an excellent financial position to fund the vital work of our mission.Returns are at all-time highs, and we have ample liquidity to take advantage of any opportunities market volatility might produce.
”Moakes will be replaced by two of the existing team who will become co-chief investment officers, Lisha Patel and Fabian Thehos.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 promotionWellcome’s charitable spending fell slightly to £1.6bn last year from £1.7bn the previous year, but remained in line with its plan to pay out £16bn over the decade to 2032.Wellcome has backed the world’s first-ever vaccine against chikungunya, a debilitating mosquito-borne viral disease, which gained approval in Europe last May and in the US in late 2023, supporting it through the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, co-founded by Wellcome and partners in 2017.
“This year, impacts from Wellcome’s work include a new treatment for schizophrenia, the first ever vaccine for the infectious disease chikungunya, and our new funding scheme for researchers from under-represented backgrounds in UK research to progress their careers,” Gillard said,Wellcome also funded the early trials of Cobenfy, the first new drug for schizophrenia in 50 years,The charity was established in 1936 with funding from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome, founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predecessors of drugmaker GSK, to fund research to improve health,
UK politics: Starmer says ‘door remains open’ for Tulip Siddiq following her resignation as Treasury minister – as it happened
Tulip Siddiq, the Treasury minister, has resigned.She says Laurie Magnus, the PM’s ethics adviser, has said she has not broken the ministerial code. But she is going because if she were to stay she would be a “distraction” to the government.Here is the letter she has sent to the PM.Tulip Siddiq has resigned as a Treasury minister after repeated questions about her financial links to the ousted Bangladeshi government run by her aunt
Tulip Siddiq resigns as Treasury minister over alleged Bangladeshi financial links
Tulip Siddiq has resigned as a Treasury minister after accepting the government was being harmed by the furore over her close ties to her aunt, the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh now accused of corruption.Siddiq, who was the City and anti-corruption minister, stepped aside after an investigation by Laurie Magnus, the adviser on ministerial standards, into her use of properties given to herself and family by allies of the regime of Sheikh Hasina.She was not deemed by Magnus to have broken any rules over her use of the homes and he found no evidence to suggest that any of Siddiq’s assets were derived from anything other than legitimate means.The inquiry also looked into her presence at the signing of a 2013 nuclear deal between her aunt and Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The adviser accepted her explanation that she had been there only socially and as a tourist
Bangladesh files criminal case against UK minister Tulip Siddiq
Authorities in Bangladesh have filed a criminal case against the UK Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, accusing her of misusing her position as an MP to gain influence and illegally acquire land with her aunt the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.Siddiq has faced mounting calls to resign over her links to Hasina, who was toppled in August after mass protests across Bangladesh and is facing charges of corruption and crimes against humanity.On Monday, Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission (ACC) said it had filed a case against Hasina and her wider family over an alleged large-scale land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital, Dhaka. The case named the former prime minister as well as Siddiq.“Sheikh Hasina, in collaboration with some officials, allocated plots for herself and her family members,” said the ACC director general, Akhter Hossain
No 10 backs Rachel Reeves to remain in post for rest of parliament
Rachel Reeves will remain as chancellor until the next general election, Keir Starmer has insisted, as he warned the Treasury would be “ruthless” over public spending cuts to help meet the government’s fiscal rules.The Treasury is looking for billions of pounds of savings from departmental budgets to balance the books at this summer’s spending review, after another difficult day for the economy that saw the cost of government borrowing rise and the value of the pound fall.Starmer said that Reeves was “absolutely right” to take a tough approach to public spending after a bruising week in the markets and concern among some Labour MPs over her plan to get the economy back on track.“Yes, we will be ruthless, as we have been ruthless in the decisions that we’ve taken so far,” the prime minister said at the launch of the government’s artificial intelligence action plan in east London.“We have got clear fiscal rules, and we are going to keep to those fiscal rules, and that’s why the chancellor was absolutely right in the words that she chose to describe the approach that we will take
Charities call for Tulip Siddiq’s resignation from anti-corruption role
Tulip Siddiq should give up her ministerial responsibility for UK anti-corruption policy, a group of charities has said, amid concerns about her links to the former Bangladeshi regime of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina.The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition – which includes international groups such as Oxfam, Transparency International and Spotlight on Corruption – released a statement on Monday night urging the Treasury minister to hand over her anti-corruption role.Siddiq, who is also the Treasury minister in charge of financial services policy, is under pressure after weeks of revelations about her links to her aunt’s former regime, including the fact she lived in or owned properties paid for by Hasina’s allies.Last week, Siddiq referred herself to Laurie Magnus, the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial interests, but the group said she should lose the anti-corruption portfolio regardless of Magnus’s findings.The group said in its statement: “[Siddiq] currently has a serious conflict of interests
What does AI plan mean for NHS patient data and is there cause for concern?
UK ministers have committed to creating a National Data Library for building artificial intelligence models, as part of an AI action plan.The library will comprise state-controlled data with at least five “high-impact” public datasets being compiled. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, indicated on Monday that patient data from the National Health Service could be part of the library.Health data is a sensitive issue in an age of criminal hackers, cyber espionage by rogue states and general concerns about the robustness of AI tools. Here we answer some of the questions around the potential use of NHS data
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