Barclays bank boss slams activists and claims branch attacks are fuelled by social media lies

THE boss of BARCLAYS bank yesterday said pro-Palestinian attacks on its branches are being fuelled by social media lies.

Around 20 branches have been spray-painted with graffiti or had their windows smashed by activists. 

Chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said:  “There is very little respect for facts on social media.”

Speaking at The Times CEO Summit  in London, he added: “What is asserted and repeated is the truth. There is an assertion that we invest in defence companies, but we don’t. To try to get that across has been very hard.”

Mr Venkatakrishnan, known as Venkat, said the protests had been hard on staff with some sites attacked four or five times already with smashed windows and paint. 

There has been a crossover between eco-activists and Palestine Action, which have accused Barclays of having financial interests in the weapons trade and fossil fuels.

But Barclays has denied it has direct interests in any defence companies. 

Venkat said: “We don’t invest in defence companies. We occasionally hold shares but they are on behalf of our clients.”

He said there was still a conversation to be had about the potential important role of investing in the UK’s defence sector for security reasons, but it was impossible if people only believed what they read on social media. 

Venkat said:  “It is a Herculean task if you can’t get these facts across in the first place.”

Pressure from activists has already forced  music festivals Download, Latitude and the Isle of Wight to drop Barclays as a sponsor, despite the bank’s insistence it does not invest in defence firms.

Wimbledon is also coming under pressure to drop Barclays as a sponsor for the same  reasons but the All England Lawn Tennis Club is staying firm.

Gas ‘Faces Extinction’

JIM Ratcliffe, the billionaire boss of INEOS and co-owner of MANCHESTER UNITED, claims North Sea oil and gas fields have been “taxed out of existence”. 

The chemicals giant chief said he believed they would “become extinct very shortly”. 

Labour has said it will raise the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas to 78 per cent and remove investment allowances.

Ratcliffe yesterday reasoned at the Times CEO summit that: “If we shut down the North Sea, we’ll just have to import our energy.”  

Sains Bank Offload to Natwest

SAINSBURY’S is paying £125million to offload its bank to NATWEST in order to focus on selling food.

The supermarket’s  million bank customers will be transferred at the end of next year, with NatWest gaining £1.4billion of loans and £1.1billion credit card balances.

The unusual dowry underlines how keen Sainsbury’s chief Simon Roberts is to sharpen its core  business.

The chain is keeping its cash machines in supermarkets, travel money and insurance divisions, and its Argos financial services business.

Sainsbury’s had originally been in talks with NatWest in 2020 and said in January it would exit its banking business after 27 years. 

Shore Capital analyst  Clive Black said it ends “an adventure that had lofty ambitions to be a challenger bank that was thwarted by regulators and the power of incumbents”.

NatWest chief Paul Thwaite   said it was “a great opportunity to accelerate the growth of our retail banking business at attractive returns”.

It follows a wave of consolidation in banking. TESCO sold its bank to BARCLAYS for £700million in February, NATIONWIDE has launched a £2.9billion takeover of VIRGIN MONEY and COVENTRY BUILDING SOCIETY is buying CO-OP BANK.

Ocado’s Bot of Bother

SHARES in OCADO slid by as much as 18 per cent yesterday after a partner said it would mothball one of its warehouses.

However,  Canadian supermarket chain Sobeys paused plans to open its fourth Ocado robotic warehouse and ended its exclusive relationship. 

Sobeys revealed that it was stalling opening the  warehouse, despite it being almost complete, because not enough Canadians were shopping online yet. 

It follows its other US partner Kroger closing three Ocado warehouses because they missed financial goals. 

And in the UK, Ocado has scaled back its warehouse plans for M&S. 

Swifties Order Up

TAYLOR Swift is  boosting takeaway sales with fans placing orders after  her gigs.  

DELIVEROO said orders spiked 50 per cent in the three hours after her Edinburgh and Liverpool concerts. In both cities, orders for pizzas, burgers, pasta and kebabs  picked up at 10.45pm as fans left the arenas.

Rob Harris at Deliveroo said: “These are numbers we expect from peak lunchtime but instead we are seeing these volumes at midnight.”

Tate’s £1bn bid

TATE & LYLE has snapped up a seaweed food business for £1.4billion as it ramps up its focus on healthy foods.

The FTSE 250 firm, which is helping  food brands such as CADBURY reduce sugar and salt in their products, is buying CP KELCO. It comes after a strategic change by  boss Nick Hampton over the past six years to move the firm towards healthy ingredients. 

Last month, Tate & Lyle sold off its stake in PRIMIENT, which makes corn-derived products for carbonated drinks and confectionery.

Vue-ing Delayed

CINEMA chain VUE has warned it will be hit by  film release delays after the Hollywood writer’s strike last year. 

Documents show that “many films” are delayed to next year after the SAG-AFTRA writer and actor’s strike. It was also  confirmed the group had completed its second financial restructuring in two years. 

Hundreds of millions of pounds of investors’ debt was switched into equity to shore up Vue’s finances after  the  delays. Last year sales grew by 5 per cent to £274.6million, helped by Barbenheimer.

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SHARES in polling firm YOUGOV plunged by more than 40  per cent yesterday after a profit warning. The company, best known for election predictions, said sales from the consumer surveys and data side of its business, were much lower than expected.