BusinessAnalysis

Lies, damned lies and photobombs as Sunak’s week falls apart

Planet Business: Shein’s IPO, a billionaire’s cancelled trip to the moon and Rupert Murdoch’s fifth wedding

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak speaks to rowing club members whilst Liberal Democrat supporters enjoy a sail-past. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

Laura Slattery's face
Laura Slattery
Sat Jun 8 2024 - 06:15

Image of the week: Small boat

Less image of the week and more photobomb of the week here as UK prime minister Rishi Sunak made another valiant attempt to master the art of small talk, this time with members of a rowing club in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, only for the Liberal Democrats to stage another water-based bid for attention.

On board the boat, to which the cameras present swiftly swung, was Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper and her election campaign colleagues, all of them having a whale of a time as they got the party’s posters into shot. Sunak, meanwhile, carried on oblivious. A day later, there was not a Lib Dem in sight as he went head to head with Labour leader Keir Starmer in a television debate notable for Starmer’s rejection of Sunak’s claim that he would hike taxes by £2,000 (€2,350) for a “every working family”.

Fallout from the ITV debate proved damaging as it emerged that a senior treasury official had clarified that the figure had not come from the civil service, as Sunak stated. Ministers, the official wrote, had been warned not to say this, prompting Labour to accuse Sunak of “lying”.

Regardless, there was little sign of any rowing back. Instead, there was an early, hasty retreat from D-Day commemorations in France to do an ITV interview denying he is a liar – an unconventional move for a prime minister that succeeded in baffling just about everyone.

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In numbers: Shein IPO

£50 billion

Likely valuation of a planned initial public offering (IPO) by Shein, amid suggestions that the Chinese-founded online fashion giant has chosen a London flotation to minimise potential scrutiny of its supply chain.

150 million

Users that Shein, which is headquartered in Singapore, is estimated to have globally, with Generation Z lured to the app by its cheap price tags.

13

Years since commodities trader and mining group Glencore made its debut on the London Stock Exchange. Shein’s blockbuster flotation could become the second-biggest London IPO behind Glencore and one of its most controversial.

Getting to know: Yusaku Maezawa

The trouble with planning your life around transport companies is that you just can’t rely on them. All Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wanted to do was take eight artists on a flight around the moon. Was that so hard? He booked the trip in 2018 with the hope of completing it by the end of 2023 – something to look forward to, right? There was also a short-lived “girlfriend contest” that would have documented his bid to find a plus-one for the journey in a television show, though he dropped out of this for “personal reasons”.

Alas, Maezawa, fed up with indefinite delays on the development of SpaceX’s Starship, has now cancelled the trip completely. In the language of the Transport for Ireland app, the lunar voyage was “(scheduled)” but has now abruptly disappeared. Will there be another space vehicle along in a minute? Probably not, so his “dearMoon” mission is off.

“I can’t plan my future in this situation,” he said. Relatable.

The list: Murdoch’s wedding guests

Rupert Murdoch’s fourth wedding in 2016, to ex-model Jerry Hall, was a starry central London affair, stuffed with celebrities and politicians. Names seemed somewhat thinner on the ground for his fifth, to retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova, which took place last weekend at his sprawling Californian winery. Who was there?

1. Wendi Deng: Murdoch’s third wife, whom he divorced in 2013, introduced the 93-year-old mogul to Zhukova (67) and, unsurprisingly, was his only ex-wife in attendance.

2. Robert Kraft: The owner of the New England Patriots was photographed on the way in. Given the slim pickings, this was enough for him to secure a place in a Daily Mail headline.

3. Robert Thomson: Key Murdoch lieutenant Robert Thomson, the chief executive of News Corp, was also free last weekend. What were the chances?

4. Lachlan Murdoch: Heir apparent Lachlan was said to be in attendance alongside his wife, Sarah Murdoch.

5. William Barr: It wasn’t quite a politician-free affair, with former US attorney general William Barr, a critic-turned-supporter of Donald Trump, among those to fancy the vineyard bash.

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