BUSINESS WITH PERSONALITY WILD CARD RORY THE WEEKEND SHALL COME HEATS UP THE OUR GUIDE ON WHAT TO SEE 2020 MAYORAL AND DO IN LONDON P28-29 ELECTION P18 FRIDAY 11 OCTOBER 2019 ISSUE 3,476 CITYAM.COM FREE Ex-Freshfields man fined for DYSON PULLS PLUG misconduct JAMES BOOTH @Jamesdbooth1 AN EX-FRESHFIELDS partner escaped being struck off yesterday after a tribunal ON ELECTRIC CAR found he had engaged in sexual activity with a heavily intoxicated junior lawyer. JESS CLARK redeployed towards other new Ryan Beckwith tearfully @jclarkjourno technologies, the company said. hugged his wife after the Patents for the electric car, which the sanction was handed down. SIR JAMES Dyson has scrapped his high- company hoped would compete with the The Solicitors Disciplinary profile £1bn electric vehicle project, likes of Tesla, were unveiled earlier this Tribunal (SDT) fined Beckwith claiming the scheme is not commercially year, as Dyson aimed to sell the first £35,000 and ordered him to viable. vehicles by 2021. pay costs of £200,000. The billionaire inventor told employees At the time Dyson said the vehicle The panel dismissed another yesterday that the Dyson team had would “include fundamentally new allegation that Beckwith had developed a “fantastic” car but had been technologies and make some inventive kissed the unnamed junior unable to find a buyer for the project. leaps”. lawyer, known as Person A, on Members of the development team The project hit the headlines in October another occasion. could now be facing redundancy, last year after Dyson decided to produce Beckwith resigned from although the company said it is working the company’s first electric car in Freshfields yesterday. to find alternative roles and has sufficient Singapore, rather than in its British In a statement, his solicitor vacancies to redeploy most employees. factories, despite having invested around Nick Brett of Brett Wilson, “Though we have tried very hard £200m in a British research and said: “Mr Beckwith is throughout the development process, we development site. disappointed with the finding simply can no longer see a way to make it Critics questioned the inventor’s of the tribunal.” commercially viable,” Dyson said in a decision to manufacture the car outside Restructuring partner note to employees. of the UK, not least in light of the Beckwith, 41, was accused by a “We have been through a serious founder’s vocal support for Brexit. former junior lawyer of the process to find a buyer for the project However, chief executive Jim Rowan firm of taking advantage of which has, unfortunately, been said Singapore was selected as a her when she was too drunk to unsuccessful so far. production site “based on supply chains, consent. “I wanted you to hear directly from me access to markets, and the availability of Beckwith denied the that the Dyson board has therefore taken the expertise that will help us achieve our accusations, and characterised the very difficult decision to propose the ambitions”. the night the two spent at her closure of our automotive project.” Dyson told staff yesterday that the flat as “a consensual sexual The car project was unveiled as part of company’s “investment appetite is encounter”. a £2.5bn investment programme, with undiminished” and vowed to “deepen The SDT hearing was not £1bn allocated to the car, a further £1bn our roots in both the UK and Singapore”. focused on the issue of towards battery technology and £500m “This is not the first project which has consent, with Beckwith for other developments. changed direction and it will not be accused of conduct The investment pot will now be the last.” “unbecoming of a member of the profession”. Varadkar and Johnson toast to ‘very positive and very promising’ Brexit talks CATHERINE NEILAN The two leaders sparked hopes of enjoyed its biggest gains in six during a walk in the grounds of ahead of further talks. AND SEBASTIAN MCCARTHY an end to the Brexit deadlock by months after Varadkar said he Thornton Manor in north-west Brexit secretary Steve Barclay @CatNeilan @SebMcCarthy issuing a joint statement revealing thought an outline of a deal would England. will meet EU’s chief negotiator that “they could see a pathway to a be possible ahead of next week’s The upbeat statement comes Michel Barnier today. IRISH Taoiseach Leo Varadkar possible deal”. crunch summit of EU leaders. after a week of increasingly tense Brussels has said a compromise suggested yesterday that a Brexit Varadkar added: “I think it is However, the Irish leader added briefings from Number 10 and must be found by the end of this deal could be reached by the possible for us to come to an that “there was many a slip public statements from Dublin week if a deal is to be agreed at the October deadline, striking a agreement, to have a treaty... done between cup and lip”. that said a deal was “very difficult”. European Council next Thursday. cautiously optimistic tone after by the end of October.” Varadkar and Johnson said they Both sides will now consult with holding last-ditch talks with Prime The pound bounced 1.9 per cent held “detailed” and “constructive” their respective negotiating teams, £ CONTINUES ON P3 Minister Boris Johnson. to $1.244 last night, as sterling talks after a one-to-one discussion including the EU’s Taskforce 50, £ PM CALLS FOR FTSE SUPPORT: P5 FTSE 100▲ 7,186.36 +19.86 FTSE 250▲ 19,235.72 +64.12 DOW▲ 26,496.67 +150.66 NASDAQ▲ 7,950.78 +47.04 £/$▲ 1.244 +0.024 £/€▲ 1.130 +0.018 €/$▲ 1.101 +0.004 02 NEWS FRIDAY 11 OCTOBER 2019 CITYAM.COM ACTIVISTS HIT CITY AIRPORT Extinction Rebellion forced just two flight cancellations despite promising a three-day shutdown THE CITY VIEW Boris rekindles hope of Brexit breakthrough HIS is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Then again, it Tmight not be. In the days before Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar’s meeting yesterday at a Liverpool wedding venue, talk on both sides of the Channel was of the near collapse of Brexit talks. Some punchy Downing Street briefings spoke of the “near impossibility” of finding a deal, while senior EU figures talked about “the blame game” that was upon us. And yet, last night, Johnson and Varadkar told reporters that their three-hour private talks were “very positive and very promising.” Crucially, the Irish Taoiseach said he was now “convinced” that Johnson wants a deal. This dampens the theory, popular among the PM’s critics, that he wants a no-deal exit or at the very least wants to fight an election on the PARTIALLY blind Paralympian James Brown helped cause two flight cancellations by lying on top of a British Airways plane in a day of protests at London City Airport yesterday. More than 100 Extinction Rebellion protesters turned out to create chaos at the promise of a hard Brexit to come. This morning, Brexit secretary airport, which included members forming road blocks. City Airport said last night all protesters had since left the premises. Stephen Barclay will meet the EU’s top negotiator Michel Barnier for formal talks. This is an encouraging sign, as the two sides wouldn’t sit down together if the legwork hadn’t already been done. UK negotiators are increasingly frustrated by Barnier’s intransigence, which is why the Johnson-Varadkar Fed finalises its breakthrough last night was so significant. If Ireland can “see a path towards a deal” then it will be difficult for Barnier to say UK on course to he doesn’t feel like walking. Reports last night suggested that post-crisis rules Johnson had floated the idea of hammering out a swift free trade agreement between the UK and EU, rather than a fully- for US banks fledged Withdrawal Agreement. Take care of trade first, the theory goes, then work on the details. Such an agreement could dodge recession SEBASTIAN MCCARTHY see the removal of all tariffs on goods but would still leave the ALEX DANIEL @SebMcCarthy issue of customs checks unresolved. When it comes to customs — “Barring a vertiginous plunge in @alexmdaniel September’s figures, Britain’s econ- THE FEDERAL Reserve last night and the spectre of infrastructure at the border on Ireland — omy now looks set to post some confirmed a new set of rules that Johnson has limited political room for manoeuvre. If he loses ECONOMISTS breathed a sigh of relief growth in the third quarter.” will ease capital and liquidity the support of the DUP and the more pro-Brexit Tories, he’ll yesterday as the risk of a Brexit-fuelled A weak performance from the man- requirements for US banks. recession in the immediate future ap- ufacturing industry was in part be- In one of the most significant need to win over Tory rebels as well as a good chunk of Labour peared to ease, despite Britain’s econ- hind the monthly drop, while the TV rollbacks since the financial crisis, MPs. There are still plenty of obstacles on the “pathway” that omy shrinking 0.1 per cent in August. and film industry helped boost the the Fed is set to reduce the Johnson and Varadkar spoke of last night, but they do at least Observers had worried the effect of services sector. Manufacturing con- compliance burden and free up seem determined to try and pick way their down it. As Barnier Brexit uncertainty would push the UK tracted 1.1 per cent in the three funds for US Bancorp, Capital One into recession after GDP contracted months to August.