City profiles
Andy Street The former John Lewis boss, who is running to become the mayor of the West Midlands, declares that he is no “Trumpist” but is “quite proud to be a standardbearer of the new politics”, says the FT. He thinks Americans warmed to Trump’s “clear approach” as a businessman. “Look around the world, look at New York: business mayors have taken their city forward dramatically.” Street, who grew up in Solihull, says that, at 53, he fancies a fresh challenge after spending his whole career at John Lewis. He toyed with running as an independent, but he is a lifelong Tory, and realised that he needs a “party machine”. Even so, “I’m campaigning very much as Andy rather than the party. Brand Andy is more prominent than the Conservatives.”
When he left Rolls-royce, in 2011, Sir John Rose was feted as “a great champion of high-end British manufacturing” who had built “one of the country’s very few genuinely worldclass companies”, says The Sunday Telegraph. But in a “disastrous epilogue” to his 15-year reign, he is now facing an SFO inquiry and could be stripped of his knighthood if found to have been involved in the corruption scandal engulfing the company. Much of the mischief happened on his watch. Sir John, 64, is currently deputy chairman of Rothschild and on the board of Hakluyt, “the secretive corporate intelligence agency”. He has reportedly hired lawyer Stephen Pollard of Wilmerhale – who defended Barings rogue trader Nick Leeson – to steer him through.