The UK economy has contracted sharply in April after the biggest decline in car production since records began, as manufacturers were unable to reverse closures planned to coincide with Britain’s expected departure from the EU.

***

Tech giant Huawei’s cyber-security chief John Suffolk told MPs yesterday the firm had never been asked by China or any other government to “do anything untoward”.

***

Cathie Lesjak, Hewlett-Packard’s former FD called Léo Apotheker, HP’s then CEO, a “dead man walking” shortly before he fired her, as the pair clashed over his backing of HP’s $11bn Autonomy acquisition, the High Court in London heard yesterday.