BP shakes up its leadership … again
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iran accused the US of “flagrant” violations of their ceasefire, BP has ousted its chair Albert Manifold following “serious concerns” over his behaviour, and two top European central bankers laid the groundwork for a likely interest rate rise in June. Plus, dealmaking in the mid-cap part of the UK market has sprung to life.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Iran accuses US of ‘flagrant’ ceasefire violations as back-channel talks continue
BP removes chair Albert Manifold over ‘serious concerns’ about his conduct
Top ECB policymakers lay groundwork for June rate rise
Merger spirits could lift the UK’s languishing mid-caps
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Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by Sonja Hutson and Fiona Symon. Our show was mixed by Sam Giovinco. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:04.3 | Today is Wednesday, May 27th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:09.0 | Iran is criticizing the U.S. for recent strikes, and BP is going through yet another shakeup. |
| 0:15.6 | Plus, international companies are loving UK midcaps. |
| 0:19.0 | We'll tell you why. |
| 0:20.6 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:43.3 | Iran has accused the U.S. Iran has accused the U.S. of, quote, flagrant violations of the ceasefire they agreed to in early April. This comes after American forces on Monday carried out airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and boats. |
| 0:49.4 | But despite this flare-up, back-channel talks continued. |
| 0:53.0 | Iran's top negotiators returned to Tehran late yesterday after two days of talks in Doha. The two countries are trying to finalize an agreement that would extend a ceasefire by 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The deal would also lay the foundation for negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. The cost of oil jumped yesterday with Brent crude up a little bit more than 3.5%. |
| 1:14.2 | BP has removed its chair, Albert Manifold. |
| 1:23.2 | The UK oil major cited serious concerns about his conduct. |
| 1:27.1 | This is the latest blow to BP, |
| 1:28.9 | which has suffered years of strategic and boardroom upheaval. I'm joined now by the FD's energy |
| 1:34.3 | correspondent Verity Radcliffe to discuss this. Hi, Verity. Hi. So Verity, do we know why Manifold was removed? |
| 1:41.3 | Well, the company put out a short statement that gave very broad reasons, but just the tone |
| 1:47.0 | of the statement gave Market Watchers some idea that this was quite a serious issue that he'd been |
| 1:54.1 | pulled up on. There were quite a few frustrations when it comes to how Manifold was dealing with |
| 1:59.4 | the business. He was acting, some say, |
| 2:01.9 | more as an executive chair. He was expecting to control a lot more of what the company was doing |
| 2:08.0 | in terms of its operations. He was quite pushy, quite, some might say, bullying in trying to dictate |
| 2:14.3 | what the company was trying to achieve and how they were going to go back doing it. |
| 2:17.9 | He was seen as this change operator, which was desperately needed by the company at the time where he came in, |
... |
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