Finance

Of the companies accessing emergency funding, some 30% have paid out an estimated total of £11.5 billion in dividends to shareholders and investors.

Alongside its results, the company also unveiled details of its strategy to slash carbon emissions, revealing that it aims to cut oil and gas production by 40 per cent and increase low-carbon tenfold to £5 billion by 2030.

Campaigners said the astonishing accumulation of wealth by the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is "evidence of a broken economy".

Dame Margaret Hodge says she is "utterly disgusted" by revelations that vast sums of money is being paid out to those who don't pay in.

Anna McEntee, at comparethemarket.com, said the site would stop offering quotes until it is ‘confident that customers are getting the right cover’.

UK Finance has outlined how home owners could be helped with mortgage payment holidays of up to three months.

The Resolution Foundation said this came before the impact of the coronavirus is factored in.

RBS/NatWest said customers’ situations will be looked at on a ‘case-by-case’ basis.

An all-out price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, with parts of Italy in lockdown over coronavirus, is leading markets to nosedive.