The family spies drama is not the only trouble besetting the Barclays, however. In his initial judgment, Mr Justice Warby found that the dispute had arisen between “different elements of the family over the governance and direction of the group businesses”. “Here, the children of Sir Frederick and Sir David have been at odds…concerning the family trusts, and cousin, sadly, has been pitched against cousin.” What lies behind the family feud? Control, power, betrayal, and inevitably, money.Īs Desmond Browne QC, representing Frederick and Amanda Barclay, said in court last Monday: “We all remember Tolstoy saying ‘each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. And on 30 January, just as the Daily Telegraph was putting the finishing touches to its triumphant ‘BREXIT DAY’ supplement, the Barclay v Barclay legal action started. Last week, a previously secret legal fight burst into plain sight – at its heart the stunning revelation that David’s sons had bugged their uncle and cousin with a listening device in the conservatory of their flagship property The Ritz hotel.īarclay v Barclay is no longer a subject of speculation and gossip, it is a matter of legal fact, playing out at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand.Īlistair Barclay, youngest son of David, was caught on camera fiddling with the listening bug in the hotel conservatory on 13 January. Known for their frequent use of lawyers to get their own way in business, one half of the family is now using the law against the other.
Now 85, they have fallen out, live separately, and no longer see eye to eye over the future of the eclectic empire they built from scratch or how it should be left to their children.Īt the same time, the fiercely private twin brothers are witnessing their family life spill dramatically into public view. And, just as in 1992 when Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid claimed to have held off Labour and secured John Major’s Conservative Party an unlikely win in the General Election – “It was the Sun wot won it” – the newspaper boasted: “It’s Telegraph readers wot won it!”īut the moment of the Brexit triumph has coincided with a remarkable unfolding crisis for the Telegraph’s owners, the Barclay brothers.įamily feuds, financial strain and an expensive folly on a rocky island in the English Channel is the untold story of the most influential press barons of Brexit Britain.īorn 10 minutes apart, David and Frederick have been inseparable for much of their lives. It published a special edition, hailing its part in Britain’s departure from the European Union: “How the Telegraph stood up to the establishment elite to reflect and push forward the views of the silent majority.” It noted happily that its own columnist, Boris Johnson, is now Prime Minister. On Brexit morning, January 31 2020, the Daily Telegraph celebrated.
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