Marks & Spencer has confirmed Robert Swannell as its next chairman, bringing to a close months of speculation and the more than six year tenure of Sir Stuart Rose.

Marks & Spencer ended months of speculation over its succession plans today when it named City banker Robert Swannell as its next chairman.

David Cameron has changed the Conservative Party in numerous ways.

Outlook After the enduring and damaging ructions over the tax status of Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative Party donor, one might have expected David Cameron to think twice before appointing a government adviser likely to prompt a similar row. It was brave of him, then, to ask Sir Philip Green to head a review looking for public spending cuts. The Prime Minister surely cannot have been surprised that his choice has caused some consternation – not least, it is increasingly clear, among Liberal Democrat MPs whose votes he may need in order to push the cuts through Parliament.

The Government's hiring of Alan Milburn as its "social mobility tsar" provides the most seismic event of its kind for a very long time ... possibly as long ago as the appointment of puritan £5m birthday-party man Philip Green as our anti-profligate spending tsar.

The Obama administration can't quite help itself.

Summer is here! I know this, not because the sun has reached its highest altitude in the north and entered the tropic of Cancer (that was, like, months ago), not because a family from Hertfordshire have grown a sunflower so large it's about to enter the record books, and not because it's raining.

Nearly one in five shareholders refused to support the remuneration report of Marks & Spencer yesterday at its annual meeting, as they rebelled against the £15m its new chief executive Marc Bolland could earn this year.

Sir Stuart Rose, the chairman of Marks & Spencer, signed off his final year leading the retailer with a surge in his pay to £4.3m.

Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Marks & Spencer, declared that Britain's economy had turned a corner and will avoid a double-dip recession yesterday as the high-street bellwether unveiled a small rise in annual profits to £632.5m. In his last set of results before stepping down, Sir Stuart said that the UK was "through" the recession and added: "I don't think we will get into a double dip. We will get very slow growth but it will be tough."

It's fair to say that Barry Stevenson has had his ups and downs during his career on the high street, but since he took the helm at the pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond last September he has only enhanced its sparkling recent performance.