Celebrities call on Wimbledon to drop Barclays sponsorship

Richard Curtis, Emma Thompson and Deborah Meaden are among celebrities who have called on Wimbledon to end its new partnership with Barclays over the bank’s multibillion-pound support for fossil fuel projects.

As the 2023 championships get under way on Monday, the group claims the sponsorship deal, reportedly worth at least £20m a year, is damaging the club’s reputation.

In an open letter to Sally Bolton, the chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), the campaigners said: “Put simply, Barclays is financing and profiting from climate chaos, and accepting a sponsorship deal from them is an endorsement of these actions.”

Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, retail consultant Mary Portas, , Dr Mya-Rose Craig, the British-Bangladeshi ornithologist also known as Birdgirl, and Christiana Figueres, who was head of the UN climate change convention that achieved the Paris agreement adopted in 2015 and effective from 2016, are among those who have signed the letter. Greenpeace UK, the Big Issue Group and Global Witness are also backing the campaign.

The multi-year…