British Billionaire And Brexiteer Sir David Barclay Dies Aged 86–Prime Minister Boris…

Sir David Barclay, one half of the British billionaire twins known as the Barclay Brothers, died last night after a “short illness” his newspaper The Daily Telegraph has announced.

Sir David, 86, and his twin brother Sir Frederick Barclay are best-known in the U.K. as the secretive, and lately estranged, billionaires behind a string of upmarket hotels including—at various times—The Ritz and Claridges, alongside other media, retail, and home delivery interests.

The brothers were extremely secretive, living together in the 2000s in a castle on a private island off the English coast and rarely giving interviews or being photographed. Despite their aversion to public scrutiny, through ownership of The Daily Telegraph newspaper—one of the most prominent conservative broadsheets in the U.K.—Sir David championed Britain’s future outside of the EU as the Telegraph positioned itself as a pro-Brexit paper in 2016 and thereafter.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has written regularly for the Telegraph newspaper while under Barclay stewardship (at hourly rate of around $3,134 according to the Guardian in 2018) has led tributes to the billionaire and business leader who was also close to Margaret Thatcher in her final years.

Johnson tweeted this morning, “Farewell with respect and admiration to Sir David Barclay who rescued a great newspaper, created many thousands of jobs across the U.K. and who believed passionately in the independence of this country and what it could achieve.”

Self Made

The story of the Barclay Brothers is a genuine rags to riches story of twins who left school aged 14 and worked their way up from jobs as painters to the accounting department of General Electric before getting a taste for flipping London hotels.

In the 1980s, after years of hard work and partnership, the brothers began to taste real success. A big money move came with the acquisition of a shipping and brewing group, Ellerman Lines, in 1983 for £45 million, just a few years later they sold the brewing division for £240 million. Sir David has kept the name Ellerman for his group today.

Although dispersed through a labyrinthe of offshore accounts, the Barclay business empire grew rapidly throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Forbes estimates of their public wealth peaked in 2018 when the brothers’ net worth hit an estimated $5.8 billion. Their diverse empire that still includes Very (formerly Shop Direct) a catalogue retail giant that survived the leap to online, Yodel delivery services, and notably The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Succession 

However, after years of secrecy, a long-standing family feud came to light this summer over the sale of the The Ritz hotel in London. The succession melodrama thrust the next generation of the family into the limelight, and exposed a rift between the twins over control of the family fortune, a sum estimated by Forbes of over $4 billion today.

In May , the family dispute over the sale of The Ritz made headlines when footage was released by Frederick’s lawyers allegedly showing one of David’s sons, Alistair Barclay, installing a listening device in a meeting area of the Ritz while Frederick and his daughter Amanda were meeting to discuss the sale of the hotel.

The bugging exposed the deep rift between the two brothers that had emerged as Sir David’s half of the family allegedly cemented greater control over the family fortune, eventually negotiating the sale of the Ritz for a reported sum ranging from $890 million to $1.1 billion (£700 – £800 million). Sir Frederick’s advisers told Forbes last summer that they believe the Ritz should have sold for a sum closer to $1.5 billion.

Sir David’s sons–the branch of the family led by Aidan and Howard Barclay–admitted to the bugging in June and said that they “regret any distress caused,” and that they were acting, “in the best interests of the entire family.”

A spokesperson for Sir David Barclay said there was no update yet on the hostilities from last summer. It is not yet known if Sir Frederick and Sir David reconciled before his death.