Consumers who own certain Hotpoint or Indesit washing machines have been urged to check their make and model details carefully after a product recall of more than 500,000 fire-risk appliances was flagged yesterday.

As Electrolux prepares to fight in court to buy General Electric’s assets, the Swedish home appliance maker may prefer to sell brands than factories if it tries to reach a settlement to salvage the $3.3bn(€3.07bn) deal before the judge’s verdict.

Faith Ryan warms up to autumn’s mellow tones with her choice of gorgeous buys for the home.