fred goodwin latest: pressure grows for more action to strip bankers of knighthoods

8/3/2019 Fred Goodwin Latest: Pressure Grows for More Action to Strip Bankers of Knighthoods

1/10

12-02-01 11:red Goodwin latest: Pressure grows for more action to strip bankers of knighthoods | Mail Online

Page 1ttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095164/Fred-Goodwin-latest-Pressure-grows-action-strip-bankers-knighthoods.html?printingPage=true

Click here to print

Pressure grows for more action to strip bankersof knighthoods

Tories call for former Lloyds TSB and HBOS chiefs to lose titlesFollows decision to remove Fred Goodwin's knighthoodDowning Street also looking to strip shamed RBS banker's pensionCritics claim Mr Goodwin is being made a scapegoat

By James Chapman

Last updated at 12:53 AM on 2nd February 2012


2/10



More to follow suit? Tories don't want former RBS chief Fred Goodwin (above) to be thelast banker to be stripped of a knighthood

Tories demanded further action against failed bankers yesterday following the decision to strip Fred Goodwin ofhis knighthood.

MPs called for more financiers, including colleagues of Mr Goodwin at Royal Bank of Scotland, to lose the right be called Sir.


3/10



But others condemned the action against Mr Goodwin, with business leaders claiming it amounted to hysteria.

Mr Goodwins friend, motor racing champion Sir Jackie Stewart, said he thought the former bank boss had beenmade a scapegoat while former Chancellor Alistair Darling said the decision to take way his title was tawdry.

RBS had to be bailed out with 45billion of taxpayers money after Mr Goodwin steered it to the biggest corporadisaster in British history.

Senior figures in Downing Street have also discussed attempting to strip him of his massive pension.

Mr Goodwin, whose knighthood was annulled on Monday by order of the Queen, is still receiving what iseffectively a taxpayer-funded pension of 342,500 a year for life from RBS.

Some Tories want to tackle him about his pension in the expectation that he would challenge such a move usinthe Human Rights Act.

This would boost public opposition to the Act which they want to replace with a British Bill of Rights. There werealso calls for peers who have committed crimes to lose their titles.

However, business leaders protested at the removal of Mr Goodwins knighthood on the recommendation of asecretive Whitehall committee, claiming it was hysteria.

And former chancellor Mr Darling claimed the decision was tawdry. He added: There were other knights of therealm on the board are we going after them?

Former Conservative chancellor Lord Lawson backed the decision on Mr Goodwin. You can say why pick himout? but every schoolmaster knows sometimes its necessary to make an example, he said.

I dont think anybody can have the slightest sympathy for Mr Goodwin, who through a mixture of vanity, greedand sheer incompetence presided over the biggest banking disaster in British history.

Michael Fallon, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and a member of the Treasury select committee,insisted: This has not been done on a whimthis is three and a half years after the downfall of RBS and followa very detailed report from the Financial Services Authority that details the exact role that Fred Goodwin played

Tory MPs last night called for Sir Victor Blank and Sir James Crosby to lose their knighthoods for their roles in thmerger of Lloyds and HBOS during the financial crisis. Sir Victor was chairman of Lloyds TSB when it mergedwith HBOS in 2009.


4/10




5/10



In the firing line: The Tories have called for former Lloyds TSB chairman Sir Victor Blank(left) and former HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby to lose their knighthoods for

their roles in the merger of the two banks

Sir James was chief executive of HBOS until 2006 before becoming deputy chairman of the FSA.

One Tory said: These guys were on the last helicopter out of Saigon. So we are going after them.

Victor Blank agreed to take over HBOS as a favour to Gordon Brown.

There will be an FSA report on that next year. It wont be the same plane crash of awfulness that was RBS. Bit will still be pretty bad.

Mr Fallon hinted that further knighthoods could be stripped: There is going to a report now from the FSA into thHBOS-Lloyds disintegration. So who knows what will follow from that?

The affair also led to broader calls for reform of the honours system.


6/10



Exchequer exchange: Former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling (left) branded thedecision to remove Mr Goodwin's 'tawdry', but former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson

(right) said it was necessary to set an example

Labour leader Ed Miliband, who insisted his party had been wrong to nominate Mr Goodwin for his honour forservices to banking in 2004, told the Daily Mail: I think theres got to be caution exercised about who getshonours now.

The circumstances in which people can have these honours revoked at the moment are pretty narrow itsbreaking the law and professional misconduct.

But if you damage the British economy or society, you shouldnt be able to keep such a privilege.

Mr Miliband said ordinary people, not civil servants, should decide whether to give or revoke honours.

He added: You need a wider cross section than civil servants people from civic life, church leaders, thoserepresenting consumers, people from business, actually, who would probably be near the front of the queue ofsaying its not good to have somebody who brings business into disrepute.

Downing Street indicated it may look at ways of stripping peers of their titles where they have been convicted ofcrimes, a view backed yesterday by Scotlands First Minister Alex Salmond.


7/10



Shamed: High-profile figures who have lost their knighthoods since World War Two

Peers including Lord Archer, Lord Hanningfield and Lord Taylor have all been jailed but have been allowed toreturn to the House of Lords. Why are they still in a legislature? said Mr Salmond, who was close to Mr Goodw


8/10



He admitted he now regretted his strong support for the banker.

Former Formula 1 motor racing world champion Sir Jackie Stewart a close friend of Mr Goodwin said hethought the former bank boss had been made a scapegoat. No single person or even any single bank createdthe biggest financial recession in modern times, he said.

To have this (knighthood) stripped is poor for the constitution and very dangerous for the future.

In the Commons, David Cameron and Mr Miliband traded blows as the Labour leader called for banks to be

forced to disclose how many executives earn more than 1million. He said the Government was part of theproblem on executive pay.

Bank bosses have been ordered to step up efforts to claw back bonuses paid to executives involved in the misselling of payment protection insurance to millions of customers.

PPI was sold to those holding credit cards or taking out loans on the premise that they would be able to meettheir payments if they became ill or lost their jobs.

The Financial Services Authority asked bosses including Stephen Hester of RBS, Bob Diamond of Barclays,Stuart Gulliver of HSBC and Antonio Horta-Osorio of Lloyds to show how they have tried to reclaim payoutslinked to one of the worst misselling scandals in financial services history.

Comments (7)

NewestOldestBest ratedWorst rated

View all

Lets really drive this witch hunt to include disgraced MP's that steal their expenses and are incompetant along with the bankers whcommitted no criminal offence and the members of the house of Lords that did and don't forget football managers whose teams losa match or two. Pathetic and the politics of envy and blame!

- Duh!, Outahere, 02/2/2012 01:25

Click to rate Rating 2

Report abuse


9/10



Why should bankers be awarded knighthoods in the first place? Exceptional volunteer charity helpers, brave armed forcesindividuals, brave emergency service employees and exceptional leaders - Yes! Extortionately paid greedy bankers - No!

- James Cook, Middlesbrough, 02/2/2012 01:09


Report abuse

Witch hunt! Leave him alone!

- ex-pat, good to be out of London, Hong Kong, 02/2/2012 01:00


Report abuse

1. For a knighthood to be revoked a crime has to be committed. 2. No crime has been proven. 3. No crime has been identified asprovable. 4. No crime has been identified at all. So he has really had his knighthood revoked for failing to shore up the bank whenthe REAL crime was committed by Brown and Blair of removing the pensions industry tax rebate, so far inexplicably not replaced.That is what put the banks into disarray, not a few stupid bonuses. Crucially overdue, why does it remain unrestored?

- Michael Worsley, Blackpool England, 02/2/2012 00:47


Report abuse

Why the hell do bankers get knighthoods in thefirst place ?

- Mike, England, 02/2/2012 00:46


Report abuse

I'm not giving it back.

- Sir Jonboy, UK, 02/2/2012 00:17


Report abuse

Makes more sense to me to let them keep the Knighthoods, but take away the monster pensions. Imagine that they could not careless if the "Sir" title is removed, but they still keep the Taxpayer funded pensions.

- Keith, Durham City, UK, 02/2/2012 00:16

Click to rate Rating (0)

Report abuse

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Ads by Google:Elegant Formal DressesIndividually Cut & Made to Measure. Yours, Exclusively, Under $200.LightInTheBox.com/FormalDressesGirl Dress UpFind more sources/options for Girl Dress Upwebcrawler.com/girl_dress_up


10/10


Page 10ttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095164/Fred-Goodwin-latest-ssure-grows-action-strip-bankers-knighthoods.html?printingPage=true

Brain TestDeveloped by Neuroscientists Improve Memory and Attentionwww.lumosity.comOMGPOP Free ProfileRedeem Ultimate Game Card on OMGPOP for Holiday BonusUltimateGameCard.playspan.com/A Poem About Sister100s of A Poem About Sister Top Brands At Low Priceswww.Gifts.com

Find this story at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095164/Fred-Goodwin-latest-Pressure-grows-action-strip-bankers-knighthoods.html

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group

Associated Newspapers Ltd

fred goodwin latest: pressure grows for more action to strip bankers of knighthoods

Documents