Co-op launches inquiry after Flowers drug allegations
THE Co-op Group has launched an investigation after ex-chairman Paul Flowers was filmed allegedly buying drugs.
Rev Flowers apologised on the weekend after The Mail on Sunday published a video showing him handing over £300 in a car, apparently to buy cocaine.
The newspaper alleges Rev Flowers, who left the Co-op in June after three years as chairman, was involved in the transaction earlier in the month, three days after appearing before a Treasury Select Committee which is investigating why the Co-op’s bid to buy more than 600 Lloyds branches collapsed.
The Bradford-based minister delivered a less-than-impressive performance before MPs at the Treasury Select Committee. At one stage when asked to give the size of the Co-op Bank’s balance sheet he said the figure was £3bn. The actual figure was £47bn.
The Co-operative Group said it was now carrying out a “fact-finding process” and would review its democratic structure.
In a statement it said: “Given the serious and wide-ranging nature of recent allegations, the new executive management team has started a fact-finding process to look into any inappropriate behaviour at The Co-operative Group or The Co-operative Bank and to take action as necessary.
“In addition, the board of The Co-operative Group has launched a root and branch review of the democratic structure of the organisation.
“We need to modernise to ensure that the interests of all our seven million members are properly and directly represented in the oversight of our business activities.”
Mr Flowers has been suspended from both the Labour Party and the Methodist Church where he was a minister.
Meanwhile the former chief of Co-operative Financial Services, David Anderson, one of the key figures behind the merger with Britannia Building Society – now widely believed to be at the heart of the Bank’s recent financial crisis – will face the Treasury Select Committee today.
