BUSINESS Secretary Vince Cable has described the failure to identify former Co-op Bank chairman Paul Flowers as an unsuitable person to hold such office, as a
“serious failure of regulation”.
Referring to the recent scandal over Flowers’ drug taking – which has seen West Yorkshire Police search his home – Dr Cable said it was a “very unsatisfactory story.”
Asked on BBC Radio 5Live about the process which saw a person with limited financial services experience allowed to chair a bank, he said “clearly mistakes were made along the way.”
He went on to say that he would have to decide on where the beleaguered Manchester-based bank – would be able to retain its identity after the completion of a proposed restructuring, which will see the business floated and current parent company The Co-operative Group left with a 30% shareholding.
“I will have to decide whether the Co-op bank in its new form, with its new owners, should continue to be called a co-op bank, and whether its ethical values will continue to be upheld.
“I haven’t made a decision on that, and I don’t want prejudice,” he continued
Meanwhile Rev Flowers’ – links to the Labour Party – was a key battleground during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time. Rev Flowers was suspended by the Labour Party in the aftermath of the newspaper revelations about his private life.
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