Protests over downgrade of Fred Goodwin
SENIOR politicians and City heavyweights including Alistair Darling and Terry Smith yesterday led the backlash against the decision to strip of Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.
Darling, the former Labour chancellor, said it was “tawdry” for the government to target Goodwin, and asked: “If it’s right to annul his knighthood what about the honours of others who were involved in RBS and HBOS?”
Meanwhile Smith, a veteran investor who now runs Tullett Prebon, told the BBC the move was “deplorable”. Smith also said the honorary knighthood awarded in 2002 to Alan Greenspan, then the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, should be “called into question”.
Lord Jones, a former CBI head who briefly served in Gordon Brown’s government, said there is “a whiff of the lynch mob on the village green about this”.
Goodwin (pictured) joined the ranks of Robert Mugabe and jailed jockey Lester Piggot when he lost his honour on Tuesday, and MPs have suggested other the Forfeiture Committee should look at other former bank bosses, such as Sir Tom McKillop, Lord Stevenson, and Sir Victor Blank, the former chairmen of RBS, HBOS and Lloyds respectively.
Conservative Party deputy chairman Michael Fallon said “who knows what will follow” from an FSA report into the ill-fated Lloyds-HBOS merger. Cabinet Office sources said, however, that Goodwin’s case was “exceptional”.