Senior politicians who advise the King have warned the Confederation of British Industry may never regain credibility and have called its Royal Charter into question.
Members of the influential Privy Council, which advises the sovereign, warned that the CBI may no longer meet the requirements for the Charter’s status, in the wake of rape allegations which resulted in the business lobby being mothballed on Friday night.
It would be the first time any body granted the privilege has lost the status since the reign of Charles II.
It came as business leaders said the CBI had “run its course” and a rival lobby began courting former CBI members.
It increases the likelihood the CBI will struggle to recover when it resumes activities in June, following police investigations into two accusations of rape and the separate sacking of its Director General Tony Danker over harassment allegations.
Former Chancellor Lord Lamont of Lerwick, said: “The CBI needs to put its house in order very quickly if it’s to survive, and that’s looking slightly questionable. If it doesn’t, the Royal Charter is obviously going to be in question.”
Royal Charters are granted by the King to bodies that work in the public interest “which can demonstrate pre-eminence, stability and permanence in their particular field.”
The CBI, which represented the interests of 190,000 British businesses, was forced to shut down until the summer after a cohort of some of the City’s most powerful business women led an exodus of its largest members on Friday.
This followed fresh allegations first published in The Guardian that a female employee was raped by two male colleagues in 2018.
The latest allegations came from a female employee who told The Guardian she woke up after a night of drinking with two male colleagues with physical signs she had been raped.
She said she was later presented with a picture of herself, apparently unconscious, with a penis in her mouth, which she said she believed was taken on the same night.
The City of London police is already investigating previous reports of a seperate rape and other harassment.
The Privy Council Office is not aware of any charter being revoked since the time of Charles II and the King would need primary legislation to enable such a move.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP and former Business Secretary, said: “Given that it is a very difficult one to take away, I wouldn’t be advocating a great constitutional fight over a body that looks as if the pallbearers are gathering, ready to lift up the coffin.”
Former Chancellor Lord Hammond of Runnymede said: “The focus should be on trying to fix the problem. If it proves to be unfixable, that [its Royal Charter status] is another question.”
Their comments came after Andy Wood, chief executive of Adnams Brewery, a former CBI member, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the organisation had “probably run its course”.
Mr Wood said: “We’re are an organisation that takes its culture and its values really seriously, and it’s just totally untenable and unsustainable to remain members.”
Baroness Patience Wheatcroft, a former non-executive director of Barclays, told Times Radio the CBI “probably needs to disband”. She added: “It’s very hard to see that it has a positive future, I’m afraid.”
WPI Strategy, a public affairs firm, is already preparing to launch a temporary body called BizUK in an attempt to fill the lobbying void for businesses, ahead of a general election expected in 18 months.
Nick Faith, director of WPI Strategy, said he began approaching businesses after the news that Mr Danker had been sacked. He plans to get 50 or 60 companies together and launch a year’s lobbying campaign in September ahead of the upcoming election.
Mr Faith said: “There is a gap in the market, because the CBI have their own issues to deal with. Businesses have no collective voice to make their arguments."
The CBI board has expressed “shock and revulsion” at the events revealed in recent weeks and on Friday announced it would suspend all activity until June, when it will put forward proposals for reform and members can vote on its future at an extraordinary general meeting.
In a statement it said: “We are taking steps to address our failings but recognise these are not yet sufficient to sustain the confidence of our colleagues, members and of the broader business community.”
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRlbGVncmFwaC5jby51ay9idXNpbmVzcy8yMDIzLzA0LzIyL2NiaS1yb3lhbC1jaGFydGVyLXN0YXR1cy1hdC1yaXNrLWFmdGVyLXJhcGUtY2xhaW1zL9IBAA?oc=5
2023-04-22 17:00:00Z
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