Downing Street Says » Sir Fred Goodwin

Asked repeatedly whether the Prime Minister agreed with Harriet Harman that Sir Fred Goodwin would not get his pension, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Prime Minister had been setting out his views on this in the last hour or so and everyone in Government was determined to ensure that we explored all legal avenues open and available to us and that was what we would continue to do.

Put that Harriet Harman had gone further by saying that Mr Goodwin would not get his pension, the PMS replied that what we were focussing on was exploring the legal options open to us. That meant, as the Prime Minister had said this morning, looking at Mr Goodwin s employment contract and whether the RBS board took the decision in full knowledge of all of the facts. Asked whether Harriet Harman had got ahead of herself, the PMS repeated that the Government s position, reiterated by the Prime Minister this morning, was that we were exploring all legal options.

Asked whether the Government was still bound by the rule of law, as Harriet Harman seemed to be suggesting otherwise, the PMS said that of course we were bound by the rule of law. That was why we had asked lawyers to examine what the legal options were available to us. The Prime Minister had said this morning that we had to operate within the framework of the law and that went without saying.

Put that the board of the bank had made the decision over Sir Fred Goodwin s pension at a time when the Government did not hold a stake in the bank, the PMS replied that he would not get into hypotheticals; at this stage we were simply asking RBS to look into exactly what the circumstances were around the board s decision at that time. Put that if the board weren t aware, the Government thought that that would be of real legal significance, the PMS said that this was something we needed to look at.

Put that reports at the weekend had suggested that the early legal opinion was that it would be very difficult to reclaim the pension, the PMS said that he was not a lawyer and that was why we employed lawyers in order to provide us with advice on those sorts of issues. The PMS added that he had not seen any initial advice from lawyers.

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to Harriet Harman since she made her comments, the PMS said that the Prime Minister spoke to all of his senior colleagues on a regular basis, as people would expect. Asked if assets of banking executives could be reclaimable if it was found that they had done something wrong, the PMS replied that there were established legal and regulatory procedures in place to deal with these issues.

Asked if the Prime Minister accepted that there was a strong possibility that Mr Goodwin would walk away with his pension intact, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had set out his views on this a number of times. There was a lot of public anger about this and that was shared by the Government. That was why we were examining all legal options available and open to us.

Put that Harriet Harman had said that the Government would step in to stop this happening and was that not now the case, the PMS replied that what he was saying was that our focus was on ensuring we examined all of the legal options available to us and that s what we were doing. Asked what stepping in meant, the PMS said that we had asked our lawyers to look at what the circumstances were surrounding the decision that was taken in relation to this pension and the extent to which it was discretionary and the extent to which the people who took that decision were acting in full knowledge of the facts at the time.

Asked whether the Chancellor s high-level group of financial representatives was still meeting, the PMS advised people to direct that question to the Treasury.

Asked what timeframe had been set for the lawyers to look through the legal options, the PMS said that they were exploring all options. Asked if they would be Government lawyers, the PMS said that UKFI had lawyers that they used for a number of different purposes including this particular purpose.

2 Comments »

Funny about Goodwin. Take a look at this on Fred the Shred:
http://redboxblues.wordpress.com
Comment by Robtherich — 3 Mar 2009 on 8:35 am | Link
I understand that if the Tax Payer had not of BAILED OUT the bank, that the bank would have gone under and Goodwin would only have received a £27K per year pension… only!!!!…. many would even like a pension of that amount.

The guy is a poor excuse of a man, stealing, yes stealing, such a vast amount of money for doing…. what?…. his job badly.

He must be made an example of, to show all that failure is not rewarded, and in particular not rewarded with tax payers money.

I challenge him for the opportunity to talk to him direct, and if he is any sort of man, and not a feable excuse for one, he would accept the challenge and contact me.

Steve Stratfull
Comment by Steve Stratfull — 3 Mar 2009 on 3:06 pm | Link

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» Monday, March 2, 2009

Sir Fred Goodwin

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