Mandarin denies PM pressured on Goodwin

The senior civil servant who recommended stripping former RBS boss Fred Goodwin of his knighthood denied yesterday that he was leaned on by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the home civil service, who also chairs the forfeiture committee, insisted Mr Goodwin’s case was considered on its merits.

But senior Conservative backbencher Bernard Jenkin, who chairs the Commons public administration committee, said it was difficult for the public to be confident that the forfeiture committee’s decisions were made objectively when it met in secret amid massive pressure from the media and politicians for Mr Goodwin to be made “a scapegoat” for the banking crisis.

Mr Goodwin’s knighthood was removed on the committee’s recommendation in January, after he was blamed for the crisis at RBS which resulted in millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being used to prop up the bank.

Giving evidence to the public administration committee, Sir Bob insisted that his case was subjected to “a very rigorous process on its individual merits”, even though Mr Goodwin himself was never invited to give evidence in person.

He denied the outcome of the process was “inevitable” once Mr Cameron had signalled that he wanted Mr Goodwin’s honour to be reconsidered.

Sir Bob said: “We had no instruction. We clearly had a signal from a number of people in the public world, and indeed from the Prime Minister, that they felt it should be considered by the forfeiture committee.

“But I had no direct communication with [Mr Cameron] on the case before the committee met and took our decision on the arguments in front of us.”

Asked why Mr Goodwin had been singled out among all the knights who might have played a role in the financial crisis, Sir Bob said it was because his honour was awarded specifically for services to the banking sector.