25 March 2014
Last updated at 21:38 GMT
Ex-bank boss Flowers: 'I have sinned'
Former Co-op Bank chairman Paul Flowers speaks for the first
time since his arrest over drugs allegations, telling BBC Newsnight: "I
have sinned."
25 March 2014 Last updated at 19:17 GMT
Former Co-op Bank chief Paul Flowers says 'I have sinned'
Paul Flowers: "I have had several hellish months"
Disgraced
former Co-op Bank chairman Paul Flowers has spoken for the first time
since his arrest over drugs allegations, saying: "I have sinned."
The Methodist minister, who stepped down from the bank last
summer, told BBC Newsnight some of his "frailties" had been exposed in
the public domain.He was arrested last November after the Mail on Sunday published footage showing him allegedly buying drugs.
Mr Flowers, 63, said the last few months had at times been "hellish".
In a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with Newsnight, he also revealed how the government had put pressure on the Co-op Bank before it aborted plans to buy 600 Lloyds branches.
He said ministers had made it clear they wanted the deal - which was what first exposed the Co-op Bank's poor financial health - to go ahead.
'Cathartic and traumatic'
Continue reading the main story
Paul Flowers
- 1976: Starts as Methodist minister in Bradford
- 1988-92: Labour councillor on Rochdale Council
- 2002-11: Labour councillor on Bradford Council
- 2009: Joins board of Co-op Bank and Co-op Group
- 2010: Appointed chairman of Co-op Bank and deputy chairman of Co-op Group in April. Appointed by Labour leader Ed Miliband to the party's finance and industry board
- 2013: Steps down as chairman of Co-op Bank and as deputy chairman of Co-op Group in June
- 6 November: Appears before MPs on Treasury Select Committee
- 17 November: Mail on Sunday publishes footage showing Mr Flowers allegedly buying illegal drugs. He apologises and says he is seeking help
- 18 November: Suspended by Labour and his Bradford church
- 19 November: Co-op Group chairman Len Wardle resigns amid the scandal
- 22 November: Mr Flowers arrested in Merseyside in connection with a "drugs supply investigation" and bailed
- 14 January 2014: Mr Flowers is bailed again as inquiries continue
Mr Flowers, who has been a
minister in Bradford since 1976, said "things got pretty hairy" for him
last November when he was arrested as part of what police called a
"drugs supply investigation" following the newspaper allegations. He is
currently on bail.
At the time he was also facing questions about his
suitability to have led the bank, after he was questioned by MPs and did
not appear to know what its assets were."I am in company with every other human being for having my frailties and some fragility exposed," he said.
"Most people get through life without that ever coming into the public domain. But, of course I have sinned in that old fashioned term, which I would rarely use, I have to say."
He added: "Up to [November] there hadn't been much commentary about things we were doing at the bank, but it got worse after that," he said.
"And for me personally there have been several moments where it has been hellish.
"But during that process I've actually been very well supported by a raft of very good friends. You certainly find out who your friends are because a significant number of people in politics and in the Co-op, and some in the Church, have been noticeable by their silence or their absence."
After his arrest at his home in Merseyside, he said he had sought "professional support for the issues that I was facing" and underwent a 28-day addictions treatment programme before Christmas, which he found both "cathartic and traumatic".
Financial troubles Mr Flower, who is also a former Labour councillor in Bradford and Rochdale, was chairman of the Co-op Bank from April 2010 to June 2013.
The bank had to be rescued last year after it was left with a £1.5bn capital shortfall, with many of its troubles stemming from its merger with the Britannia building society in 2009.
Mr Flowers talks about "considerable" pressure to pursue Lloyds deal
The Co-op Bank was a frontrunner to buy the branches but later withdrew its offer.
Mr Flowers said he had come under "considerable" pressure to make that deal happen "from the present government - and mainly from Conservatives".
He said: "They wanted a deal and remember that the government was - still is - the major shareholder of that bank because of the structural support it had needed in 2008.
"Clearly they wanted a deal which would help them in terms of public finances. They actually said that they were keen on Co-op becoming a much more significant player, with more scale.
"We would have had about 7-8% of the market if this had gone through. And there was pressure certainly from [junior minister] Mark Hoban, but I believe, and know, that that originated much higher up, with the chancellor himself."
New shares A Treasury spokesman said: "The selection of the Co-op and the decision on whether to proceed with the Verde deal was a purely commercial matter for Lloyds Bank and the Co-op Bank, as the chairman and chief executive of Lloyds have consistently made clear.
"Since the full extent of the situation at Co-op Bank became clear, the chancellor has ordered an independent investigation into the events at the Co-op Bank and the circumstances surrounding them."
The Co-op group is cutting staff as it battles to survive
On Monday, the bank said it planned to raise another £400m by issuing new shares following the discovery of additional costs, the biggest part of which relates to PPI mis-selling and lapses in the provision of mortgages.
The bank said the discovery meant it would make a loss of £1.2bn to £1.3bn for 2013.
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