People’s Vote staff walk out over ‘boardroom coup’
Staff at People’s Vote headquarters have staged a mass walkout after two senior figures were sacked in a “boardroom coup”.
Campaign director James McGrory and head of communications Tom Baldwin were asked to leave their positions by People’s Vote powerbroker and Open Britain chairman Roland Rudd last night.
Read more: People’s Vote power struggle: Two senior figures forced out by power broker
The public relations tycoon said in an email to campaign staff that former Labour chief election strategist Patrick Heneghan had been appointed interim chief executive in an attempt to create a “clearer structure going forward”.
Baldwin and McGory disregarded their respective dismissals and showed up at work this morning.
The People’s Vote Twitter account branded the move as a coup and said staff had walked out of the campaign’s Millbank headquarters this afternoon after Rudd cancelled a staff meeting.
“Late last night, Roland Rudd, as outgoing chair of Open Britain (one of the founder organisations of the People’s Vote campaign), sent an email to all staff announcing a boardroom coup,” it said.
“This email invited all staff to a meeting this morning, which Roland Rudd cancelled at the last minute, despite promises made. Instead he decided to go on TV.
“The team are not prepared to wait around indefinitely for Roland Rudd to come and provide answers to our questions, so the overwhelming majority of the staff team decided to leave the building together.”
People’s Vote is made up of five different organisations, however it is Rudd’s Open Britain that controls staff contracts.
Baldwin, who used to work as an adviser to Ed Miliband, told the BBC that Rudd was trying to position the organisation to campaign to revoke Article 50 in a Liberal Democrat takeover.
He added it was not within Rudd’s remit to fire him.
“Roland Rudd told me not to go into work, but I don’t work for Roland Rudd,” he said.
“The campaign is not a legal entity, it is five different organisations…it belongs to the people, not one businessman who has hardly been seen.”
Rudd denied the charge on Sky News this morning.
“It is always difficult when you promote somebody and others aren’t happy,” he said.
“The person I’ve promoted, Patrick Heneghan, happens to be Labour, so this has nothing to do with party politics.
“We shouldn’t be involved in party politics, we have to work with politicians and work with all parties.”
The sacking of Baldwin and McGrory is the latest chapter in an ongoing power struggle within People’s Vote.
A week ago, it was revealed Rudd had been the target of an attempted coup by prominent New Labour figures Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson.
The pair swapped emails, released by the Mail on Sunday, discussing the need to push Rudd out of the campaign.
Read more: People’s Vote campaigners are playing dirty with the facts
In one email, Campbell wrote: “I do not see how this gets done without a public battle and it should happen soon and be fast and brutal.”
In another, Mandelson wrote: “I agree we need to pin down Roland’s slipperiness. To counter what he said…will require trawling through and possible exposure of private email chains. Who is going to do that?”
Image credit: People’s Vote