People’s Vote revolt: Pressure increases on PR man Roland Rudd to resign
PR tycoon Roland Rudd is at risk of being in violation of the Companies Act for his role in the ongoing People’s Vote row and needs to resign, according to campaign board members.
Rudd has been at the centre of a power struggle at the campaign, with staff refusing to work under his leadership.
Read more: People’s Vote staff on strike in an attempt to oust new chief executive
Rudd is chairman of Open Britain, which is one of the five controlling groups of the People’s Vote campaign.
A collective grievance letter on Friday was sent to Rudd from 40 members of staff, claiming “extremely serious and sensitive allegations” about the “treatment of young female staff members”. This is not believed to be of a sexual nature.
Will Straw, Open Britain board member and son of former Labour home secretary Jack Straw, has today told Rudd he may be in violation of his duties as a director under the Companies Act in a letter seen by City A.M.
The Open Britain board, which also includes Labour figures Peter Mandelson and Joe Carberry, have also asked Rudd to resign.
He wrote: “As directors, we all have a duty under Section 174 of the Companies Act to act with ‘reasonable care, skill and diligence’.
“I cannot see how we can exercise this duty without understanding how you, as Chair of Open Britain Ltd, are responding [to the collective grievance].
“My worry is that you will treat them with the same wilful neglect with which you responded to our repeated efforts to unify the governance of the People’s Vote campaign over the summer.”
The public spat blew up last week after Rudd sacked campaign communications chief Tom Baldwin and campaign director James McGrory, and sought to replace them with former Labour election strategist Patrick Heneghan.
The move immediately caused an open revolt against the change, which staff members branded as a “boardroom coup”.
Members of staff met with Heneghan and Rudd last week and voted no confidence in both of them by a vote of 40 to three.
A transcript from the meeting, seen by City A.M., revealed that staffers said they felt “unsafe” due to intimidation from Heneghan and Rudd.
Those 40 staff members have not been back into the campaign’s offices since and locks have reportedly been changed at the People’s Vote Millbank headquarters.
The staff’s collective grievance letter said there had been a “concerted campaign to intimidate, isolate and victimise staff”.
It added: “During this period of dispute, it had been publicised that individuals are being recruited to senior roles in the campaign, seemingly to replace existing staff.”
Staff also took the step of sending letters to clients of Rudd’s PR firm Finsbury in a bid to discredit his skills as a public relations professional.
Read more: People’s Vote chaos: Members of staff vote no confidence in leadership
One of the letters read: “We are now writing to you to alert you to this matter, to ask whether you are comfortable with Mr Rudd’s actions and whether you feel he has demonstrated good PR skills in the past few days?”
Rudd was contacted for comment.