Reading West MP Martin Salter has called for Sir Fred Goodwin to be stripped of his knighthood which he was awarded in 2004 for “services to banking.” Sir Fred was chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 2000 to 2008, and took early retirement a month before RBS announced the largest loss in UK corporate history.

On top of a last year annual salary of £1.4 million, Sir Fred achieved an uplift in his pension pot from £693,000 p.a. to £703,000 merely for working one extra month prior to retirement. At the same time, RBS faced a £24bn loss which hit shareholders, customers, and staff and required a massive bailout from the UK taxpayer

Following on from calls for Sir Fred to surrender his £700,000 pension, Martin Salter has tabled a Commons Motion which has called for an early meeting of the Forfeiture Committee to consider the case for removing his knighthood.

Martin Salter said:-

“A knighthood is meant to reward service, not selfishness. Under his leadership, RBS lost £28.1bn in 2008, and had to be bailed out by the taxpayer. In spite of this, he still continues to draw on a disgracefully large pension. Sir Fred Goodwin has become a national symbol of corporate greed in the banking sector. It is entirely inappropriate that such an individual should hold an honour for “services to banking” when his actions represent a clear failure of leadership and resulted in damage to the UK economy.”

Mr Salter added:-

“Sir Fred has consistently refused to hand back his obscene pension pot and the vast majority of people are offended by his greed and would not want him to be able to continue to call himself a knight of the realm. The Forfeiture Committee exists to preserve the integrity of the honours system and that integrity would be best served by stripping Mr Goodwin of his knighthood.”