Co-op dismisses board member following leaks

He was due to leave later this year, having not sought re-election earlier this year.

The mutual has seen a number of leaks of board discussions in recent months, including plans to sell off its pharmacy and farm divisions in February, and details of the group’s financial losses.

Mr Sutherland tendered his resignation in March after it emerged he was in line for a £3.66m pay package, which led him to pen an extraordinary outburst on the Co-op’s Facebook page in which he said managing the business is “impossible” due to the mutual’s governance issues.

The news comes ahead of Sir Christopher Kelly’s review into the problems at the Co-op Group, which is expected to be published tomorrow.

Sir Christopher, the former Whitehall mandarin who until recently chaired the Committee on Standards in Public Life, was commissioned following the bank’s capital shortfall and was given a wide-ranging brief to look at the problems with the organisation’s governance and culture.

He is expected to say that the bank’s poor governance was to blame, along with the ill-timed takeover of the Britannia Building Society by the Co-op Bank.

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