Fred Goodwin resigns as Queen's charity trustee to avoid more embarrassment over stripped knighthood
Fred Goodwin has resigned as a trustee of the Queen’s personal charity to avoid embarrassing the Royal Family.
The shamed banker quit the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Trust, which distributes funds to good causes, just days before he was stripped of his knighthood last week.
Mr Goodwin, who led the Royal Bank of Scotland to the verge of collapse, became the public face of the banking disaster which plunged Britain into recession and cost taxpayers billions.
Fred Goodwin has resigned from the Queen's Silver Jubilee Trust
Last week he joined the ranks of
Robert Mugabe and Nicolae Ceausescu in having his honour annulled, when
the Forfeiture Committee decided his actions had brought the system
into disrepute.
Mr Goodwin, who was once a regular visitor to Balmoral, quit his role as chairman of the Prince’s Trust in 2009 in the wake of public anger over the bailout of RBS.
But his role since 2004 as one of six
trustees of the Queen’s personal charity, which distributes money to
good causes, did not emerge until last year.
The Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips is sponsored by the bank
A number of professional bodies were yesterday said to be considering stripping Mr Goodwin of fellowships they awarded him.
These include the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The news of his resignation came as it was reported the Royal family was 'concerned' about the cancelling of his knighthood by the Honours Forfeiture Committee.
The Queen had to act on the 'advice' given to her. But it is understood she voiced misgivings before signing the order to annul the honour presented to him in the 2004 Birthday Honours List for services to banking.
Her worries were apparently shared by the Princess Royal and the Duke of York.
It is believed this is because knighthoods are usually only cancelled if a recipient has been sentenced to more than three months in prison or has been struck off by from their profession.
But Goodwin has not been convicted nor censured in his profession.
A source told the Telegraph: 'The Queen is concerned about the precedent that it sets.
'Are we now going to have incoming ministers stripping their predecessors of their roles as Privy Counsellors if they want to make scapegoats of them
'The Queen is very much aware that this decision opens a new can of worms.'
The Queen was reported as recently as last October to be adamant that Goodwin should remain a trustee of the trust.
Her biographer Robert Hardman wrote in Our Queen, which was sanctioned by Buckingham Palace: 'The Queen saw no reason why a man who had given long service to royal charities should not continue to do so.'
Goodwin was chairman of the Prince's Trust from 2003 until 2009 and of its Scottish branch for four years before that.
The Princess Royal's son, Peter Phillips, was given a job at RBS and her daughter, Zara Phillips, is sponsored by the bank.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment on the Queen's views.