TV star Noel Edmonds helped inflict double humiliation on Lloyds Banking Group at its AGM in Edinburgh.
The former Deal Or No Deal presenter launched a bitter attack on the board on a day when more than 20% of the bank’s shareholders voted against salary rises for directors, including a £6.42 million pay packet for group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.
Edmonds is seeking financial redress from the bank after allegedly falling victim to fraud by former staff at HBOS Reading. Lloyds rescued HBOS at the height of the financial crisis. Edmonds purchased one share in Lloyds for 67p in order to attend the meeting.
He said: “If you want to turn it into a game show, the way you treat us, I would call it Pointless. If you want to turn it into Jail Or No Jail you are going in the right direction. Things are very serious but I keep asking questions and you keep ducking them.”
Edmonds has secured litigation funding to pursue Lloyds through the courts as he seeks up to £60m in compensation from the banking giant and plans to lodge legal papers by the end of June. He is pursuing Lloyds for damages for losses allegedly suffered when his former business Unique Group was destroyed because of the fraud. Mediation talks broke down late last year.
Lloyds Group chairman Lord Blackwell responded to Edmonds’s outburst by saying: “This isn’t a show Edmonds, it’s an AGM. You’ve set out one version of events on what you believe happened. We have a different version of events. You wish to pursue it in court and I’m happy to leave it to the court.”
After the meeting, Edmonds claimed: “Lloyds Bank has a policy of lie, deny, deceive. I have tried to arrive at a negotiated settlement and they just drag it out and try to break you with legal fees. This was an opportunity for me to actually see them face-to-face and ask simple questions.”
Meanwhile, advisory group Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS) recommended the directors’ remuneration report be rejected on the grounds that Horta-Osorio’s pay packet is nearly 100 times that of the average worker.
The result will see Lloyds placed on a public register of firms where more than 20% of shareholders have revolted
over a resolution.
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