A former colleague of Andrea Leadsom has said she was not “a banker or an investment manager” after continuing controversy over the Tory leadership hopeful’s CV.
Robert Stephens, who worked at Invesco Perpetual during Leadsom’s time there, said he was “irritated” that the energy minister had suggested was a senior figure at the investment company “when actually she wasn’t” and that she was “not ideal” to be Prime Minister.
Leadsom was accused of exaggerating her experience in her 25-year career in finance, and published a summary of her CV to combat the claims.
Stephens, who retired from the financial services industry in 2014, told Channel 4 News: “What irritated me, I suppose it’s irritation. Yes. I’ll admit to irritation, was: somebody projecting themselves as being somebody in a senior investment management role in a major organisation, when actually she wasn’t.”
“Because people add credibility. You know, when they think of senior investment officer, enormous responsibility for massive amounts of money, taking daily investment management decisions. And therefore speaking with some authority on those topics. Andrea Leadsom wasn’t that.
“She was a part-time assistant to the chief investment officer, working on special projects.”
Leadsom’s team released a summary of her CV which can be seen below and refers to her as a “senior investment officer”:
Stephens said Prime Ministerial candidate Leadsom had “an important administrative job” but accused her of misrepresenting her role.
“The sort of thing she worked on was negotiating the remuneration packages of senior fund managers, for example,” he told Channel 4 News. “She was sort of in charge of pay and rations, as one of my former colleagues put it. A very important job but not a job that entitles you to call yourself either a banker or an investment manager.”
“It’s just, you know, an important administrative job, the sort of thing that a chief investment officer would welcome having an assistant to handle.
“I think the idea of somebody who has the tendency to allow information to go out into the public domain which is not an accurate representation of their responsibilities, is not in my book an ideal person to be in the most senior political post of the country, to be Prime Minister... it’s not ideal, it’s not ideal.”
In an interview today, Leadsom said: “I really don’t understand why people are just refusing to accept my CV is entirely accurate. My CV doesn’t include I also stacked shelves in Sainsbury’s as a kid and I’ve been a silver-service waitress.”