Paul Flowers

Paul John Flowers (born 5 June 1950) is an English local politician and former Methodist minister.

He is a former Labour councillor in Rochdale and Bradford, and was non-executive chairman of the Co-operative Bank.

In the 1970s Flowers was vice-chairman of Eastleigh Labour Party, and contested Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire county council elections in 1981.

From 1972 he studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology, graduating from the University of Bristol in 1975.

He then obtained a post-graduate diploma at the University of Geneva.

Early in his career he worked for four years in banking, gaining part 1 and half of his part 2 Institute of Bankers qualification.

Flowers was a Methodist minister for over 40 years.

In 1976 he was appointed to serve the church in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

From 1978 to 1981 he was a minister at Hedge End's Methodist church in Eastleigh.

After periods in Coventry, Rochdale and Bridlington, he returned to Bradford.

Flowers was a minister at Clayton and Wibsey churches in the Bradford South Circuit near his home in Bradford.

Flowers was a trustee for Methodist Church Purposes, the body which manages the church's invested funds and property.

Flowers contributed regularly to the Methodist Recorder, including a spell as the paper's art critic, writing the Gallery Notes column.

He also reported from the Methodist Conference.

Flowers unsuccessfully stood for selection in 1985 as the Labour candidate to contest the Coventry South East parliamentary seat, supported by branches of his union as a former bank worker, the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union.

He described himself as "towards the centre" politically in this campaign.

In the Rochdale council election of 1988 he gained a seat in the Smallbridge and Wardleworth ward, holding it until 1992.

In 2000 he attempted to set up a trade union for clergy to protect members against false allegations of abuse.

For a number of years he was a leading candidate in the race for the position of president of the Methodist Conference but withdrew after three unsuccessful attempts.

In 2008, following United's merger with The Co-operative Group in 2007, he joined the board of the Co-op Group, and was later made its deputy chairman.

In 2009, following its merger with Britannia Building Society, Flowers was appointed non-executive chairman of the Co-operative Bank.

On 26 March 2010 he was appointed non-executive chairman of Co-operative Financial Services; the holding company for both the Co-operative Bank and the Co-operative Insurance Society.

Soon after the film of the apparent purchase of illicit drugs was released to the media, it was revealed that, while deputy head of social services at Rochdale Council, Flowers had known about the activities of paedophiles at a residential boys' school, but had not informed parents or taken measures to close the school, was responsible for rejecting allegations of child sex abuse against the late Rochdale MP Cyril Smith, and that, in 2011, while working at Bradford Council, "inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on a council computer handed in by Councillor Flowers for servicing. This was put to him and he resigned immediately."

Several newspapers reported allegations that he communicated with rent boys using his work email account while he was in charge of the Co-operative Bank, and was convicted of carrying out a sex act in a public toilet more than 30 years ago.

Flowers was born in Portsmouth and brought up in Eastleigh, going to Barton Peveril School.

After the bank lost £700m in the first half of 2013, and a £1.5 billion hole in the bank's finances was discovered by the new chief executive Euan Sutherland in May 2013, Flowers resigned in May 2013.

In November 2013, the activities of Flowers, who had occupied a variety of powerful political and business posts and had been appointed by Labour leader Ed Miliband to a senior post in 2010, were widely reported in the media.

Flowers was filmed by an acquaintance in his car apparently agreeing to buy cocaine and methamphetamine, and appearing to count large sums of money while discussing his use of a range of other non-medicinal drugs.

He was subsequently taken to court and convicted of possession of drugs.

On 21 November 2013 he was suspended indefinitely by the church.

He resigned from the Group board and all subsidiary positions in June 2013, after his enforced resignation from Co-op Bank that month.

During this period, he was made a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland; in light of the later scandal, the fellowship was withdrawn on 21 November 2013.

After the bank lost £700m in the first half of 2013, and then the discovery of a £1.5bn hole in the bank's finances by new chief executive Euan Sutherland in May 2013, Flowers resigned from the bank in June 2013, taking responsibility for the difficulties the bank experienced after acquiring Britannia.

He was replaced by Richard Pym, head of UK Asset Resolution.

Flowers testified to the Treasury Select Committee in November 2013 that the Britannia merger and other deals were undertaken under pressure from senior government ministers.

In early summer 2014 he left Bradford to live in Greater Manchester.

He ceased to be in 'Full Connexion' (that is, on the list of authorised ministers) with the Methodist Church of Great Britain in January 2017, following the conclusion of a disciplinary process which found him guilty of 'seriously impairing the mission, witness or integrity of the church'.

Flowers' career progressed through the democratic structures of United Co-operatives, becoming a member of its board following election via United's Yorkshire Regional Committee.

In March 2018 Flowers was banned from the financial services industry by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for having used his work email for sexually explicit messages and to discuss illegal drugs, and his work mobile phone to call premium rate chat lines.

The FCA said he had "demonstrated a lack of fitness and propriety required to work in financial services" and consumers would lose faith in the industry if he was allowed to continue in it.