Sheer gall of FT editor who wants to run Tate
When it comes to naked selfaggrandisement, brass neck and eye- watering double standards, the machinations of the British establishment are truly wondrous to behold.
Take Lionel Barber, 62-year- old editor of the Financial Times, who even his admirers would admit, is not much given to self- doubt or modesty.
A year ago he raised eyebrows after accepting the Legion
d’Honneur from the French government in recognition of the Remainer FT’s ‘positive role in the european debate’. But now he has truly excelled himself.
Barber has spent nearly a year as acting interim chairman of Tate, the art galleries group, tasked with finding a new chairman.
To widespread incredulity, it’s just emerged he has decided to put himself forward for the job.
Barber’s expected appointment has already raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and disquiet has been expressed among FT journalists and Tate trustees.
The gallery is reliant on corporate sponsorship from financial companies which would normally be scrutinised by the Financial Times.
The chairman’s role is to secure external funding so questions will inevitably be asked as to how donations to the Tate may affect his paper’s coverage of the donors.
But, in a further astonishing twist, I can reveal Barber is also chair of Tate’s ethics committee — the very body whose role it is to police sponsors and ensure no impropriety in receiving donations from companies that often appear in his own paper’s pages.
Barber, as if he didn’t have enough on his gilded plate, also sits on the gallery’s Finance and Operations Committee and the Audit Committee.
‘All trustees and the chair are bound by the nolan principles,’ says a Tate spokesman, referring to the Committee for Standards in Public Life. ‘ We haven’t announced the next Chair of Tate and we cannot comment further at this stage.’
Once he is appointed Tate chairman it is expected Barber will stand down from the ethics committee.
Other leading candidates for the chairmanship were Moya Greene, chief executive of the Royal Mail, and Barber’s fellow Tate trustee Roland Rudd, chairman of the PR company Finsbury.
‘The funding situation of Tate is dire,’ says my source. ‘After government funding they need to raise £100 million a year. Tate Britain is in need of major refurbishment. This is not just a part-time sinecure, but a challenging job.’ BARBER, who has been FT editor since 2005, is thought to have secured agreement from nikkei, the Japanese owners of the newspaper, that he could carry out both roles for a limited period.
‘he has told colleagues at the newspaper he plans to stay until 2020,’ says another source.
Seasoned Fleet Street observers, however, are mystified as to how Barber could find time to do both jobs. Barber declined to comment.