Tinkler vows to fight on in Stobart boardroom bust-up

THE former chief executive of UK transport to energy group Stobart, Andrew Tinkler, has vowed to fight on in his battle against his former employer.

After a dramatic showdown at Stobart’s annual general meeting in Guernsey last Friday, Mr Tinkler and his backers narrowly failed in their effort to have incumbent chairman Iain Ferguson removed from the board.

And while Mr Tinkler was narrowly elected a director of the company, which operates the Aer Lingus Regional service, he was immediately removed by the Stobart board.

The results of Friday’s AGM votes weren’t made available until Saturday evening.

Yesterday, Mr Tinkler said that he and his team were “investigating” the AGM results.

He told shareholders: “We are investigating the outcome of the AGM vote which took 29 hours to be released.” He added: “You voted me back as a director only to be removed by the board immediately on release of the vote.

“Corporate governance at its worst. Democracy needed to retain order.”

During the AGM, the motion to have Mr Tinkler elected to the Stobart board was approved with 51.4pc of the votes.

Some 51.2pc of shareholders voted to re-elect Mr Ferguson, but there were demands during the meeting for his resignation.

Mr Ferguson called the vote an “important day for corporate governance in the UK and for ensuring that the interests of all shareholders are fairly represented and protected”.

He added: “We will be meeting with all of our colleagues face to face over the coming weeks to address concerns and explain our plans for ongoing growth as a united team.”

Stobart’s CEO is former EasyJet executive Warwick Brady.