Investors lay into Laidlaw

THE right of top executives to collect a number of lucrative jobs on the boards of other companies has been called into question by Centrica shareholders.

At the British Gas owner’s annual general meeting chief executive Sam Laidlaw was criticised for ‘gallivanting off ’ by also holding a position on the board of HSBC.

The bank was fined £1.2bn by the US authorities in 2012 for laundering the ill-gotten gains of Mexican drugs cartels.

‘HSBC has been indulging in criminal and illegal behaviour for 10 years,’ one shareholder said at yesterday’s meeting in London’s QEII Centre.

‘Why not show some integrity and resign from that board?’

But chairman Rick Haythornthwaite defended Laidlaw, saying: ‘I do not think that there is an ethical flaw in this company.’

Laidlaw also has a job on the board of the Department for Transport, and until 2012 also sat on the Prime Minister’s business advisory group.

Early voting results, which do not count ballots cast during the meeting, showed that 4.9pc of investors refused to back the group’s pay policies.

Separately 3.5pc refused to endorse the company’s pay awards for last year, which included shares given to Laidlaw that could be worth £2m.

Formal voting results will be released by the company this morning.

Centrica shares fell 0.5p to 318p.