New charity watchdog head quits before he starts over ‘inappropriate behaviour’ claim

A women’s charity he had chaired flagged the complaint by filing a ‘serious incident report’

Martin Thomas at a pre-appointment hearing last week for the position of Charity Commission chair (Parliamentlive.TV)

The new head of the Charity Commission has stepped down after it emerged that there were several allegations of “inappropriate behaviour” made against him at his previous job.

Martin Thomas quit the role on Friday just a week after he had been appointed, and said that he had made an “error of judgment” during the application process.

He was previously chairman of Women for Women International UK, where three formal misconduct complaints were made about him.

One of the complaints alleged that Mr Thomas had sent a photo of himself in the lingerie shop Victoria’s Secret to a female employee.

In response to this allegation from 2018, Mr Thomas has said that the women’s charity – that supports war survivors – was offered a donation from the underwear company, and that he took a photo of an item to “illustrate” his “point” that the donation might not be appropriate.

On the allegation, Mr Thomas said in a statement: “I was not sure whether a company that advertised using sexual content should be partnered with a charity which helped women escape sexual violence.

“[I] took a photo of an item for sale in a Victoria’s Secret store which I felt was appropriate to illustrate my point. Instead of sending it to the charity CEO who was in agreement with me, I sent it in error to another colleague. I apologised immediately and my apology was accepted.

“Months later a complaint was made and investigated under the charity’s code of conduct. The complaint was not upheld.”

Mr Thomas was also the subject of another misconduct complaint which was also not upheld.

He resigned as chairman of the women’s charity in May this year after a bullying investigation concluded that he had behaved inappropriately towards a different employee, according to The Times. But the investigation concluded his actions were not “deliberate bullying”.

The women’s charity filed a “serious incident report” on the case to the Charity Commission to identify Mr Thomas as the subject of the allegations.

Women for Women said: “The investigation concluded that the chair’s actions were not deliberate bullying but that the complaint was partly upheld insofar as aspects of the chair’s conduct were judged to have been inappropriate.

“In view of this, the board concluded that it would be appropriate to ask that he step down as chair with immediate effect.”

MPs on the Culture, Media, and Sport select committee – who approved his appointment to the three-year-long job, that comes with a £62,500 salary for “up to” two-and-a-half days a week – were reportedly unaware of the disciplinary action.

Mr Thomas was the government’s preferred candidate for commission chairman earlier this month and had been expected to take up the post on 27 December.

In a statement, he said: “Regretfully I have decided to step aside from the role as chair of the Charity Commission over an error of judgment on a technical omission during the application process.

“I have behaved throughout the process in good faith, and did not wilfully mislead anyone at any time ... I have never deliberately set out to offend anyone and my passion to improve the sector is borne out of a desire to do public good.”

He said he had meant to send the picture to the charity’s CEO following discussions over a proposed donation from the lingerie firm.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said nothing was mentioned by Mr Thomas during the application process that would flag any concerns about his conduct. It said that Mr Thomas had “entered the process in good faith, without looking to mislead”.

A DCMS spokesperson said: “All due process was followed in the search for a chair.

“We will now take steps to appoint a new Charity Commission chair and will provide an update in due course.”

The appointment process for the charity regulator faces a High Court challenge over accusations of political bias. Mr Thomas is believed to have family links to PM Boris Johnson, and the pair had studied classics at Oxford at the same time in the 1980s.

Jolyon Maugham, of the Good Law Project, which launched the legal challenge, said: “This is not how public appointments should happen. And, one might think, it’s not how public appointments do happen for those who lack friends in high places.

“We have written asking the secretary of state to concede that the process that led to Martin Thomas’s appointment was flawed.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said on Twitter: “How could @NadineDorries appoint someone with this awful record?

“The Tories have made a mockery of the Charity Commission chair first with a political appointee and now with a friend of Boris Johnson’s. It’s time for someone who is properly impartial.”

Mr Thomas has had 20 years of experience in finance and law before moving to the charity sector.

He has also most recently been chair of NHS Resolution.