CBI postpones all public events after new sexual misconduct claims

The CBI has temporarily postponed all its public engagements and events after fresh sexual misconduct claims against the business lobby group emerged.

Its annual dinner, at which the chancellor is usually the keynote speaker, will now not go ahead.

The CBI is facing a number of claims, including sexual assault, and has hired a law firm to investigate.

It said it "has treated and continues to treat all matters of workplace conduct with the utmost seriousness".

Sources said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was not due to attend this year's dinner, which had been scheduled for 11 May, because he will be out of the country, but the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, had been set to go.

The BBC also understands that a guest speaker had pulled out of a CBI event in Northern Ireland.

The Guardian recently published several allegations, the most serious is from a woman who claims she was raped by a senior colleague at a CBI summer boat party in 2019.

The woman told the newspaper she felt let down by a CBI manager who, she claims, advised her to seek out counselling rather than pursue the matter further.

A CBI spokesperson said: "We have found no evidence or record of this matter. Given the seriousness of the issue, it is part of the independent investigation being conducted by Fox Williams."

The organisation's director general, Tony Danker, recently stepped aside pending an investigation into separate alleged incidents, for which he has "apologised profusely" and claimed "was completely unintentional".

The BBC understands that these new allegations published by the Guardian do not relate to Mr Danker.

In a statement on Tuesday, a CBI spokesperson said: "In light of the very serious allegations that are currently subject to independent investigation, the CBI has decided to temporarily pause its external programme of events, including the annual dinner on 11 May.

"After Easter, the board hopes to have preliminary findings and actions from the first phase of the investigation and, among other steps, will review this pause in event activity at that point."

Some company executives who are members of the CBI have described this as an existential crisis for an organisation that describes itself as the "most effective and influential" business organisation representing 190,000 businesses across the UK.

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