Matthew Hancock MP: Statement on Fred Goodwin's Knighthood

I believe the Forfeiture Committee have made the right decision. Fred Goodwin broke one of the biggest banks in the world - took early retirement - and left the British taxpayer to pick up the bill. His decision to pursue an exceptionally complex banking takeover, just after the onset of the credit crunch and without proper due diligence, was a reckless gamble that brought down a 300 year old business, and cost the country £45 billion.

Even as Alex Salmond and Gordon Brown cheered him on, it is now clear that Goodwin’s breakneck expansion of RBS in the years before the crash was unsustainable and contributed directly to the bank’s collapse. A knighthood granted by Labour for ‘services to banking’ was clearly indefensible and it should have been returned long ago.      

Of course stripping Fred Goodwin of his title doesn't solve the problems he caused while chief executive of RBS, but it does mean an important principle has been upheld and one which matters deeply to the British people: the principle of just rewards. The honours system should recognise those who make great contributions to our society, not those who take from it and walk away.