Sacked CBI chief loses role at King’s charity

Tony Danker, who was unceremoniously sacked last week as boss of the Confederation of British Industry lobby group amid a sex and drugs scandal, has lost his position as an adviser to the King’s favourite business charity.

Danker was given a seat on a six-person panel advising Business in the Community (BITC) in 2020. He forfeited his unpaid but highly prestigious role at the charity on Tuesday as an automatic consequence of his dramatic dismissal from his £376,000-a-year job as director general of the CBI.

His Majesty has been a driving force behind BITC for four decades and is its Royal Founding Patron.

BITC is dedicated to encouraging businesses to be socially responsible and help build a fairer and greener world.

It has also played a leading role in campaigning for women at work, including the Opportunity Now drive for gender equality.

Out: Tony Danker and the blank space on the BITC website where his details were

Danker was dismissed without a pay-off after an independent investigation found his conduct, including sending a barrage of unwanted messages to a female colleague, ‘fell short’ of what was expected of him as the CBI’s director general.

All trace of the former CBI chief had been expunged from the BITC website this weekend.

A blank space appeared alongside thumbnail portraits of his former colleagues on the advisory board, suggesting his details had been erased in a hurry. The King has been deeply involved with BITC, a cause very close to his heart, since its inception in the aftermath of the Toxteth and Brixton riots in 1981.

His Majesty, who is a passionate believer in the potential for businesses to transform communities for the better, became its president in 1985.

He has since undertaken around 600 personal engagements on BITC’s behalf and views it as one of his most important projects. As yet there have been no discussions about who, if anyone, will replace Danker. It is unclear if his replacement as CBI boss, Rain Newton-Smith, will be invited to step in.

Members of the advisory group act as a sounding board for the BITC chief executive, Mary Macleod, and provide guidance on some of the ‘biggest overarching issues facing responsible businesses today’.

The remaining advisers include advertising executive Karen Blackett, City grandee Sir Ian Cheshire, and former BT supremo Gavin Patterson, BITC’s current chairman.

Macleod said: ‘Tony Danker, as director general of the CBI, was on BITC’s advisory group. The CBI’s position on this group is historic and is linked to the CBI as an organisation, not to any one individual. Therefore, when it was announced that Danker was no longer in the director general role, it was only right that he be removed from the group.

‘There has not yet been a conversation with the CBI, but we wish the new director general all the best as she takes things forward, and will be happy to work with her to drive change.’

The CBI has been at the centre of a storm over alleged sexual misconduct and drug abuse since a woman came forward with allegations about Danker’s conduct to The Guardian.

This prompted further allegations, not involving Danker and pre-dating his time as director general, including rape, attempted sexual assault, and cocaine-snorting at official events.

Danker, 51, said he was ‘shocked’ at being sacked rather than invited to put his side of the story, and that many of the allegations against him were ‘distorted.’

CBI President Brian McBride has also apologised for the scandal.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk