BP’s chief refuses to say sorry for his role in RBS failure

BP chairman Peter Sutherland was today enmired in controversy at his last annual meeting of the oil major as he refused to apologise for his role in the boardroom failure at Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was also a director.

Angry shareholders attending the BP agm said £600,000-a-year part-time chairman Sutherland's position was "untenable" because of the row at RBS and the £17 million pension of former boss Sir Fred Goodwin.

One shareholder pointed to Sutherland's specific role as a member of the remuneration committee of RBS, whose board was run by his old friend Sir Tom McKillop, since ousted at the bank but who is also a director on the BP board run by Sutherland.

Sutherland said he would refuse to discuss the issue because he was no longer a director of RBS, whose board was cleared out after the bank was saved from collapse by a huge taxpayer bailout.

McKillop, who earlier this month announced he is quitting from his £95,000-a-year part-time directorship of BP, failed to attend the meeting despite still being on the board.

Sutherland curtailed further calls for his resignation by confirming that this year's agm would be his last after 12 years on the board, most of them as chairman.

He said the BP board had asked him to stay on a further year but he added BP's search for his successor is now "well advanced". He said: "This will definitely, absolutely, conclusively be my last agm."