The UK financial campaign group, Transparency Task Force, has argued that former fund manager Neil Woodford should lose his CBE. Despite the collapse of his primary fund in 2019, the group feels that Woodford has shown no genuine regret or made significant attempts to rectify the problem, refusing to take formal responsibility. There is clear frustration with Woodford’s conduct, which led the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to reprimand him in April for a lack of understanding of his duties.
Amid these issues, Woodford launched a new blog, continuing to reject his role as a ‘villain’ and blaming wider external issues such as Brexit’s economic and political impacts. Interestingly, following the Brexit vote in 2016, Woodford commissioned Capital Economics, lead by pro-Brexit Daily Telegraph columnist Roger Bootle, to write a report which unsurprisingly played down the concerns associated with Brexit. He later commented that he was being fed ‘nonsense’ about Brexit by the ‘London elite’ and their ‘vested interests’.
It appears that Woodford believed he understood the implications of Brexit better than most economists, a presumption that cost him dearly. There’s also criticism of Woodford’s choice to stray from his comfort zone of traditional value investment to riskier ventures involving speculative biotech and unlisted startups, and Alternative Investment Market companies. It’s suggested that he needs to take more responsibility and acknowledge that his downfall was not just the result of external influences.