{"id":50783,"date":"2026-05-28T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/50783\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:30:12","slug":"ousted-bp-chair-says-he-refused-chauffeur-driven-limo-and-made-his-own-coffee-as-he-hits-back-at-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/50783\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted BP chair says he refused chauffeur-driven limo and made his own coffee as he hits back at \u2018lies\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ousted chairman<\/a> of BP<\/a> has hit back at the \u201clies\u201d surrounding his conduct, outlining how he made his own coffee<\/a>, refused a chauffeur-driven limousine and ate lunch at a local cafe during his tenure at the oil giant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an extraordinary statement, Albert Manifold, who was sacked this week<\/a> due to \u201cserious concerns\u201d over his conduct, said he does not accept \u201cthat lies can be told about me, nor that anyone should be allowed to hide behind anonymity when commenting on my time at BP\u201d.<\/p>\n

Refuting claims that he behaved as a bully<\/a>, Mr Manifold detailed in a lengthy statement how he chose to sit in a small office and had no interest in taking private jets or going to major sports events.<\/p>\n

He wrote: \u201cI had no interest in having a dedicated chauffeur-driven limousine at my beck and call. I, like most people, walked, took taxis, trains etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had not interest in taking private aviation nor in availing myself of corporate tickets for sports events\u201d.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI made my own coffee, bought my lunch in the local caf\u00e9. I sat in a small office, eschewing the grand corner-office privilege<\/a> of previous chairmen.<\/p>\n

\"Albert Albert Manifold was removed as the chairman of BP by its board on Tuesday (Niall Carson\/PA) (PA Archive) <\/p>\n

\u201cI did these things because I wanted to set an example.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old, previously chief executive of Irish building materials firm CRH, also claimed his priorities as the company\u2019s chairman, particularly shareholder interests, differed to others within the business.<\/p>\n

The statement read: \u201cWhen I arrived at BP last year, I found a company that, in my view, lacked strategic cohesion and direction. I also believe it lacked clarity on messaging, urgency of delivery, and I believe those issues could have impacted shareholders\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my very first day, I set out to address these matters and ensure that shareholder interests continued to be front and centre of everything that BP did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my professional career I have been a passionate advocate of shareholders\u2019 rights and have had a relentless focus on simply making businesses better. I continued to do this during my time at bp, however, it felt to me that my priorities were not always shared by everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

BP\u2019s board<\/a> removed him with immediate effect on Tuesday. Mr Manifold has said he \u201centirely\u201d disputes the characterisation of his conduct after sources alleged he was a bully<\/a>, and that there was \u201clots of yelling in meetings\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to the allegations, he said: \u201cIs it possible that in my determination to drive change on costs, performance, the balance sheet and shareholder communications, I pushed hard and challenged people directly? Yes, it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is a considerable distance between driving an organisation with urgency and the characterisation of my conduct that is now being put about. At no point in my tenure as chairman of BP has anyone raised with me any issue about my conduct or my relationship with my colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal action between Manifold and the oil giant now seem inevitable<\/a>. Mr Manifold was in line for pay and bonuses fees of \u00a31m this year. It seems likely he will sue BP for this amount, loss of office and serious blows to his corporate reputation.<\/p>\n

BP has suffered a period of severe turmoil, with revolving doors seeing it lose chairs and chief executives with regularity, often under a cloud related to personal conduct.<\/p>\n

BP shareholders have suffered, with the stock no higher than it was in 1999. It dropped sharply when Mr Manifold\u2019s departure was announced. Shares were steady today at 51.4p, which leaves the business valued at \u00a381bn.<\/p>\n

BP said: \u201cWe note the comments of our former chair. We stand by the statement we have made. We have a duty of care to all our employees, particularly those impacted by his behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ousted chairman of BP has hit back at the \u201clies\u201d surrounding his conduct, outlining how he made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21198],"tags":[9141,67,6704,25382,25383],"class_list":["post-50783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bp","tag-albert-manifold","tag-bp","tag-bp-plc","tag-chauffeur-driven-limousine","tag-shareholder-interests"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116651741932212605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}