Taken to task: Equality chief Trevor Phillips

The Government’s equality chief has been attacked by his own organisation for being paid by Channel 4 to advise them following the Big Brother racism scandal involving Indian actress Shilpa Shetty.

The future of Trevor Phillips, the £110,000-a-year chairman of Labour’s new Equality and Human Rights Commission ‘super quango’, was in question last night after it was revealed his conduct had been challenged both by the Commission and the Government.

Mr Phillips came under fire after The Mail on Sunday disclosed in June that he was hired by Channel 4 in the wake of the furore over the treatment of Ms Shetty.

He denied any wrongdoing. But today it can be revealed that:

• A secret review ordered by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) suggests he was guilty of a conflict of interest.
• He faced a revolt by fellow commissioners at a recent EHRC board meeting.
• Whitehall’s anti-sleaze mandarin has launched an investigation into the matter.

The row over Mr Phillips erupted two months ago when it was reported that he was paid by Channel 4 through the Equate Organisation, which he co-founded with media entrepreneur Charles Armitage, and in which he owns 70 per cent of the shares.

The company charges corporate clients a substantial fee for a ‘discreet, customised service’ on how to handle the sort of equality issues that are investigated by the Commission that, in turn, is responsible for making firms and public bodies obey anti-discrimination laws

Friends of Mr Phillips, who works three-and-a-half days a week for the Commission, said there was no conflict of interest and he was entitled to undertake private work in his spare time.

Racism scandal: Shilpa Shetty

Publicly, the Commission backed Mr Phillips. However, this newspaper has learned that, behind closed doors, his conduct caused serious concerns in the organisation. As a result it ordered a secret legal review by human rights lawyer Robin Allen QC.

To spare Mr Phillips’s blushes, Mr Allen was asked to focus on the general issue of commissioners who take on commercial work.

However, his conclusions are clear. The report says commissioners should not work privately for organisations regulated by the EHRC. The Race Relations Act specifically includes Channel 4 as one of those bodies.

Furthermore, Mr Allen says pointedly that commissioners themselves may fail to detect a conflict of interest; they are not best placed to judge the matter; they should take advice from others and, crucially, they should ‘listen’ to that independent advice.

Mr Phillips’s conduct was also raised when the EHRC board met in Cardiff on July 17 and 18. Most commissioners attended a dinner at Cardiff’s Village Hotel on July 16 with guest of honour, Wales’s Deputy First Minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones. Mr Phillips did not attend the dinner.

Some commissioners were surprised to learn later that he had spent the evening addressing a Channel 4 meeting in London on the findings of his privately

commissioned research on race equality for them. When the board meeting got under way, several commissioners, including Professor Francesca Klug, who lectures on human rights at the London School of Economics, raised the issue of Mr Phillips’s private work for Channel 4. A separate inquiry has been launched by Susan Gray,

Director of Propriety and Ethics at the Cabinet Office. Ms Gray, who advises Ministers on potential conflicts of interest, visited Mr Phillips at his London office two weeks ago. She has not yet completed her report.

An EHRC spokesman said: ‘The Commission sought advice on the general issue of commissioners’ interests and Trevor has also discussed the matter with the Cabinet Office. We have a report from counsel on this which is private to the Commission and I can’t comment any further on that. We expect further advice from the Cabinet Office in due course.’

Sources close to Mr Phillips said he did not attend the commissioners’ pre-board meeting dinner because it took place on a Wednesday, when he does not work for the EHRC. There was no question of any discourtesy, the source said.