MP calls for Oxfam chief to step down over sex abuse scandal
1 min read
Oxfam chief executive Mark Goldring should step down over the sex abuse scandal that has engulfed the charity over the past few days, a Tory MP has said.
Oxfam has been under scrutiny after a series of allegations emerged about its staff using prostitutes in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010.
On Monday the organisation’s deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence resigned saying she was “ashamed” at how accusations had been handled, but Mr Goldring has remained in post.
But Conservative MP and member of the international development select committee Nigel Evans has said the charity boss must now be removed as he is “part of the problem”.
He told The Times: “By what Mr Goldring has already conceded, he should go. He has admitted that he didn’t take on board what his own safeguarding officer was saying.
“He’s part of the problem, not the solution. Let’s get somebody else in who can cleanse the organisation.”
However, Oxfam’s chairwoman Caroline Thomson defended the CEO saying: “We have complete confidence in Mark Goldring, he’s doing a brilliant job.”
Yesterday Labour said the Government and the Charity Commission had “serious questions to answer,” about the scandal.
Shadow international development secretary Kate Osamor said: “It is crucial that we now understand how far this appalling scandal reaches, and whether the Charity Commission is operating effectively as an independent regulator.”
The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into Oxfam.
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