Paul Flowers (banker)
Paul John Flowers (born 5 June 1950) is an English local politician and former Methodist minister. He is a former Labour councillor in Rochdale and Bradford, and was non-executive chairman of the Co-operative Bank. After the bank lost £700m in the first half of 2013, and a £1.5 billion hole in the bank's finances was discovered by the new chief executive Euan Sutherland in May 2013, Flowers resigned in May 2013. In November 2013, the activities of Flowers, who had occupied a variety of powerful political and business posts and had been appointed by Labour leader Ed Miliband to a senior post in 2010, were widely reported in the media. Flowers was filmed by an acquaintance in his car apparently agreeing to buy cocaine and methamphetamine, and appearing to count large sums of money while discussing his use of a range of other non-medicinal drugs. He was subsequently taken to court and convicted of possession of drugs. Soon after the film of the apparent purchase of illicit drugs was released to the media, it was revealed that, while deputy head of social services at Rochdale Council, Flowers had known about the activities of paedophiles at a residential boys' school, but had not informed parents or taken measures to close the school, was responsible for rejecting allegations of child sex abuse against the late Rochdale MP Cyril Smith, and that, in 2011, while working at Bradford Council, "inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on a council computer handed in by Councillor Flowers for servicing. This was put to him and he resigned immediately." Several newspapers reported allegations that he communicated with rent boys using his work email account while he was in charge of the Co-operative Bank, and was convicted of carrying out a sex act in a public toilet more than 30 years ago. Early life Flowers was born in Portsmouth and brought up in Eastleigh, going to Barton Peveril School. From 1972 he studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology, graduating from the University of Bristol in 1975. He then obtained a post-graduate diploma at the University of Geneva. Early in his career he worked for four years in banking, gaining part 1 and half of his part 2 Institute of Bankers qualification. Methodist minister Flowers was a Methodist minister for over 40 years. In 1976 he was appointed to serve the church in Bradford, West Yorkshire. From 1978 to 1981 he was a minister at Hedge End's Methodist church in Eastleigh. After periods in Coventry, Rochdale and Bridlington, he returned to Bradford. Flowers was a minister at Clayton and Wibsey churches in the Bradford South Circuit near his home in Bradford. Flowers was a trustee for Methodist Church Purposes, the body which manages the church's invested funds and property. Flowers contributed regularly to the Methodist Recorder, including a spell as the paper's art critic, writing the Gallery Notes column. He also reported from the Methodist Conference. In 2000 he attempted to set up a