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An independent report commissioned by the People’s Vote campaign last month found that it needed “a clean slate on key roles” to end a “culture of mistrust”, “patronage”, and “cronyism” at the organisation, with “repeat offenders” accused of being “continually disruptive and eroding trust”.
People’s Vote descended into a full-blown public civil war on Monday after its chair, Roland Rudd, dismissed its campaign director, James McGrory, and head of communications, Tom Baldwin. In an interview on Sky News, Baldwin claimed he was the victim of a “boardroom coup” at the hands of Rudd, who in turn called the suggestion “absurd”.
But a confidential report seen by BuzzFeed News delivered a scathing assessment of the campaign’s current management and leadership. It echoed the concerns raised by Rudd on the airwaves this morning about the need for People’s Vote to be restructured if it is to achieve its core objectives.
The 83-page report — titled “Project Root”, dated Sept. 3, and marked “do not circulate” — was carried out externally by the firm OC&C Strategy Consultants, which was hired by the campaign.
It was tasked with establishing how to best ensure that People’s Vote could win a future referendum for Remain, conducting one-on-one interviews with People’s Vote staffers and other stakeholders and analysing campaign spending and materials.
The report was highly critical of the management of People’s Vote under McGrory and Baldwin, and the toxic culture fostered on the campaign by its extreme factional infighting.
It also found that the campaign was hampered by a “culture of mistrust” and did not have appropriate processes in place to properly deal with bullying and harassment. It recommended “decisive action to deal with 'Repeat offenders' who have been continually disruptive and eroded trust”. [...]