Anthony Hilton: Divisive City grandee Levene should be frank over legacy

New book: Lord Levene was the former chairman of Lloyd's of London

EPA

11 December 2018

Businessmen shouldn’t write books. The result is either self-serving or dull; the style is hagiographic or egregiously self-effacing; if they rub shoulders with politicians, they tell little of the disasters which result. Instead the subject slides effortlessly up the greasy pole.

Peter Levene’s book is a bit like this, but I still liked his anecdotes about Michael Heseltine, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and the rest. But then I knew them 30 years ago, whereas they are today but a distant memory to most people.

Levene made his name at United Scientific, which started off as a seller of army surplus supplies after the war. But then thanks to him, it became a supplier in its own right to half the world. He became a millionaire.

He worked in government, initially under Heseltine in the ministry of Defence where, as poacher turned gamekeeper, he tried to put some structure and cost around arms procurement.

Later he brought sense into the chaos that was the Docklands Light Railway, largely by making the trains run a little less frequently but far more reliably.

Shortly after that he was chairman of Canary Wharf when that development was threatened with bankruptcy. He put it back on its feet.

Then, in 1998, on to be Lord Mayor of London and later chairman of Lloyd’s of London, where he was caught up in a City riot and had to get to Westminster on the back of a moped. The amusing cartoon which resulted graces the front cover of his book.

Mostly the book is these anecdotes, which is okay as far as it goes, but at times you want more.

For example when Levene was Lord Mayor and on a visit to China, he encountered Bo Xilai, the mayor of Dalian. The white Cadillac motorcade, the shut roads with schoolchildren lining the route singing songs and the round of parties were calculated to impress the visitor. They succeeded.

But a few years later Bo was one of the tallest poppies brought down by China’s President Xi. A British businessman was murdered. Bo’s wife was found to be complicit, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption.

Levene mentions Bo’s fall only fleetingly and then moves onto the Duke of Edinburgh and a cricket dinner.

One minute Bo was Levene’s new best friend; the next it’s as though he barely existed. One could also have done with more about his time in defence procurement: did he make a lasting difference or did the waters close over him after he left? Did the civil servants learn new procedures, or was it largely a wasted effort?

And what about the euro? He was one of its major supporters (for disclosure: so was I). He used his Lord Mayoralty to garner support for the single currency. He spoke of how we should be a member of it, and said it would add to the City’s dominance. But there is nothing of this in the book.

Though respected, he was not particularly well liked. Thus he was responsible for City contributions to festivities surrounding the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, but the City would not stump up. He was replaced by P&O’s chairman Lord (Jeffrey) Sterling who had much less trouble. The Square Mile dug deep and the festivities duly took place.

There was a sequel. Lloyd’s of London has a fine collection of Nelson’s silver and there was a move to send this to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for the Battle of Trafalgar’s bicentenary in 2005. But it did not happen. The chairman of the museum was Lord Sterling. The chairman of Lloyd’s was Lord Levene. The silver eventually was exhibited at St Paul’s, where Nelson’s body lies in the crypt.

But there is one scandal where he was wronged and it still rankles.

NBNK was the highest bidder for the division of Lloyds bank which ultimately became TSB. Lloyds had to sell the division but said the Co-op Bank should have it.

Levene, as NBNK’s chairman, was outraged. He produced evidence Co-op was running into trouble, and with Gary Hoffman, his chief executive, he gave this dossier to Lloyds chairman Sir Win Bischoff.

Co-op Bank fell by the wayside after the “crystal methodist” scandal, and a shortfall of £1.5 billion. But Sir Win claimed he never got the dossier.

Levene was even more furious and told the Treasury Select Committee so.

Hoffman surmised that, with the Co-op out of the way, and NBNK persona non grata, Paul Pester, a Lloyds executive, was lined up to run TSB.

But they would have to sort out the IT problems if they were to make a go of it. Hoffman was proved right. This year saw TSB struggle calamitously with its computer upgrade and this put paid to Pester.

Levene gave Lloyds a good kicking and Lloyds deserved it. But it would have been a better book if he had been equally frank elsewhere.

Send for Levene by Peter Levene (Nine Elms Books) is out now, £20

Anthony Hilton: Divisive City grandee Levene should be frank over legacy

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