Welcome to Yorkshire board under pressure to resign amid expenses scandal

Welcome to Yorkshire’s Board has been asked to resign following allegations that the tourism body’s former chairman and chief misused public funds.

Former chief executive Sir Gary Verity and former chairman Ron McMillan travelled in chauffeur-driven cars, hired helicopters, went on shooting expeditions that they described as ‘networking’, and competed with each other to order the most expensive bottles of wine on expenses, according to the allegations.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Paul Scriven, a Lib Dem peer and former leader of Sheffield City Council, also accused the pair of presiding over a ‘culture of toxicity’ at the regional tourist board.

The tourist board was taken public in 2009 by Sir Gary, a sheep farmer from the Dales who is credited with bringing the start of the Tour de France to Yorkshire in 2014. He was knighted the following year.

More than £10 million has been pumped into the body over the past 10 years, but it has endured a series of scandals, which Lord Scriven said he tried to investigate.

In the House of Lords, he said: "Excesses include luxury spending on helicopters, hotels at £600 a night, lavish meals during which the chief executive Gary Verity and the former chairman Ron McMillan were playing games about who could get the most expensive wine on expenses."

McMillan, who resigned in April, has denied the allegations. He claimed he and Sir Gary were guests on shooting trips and he didn’t recall any excessive spending on wine.

Sir Gary resigned in March on health grounds after allegations of erroneous expenses claims and bullying emerged. He was paid a salary of £243,000, but he is accused of trying to claim costs from Welcome to Yorkshire related to the funeral of his sister, who died in January. He is also accused of using employees to staff the funeral, including handing out drinks.

After he stepped down, the tourism body commissioned an independent inquiry into its expenses and governance, which found that the problems in the culture were ‘bigger than one person’ and that staff felt unable to raise concerns about behaviour.

Of £900,000 worth of expenses claims made by all staff over three years, £26,000 was found to be of a personal nature. Sir Gary is understood to have paid back a five-figure sum when he resigned.

Lord Scriven called for the Welcome to Yorkshire board to resign after the publication of ‘damning and breathtaking’ reports.

Keith Stewart, the interim chairman, said: "Welcome to Yorkshire has achieved great things over the last ten years. We will put right what has gone wrong and we will once again become an organisation that everyone can be proud of."