The latest chapter of a crisis which has engulfed the CBI since the spring comes in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal which triggered the sacking of its former director-general, Tony Danker, and sparked a police investigation into rape allegations unconnected to him.
Although it proclaimed overwhelming support for its new director-general, Rain Newton-Smith, and her mandate to reinvent the group, it emerged that few of the 190,000 businesses it said it represented had actually voted for it. As part of an attempt at renewal, the CBI said it would also seek a new president to replace Brian McBride and make efforts to rebuild ties with the government.