The UK’s rail minister got an award-winning engineer sacked for speaking to the media about safety concerns at London Euston station, while in his former role.
Peter Hendy, who was the former chair of Network Rail, threatened to withhold contracts from his employer — one of the UK’s largest rail consultancy firms — unless the engineer was dismissed.
News website Politico revealed Lord Hendy was angered after the engineer, Gareth Dennis, told a journalist that overcrowding at the station was ‘unsafe’.
Mr Dennis spoke about the conditions of overcrowding, particularly when one or more trains are delayed or cancelled, whereby thousands of people gather in the concourse.
A letter from Lord Hendy to the engineer’s employer SYSTRA, was obtained by Politico last week, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
According to the website, the letter warned that ‘finding a potential supplier criticising a possible client reflects adversely on your likelihood of doing business with us or our supply chain.’
The email sent to the rail consultancy firm reportedly said ‘the allegation that Network Rail is running an unsafe operation is a serious one’.
However, speaking to RailTech, Mr Dennis said the comments in question had been made during ‘a very tame interview’ with The Independent.
He insisted he did not lay blame on a particular person, or that Network Rail needed to ‘get its act together’, but said it was a ‘condition of the history of the station’, which would ‘always be a challenge and that has to be manage’.
Lord Hendy, who sent the letter in May of this year, was chair of Network Rail from 2015 until he became a part of Sir Keir Starmer’s new Labour government in July.
Mr Dennis was suspended on May 20, according to a letter from his employer seen by Politico, citing Lord Hendy’s complaint.
Further emails show that on May 24, Mr Dennis was offered a financial settlement to leave SYSTRA on the condition he sign an agreement with a confidentiality clause.
He did not sign it and was subsequently dismissed with four weeks notice on July 8 after a disciplinary hearing.
Lord Hendy, Downing Street, Network Rail, SYSTRA and the Department for Transport have been contacted by for comment.
Shadow transport secretary Helen Whatley previously raised concerns about the appointment of Lord Hendy following the whistleblower incident.
She was quoted in The Independent as saying: ‘We need a culture in Government where people aren’t afraid to speak up when something’s wrong, not one where whistleblowers are threatened.
‘We now need to know who knew what and when, and whether Keir Starmer thinks his minister’s conduct is acceptable.’
Lord Hendy is the 71-year-old grandson of the 6th Baron Wynford of Wynford Eagle whose hereditary title stretches back to the reign of George IV.
His mother Mary Best was an aristocratic debutante until she married Hendy’s father Jack who was a communist electrician.
Lord Hendy was educated at Latymer Upper School and the University of Leeds where he graduated in Economics and Geography in 1975.
In 2013, escort Rachel Grundy claimed that she had a nine-month affair with Lord Hendy as he supervised London’s travel network for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Ms Grundy alleged Lord Hendy gifted her Oyster Cards with £10 of credit on each, as well as a London 2012 badge as tokens of his affection.
The Telegraph reported at the time, Lord Hendy did not comment on his private life and then Mayor of London Boris Johnson said there was no evidence of ‘impropriety’.
Lord Hendy was honoured with a CBE in the 2006 New Years Honours list for his services to Public Transport and to the community in London.
In October 2022, as part of the Special Honours, Lord Hendy received a life peerage.