King Charles III has been urged to strip an NHS boss of their OBE after doing the same to the MBE of a Dragon’s Den star.
The monarch, who has a house in the Cotswolds, has been encouraged to take the honour from Sue Jacques, according to our sister title, The Northern Echo.
She was chief executive of the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust for more than ten years, including when an investigation exposed systemic failures in the service, missed or delayed diagnoses, at least 20 needless mastectomies and hundreds of patients harmed.
She was awarded an OBE in January 2025 for services to the NHS, but the Echo is today calling for her honour to be removed after it emerged that red flags about the scandal date back to 2015.
City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy says she “cannot comprehend” how an OBE can remain “when unscrupulous activity within breast surgery services was potentially at its height”.
Meanwhile, patients have backed the calls for the ex-chief to lose the honour, saying it was a “disgrace” she was ever given it.
Jacques was in charge when a recent review found that repeated warnings about patient care had been ignored.
Concerns had been raised for more than a decade before the scandal sparked a major investigation in 2024. Yet she was awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year Honours in January 2025.
The failures mainly occurred at University Hospital of North Durham and Darlington Memorial Hospital.
An independent review looked at 1,472 breast surgery cases between January 2023 and February 2025. Authorities are considering extending the review back to 2015, potentially reopening up to 10,000 medical records.
Durham Police and the National Crime Agency are conducting a joint criminal investigation into whether offences were committed in the treatment of patients.
Affected patients and medical negligence specialists are calling for a full public inquiry into the trust’s “deep-rooted, systematic failures”.
In comments still on the trust’s website and social media page, she said there was “much to be proud of”, while the trust urged people to join “in congratulating her”
Ms Jacques said at the time she was “deeply honoured and truly humbled to be awarded an OBE.”
City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy said she would write to Prime Minister Andy Burnham about the honour and urge him to speak to King Charles.
Ms Foy said: “I cannot comprehend how an OBE for services to the NHS could remain with the individual who was leading County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust (CDDFT) when unscrupulous activity within breast surgery services was potentially at its height.
“The King’s honours are intended to recognise achievement and service.”
Her concerns also extend to “so many constituents who have raised distressing experiences that either they or their loved ones have suffered at UHND over recent years.”
This comes after a Dragons’ Den spin-off star lost a contempt appeal in a £200,000 dispute after King Charles stripped her of an MBE.
Julie Meyer was unsuccessful in a Court of Appeal challenge against a suspended prison sentence imposed after she was found to be in contempt of court in a dispute involving London law firm Farrer & Co.
The entrepreneur, who was chief executive of Viva Investment Partners, was held in contempt of court in January 2022.
The case centred on what the High Court described as a “deliberate, cynical and continuing” breach of court orders requiring her to provide financial documents and attend court in person for debtor questioning.
Mr Justice Kerr imposed a suspended sentence and said Meyer had shown herself in the proceedings to be “a selfish and untrustworthy person” whose word “counts for nothing if it suits her to break it”.
The Law Gazette reported that Meyer, who lives in Switzerland, also failed to attend a separate hearing in February 2022, after which the judge issued a warrant for her arrest.
Meyer appealed against both the finding of contempt and the sentence, arguing there were procedural deficiencies relating to the service of court orders.
However, the appeal was unanimously dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Lord Justice Males described Meyer’s procedural complaints as “entirely technical” and noted that there was no submission that the alleged deficiencies had caused her prejudice.
The court also rejected her appeal against the sentence, finding that Mr Justice Kerr had been entitled to conclude that Meyer was in “deliberate and cynical breach” of the order.
Meyer later forfeited her MBE, which she had received in 2012, with the official Honours Forfeiture Committee record stating the reason as “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.
She had been well-known to the UK public, appearing on the online version of Dragon’s Den in 2009.
The most recent person to have their honours forfeited in the UK was the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Jeffrey Donaldson.
He had appeared at the Oxford Union, participating in a well-publicised debate in 2004, but in June he was convicted of historical child sex abuse offences at Newry Crown Court.
Reacting to this, the leader of the Oxfordshire Conservatives, Liam Walker, commended His Majesty for protecting the “integrity and value of the honours system”.
Mr Walker said: “Honours are awarded to recognise outstanding service and achievement, and anyone convicted of serious criminal offences has forfeited the privilege of holding them.
“Stripping those honours helps protect the integrity and value of the honours system.”