Bushell started in the role in September 2019, handing in her resignation on Sunday, after the sub-committee of the board agreed with the inquiry and felt there was the basis for disciplinary action against Delia.
Bushell, who succeeded Simon Bazalgette as Jockey Club group chief executive, was reported in the Racing Post two weeks ago, to have been the subject of a complaint by a senior employee.
On Sunday evening, the Jockey Club released a statement confirming that Delia Bushell would be stepping down, confirming that “a wide range of allegations about her conduct, which the board concluded made it untenable for her to continue in the role.”
It continued: “As part of this review, an independent barrister interviewed 19 witnesses, including Delia. He submitted a detailed report to a sub-committee of the board comprising Dido Harding, Julia Budd and Justin Dowley on Sunday 23rd August, in which he concluded that there was evidence to support a number of the allegations of misconduct, including bullying behaviour towards colleagues, inappropriate, racist comments and sharing offensive materials.” “The sub-committee of the board agreed with his conclusion and decided that there was a basis for disciplinary action against Delia, including on the grounds of gross misconduct. This recommendation was accepted by the full board of the Jockey Club.”
The statement concludes that Nevin Truesdale, who was a forerunner for the chief executiverole but lost out to Bushell, has been appointed as acting group chief executive.
However, Bushell didn’t resign without a scathing response to the Jockey Club in a long and passionate letter, Bushell states her “shock and sadness at my treatment by the Jockey Club.”
Bushell states she was employed in a challenging change agent role in a highly resistant organisation. She highlighted that the board regularly congratulated her on the quality of strategic work being produced and was told that, if I was ruffling feathers as we progressed, that usually meant I was “doing the right thing”. On the grievance claims Bushell retorted that: “An employee whose role is impacted by the proposed restructure raised a grievance against me, with 22 allegations encompassing everything from victimisation to a lack of phone calls from me. You instructed a supposedly independent barrister to look into these. Then this confidential matter was leaked to the press from within the Jockey Club, with clear intent to undermine my position and harm me.
Bushell was, even more, damming towards the end of the remarkable letter. Claiming that: “Several witnesses contacted me to express their concerns about the barrister’s lack of impartiality and their impression that the line of questioning was designed to achieve a particular outcome. They suggested that the process appeared a deeply unpleasant ‘stitch-up’ and advised that I walk away from the Jockey Club immediately.”
She ends by saying that she been subjected to unmerited, dishonourable, bullying behaviour and adds: “I note that this report did not uphold the complaint of bullying, nor of 15 other allegations. I do not accept the barrister’s findings in relati
