Fresh doubts over Andrea Leadsom’s City career as ex-colleague of Tory leadership hopeful says she was only in charge of ‘pay and rations’

ANDREA Leadsom faced new questions about her CV last night as former colleagues of the Tory leadership hopeful accused her of lying about her roles in the City.

Despite a claim she had been a senior figure in the investment world, an ex-colleague said she had been in charge of no more than “pay and rations”.

Backers of her bid to be the next prime minister have said she “managed funds” and large teams of people during 25 years working in the finance sector.

But Robert Stephens, who worked with her at investment manager Invesco Perpetual, said her role had been no more than a she had been no more than a “part-time assistant to the chief investment officer”.

The Energy Minister says the cricitism of her pre-politics career is “ridiculous” and insisting her CV is “absolutely true”.

But she had been forced to admit she did not manage investment funds during her time at Invesco Perpetual between 1999 and 2009.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, former global investment specialist Mr Stephens said she had done nothing more than an “important administrative job”.

He said: “What irritated me is somebody projecting themselves as being in a senior investment management role in a major organisation when actually she wasn’t.

“Because people add credibility when they think of a senior investment officer – enormous responsibility for massive amounts of money, taking daily investment management decisions and therefore speaking with some authority on those topics.

“Andrea Leadsom wasn’t that.

“She was a part-time assistant to the chief investment officer, working on special projects.

“The sort of thing she worked on was negotiating the remuneration packages of senior fund managers.

“She was sort of in charge of pay and rations, as one of my former colleagues put it.”

Leadsom has spoken of her “25 years in financial services”, during which time she said she had run “enormous teams, small teams, start-up businesses”.

And MP Bernard Jenkin, who is supporting Leadsom has cited her work at Invesco Perpetual running “a large investment firm where she was responsible for managing hundreds of people and billions of pounds” as proof of her ability for the top job.

But it emerged earlier this week that despite 10 years working at the firm she was only authorised as an investment manager for a three-month period.

It has also emerged that Leadsom had not, as she had claimed, “run the investment team” at Barclays – and was instead just a deputy financial institution director.

And during her time at her brother-in-law’s wealth management firm she had not been ‘managing director’ but marketing director.

When asked by the BBC about the criticisms she said: “My CV as I’ve presented it is exactly accurate.

“There is nothing to regret, my CV is exactly accurate.”

She said while at Invesco Perpetual and Barclays she had not managed funds, but managed budgets for developing investment ‘relationships’.

With the row about her CV raging, she has been appealing to the Tory Right by promising a new vote on fox hunting and speaking out against gay marriage.

She said she would have preferred if gay couples only had civil partnerships but told ITV News: “The love of same-sex couples is every bit as valuable as opposite-sex couples.”

She is also facing calls to publish her tax return, a step Theresa May has already done.