BP's Ex-CEO Gets British Government Job

John Browne, who ran BP from 1995 and 2007 and whom critics fault for cutting corners on safety, has been tapped to help the U.K. government slash its spending

Lord Browne, the former head of BP (BP) who was once reputed to be Tony Blair's favourite businessman, has been brought back into the heart of Government to help find the £6.2bn in public spending cuts promised in the Budget.

One of his first tasks will be to help the Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, recruit a team of business leaders in the hope of placing one in every government department, to bring a business culture to Whitehall.

Lord Browne was one of Britain's most-admired business leaders in his heyday, with a gift for getting on well with politicians. He was nicknamed the "Sun King," and was so close to the former prime minister, Tony Blair, that it was suggested that an appropriate name for the company he headed would be "Blair's Petroleum."

But critics have suggested that his determination to bear down on costs at BP, where he was chief executive in 1995-2007, contributed to the company's patchy safety record. In 2005, while he was in charge, there was an explosion at the Texas City oil refinery, in which 15 people died and 170 were injured, for which the company was fined $87m (£58m). An internal report found that BP employees had made "surprising" and "deeply disturbing" mistakes that caused the fire, though the company was praised for the speed with which it accepted responsibility for the disaster.

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