Caplin chaired a youth charity

Former Labour MP and defence minister Ivor Caplin, who has been arrested on suspicion of engaging in sexual communication with a child, was until 18 months ago the chairman of Concordia.

Ivor Caplin’s arrest has hit the headlines around the world, but his ‘resignation’ only 18 months ago from the chairmanship of a charity working with young people seems to have been successfully hushed up.

After appointing him as a director in 2018, Sussex-based Concordia said on LinkedIn on July 29, 2022 that it was “thrilled to announce” that the former UK Defence Minister had become its chairman. His elevation to the role was accompanied by a photo-shoot at a local farm where it was reported that he “joined seasonal overseas workers to pick cherries while announcing his new chairmanship of a historic charity”.

Caplin was Hove’s MP from 1997 to 2005 and served as an Under Secretary of State for Defence in Tony Blair’s government from shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 until he stood down as an MP. After Westminster, he continued to have a high profile in Labour politics, serving on the party’s South East regional executive committee until recently and as a director of the Jewish Labour Movement from 2018 to 2021.

Securing Caplin’s services as chairman was clearly seen by Concordia as a coup in 2022. However, less than a year later - on July 4, 2023 – Concordia registered his resignation from its board with Companies House without any fanfare. There does not appear to have been any public statement – thrilled or otherwise – about the sudden departure of the former Hove MP from the charity’s top lay post.

Instead, his resignation was merely noted on a list of directors in Concordia’s subsequent annual report, published on September 14, 2023, even though the report’s chairman’s statement is attributed to Caplin. In the following year’s annual report, the statement by his successor, Jane Bond, also simply says that he had resigned but without explanation or any thanks for his service.

Concordia was founded in 1943 to recruit young people to work as volunteer farm labourers during the Second World War and has been active in the Sussex area since. Its website says it “seeks to build international peace and equality through work and volunteer opportunities” and provide “life-changing opportunities, experiences, and a new understanding of a culture that is different from their own.”

The charity’s report for the period when Caplin was chair gives details of its youth programmes, including one to help local schoolchildren aged 11 to 14 to “understand their emotions, build an emotional toolkit, grow their self-esteem and foster healthy relationships” and another to encourage young people aged 14 to 18 to engage with their local community. The report also says that Concordia is a ‘Delivery Partner’ for the Government-funded National Citizen Service in the Sussex area.

When Caplin was appointed as Concordia’s chair, he said:

“I’m honoured to be taking over the chairmanship of Concordia, overseeing this vital farming work as well as the charity’s other, brilliant initiatives such as delivering the National Citizenship Service, international volunteering, and well-being and volunteer programs for young people in the UK.”

Caplin’s very short tenure as chairman and the virtual silence surrounding his resignation is odd. His predecessor, Jeremy Ogden, had held the post for five years. Why did Caplin resign after 11 months? Why is there no explanation of his resignation or expression of appreciation for his work in Concordia’s annual reports? And why also did a charity purporting to promote peace choose someone who had been so heavily involved in the Iraq war as its chair in the first place? I have contacted Concordia for a comment and will update this item if I hear from them.