Sir Fred Goodwin axed by the Prince

Sir Fred Goodwin, the disgraced former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland who, against a lot of stiff competition, was voted the world's worst banker in a 2008 Financial Times poll, has now felt the wrath of the royal family. The Prince of Wales has axed him as chairman of his personal charity, the Prince's Trust, a position Goodwin took up five years ago, because it was felt that his tarnished reputation was proving too much of an embarrassment.

"Sir Fred's position has become untenable. The Prince initially decided to stick by him - but that's become impossible," a Palace source told the Daily Mail. "The bank is in such straits Prince Charles had no option but to part company with him quickly. It is out of the question for a business charity to have as its figurehead and role model a man who caused such economic damage.”

It is another blow for Sir Fred, 50, nicknamed 'Fred the Shred' in the City due to his penchant for slashing jobs. He is already considered one of the architects of the banking crisis for his approval of the acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro, which left RBS dangerously overstretched and needing to have billions of pounds of public money pumped into it.

He is due to appear before the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday to account for his performance at RBS. On top of this, on the instigation of Scottish National Party MP Christine Grahame, police are considering launching an investigation into whether shareholders were misled over RBS's £12bn rights issue last year. ·