Nationwide customer loses vote in bid to join the mutual’s board (The Times)
Almost 76,000 of the building society’s members backed James Sherwin-Smith, 12.5 per cent of those who voted, although this fell far short of the simple majority he needed
Ben Martin, Financial Editor
Wednesday July 15 2026, 9.50pm
The rebel Nationwide customer who is trying to shake up Britain’s biggest building society has pledged to fight on after losing his bid for a board seat.
James Sherwin-Smith failed to win election as a director of Nationwide at the customer-owned mutual’s annual meeting on Wednesday, when 87.5 per cent of members who voted were against his candidacy.
He had always faced an uphill battle because Nationwide had recommended to its members that they oppose him, arguing the former management consultant lacked the skills or experience to sit on the board of one of the largest lenders in the UK.
Yet despite the society’s stance towards Sherwin-Smith, almost 76,000 of the mutual’s member-customers still backed him, representing 12.5 per cent of those who voted, although this fell far short of the simple majority he needed. About nine million of Nationwide’s 19 million members were eligible to vote, and 532,151 were against him.
He immediately said he would seek to run again next year and also announced a new campaign to try to force Nationwide to hold a special general meeting to consider a series of reforms to the mutual that he said “would give members stronger rights and greater accountability”.
He needs the support of 500 members to call a special meeting, where he would ask customers to vote on proposals including giving them a meaningful vote on “major strategic decisions”, such as big acquisitions, as well as introducing a binding vote on executive remuneration.
This would address several of his criticisms about the way the society is run. These have included the fact that Nationwide, led by Dame Debbie Crosbie, its chief executive, did not give its members a say on its £2.9 billion takeover of the high street bank Virgin Money two years ago. Some members were also unhappy about a recent overhaul of executive pay at the mutual that resulted in Crosbie’s package jumping to £4.7 million for the 12 months to the end of March, up from £2.5 million a year earlier.
Members were vocally critical of the level of executive pay at the society at Wednesday’s meeting, with one calling Crosbie’s remuneration “obscenely large”. Tracey Graham, the mutual’s senior independent director, defended its remuneration policy, saying “I think we’ve got the balance of judgments right”.
Sherwin-Smith, 45, was the first member-nominated candidate on the ballot for potential election to the Nationwide board in 21 years, after he surpassed the mutual’s threshold of receiving at least 250 nominations from other customers. It has been even longer since a board candidate proposed by members actually became a director.
His election campaign quickly became acrimonious, after he claimed the board had put him at a disadvantage because of the way it ran the vote.