Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter has hit back over allegations of wrongdoing concerning her late father’s NHS fundraising money, insisting “we’re not hiding anything”.
Hannah Ingram-Moore, interim chief executive of the charity named after the veteran soldier, said she had been “incredibly naïve”, but that “doesn’t mean we’re bad”.
The 51 year old said she had never shied away from being held accountable, telling ITV’s This Morning: “Hold my feet to the flame. I am guarding my dad’s legacy … we’d never hurt it.”
It comes after The Independent exclusively revealed the Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance case into The Captain Tom Foundation last March following an apparent request from the foundation to appoint Ms Ingram-Moore as its CEO on a salary in the region of £150,000.
Ms Ingram-Moore has said the claim is “simply not true” and has left the charity “in peril”.
She told This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on Thursday: “It’s clear our accounts are there to be seen but we’re not hiding anything, there’s nothing wrong, we haven’t made any false action and I genuinely think the vast majority of people know that.
“Those clickbait headlines have been destructive and have put the foundation at peril.”
She added: “I think we have been incredibly naïve, but I don’t think that means we’re bad. I think we’re wholesome good people and we run businesses, we understand.
“I think we stepped into this for love, for humanity, for allowing as many people as possible access to his legacy. We never thought of the darkness, never crossed our minds.”
Ms Ingram-Moore became visibly upset as she spoke of the “devastating” impact trolls had had on her family.
“My 13 year old said to me ‘Mum, why do people hate you after all that you’ve done’,” she told the programme.
“How can you explain to a 13 year old, when she sees our lives have been immersed in ensuring his legacy lives on, that people can hate it.
“It’s really difficult to articulate – and [her son] Benji, who’s 18, to give him the words to manage people coming up to him and asking him.
“In the end, my father taught us resilience and positivity and humanity. He believed in the fundamental kindness of humanity and so do we.”
Explaining the figures reported by the media, Ms Ingram-Moore said her business had loaned the charity money in the first year because she didn’t want to eat into the foundation’s first £100,000 donation from a corporate donor, and that this loan then needed to be reimbursed.
“What happened, so very straight forward, when the charity had a bit more money we were reimbursed those costs and that landed as a headline. That was the £50,000,” she told This Morning.
“That landed as a headline that I had essentially paid myself £50,000 back into my own businesses, which is absolutely not true.”
Asked whether there was any truth in claims the charity requested to pay her £150,000 as chief executive, Ms Ingram-Moore said “absolutely none”.
She added: “Keep in mind these accounts are a snapshot in time for the very first year of the charity and they’re independently audited so we couldn’t have made any of these numbers up.
“The £150,000 is absolutely not true. What the trustees did was ask for a benchmarking ... if we were to employ a CEO, the highest and the lowest.
“The highest happened to be £150,000, the lowest was about £60,000 depending on the charity. So the £150,000 is simply not true.”
A fundraising event billed “Captain Tom Day” and planned for June has been postponed while the Charity Commission carries out its review.
“We couldn’t possibly do it this year,” said Ms Ingram-Moore, adding: “Whilst we know the Charity Commission are working with us and reviewing, they are not investigating. It is not an investigation.”
