Winsor held gun to Darling’s head and defied bid to oust him

Tom Winsor forced Darling to make statements

Tom Winsor forced Darling to make statements

Tom Winsor effectively held a gun to Alistair Darling’s head to ensure the government would not abolish independent rail regulation either during Railtrack’s administration or the 2004 rail review. The revelations are contained in a letter which former rail regulator Winsor left for the new ORR Board on his departure from office.

In the document released under the Freedom of Information Act, Winsor tells the ORR board that he used considerable “leverage” to force then...