Sir Brian Souter (born 5 May 1954 in Perth, Scotland) is a Scottish businessman. Along with his sister, Ann Gloag, he founded the Stagecoach Group which started running bus services and expanded throughout the United Kingdom and also internationally, also moving into rail franchises. Souter has also been politically active across Scotland, having donated large sums to the Scottish National Party. When the Scottish Executive proposed to repeal Section 2A of the Local Government Act, which prevented local councils "promoting homosexuality", Souter backed the Keep the Clause campaign to oppose their plans, and organised a private referendum across Scotland. This campaign, and other controversial statements, have led opponents to accuse him of homophobia. Souter has made large charitable donations through his own trust, and was awarded a Knighthood in 2011 for his charity work.[1] He lives in Perth with his wife and four children, and is a prominent member of Perth's Trinity Church.[2][3]
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He was educated at Perth Academy, University of Abertay[4] and the University of Strathclyde[5] before he completed training as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen.
Using his father's redundancy money, and working with his sister Ann Gloag and his brother-in-law Robin Gloag, Souter established the Stagecoach Group in 1980, running buses from Dundee to London.[2] Expansion continued and in the early 1990s, Stagecoach acquired National Bus Company operations in Cumberland, Hampshire, East Midlands, Ribble, Southdown and the United Counties. Stagecoach bought further bus operations in Scotland, Newcastle and London, with Manchester being added a few years later.[6] In 1993, Stagecoach was valued at £134 million and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in order to access more capital for new opportunities for buses and trains for overseas expansion. The company went on to diversify with trains and trams and expanded overseas — especially into the United States and Canada.
In 2009, Souter received a £1.6m bonus. Stating "it was felt that in the present economic climate it would not be right for any individual to pocket a bonus package of £1.6million", he accepted the bonus, donating £900,000 to his own charity, the Souter Charitable Trust, which assists humanitarian projects in the UK and overseas that adhere to the teachings of Christianity. Most of the remainder was given to the staff pension fund.[7][8]
Souter Holdings Ltd is Souter's New Zealand investment company, owning commuter ferry operator Fullers Ferries and the bus company Howick & Eastern, both operating in Auckland, and 74% of Wellington bus operator Mana Coach Services.[9]
In total, Souter has more than 200 private investments which are managed by his company, Souter Investments. They include sizeable stakes in Sunseeker, the luxury yacht company, insurance specialists eSure and Go Compare, Alexander Dennis, Britain’s biggest bus and coach manufacturer and Argent, the world renowned producer of biodiesel. In October 2010, Souter Investments reported that the value of its portfolio had risen by 41% over the last three years to £400 million.
In 1992, Souter and his wife set up the Souter Charitable Trust which assists humanitarian projects in the UK and overseas that adhere to the teachings of Christianity. According to its official website, the Trust has awarded over 2,700 grants worth more than £20 million.[10]
Following the deregulation of bus services in the United Kingdom, Stagecoach bought a number of the newly emerged small bus companies and ran free or low fare buses to put local rivals out of business [11]. One of the most controversial examples was in Darlington where Stagecoach subsidiary Busways offered bounties to recruit drivers away from the existing bus service and offered free buses to deter the rival preferred bidder from taking over the existing bus service. This was "predatory, deplorable and against the public interest" according to findings from The Monopolies and Mergers Commission. [12][13].
In 1998, Souter described British northerners (who make up a considerable proportion of his customers) as "the beer-drinking, chip-eating, council house-dwelling, old Labour-voting masses." [14][15][16]
In 2000 Souter was the prominent leader of the Keep the Clause campaign, which forbade local authorities to “intentionally promote homosexuality”. In Scotland Clause 28 was known as clause 2A and Souter sponsored the first privately-funded postal referendum to take place across Scotland to gauge public opinion.
A total of 3,970,712 ballot papers were posted out and 31.8% valid votes were returned (a "turn out" rate lower than any national election in Scottish history). The results showed that 86.8% of returned ballots were in favour of keeping Clause 28 and only 13.2% in favour of repeal.[17]
Souter pointed out that the number of people who voted to keep the clause exceeded the number of votes cast for any single political party in Scotland at any election over the preceding ten years, avoiding the obvious point that Scottish voters usually choose from four main parties not two options. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, with the poll criticised as an exercise in chequebook democracy, and ultimately not representative of public opinion.
Souter's campaign group approached the Electoral Reform Society to organise the ballot through its ballot services subsidiary. The society refused the request as it believed the poll "would not be a legitimate democratic exercise to ask people to give an opinion on the repeal of Section 28 without knowing the detail of what would replace it".[18] Many groups hostile to Souter's stance had called for a public boycott of the poll, and accordingly claimed that as only a minority returned ballot papers this was a defeat for Souter and his supporters. Mainstream politicians, including the Scottish National Party (which Souter has supported) largely ignored his private poll and disputed whether the result was a true reflection of public opinion, with the Scottish Executive stating that the public had been fed a diet of "misinformation and lies" by Souter's campaign group.[17] The then Communities Minister, Wendy Alexander MSP, criticised the poll stating "I think what is significant about today's ballot is that two out of three voters rejected, or binned or simply ignored this glorified opinion poll."[19] Gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, stated that "Brian Souter’s support for Section 28 is the moral equivalent of the business-funded campaign to maintain racial segregation in the Deep South of the USA in the 1950s." Tatchell stated that Souter's campaign was "hateful" and that it is clear that Souter was using his vast fortune to try to keep a cruel and "bigoted law" intact.[20]
Souter is a major financial supporter of the Scottish National Party (SNP). In March 2007, he donated £500,000 to the SNP, citing an imbalance of funding within Scottish politics.[21] Souter stated that it was his intention to redress an imbalance in funding, saying that "as long as I can remember, the case for the union has been hugely financed by cash from London, while the case for independence has lacked resources. I hope my donation will help redress this imbalance".[22] Following the donation, SNP leader Alex Salmond was criticised for "pandering to homophobia" by accepting Souter's donation[22] - particularly as the party had just opposed the right for gay couples to be given equal treatment by Catholic adoption agencies, and had also snubbed a gay rights debate in January 2007.[22] However, Salmond merely thanked Souter for his support, calling him "one of the outstanding entrepreneurs of his generation".[22] One month later, in April 2007, the SNP's commitment (made at the party's 2006 conference) to re-regulate the bus network was dropped from the 2007 manifesto, although the SNP denied any direct link.[23]
In February 2011 Souter again pledged financial support for the SNP promising to match every pound they raised with a donation of up to £500,000. Announcing his support he said Alex Salmond and the SNP deserved a second term in office. [24][25] The SNP won a resounding victory in the election with Alex Salmond being returned unopposed as First Minister.[26]
In June 2010, Souter was given a Special Career Service Award at the "Talent In Mobility" Awards, part of the European Mobility Exhibition held in Paris for the public transport industry.[27] In October 2010 he was awarded the Ernst & Young UK Master Entrepreneur of the Year.[28]
Souter was knighted in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to transport and the voluntary sector.[29][30] This decision was criticised by Gay Rights campaigners, and sparked a petition to have Souter's knighthood withdrawn.[31][32]