In a difficult week for supermarket chairs Sharon White is safe for now

It’s been a tough week for supermarket chairs. Luckily Sharon White survived a vote of no confidence at a John Lewis Partnership Council meeting. Apparently, it wasn’t even close, despite media speculation, especially since rumours emerged that the partnership was exploring selling a minority stake to shore up its finances.

The little-known council, a 61-member group of elected representatives, has been mighty unimpressed by all the recent leaks. And its opinion matters: it holds White and the executive board to account, with the power to hire and fire the chair, as she holds an executive role.

In the arcane governance of the partnership’s mutual status, it should perhaps not surprise that the vote of confidence was announced in such a strangely worded way, with the council saying it had “voted in support of the chairwoman to progress the partnership in relation to its purpose, principles and rules” – which appears to mean that it supports White’s plan, despite (or because of) them entialing heavy cost cutting, and the employment of a CEO in addition to her own executive position.

The fact the council added that it “did not support last year’s performance” was also pretty odd. As if anyone would support the £234m loss it recorded on over £12bn of sales. But that’s JLP’s governance for you. (It also has the power to vote by secret ballot but chose not to do so, a sign surely of the transparency it’s seeking amid so many leaks.

So White is safe until the next council meeting in October, at least, when a new set of motions of support will be framed. And they are more specific and arguably more onerous. The first will be a vote of “confidence in the progress of the partnership under the chairman’s [leadership] over the past year, in relation to purpose, principles and rules laid out in [JLP’s] constitution”. The second is whether to “support the chairman to progress the partnership under the leadership in relation to the purpose, principles and rules laid out in the constitution.”

So White is not off the hook for much time before another review comes round. Although of course she may also jump ship to the BBC before then, if the rumours are to be believed.