Paul Flowers, who resigned as Co-operative Bank chairman amid claims about his use of expenses at the bank and was also caught using drugs and entertaining male escorts, has been sacked as a minister by the Methodist Church.
In a statement today, the Methodist Church said: "Following the conclusion of our disciplinary process, Paul Flowers has been removed from the list of ministers of the Methodist Church."
The Church added: "We call on the Methodist people to pray for Mr Flowers and for those whom he served."
Flowers, 66, nick-named the "Crystal Methodist", has claimed it was the stress of the job that led him to look online for male escorts. He was suspended by the Methodist church in November 2013 and also the Labour Party after he was caught in a tabloid sting.
He was fined £400 in the Leeds court and ordered to pay £125 costs after admitting possession of Class A drugs.
Later, he also admitted "seriously impairing the mission, witness or integrity of the Church" after a subsequent feature appeared in a Sunday newspaper of him taking class A drugs and entertaining male escorts at a hot tub party in his house in Salford, Greater Manchester.
"You had nights when you had been battling through the issues of the day, then the senior officers had to entertain the troops in the evening and I was bloody well worn out. That was part of the job, but you were knackered. And like many thousands of other people – judges, lawyers, journalists, people of all professions and none – I sought intimacy among escorts," he said at the time.
He could not put a figure on the number of escorts he had used but it was more than 20.
He has also said he has never in fact taken crystal meth and that he was traumatised when he was raped by another student while studying theology in the 1970s.
