MP calls for Tuppen to resign over death

Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland has called for Enterprise boss Ted Tuppen to "accept his moral responsibility and resign" after his company was fined for gas safety breaches that led to the death of one of its licensees.

Paul Lee, 41, suffered a heart attack caused by lack of oxygen after he fell asleep in a room heated by a gas fire at the Aintree Hotel, Liverpool in November 2007.

Yesterday, Enterprise pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches and was fined £300,000​. The Health and Safety Executive found that the fire had not been serviced since 1979 and the flu was completely blocked.

"It is time for Ted Tuppen to accept his moral responsibility and resign," said Mulholland, who chairs the Save the Pub Group.

"He has to accept his own culpability because either he must have known that his company failed to ensure regular gas safety checks were carried out, putting many lives at risk, or if he didn't know then he is not competent to lead a company that owns thousands of pubs up and down the land."

Disgraceful​

Mulholland, who also called for Tuppen's head at the Morning Advertiser's Tenanted Pub Company summit, added: "This is a quite disgraceful story of Enterprise Inns completely failing to ensure the safety of their landlords, something that will appall many people but sadly will not come as a big shock to some.

"This awful case has been a personal tragedy for the Lee family and the Save the Pub Group's and my condolences go out to them.

"They also have every right to be angry that his death was so unnecessary had Enterprise acted properly and fulfilled their basic responsibilities are property owners.

"As well as being an awful human tragedy, it is a tragedy of current pub ownership structures with distant indebted giant property companies owning thousands of pubs, only really interested in collecting rent."

An Enterprise spokesman said: "Mr Tuppen does not think resigning is an appropriate course of action."