BP boss Hayward's latest gaffe a turning point?
Updated on 20 June 2010
With Tony Hayward facing fresh criticism, for going sailing while the Gulf of Mexico spill continues, Channel 4 News's Katie Razzall asks if the latest attacks could actually spark sympathy for the embattled BP chief executive.
BP boss Tony Hayward has prompted further controversy after going sailing in the UK, despite mounting criticism that he is not doing enough to control the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr Hayward took part in the JP Morgan Asset Management round the island race on the Isle of Wight yesterday, sailing on a boat which he co-owns.
The news prompted Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, to observe that this was another in a "long line of PR gaffes".
Referring to Mr Hayward's statement on Facebook several weeks ago that he wanted the crisis to be over so that he could have his life back, Mr Emanuel told ABC television in the United States: "He's got his life back, as he would say."
A watershed moment for Tony Hayward?
Is it possible that a watershed moment has been reached when it comes to BP's embattled Chief Executive Tony Hayward, asks Katie Razzall?
His company has presided over the worst oil spill in history, BP's share price is tumbling, and Mr Hayward didn't endear himself to many with his early statement that he wanted to "get my life back", nor with his testimony to angry American politicians last week.
But there must have been quite a few people who opened their newspapers this morning, read about Mr Hayward's Isle of Wight sailing trip and the whole heap of abuse that he's getting for it, and thought: give the guy a break.
Two months into this environmental disaster, perhaps Mr Hayward should be allowed a day off - or as BP puts it, "a few hours with his family at a weekend".
No, say his critics on Twitter and Facebook. A "PR gaffe", says Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's chief of staff - and Mr Hayward is deemed to have made many of those in recent weeks.
But will the "gaffe" end up raising more sympathy for Mr Hayward than ire? Keep the pressure up on his company and its huge responsibilities to clean up the mess it made, but perhaps allow its boss a bit of time out.
In the UK, Isle of Wight Friends of the Earth coordinator Hugh Walding said the BP chief executive deserve all the criticism he was getting over his failure to control the spill.
Greenpeace spokesman Charlie Kronick said Mr Hayward’s actions were "rubbing salt into the wounds" of people whose communities are affected by the catastrophe.
On Friday BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Mr Hayward had been relieved of day to day control of the spill and that the company's managing director, Bob Dudley, would be taking over.
However, other BP officials have insisted Mr Hayward remains in charge of the operation.
The Gulf of Mexico spill is the United States' worst environmental disaster. Millions of gallons of oil have poured into the sea since the blast on the Deepwater Horizon on 20 April. 11 workers on board the rig were killed in the explosion.
