Jess Varnish considers legal action against British Cycling after 'laughable' review

Jess Varnish, the former track sprinter, is understood to be considering legal action against British Cycling after describing the contents of the much-delayed independent review into the climate and culture at British Cycling as “laughable”.

The Cycling Independent Review [CIR] was finally published on Wednesday 14 months after it was commissioned by British Cycling and UK Sport.

As revealed by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday morning, much of the inflammatory language contained in the first draft - which leaked out earlier this year - was moderated or simply removed altogether. But Annamarie Phelps, who chaired the five-strong panel, denied that it was a “whitewash”.

Phelps said she felt it was still “a strong report with very strong recommendations and very strong criticisms”.

In the draft, British Cycling’s board had been accused of “sanitising” a press release regarding the outcome of its internal investigation into allegations of discrimination and bullying made by Varnish against ex-technical director Shane Sutton.

The word ‘sanitised’ was removed from the final report, as was a conclusion that the handling of the case by British Cycling’s board had been “inept”, “shocking” and “inexcusable”, and doubts over whether the board was “fit to govern a national sporting body”.

The CIR was, however, still very critical of the board’s handling of the Varnish saga.

According to testimony given to the CIR, Varnish was perceived to be a “troublemaker” and the “ringleader” for criticism of coaches after she and Katy Marchant failed to qualify a sprint team for Rio 2016. It

“I am insulted,” Varnish told The Times. “In a way I am glad they have used this language because it shows what the people are like in there [British Cycling]. Anyone who knows me knows I am not a troublemaker or ringleader. No one has ever been removed from the programme the way I was.”

Varnish called for the removal of the entire board after the draft report was leaked in March. She is now understood to be considering legal action after the CIR concluded that her removal “at the very least it did not follow contractual due process”.

Phelps said the CIR panel had been obliged to re-write the report after Maxwellisation - the legal practice that allows persons who are to be criticised in an official report to respond prior to publication – and in light of “new evidence”.

But while the CIR did not give a judgement on the outcome of the Varnish process, it did criticise the process itself. “If I were Jess Varnish I would be very upset that the process was not a satisfactory one,” Phelps said.

Jonathan Browning, the interim chairman of British Cycling, on Wednesday denied there had been any sort of a boardroom “cover-up” regarding Varnish. But he repeatedly refused to clarify exactly how the board had arrived at its final conclusions, saying only that the board members agreed “collectively” to dismiss eight of the nine charges against Sutton. That was despite the fact that the ‘grievance officer’ who investigated the case - board member Alex Russell - had recommended that “considerably more allegations be found proven”.

The CIR said the process smacked of trying “to control the outcome” of the Varnish case in order to return Sutton to his post.

“Taking into account that the Panel had already been informed that some members of the BC Board wanted SS [Sutton] back “if fully vindicated”, the rejection of the grievance investigator’s findings by the BC Board gives the impression of it trying to achieve that aim,” the report says.

Published alongside the independent review was an earlier report by former British Cycling director Peter King, which was produced in November 2012 but never made available to the public or to funding body UK Sport.

That report exposed an autocratic leadership and a culture of “fear, intimidation and bullying” which was not properly acted upon. The King report raises serious questions of Brian Cookson, who was British Cycling president at the time and is now standing for re-election as head of the International Cycling Union.

UK Sport chair Liz Nicholl said her body would continue to support Cookson’s re-election campaign despite confirming that he was one of the “three individuals” referred to in the CIR who had seen the full King report and was therefore - presumably - part of the “cover-up” she alleged earlier this year when UK Sport finally got to see it. Phelps said Cookson was doing “an excellent job” at the UCI and it was “in that context” that UK Sport was supporting him.