EXCLUSIVE: Captain Tom's Daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore 'I Didn't Steal My Dad's Charity Cash' | TM

Over the past few weeks, the Captain Tom Foundation, set up in honor of the war hero, has been in the headlines with reports suggesting it is currently being investigated by the

charity

commission. The sector watchdog is said to be investigating the foundation over concerns raised about its accounts. In an

exclusive

interview we are joined by Hannah Ingram Moore, the founder of the foundation and

daughter

of the late Mr. Captain Tom. Good morning, welcome, thank you for being here. I know that just being here clarifies a lot of things that I really want to do to make things clear so that the

charity

's transport is being reviewed and that doesn't necessarily mean that there was any irregularity, so I guess the first question of a lot of people who were watching was that it generated an extraordinary amount of money 39 million, where did it go?

So imagine those original days, in April 2020, when we challenged my dad to walk up and down for £100 a lap, in three and a half weeks £38.9 million was raised which went directly to the NHS. charities together, the foundation hadn't even been set up at that time, so the 38.9 million went to nhs charities together and they distributed it, why did you want to come here today? Because of course you know, around the kitchen table with my dad. Well, it was really when we hit about 20 million in the second week that we recognized what he had become as a beacon of hope for the world because he wasn't just here, he was everywhere where people from 163 countries had donated. and he cross the boundaries of gender race nationality social status and age and we wanted together with him to have a place where people could access that legacy that beyond our generation, the next generation and beyond the people in this country and is so we set up the

captain

tom foundation with love and hope and we published our first annual accounts and they are independently audited and um in that first year of the charity um my business lent some money to the foundation because we

didn

't want to consume the first donation we had ever had, which was a hundred thousand pounds from a corporate donor, yes, and we

didn

't want it, that's all.

We had a hundred thousand pounds and we didn't want to take all that money to cover the costs, so we lent it on the basis that we were also lending money. of my business that was suffering during the pandemic, yes, so we needed to be reimbursed what happened and very simple. When the charity had a little more money, they reimbursed us for those costs and that made the headline. I said it was 50,000. pounds yes, that was the fifty thousand pounds that appeared in the headline that I had basically paid fifty thousand pounds to my own businesses, which is not the case at all.

There were also reports that you could have received a six-figure salary. £150,000, that would have been around 13.6 of the charity's first year's income, yes that's a lot of money they said, it's some kind of chief executive of the rspca who is earning ten times what this one earns. charity, yes, there is some truth in that. absolutely none and please note that these accounts are a snapshot of the charity's first year and are independently audited so we couldn't have made up any of these figures but 150,000 is not at all true what the trustees. What we did was ask for a benchmark, please tell us if we did, if we were to hire a CEO, what would the benchmark be, what's the highest, what's the lowest right, and that's it, the The highest turned out to be 150, the lowest is about 60, depending on the charity. and um so the 150 is just not true um just looking at the complaints that have been had um and some of the ones that you've responded to here and the period that it was set in, so June 2020, May 31, 2021. prove that more money of £162k is spent in the first year on management and administration than the donations and good causes of £50,000 that you have allocated to those non-charitable expenses that pay to companies run by you, including the parent company you provides professional advice to the companies of its directors, trustee for just over a month in 2021 and then the position of interim chief executive was offered to me and then also reports claiming that the foundation tried to appoint you its chief executive with a salary of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds , you got a little dressed up there, um, so you're saying all this because you wanted to come here today to say listen, this isn't true, this is fake, you're being trolled horribly, if any of that turns out to be true, then you've already reared your head. above the parapet and you sat on our sofa here you will be discovered 100 and look from my point of view all my life I have wanted to be accountable that is what my father taught me stand up, be counted and be responsible, we have never shied away from regulation, make me responsible, hold my feet to the flame now I'm protecting my father's legacy, that's how we feel about the guardians, we would never harm it, but I could never sit here. and tell you something that is not true it is clear that our accounts are there to be seen but we are not hiding anything there is nothing wrong we have not done any false actions and I really believe that the vast majority of people know that and we feel love and support We do, but it's those clickbait headlines that have been destructive and put the foundation in jeopardy, well the charity ultimately suffers, doesn't it?

Of course you do, because it must be very similar to goodwill towards you and your father. and his legacy and the charity, I mean, it was an outpouring across the UK and around the world that we hadn't seen for a long time. Today, suddenly, I will be on the receiving end of trolls saying the most horrible things about you, saying that Are you taking advantage of your father's legacy? You were always there in those interviews, standing there, it had nothing to do with you. Why did you have to get involved in that? I mean, it must be horrible, devastating, honestly, and if you think my father couldn't hear, yeah, that's the only reason I sat there and he had lived with us for 13 years and of course we told him : "We can't throw you your 100th birthday party, we'll cut you off 100 times." I'll give you a pound a return, why don't we donate it to a charity?

Yeah, I wouldn't have sat there for any reason other than to support him. Yes, and we were a family. You know, we were richer for being together. The generational family was extraordinary and our children are different before you know it because of it, but imagine having to tell your children that. Let me tell you this. My 13 year old son said to me, Mom, why do people hate you after everything you've done? after all as a family and my father we have donated over £41 million to charity in the last two years and she doesn't understand how to explain to a 13 year old girl when she sees that our lives have been immersed in ensuring her legacy continues I live, people can hate him and it's really hard to articulate and Benji, who is 18, gives him the words to handle people coming up to him and asking him questions and in the end my dad taught us resilience and, um, positivity and humanity, he believed. in the fundamental goodness of human humanity and holding on to that and how we do it and ultimately our ambition in his name is a world without age discrimination and that's why every day that I look at the hate or I see the false headlines or I see the deliberate desire to try to find a hole in myself to find something I have done wrong.

I do my best to know if he were here today, we would see the best of human nature that we did around your father. um and we all feel empowered by that, there's someone who's been in the public eye, we've had it too, you know, people will believe what they want to believe regardless and no matter what you say, you can't change your mind, how ? that makes you feel knowing where you're coming from and what the reason was, I mean, really challenging, but I think I recognize that it's not possible to make everyone happy, we'd love to think we could and, but even my father was hated, you remember maybe .

People even trolled my dad, we just never told them so we recognized that this ray of hope that he came into the world, your right to the world can attract negativity, this has been a shocking amount of negativity that has really been addressed directly to me personally. but this isn't about me and actually, you know what it wasn't about money, it was about humanity? You had to postpone the day, didn't you? Wasn't it in June? You were going to have your day. We could? It's not possible for me to do it this year because although we know that the charity commission is working with us and reviewing, they are not investigating and it is very important, it is not an investigation, it is not an investigation, we have worked with them as rookies. charity, we welcome you and you are just reviewing based on so much noise, yes, and that's okay, please look, is there a possibility that when you created a foundation like this, you could have been naive when you created it because it is something new ?

I think we've been incredibly naive, but I don't think that means we're bad, I think we're good, healthy people and we run businesses that we understand, but I think we got into this out of love for humanity. for allowing as many people as possible to access his legacy we never thought about the darkness it never ever crossed our minds keep doing what you are doing keep up all the hard work the charity commissioner said our commitment to the trustees of the

captain

tom foundation continues, we cannot comment further at this time, they added that they have been collaborating with the charity since March 2021 and this does not mean that they have not found any errors, let's hope this is fixed as quickly as possible for you May you continue doing the great work you do thank you very much thank you very much