Express redundancies: Richard Desmond’s nemesis is called in to rally the troops

With Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers currently considering another round of redundancies in order to hit a £14m cost savings target, his remaining staff are making sure they are prepared for the worst.

Mr S hears word of a chapel meeting scheduled for this week which will feature a very special guest. Desmond’s nemesis Tom Bower is set to appear before the troops at the NUJ meeting where he will offer staff advice on how to deal with Desmond should they be threatened with redundancy. The invitation is unlikely to please the newspaper proprietor given the pair’s tempestuous relationship. ‘Let’s just say the meeting had better not be in the office as Desmond will not want Tom anywhere near him,’ Steerpike’s spy says.

In 2005 Bower finished work on a biography of the newspaper proprietor which he described as ‘the most devastating story of a businessman I have ever written’. While this tome is yet to see the light of day, Desmond has also taken issue with the biographer’s published works.