Involvement of chair of beleaguered academy chain with church which uses one of its schools revealed –prompting questions about undeclared conflict of interest

Joanne Taylor, the chief executive of Canary Wharf College Ltd, appearing in Great Light Church's service on April 7th, 2024. (Still from YouTube video).

The chair of a controversial chain of free schools in East London is also pastor of a church which operates from one of its schools – an apparent conflict of interest which appears not to have been declared in official records.

To the fury of parents who have been asking for months for the chair, John Afolayan, to respond in detail to concerns about the leadership of Canary Wharf College Ltd, it has emerged that the church where Mr Afolayan has taken services has been holding them since last year at one of its two primary schools.

And, in a staggering new development, a video of the trust’s chief executive, Joanne Taylor, has been discovered in which she seems to link the offer of a venue for the church to surgery for her mother, after she had had a fall.

Both Canary Wharf College and Mr Afolayan himself have been asked to comment.

The detail