Rio Tinto changes its designated driver

World's second-biggest mining company bows to behind-the-scenes lobbying and ditches Sir Mick Davis as its choice for chairman

Congratulations, Simon Thompson, current non-executive director of Rio Tinto, you are deemed sufficiently safe to step up to the chairmanship. The world's second biggest mining company didn't describe the appointment in this way, of course - but nor did it refer to the extraordinary behind-the-scenes lobbying that killed the hopes of the board's original preferred candidate, Sir Mick Davis.

It was already known that the process had been hijacked by big shareholders, who had written to Rio to say they weren't keen on Davis, the former boss of Xstrata and the current chairman of the Conservative party. But the blistering tone of the now-leaked letter is worth noting. It is hard to recall a similar instance of a board of a large FTSE 100 company being read the riot act over the appointment of a chairman.