Nobody should accuse Martin Broughton of ducking a fight. Presented with an opportunity to put a direct question to Tony Blair at the CBI’s annual conference little more than a month ago, the chairman of British Airways asked the Prime Minister if he thought that BA had suffered unfair criticism for not allowing an employee to wear a cross outside her uniform.

The banning of Nadia Eweida from wearing a small cross had ignited a national row, provoking anger among clergy, politicians and passengers. Boycotts were threatened and BA was accused of acutely poor judgment at a time when religion was moving higher up the political agenda.

No matter that he was about to become the CBI’s president. Mr Broughton wanted an answer.

Somewhat predictably, Mr Blair chose not to side with the airline and, in a response that was widely viewed as a rebuke, he suggested to the BA chairman that it was important to choose the right battles to fight.

So why did Mr Broughton, now a few days into his presidency of the business lobby, put his head above the parapet? Why ask the question, just when the controversy had started to die down after BA had agreed to a review of its uniform policy? There are probably two main reasons: he was, and remains, frustrated at Jack Straw’s condemnation of the airline when Mr Broughton says that it was carrying out a policy that Mr Straw had supported at the Home Office for the police and other organisations. Secondly, he feels that whatever BA does is magnified because the public thinks that it has a kind of ownership.

He says: “I am intrigued by Jack Straw when he still finds our position inexplicable when it was exactly the position he had at the Home Office.”

And on BA, the company that he has chaired for nearly three years, he says: “BA is one of those companies that the public feels it owns in a way that very few other companies experience. And the media feels it is the spokesman for the public.”

The ownership issue, he thinks, stems from an affection from the days when BA was the national flag carrier and is a feeling of support rather than antagonism.

With hindsight, should BA have dealt with the cross issue differently? “The company underestimated its significance because it didn’t look like an important issue,” he says. “The media suddenly turned it into an important issue when it was a minor uniform issue.”

Nevertheless, he acknowledges that the controversy blew up at a time when religion and the question of Muslim veils were becoming prominent subjects of public debate. He says: “You look at these things with hindsight and could we have handled it differently, and I think the answer has got to be ‘yes’.”

With BA and its travails so high-profile, Mr Broughton is already acutely aware of the “curse of the CBI” — the affliction that has hit a number of those who become president only to see their own organisation suffer difficulties. His predecessor was Sir John Sunderland, chairman of Cadbury Schweppes, a business whose reputation was hit by a salmonella outbreak and the recall of a million chocolate bars.

Sir David Arculus should have become the new CBI president but could not take up the role because Severn Trent was facing questioning over its accounting practices when he was chairman. A fears years ago Sir Clive Thompson saw Rentokil’s fortunes diminish before he became embroiled in the latest controversy at Farepak, where he is chairman. And that’s not to mention Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge, who was also BA chairman, and Sir Iain Vallance, former chairman of BT.

Mr Broughton is philosophical. “BA gets more headlines than most, so by definition I am bound to have that curse cast upon me.” For the superstitious, there may be a curse; others may say that the unpaid CBI position is too demanding to sit comfortably with a key position on a big company. Mr Broughton sought the permission of the BA board before accepting the role. He is also about to relinquish the chairmanship of the Horseracing Board, one of his passions, to make more time.

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