The board of Healthcare Locums (HCL) says it will defend its case “vociferously” if an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) is called following reports claiming shareholders have asked chairman Alan Walker to step down.

Press reports have claimed a number of major shareholders at HCL are calling for the chairman, Alan Walker, to step down following the board’s decision to suspend founder Kate Bleasdale as executive vice-chairman, two weeks ago after uncovering “serious accounting irregularities”.

The Guardian claims investors have drawn up the paperwork necessary to request an EGM, and have informed Walker they will use the meeting to try to vote him off the board – unless he resigns.

A spokesperson for HCL in a statement on behalf of the board said: “It is disappointed to read in the press the views of minority dissident shareholders. The board is working hard to establish stability and protect the business.

“Constructive relations with our banking partners are paramount at present. The shareholders actions are not helpful in that regard. If an EGM is called, we will defend our case vociferously.”

Earlier this morning a spokesperson for HCL told Recruiter: “There is comment in the press supposedly from investors. They are not named but in the press, people are saying all kinds of things. At the moment, the company has no notification of anything and is not in a position to comment further because it hasn’t had anything put to it. All we are doing is reading stuff in the press, and we’re waiting and seeing.

“The rules are that if an EGM is requisitioned, it has to be given three weeks’ notice. If anything was to happen, they [the investors] would serve a notice on us requiring us to hold an EGM, which would be three weeks’ time. As of this morning, we have had no such notice.

“We met with investors when the original announcement was made and we weren’t aware of any discontent at that point. At the moment, we are not commenting any further than to say we have had nothing put to us.

“As of the first few hours of Monday, there has not been any movement on this. Things may change later today.”