Capital Economy, Business and Finance
The UK’s Labour Party is coming under pressure to explain how a string of party supporters have been given senior roles in the supposedly impartial civil service. The row raises questions about the new government’s promise to voters on standards. It also trains a spotlight on the relationship between a key think tank and several ministers.
The allegations include:
- the appointment of Ian Corfield, a Labour donor, as director of investment at the Treasury (the vetting body wasn’t told about his donations worth £20,000 - including £5,000 to Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor);
- the appointment of Emily Middleton, a Labour adviser and businesswoman, as director general in the Department for Science and Technology weeks after her firm Public Digital donated £67,000 to Peter Kyle, now the Secretary of State for Science and Technology; and
- the appointment of Jess Sergeant, a constitution expert and former Labour Together staffer to the Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Constitution Team.
The civil service is supposed to be impartial. Labour also campaigned to clean up politics - and this trio of appointments leaves the government open to accusations of handing jobs to the boys (and girls).
Sergeant’s position is of particular interest because of the role Labour Together has been playing in shaping the UK’s new government, both in terms of policy work and donations.
Two numbers:
£370,000: Labour Together’s support in the months leading up to the election, mostly in the form of staffing costs and secondments.
£827,000: Labour Together’s support after the election was called, mostly in the form of donations in sums of £5,000 or £10,000 to a range of up-and-coming MPs as well as senior party figures.
As the first figure suggests, Sergeant is not the only individual to have been seconded into the teams of the shadow Cabinet. In the past year, Labour Together has paid for the provision of staff or research services to 10 ministers, including Reeves, home secretary Yvette Cooper and David Lammy, the foreign secretary.
This practice appears to have continued after the election. Tortoise is aware of at least three individuals who retained that role after 5 July, although it is understood that just one Labour Together staffer remains on secondment now.
Conduct unbecoming? Outsiders are prohibited from working with civil servants on policy formation. It’s unclear if secondees who stay on have to abide by the code of conduct that applies to other special advisers. Two former civil servants said it was “messy”, highly unusual and posed potential conflicts. All of which prompts the question – why bother?
Sue Gray, Starmer’s chief of staff, is said to be restricting the number of special advisers to a notional limit of two per minister, but in the words of one former official this is “totally arbitrary” and usually discarded once it becomes apparent more are needed.
Power behind the throne. Labour Together has been described by the former Labour MP Jon Cruddas as “Labour’s first SuperPAC”. Cruddas is one of several within the party to raise concerns about the level of power it now wields.
Labour Together is funded by wealthy donors from the New Labour era keen to ensure the resurrection of Tony Blair’s centrist third way. But it has in the past fallen foul of electoral law, having failed to declare donations for several months, for which it was fined. Money filtering through an external body also adds a layer between the donors and the party, which makes scrutiny harder.
The body has raised £4 million in the last 18 months. So far, just over a quarter of that has been given to MPs. Some will be used internally to cover its own staffing and office costs, events and policy work.
But that still leaves the group with a lot to play with – and plenty of influence. As the organisation that lays claim to defeating the left and getting Starmer into Downing Street, the government has more than just money to be grateful for.
