{"id":115543,"date":"2024-08-16T13:21:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T13:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/16\/labour-in-second-civil-service-job-row-over-party-donations\/"},"modified":"2024-08-16T13:21:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T13:21:17","slug":"labour-in-second-civil-service-job-row-over-party-donations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/16\/labour-in-second-civil-service-job-row-over-party-donations\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour in second civil service job row over party donations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The government is facing questions about a second appointment to a senior civil service role of a person linked to previous donations to the Labour Party. <\/p>\n

Emily Middleton was named a director general in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), where the secretary of state is Peter Kyle. <\/p>\n

She was previously a partner at consultancy firm Public Digital, which funded her secondment to Mr Kyle’s office in opposition to the value of more than \u00a365,000. <\/p>\n

The Conservatives have described it as a “growing scandal of appointing donors to top civil service jobs”. <\/p>\n

A government spokesperson said the appointment was made ” in line with the civil service rules on recruitment\u201d. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Tories have asked the government’s top civil servant what was known about the donations when Ms Middleton got the job and what role Mr Kyle played in that process. <\/p>\n

Separately, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is under pressure to say whether she was involved in the appointment of former banker and Labour donor Ian Corfield as director of investment at the Treasury.<\/p>\n

In opposition, Labour repeatedly accused the Conservatives of “cronyism” in appointing their political friends to public bodies. <\/p>\n

Downing Street has also been approached for comment on whether the prime minister authorised Ms Middleton’s appointment and whether he was aware of her previous employers’ donations to Labour. <\/p>\n

According to evidence given by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution<\/a>, “the prime minister authorises all appointments at DG level and above\u201d. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a letter sent to Mr Case on 26 July and posted on Friday on X<\/a>, Conservative shadow science secretary Andrew Griffith raised the issue of civil service impartiality. <\/p>\n

He suggested Ms Middleton’s appointment appeared to set a “new and clear precedent of a Minister making a direct appointment, to a senior civil service role, of an individual whose employer recently made a substantial political donation”. <\/p>\n

Also on X<\/a>, Tory leadership contender James Cleverly described Labour’s civil service recruitment practices as “very questionable”, and alluded to Sue Gray, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. <\/p>\n

“Funny how a senior civil servant joins Labour, then a load of Labour people get civil service appointments!” he wrote. <\/p>\n

According to Ms Middleton’s LinkedIn profile, she worked “on secondment to the Labour Party advising on digital public services reform” from January to July. <\/p>\n

She was previously seconded to Labour Together, a think tank close to Sir Keir. <\/p>\n

Her new job at DSIT is as director general of digital centre design. <\/p>\n

Director generals are among the most senior ranks in the civil service, earning between \u00a3125,000 and \u00a3208,100 a year.<\/p>\n

In the cases of Ms Middleton and Mr Corfield, some Conservatives have questioned whether the Civil Service Commission (CSC), which regulates appointments, was aware of previous donations to Labour figures. <\/p>\n

But the commission told the BBC this would not be an issue it would take into account. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Exceptions’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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“It’s for the [government] department to consider the ethics of this,” a spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

“Exceptions” to the normal appointment process have been granted more than 100 times in the past 12 months, and can apply when external candidates or candidates with political affiliations are involved. <\/p>\n

In these circumstances, the CSC focuses on “the business case”, the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

They previously told the BBC: “All appointments by exception are reminded of their responsibilities under the Civil Service Code, external to act with impartiality, objectivity, integrity and honesty.”<\/p>\n

There are no rules automatically blocking someone from being appointed to a civil service role because of a political donation.<\/p>\n

The recruitment principles say the selection panel must be satisfied that the candidate “understands the requirement to operate objectively and impartially\u2026 and must record how this has been done\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the Ministerial Code<\/a>, ministers “must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise”.<\/p>\n

“It is the personal responsibility of each Minister to decide whether and what action is needed to avoid a conflict or the perception of a conflict, taking account of advice received from their Permanent Secretary and the Independent Adviser on Ministers\u2019 interests.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Getty Images The government is facing questions about a second appointment to a senior civil service role of a person linked to previous donations to the Labour Party. Emily Middleton was named a director general in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), where the secretary of state is Peter Kyle. She was previously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[7799,4359,9644,843,1697,371,5807],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115545,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115543\/revisions\/115545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}