Leftist campaign group Hope Not Hate has been busy talking about anything except the new Labour government. All since its strenuous efforts campaigning against Labour’s opponents in the election…
Since Guido revealed Hope Not Hate’s close Labour links – including campaigning specifically against Susan Hall during the mayoral election – it has embedded itself further into government. Two of the six trustees of its charitable foundation have now made their way into Parliament as Labour MPs. It doesn’t stop there…
Guido hopes this coincidence won’t cloud the charity’s strongly-held non-partisan principles…
It doesn’t look like Labour’s high-minded attitude to cronyism and chumocracy will stop blowing up in its face anytime soon. Despite Starmer launching a leak inquiry into the briefings against Sue Gray…
Guido can now reveal that the government is pushing through dozens of ‘exceptions,’ which allow it to circumvent usual impartiality rules in making civil service appointments. From 5th July 2024 to 19th August 2024, the Civil Service Commission approved a total of 70 exceptional appointments. That includes 16 senior-level positions for directors…
37 ‘temporary appointments’ were pushed through in Labour’s short initial period, alongside 20 secondments from outside the civil service. DSIT leads the pack with a whopping 12 exceptions alone, including an appointment to the highest pay band from £127,000 to £208,100. This is the system that allowed Labour Together Starmtrooper Jess Sargeant to be appointed as a Deputy Director in the all-knowing Propriety and Constitution Group…
The Commission says it is “keen to reduce” the number of civil service exceptions it makes while it launches a “rapid review” into Labour’s crony appointments. Government of Self-Service latest…
Last month the government fired off thirteen job adverts for positions that will form the foundation of its flagship state energy investment vehicle GB Energy through DESNZ. £688,805 in taxpayer-funded salaries were up for grabs, including generous work from home provisions and a defined benefit civil service pension. Despite all those goodies it looks like there isn’t much enthusiasm for Miliband’s pet project…
The applications have now closed and the numbers are far from encouraging. The “Development Lead” position in London was the only one to receive more than a hundred applications. The average number of applications for the other six locations is a pitiful 50. In Aberdeen, the HQ of GB Energy, only 44 people bothered to apply for the job…
The situation is even worse for GB Energy’s “Engagement Lead”, which has averaged a measly 38 applications across the UK. Applicants should be in the high hundreds for positions like this. The energy’s not there…
Labour spent their time in opposition on a moral crusade, wagging their fingers at Tory “cronyism” and promising they’d be the ones to “clean up politics.” Though Starmer’s lofty pledges to govern “with openness and transparency in everything we do” are not ageing well…
After 76 days in power, the Cabinet Office’s list of SpAd interests still hasn’t been published. Maybe Sue Gray (on £170,000-a-year salary) and her slow appointments of SpAds — is to blame for the delay…
In the past, these lists have revealed commercial ties and side gigs of SpAds. So, it’ll be interesting to see given current events – if and when Labour finally releases it – especially with some whispers suggesting advisers are being part funded by Labour-linked advisory firms. One for the transparency Starmer preaches, surely…
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has voted to keep interest rates at 5% in a widely expected decision. Sticky inflation and a rise in the core rate yesterday didn’t buoy hopes for another cut…
Breakdown: 8-1 to leave rates on hold. Last month it was 5-4 to cut.
The Bank dropped interest rates for the first time last month after 14 consecutive hikes, while the Fed cut its rate by a whopping half a point this week. No continuation of that doveish mood this time round. The markets only had it at 10% that a surprise cut was on the way…
Last week, Starmer claimed that there had been no impact assessment on how the decision to strip millions of pensioners of winter fuel payments will affect them. He asserted: “There isn’t a report on my desk which somehow we’re not showing, that I’m not showing, as simple as that.” Turns out, that’s not true…
A response from the Treasury to a FOI request shows that they do have a “full internal policy impact assessment”, though refuse to publish it as it was part of the “formulation or development of government policy”. Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott slammed the “shocking revelation” of a “hidden analysis”. Starmer once again misleading the public on the goings on in Whitehall. So much for governing with “transparency”…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”