Charles Clarke has been given a position by KPMG. Which is nice of them, it is of course entirely unrelated to the millions of pounds of contracts he gave when he was Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Skills (DfES) and the Home Office.
The DfES paid £1.3 million to KPMG in 2004 while the Home Office paid the company £90,000 for a review of the costing methodology of the ID Cards programme in 2005, both during Clarke’s tenure as the minister in charge.
Former Blairites cashing in on their ministerial experience with companies they regulated is becoming the norm:
- Patricia Hewitt, former Health Secretary, is now a special consultant at Alliance Boots, owner of Boots the pharmacist. UPDATE : Forgot BT – she of course knows something about crap, too big organisations from her NHS days. She was instrumental in awarding a contract for the huge NHS Spine project to BT.
- Alan Milburn, another former Health Secretary, is on the Healthcare Advisory Boards of Lloydspharmacy and PepsiCo.
- Ian McCartney, a former minister at the department in charge of nuclear policy, the DTI, is an adviser to Fluor Corporation, part of a consortium that is bidding to run Sellafield
- Richard Caborn, another former trade minister, is an advisor to AMEC UK, another company bidding to run Sellafield.
Isn’t it amazing how they never have any business experience when they go into government – not even a whelk stall – but when they come out of government they soon gain some.
Clarke’s appointment was given the all clear by the relevant advisory committee. So that is alright then…
