Peter Kyle has this morning gone for a hard line on the BBC’s in-depth investigation into Rachel Reeves’ expenses investigation at HBOS. The science secretary told the Today Programme:
“Well unfortunately the reporting has been totally inaccurate and we heard yesterday that the person who is actually Head of HR at that bank at that time says it’s untrue, said that she never ever received a file on Rachel Reeves… she says that before she left the bank there was no investigation that passed her desk and and she also said if there was one it would have passed her desk… people can see that the person who ran the HR department said that there was no file that passed her desk.”
As Kyle may be aware this is a misrepresentation of what Jane Wayper, a former HR business partner who was given permission to speak to the BBC by Reeves’s team, said. Wayper made clear “I would have been made aware of any investigation which concluded, there was case to answer” and said this did not happen. That is to say – if an investigation was concluded she would have seen it. The investigation, which did take place, did not conclude – Rachel left HBOS in May 2009…
As the BBC’s Billy Kenber and Phil Kemp set out in some detail in their investigation, the Internal Audit team conducted an initial investigation at the request of the risk department: “It found that there was evidence of apparent wrongdoing by the three senior managers including Reeves.” The investigation was then passed to the investigative segment of the Risk department. That was in April – one month before Reeves left. Rachel might want to get on the blower to her cabinet colleagues to explain what actually happened before they go out to bat for her on broadcast…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”