Guido’s FOI unit can reveal that the Payment Systems Regulator has so far managed to transfer just ten roles to the Financial Conduct Authority since Labour announced the quango’s ‘abolition’ back in March. Reeves had trumpeted the merger as a bold move to cut “red tape”. Like NHS England – where staff costs have actually risen since its own ‘abolition’ – it’s not exactly going to plan…
Voluntary redundancies aren’t even being offered, and its headcount has only dipped from 183 in February to 158 in September. Aside from the handful transferred to the FCA, the rest have gone to other civil service roles or left in a normal fashion. The Treasury only managed to launch a consultation on the ‘abolition’ this month, which closed four days ago. The government is now “considering feedback before issuing final decisions and legislation to follow.” Quite some abolition…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.