Traumatised Labour has not yet started the recruitment process for a new director general in the Propriety and Constitution Group of the Cabinet Office. This is usually a powerful role for a civil servant which can decide political fates and deals with a lot of sensitive events in the day-to-day of Whitehall…
The post was previously staffed by Darren Tierney, who was rated as capable, before he left to run the ONS in August last year. The post has still not been filled…
In response to a parliamentary question from Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake a Labour minister said:
“The Director General for Propriety and Constitution Group is currently filled on an interim basis, a permanent appointment has not been made. The recruitment campaign is still currently in planning stages and details will be released in due course.”
Ellen Atkinson is listed on government website as the Director General for group – she was hired in violation of ethics rules. Interestingly the government has decided that she is there on an interim basis…
That is a gap of nine months before the government has even bothered beginning the process to find a new propriety chief. Has Starmer lost interest in the concept…
Green Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said:
“The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation, Andy Burnham. And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success and a growth from about 60,000 members to 230,000, if we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the right. So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the government is picking that up.”