The government’s just confirmed the Mirror’s understanding that Baroness Gisela Stuart is their preferred candidate to take up the role of First Civil Service Commissioner – a job that involves overseeing appointments and hearing appeals under the Civil Service Code. A statement released just now confirmed:
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has today confirmed Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston as the preferred candidate for the role of First Civil Service Commissioner.
With Cabinet Office secretary Steve Barclay saying:
“I am delighted to confirm Baroness Stuart as the preferred candidate for the office of First Civil Service Commissioner. Baroness Stuart has all the attributes, experience and independence of judgement needed to lead the Civil Service Commission highly effectively.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian Watmore for his work as First Civil Service Commissioner over the last five years and also extend my thanks to Rosie Glazebrook for carrying out the functions of the office while we recruit Ian’s successor”
An excellent choice – precisely because so many in the civil service will hate it…
Vote Leave chair, and former Labour Minister, Gisela Stuart has formally defected this morning to back Boris; and will join him and Michael Gove in London today for his latest Rally. Unfortunately, Guido presumes there’ll be one noticeable team absence: the big red bus…
Gisela joins Kate Hoey in saying Boris represents “the best way forward for traditional Labour voters like me and the best way to heal the country.”
Stuart isn’t the only former Labour MP to have formally come out as backing Boris since the major announcements by Jon Woodcock and Iain Austin, as well as Tom Harris. Now former Scottish Labour MP Michael McCann is also appearing on leaflets in Chris Grayling’s constituency.
After previously only having decried Corbyn, the former MP is now urging voters that “a vote for anyone else is a vote for Corbyn”. He’s not the only Scot who’s totally given up on Labour if latest polling is to be believed…
Former Vote Leave Chair Gisela Stuart tells Marr: “at every stage [Vote Leave] were rule compliant according to the legal advice we were given at that time” – a point upheld by the High Court last year who found that the Electoral Commission had given Vote Leave incorrect legal advice before the referendum. Not that it has stopped the Electoral Commission from punishing Vote Leave in Kafka-esque fashion for following their own advice…
As Stuart and this handy chart remind, Remain spent over 40% more than Leave did overall – before you even count the £9 million Government leaflet and all the civil service work for Remain. And they still lost…
Gisela Stuart on the disbanding of Vote Leave…
“… the biggest tactical error made… the mistake [to think it was] now over to the government […] now you have a Remainer in charge of implementing this decision”.
Gisela Stuart sticks it to the second referendum campaigners:
“If your motive for calling for a second referendum is to delay and overturn the decision… you undermine democratic institutions because we were promised a referendum and the Prime Minister said ‘whatever you decide, I will implement it'”
Some remainers like democracy – but only when it goes their way…
Gisela Stuart and Change Britain have published an interesting Q&A on what “regulatory alignment” means under the definition used in existing EU trade agreements – and it doesn’t look good. They say alignment would make Britain a rule-taker, where we have to follow EU rules but have no say, a worst of all worlds option.
‘Regulatory alignment’ is used by the EU in trade agreements to force other countries to accept EU law. The Ukraine-EU agreement, for example, makes clear that regulatory alignment means ‘Ukraine shall… incorporate the relevant EU acquis into its legislation’
The referendum result was a vote for the UK to take back control of its laws. If we have to accept an agreement where our laws continue to be written in Brussels – without elected British representatives having any say over them – this would clearly be incompatible with that result.
Gisela says accepting regulatory alignment would be “completely unacceptable”:
“The referendum result was a vote for real change, a vote to do things differently, and most importantly a vote to take back control. It would therefore be completely unacceptable if we were forced to agree a deal where regulatory alignment saw the UK continue to be subject to rules designed and imposed by Brussels. It would be Single Market membership in all but name.”
Boris, Gove and Brexiteer Tory MPs will agree with Gisela…
