It’s no wonder that the Cabinet Office was as keen as possible to avoid confirming Jess Sargeant’s appointment to Guido. Labour is scrambling to spin the appointment of a party-aligned staffer to a senior position in the Propriety and Constitution Unit as fine.

When Sue Gray led the same unit she used it to become “one of the most powerful civil servants in the UK” overseeing the probe into and removal of Cabinet Office Minister Damian Green. Guido hears Sargeant “just turned up one morning” around two weeks ago having been given the job without external advertisement. One Cabinet Office source tells Guido she is not even on the internal department database – a hurried insertion into the role from the very top. Hardly suggests the government has an established system of “firewalls” and protections in place to limit Sargeant’s access…

Labour last night hastily cobbled together a line claiming that Sargeant will be “confined to constitutional matters” using “firewalls” to ensure she is “not involved in any propriety casework, inquiries or investigations.” As Deputy Director in the small Propriety and Constitution Unit, Sargeant will work in an office with some of the broadest access in the Civil Service:

• Giving official advice on royal and parliamentary procedure issues. Including advising on House of Lords reform…
• Overseeing Honours Secretariat.
• Overseeing Privy Council Office.
• Advising on public appointments.
• Managing the government’s relationship with all ‘independent offices’. Like the Civil Service Commission…
• Advising on “policies and codes governing ministers and special advisers.“
• Co-ordinating government’s response to “instances of senior civil servants holding remunerated positions or other interests outside government which might conflict with their obligations under the code.“
• Questioning ministers on conflicts of interest in their departments.
• Providing support to the Cabinet Secretary on the “operation of government.“

Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds had staff secondments worth £35,522 from Sargeant’s Labour Together campaign in the last year – effectively laundering money from Lord Sainsbury who gave £300,000 to the campaign. Sainsbury also funds the Institute for (Big) Government where Sargeant worked before Labour Together. Arguably her new boss was beholden financially to the Labour Party donor who financed her last two jobs. You might perceive this financial link as a manifest conflict of interest… 

Guido’s attention has been directed by Civil Service experts to paragraph 7.1 of the Ministerial Code which makes it clear that “Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise.” When will the investigation into itself by the Propriety and Constitution unit begin?

UPDATE:  Cabinet Office source says Jessica Sargeant will not be “Deputy Director of the Propriety and Constitution Unit”. Job title now unclear.

Paymaster general Nick Thomas-Symonds was asked by Nick Ferrari this morning why the government is capitulating to unions while removing the winter fuel allowance for some pensioners. Thomas-Symond’s response was the classic “it’ll cost more not to settle“:

“There is an enormous cost to not settling these disputes that would apply  in terms of the junior doctors because you’d obviously have had huge disruption to patients, and it applies in terms of ASLEF and the train drivers.”

Unhelpfully for Labour the exact unions it has appeased have already indicated they will be coming back for more. Junior doctors got a bumper backdated pay rise – the BMA is already plotting more strikes for next year. ASLEF rail drivers have had their pay boosted to an average of about £70,000 with no extra conditions on their lax working rules – Mick Whelan says that will keep him quiet for a maximum of six months before going for a new offer. And so it begins…

Thomas-Symonds all but confirmed GPs will be getting their demanded 11% pay offer:

“Well the answer to that, it’s an answer I used to give you in opposition, which was about getting around to the table and actually settling with people.”

Now we know why Reeves is so insistent tax rises will have to come in the budget. Someone has to pay for it…

Co-conspirators may remember Welsh Labour’s bizarre plans to legislate for an “offence of deception” by 2026. It was hailed as a world-first by Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price, who struck a deal with Labour to get it through:

“What has just been announced by the counsel general is truly historic, in fact it is globally pioneering. We now have a commitment from the government that our democracy will be the first – the first in the world to introduce a general prohibition on deliberate deception by politicians.”

Under the proposals it will be an offence for a member, or a candidate, to make or publish a statement that is known to be false or deceptive. A policy with more holes than swiss cheese…

Shadow Paymaster General John Glen asked the Labour government in Westminster if it plans on doing the same. Constitution Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has now said no plans exist “to bring forward legislation to create an equivalent criminal offence for elected representatives.” He says it’s for the Commons to decide if a statement is deliberately misleading. No Starmerite lying tribunals for politicians – the coppers will still be at your door if you say something ‘wrong‘ on the internet, though…

Anyone hoping the Labour Party will offer a solution to the HS2 funding confusion will be disappointed. As the government appears to backtrack on building the northern leg of the high speed rail service, the question of what Labour would do differently has now produced three different answers from three Shadow ministers in just 48 hours. Almost as if they have no idea what they’d do either…

On Sunday, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden told Laura Kuenssberg he wants to “see what [it] costs” to build the Manchester leg, and Labour will “make those decisions when it comes to the manifesto“. The usual ‘wait and see’ fence-sitting Labour rely on…

Yet last night the party offered newfound clarity on the issue, with Shadow Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds declaring on BBC Radio 4 “We will build HS2 in full…to Manchester and the eastern leg to Leeds.” A massive commitment. The Manchester leg is one thing; the eastern leg to Leeds was scrapped in 2021…

This morning, however, Shadow Treasury Minister Tulip Siddiq has immediately hit the brakes, telling Times Radio “maybe [Thomas-Symonds] knows something I don’t” about this multi-billion pound splurge, adding she herself would not commit to spending that much on a whim. So either a Shadow Treasury Minister doesn’t know about Labour’s latest spending plans, or Symonds went completely off the rails…

Keir Starmer has made much of the diversity within his Shadow Cabinet. He previously pledged it would “balanced in terms of diversity”, and has since maintained an equitable gender balance amongst his top team. However, digging deeper into Labour’s top team reveals this may not extend beyond those in the limelight. Amongst Labour’s Political Advisers (PAds), there is a significant underrepresentation of women. The boys outnumber the girls almost 2:1. Just 35% of Labour’s top team of advisers are women, while 65% are men.

Despite his support for equal pay, David Lammy’s top team consists entirely of men. Lisa Nandy, Nick Thomas-Symonds and Ed Miliband also don’t employ a single woman. Nandy won’t be concerned, she just needs her team to switch their self-identification… 

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