Last month the government fired off thirteen job adverts for positions that will form the foundation of its flagship state energy investment vehicle GB Energy through DESNZ. £688,805 in taxpayer-funded salaries were up for grabs, including generous work from home provisions and a defined benefit civil service pension. Despite all those goodies it looks like there isn’t much enthusiasm for Miliband’s pet project…

The applications have now closed and the numbers are far from encouraging. The “Development Lead” position in London was the only one to receive more than a hundred applications. The average number of applications for the other six locations is a pitiful 50. In Aberdeen, the HQ of GB Energy, only 44 people bothered to apply for the job…

The situation is even worse for GB Energy’s “Engagement Lead”, which has averaged a measly 38 applications across the UK. Applicants should be in the high hundreds for positions like this. The energy’s not there…

According to Whitehall sources, ministers are quietly ditching the three-day office rule for civil servants, with no appetite to crack down on the work-from-home brigade. As Labour schemes to hand out even more flexible working rights, ministers are taking a “less dogmatic” line on dragging the pen pushers back to their desks…

Meanwhile, Labour is still keeping shtum on just how many civil servants are actually bothering to turn up, refusing to publish the numbers, as Guido first revealed. This is despite one study showing home workers are about 10% less productive. Last year, a whopping 40% of Whitehall’s public sector staff were still shirking from home. With Labour refusing to publish the stats, expect that number to be even worse…

The Foreign Office is blazing into the new government with a whopping price tag on taxi use. An FoI request dispatched from Guido reveals the department alone has spent £140,000 on taxi rides since the election. Whitehall wonks are no strangers to spaffing the cash on private rides…

About two-thirds of FCDO staff turned up to the office according to the last occupancy statistics, before Labour stopped reporting them. Meanwhile PCS, the Civil Service union, continues its relentless push for a “a significant shortening of the working week with no loss of pay” while balloting members for strike action. Nice work if you can get it…

Taxpayers spent an eye-watering £3.4 billion on private consultants last year, marking a staggering 57% increase over the past five years as the public sector opted to outsource staff for various projects. According to data company Tussell, civil service departments spent the most, accounting for 58% of the total, with the Energy Department spending the most at £339 million. That’s a lot of cash forked out in a single year…

It’s odd the blob feel the need to spend so much on outsourcing workers, considering the number of civil servants has increased to 503,000, with the salary bill rising by 60% – or £5.8 billion – over the seven years up to 2023 Meanwhile, Labour have committed to a 5% pay rise for all civil servants, despite wails of a fiscal “black hole”. Perhaps the never-ending public sector strikes may be driving the government to splash the cash on consultants… 

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.

The row is raging on over Labour’s latest cronyistic appointment of Labour Together Starmtrooper Jess Sargeant to a senior Civil Service role. As revealed by Guido yesterday…

Sue Gray, meanwhile, has been busy over on Downing Street employing her aides as civil servants too. They can’t help themselves…

Gray’s Diary Secretary has been parachuted straight into a plum Civil Service position as her executive assistant, instead of being appointed more appropriately as a SpAd. Mitchell Burns-Jackson held a House of Commons pass from Keir Starmer’s office and was administrative officer for LOTO prior to working for Sue in opposition. Does the Labour Party realise that they can’t replace the entire Civil Service with party hacks?

The appointment is explained away as being according to the rules as it “was made on a fixed-term basis.” Cronies gonna crony…

UPDATE: Lee Anderson MP, Reform UK’s Chief Whip blasted Starmer on the cronyistic appointments:

“Despite having the largest majority in living memory it would appear that Sir Keir Starmer wants to totally stitch up the way he runs our country. Putting his mates into high ranking civil service jobs will ensure there is no push back on Labour’s plans to totally ruin our country. We’ve already seen them reject the idea of having Reform MPs on Select Committees and now we see another assault on our democracy”.