Labour just can’t get enough of their previous political staff handed supposedly neutral civil service jobs. In what is now becoming a major scandal, ministers are failing to justify the provision of mass-Labour donor Waheed Alli with a Downing Street pass and Labour aides are entering the civil service in droves. It’s not just Sue Gray bringing on her loyalists…

Wes Streeting’s political press officer Joe Davies, employed by the Labour Party in the four months to election, was handed a civil service media relations role this month. DHSC deploys the usual line when asked about this parachute job by Guido: “The department does not comment on individual personnel matters. Any appointments are made in line with the civil service rules on recruitment.” The department has not denied that the job was given without interview. Normally ministers’ civil service press teams are composed of impartial civil servants…

If the job wasn’t advertised externally, what exception was used? Who signed off on the exception? Did Streeting make a declaration of interest? 

Starmer’s line when asked at his ‘State of the Nation’ speech was that “most of these allegations are coming from the very people who dragged the country down in the first place.” Which is complete nonsense as it’s the press, not Tories, digging out these appointments…

Guido is told that, while donor Ian Corfield’s crony civil service appointment won’t be going ahead, Jess Sargeant’s position in the Propriety and Constitution Group hasn’t changed. There’s no stopping this train…

Here we go again. Having finished off Dominic Raab, the Whitehall militia have found their next target. Now it’s Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s turn, with the charge sheet against him so appalling it’s almost impossible to read. For those brave enough, here is what Barclay is being accused of by distressed civil servants:

• “Blasting” staff
• Being “angry“
• Being “quite challenging“
• Having a “very macho” style. As opposed to a “very effete” style?
• “Micro-managing” employees. Presumably by asking them what they are doing, exactly?

The botched attempt to take down Alok Sharma means mandarins are now having to up their game. Barclay doesn’t just call Civil Servants while they’re at home, he “blasts” them when they make mistakes, and is sometimes even “difficult” to work with – whatever that means. No one has accused him of hurling fruit past the skulls of his staff yet, although it’s surely only a matter of time. Barclay’s allies are calling the allegations “totally untrue” and “politically motivated“, pointing out that not one complaint has been made. James Cleverly added Barclay is “absolutely not” a bully on Sky News this morning. Not that any of that matters: it is clearly open season on any Cabinet minister now. One Civil Service source joked to Guido “if Civil Servants are snowflakes, the DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care] is Antarctica”…