The Government has just released their Annual Report on Special Advisers, which details the wages of every SpAd in Whitehall. Guido has had an enjoyable time pouring over the details and has updated our comprehensive SpAd list to include their wages. Transparency is king…
The top earners work for Boris in No. 10, though brassic Dominic Cummings is still keeping to his old Vote Leave campaign rule that nobody gets paid more than £100,000. Quite a few departmental SpAds are raking it in too…
Read the full document with all pay grades here:
Annual Report on Special Advisers by Christian on Scribd
As SpAds resign next week for the election, Dominic Cummings used his weekly meeting with them to issue threats over complacency. Guido understands Cummings told the bag carriers to thank their private offices as he will be asking ministers and civil servants if their SpAds are “sh*t or not”. Their performance during the election campaign will also determine whether they’re kept on or not afterwards. Guido has some personal SpAd reviews he is happy to pass on…
Guido also hears SpAds are actually struggling to resign in the first place. Many advisors want to step down and get to work in CCHQ’s election campaign machine from Monday, but many are being told by the Cabinet Office that they’ll lose their severance package entitlement if they quit before Thursday.
The Civil Service may want to pick their fights carefully at this time, however, as Cummings used last night’s meeting to “go big” on labouring his pledge for “fundamental reform” of the civil service as a post-election project – asking for ideas from SpAds. First suggestion from Guido is more transparency / leaks please…
UPDATE: Civil Service specifically accusing Helen MacNamara of “being a nightmare” over this. The civil service are also being accused by SpAds of refusing to sanction policies which they see as attempting to influence the election (even though they’ve been refusing projects since before the election bill passed), whilst at the same time preventing them from resigning. They’re in as much a state of purgatory as the Commons…
Following the resignation of Jo Johnson, his former SpAd Iain Mansfield has now joined BEIS as Kwasi Kwarteng’s first SpAd. A convenient transfer…
Guido also learns that Simon Jones has left Downing Street’s Business Relations Department after 4 years of SpAd-ing, writing on his Facebook that he has “decided to take some [time] out to plan new adventures”. No news as to where he has gone…
See the full list here: order-order.com/spads
Peter Heneghan has joined the Cabinet Office in Downing Street as head of digital communications, he was formerly in a similar role at LADbible and before that Buzzfeed. If anyone should know how to reach that difficult to reach Leave-backing-lads demographic, it is this Irishman. Strictly speaking Heneghan is not a SpAd he is a civil servant, so we have not added him to the SpAd List.
SpAds have been listed by Guido in order of seniority. If any SpAds reading the list disagree with this hierarchy, feel free to send in your contracts for us to double check…
See the full list here: order-order.com/spads
Guido’s SpAd list is the definitive list of appointed Special Advisers in government. With the revisions below this is the complete list of SpAds in government as of this morning. Guido has added in a number of new appointments and reformatted the layout for ease of comprehension. We have also added more departmental information, in the light of the new Brexit units. Enjoy…
New additions to the list include:
- Jennifer Powell – Treasury
- Charlie Rowley – Cabinet Office
- Emma Dean – Health
- Cleo Watson – No. 10’s Private Office
- Sam Richards – No. 10’s Policy Unit: Energy & Environment
- Will Warr – No. 10’s Policy Unit: Health & Social Care, Life Sciences and Technology
- Samuel Kasumu – No. 10’s Civil Society Unit
- Chris James – No. 10’s Legislative Affairs Team
- Chloe Sarfaty – No. 10’s Events and Visits Team
- James Sproule and Simon Jones – No. 10’s Business Relations Team
- David Beckingham and Alex Crowley – No. 10’s Political Team
Note that Tim Pitt is no longer listed as a Treasury SpAd.
SpAds have been listed by Guido in order of seniority. If any SpAds reading the list disagree with this hierarchy, feel free to send in your contracts for us to double check…
See the full list here: order-order.com/spads
Will Walden has left Downing Street and gone back to lobbyists Edelman, where he is the Executive Director. Walden was the man who guided Boris through his mayoralty and followed him to the Foreign Office before joining Edelman in 2017. Will admitted he was impressed that Carrie had finally managed where he had failed for years – to smarten Boris up and get him to tuck his shirt in.
Walden came back to help out on the leadership campaign in May, particularly with the preparation for TV debates, hustings and major media interviews. He only went with Boris to Downing Street to help with the initial bedding in. Boris would have liked to have kept him, Will however always intended to go back to the private sector.
Keep up to date with all the SpAd moves in Downing Street order-order.com/spads
