It doesn’t look like Labour’s high-minded attitude to cronyism and chumocracy will stop blowing up in its face anytime soon. Despite Starmer launching a leak inquiry into the briefings against Sue Gray…
Guido can now reveal that the government is pushing through dozens of ‘exceptions,’ which allow it to circumvent usual impartiality rules in making civil service appointments. From 5th July 2024 to 19th August 2024, the Civil Service Commission approved a total of 70 exceptional appointments. That includes 16 senior-level positions for directors…
37 ‘temporary appointments’ were pushed through in Labour’s short initial period, alongside 20 secondments from outside the civil service. DSIT leads the pack with a whopping 12 exceptions alone, including an appointment to the highest pay band from £127,000 to £208,100. This is the system that allowed Labour Together Starmtrooper Jess Sargeant to be appointed as a Deputy Director in the all-knowing Propriety and Constitution Group…
The Commission says it is “keen to reduce” the number of civil service exceptions it makes while it launches a “rapid review” into Labour’s crony appointments. Government of Self-Service latest…
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…
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”.
Yet another politicised civil service appointment appears to be on the cards for the government. Labour Together campaigner Jess Sargeant is rumoured to have been appointed to a top civil service role. Labour is already under serious fire for hiring its own donors and ex-Labour Together staff to top civil service positions in blatant cronyism…
Sargeant, a former constitutional wonk at the Institute for Big Government-turned-Starmerite activist, joined Labour Together to direct its constitutional work programme in December last year and began working closely with shadow ministers. Now she is said to be starting work as the Deputy Director of the Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Constitution Group. Sue Gray’s old team, and the one – Guido kids you not – responsible for “ensuring the highest standards of propriety and ethics across all government departments”…
The group supports departments to uphold standards and, surprise surprise – manages Whitehall’s relations with the Civil Service Commission, which manages, among other things, the impartiality of civil service jobs. Is Labour looking to install a Starmer loyalist at the heart of the civil service machine?
Guido approached the Cabinet Office, who said “We’ll come back to you“. Eight hours later the standard Labour Party line when asked about its cronyistic appointments was issued: “We do not comment on individuals.” Jess’ soon-to-be senior Darren Tierney declined to deny the appointment when asked, directing Guido with a sigh instead to the press office…
A Deputy Director with such a broad scope will have access to reams of sensitive information and will get live updates on ethical breaches throughout government. Sargeant has deleted her LinkedIn profile and taken her Twitter private – a typical sign of an impending slide into government. Has the Civil Service Commission been made aware of Sargeant’s recent Labour Party activism as a Starmtrooper member of the Labour Together cadre?
UPDATE: Hire confirmed. POLITICO is “assured Sargeant was hired to advise on constitutional issues, which is her area of expertise, and not ethics” while a “senior Labour source” says “the idea she is a Starmerite warrior is nonsense.” Uh-huh…
