Can Labour avoid the stench of scandal? Keir Starmer's government must practise what it preaches

In none of the cases has there been the slightest shred of transparency.

We do know, though, that the Chancellor failed to declare the Corfield donation to her permanent secretary, meaning she could be in breach of the Ministerial Code. She also did not declare the £5,000 donation (nor presumably his appointment) to the Civil Service Commission — Whitehall’s regulator. When the truth surfaced, Mr Corfield’s civil service role was terminated. But questions about the Ministerial Code remain unanswered. Without answers, there can be no accountability. And the termination of Corfield’s role suggests that the Chancellor realised that there might be questions to answer.

We do not know if the other ministers declared their donations to their departments, or to the Civil Service Commission. And we do not know how many other such appointments have been made, though there are likely to be many — especially at more junior levels where the roles can be signed off within departments.

I should say at this point that, having worked in and around Whitehall for nearly 15 years, I am in favour of ministers having greater personal powers of appointment. It is ludicrous that most Secretaries of State running entire department of thousands of staff, with billion-pound budgets, can appoint fewer than five Special Advisers, or spads. And even those appointments require Downing Street sign off. But that is our current system, and those in favour of change should advocate reform, not practice subversion by stealth.

Ten years ago, as a spad working in the Cabinet Office, I helped Francis Maude develop the idea of an Extended Ministerial Office. Echoing the Continental Cabinet system, ministers would be allowed to appoint a team of several dozen drawn from Whitehall and beyond. The reforms would have allowed ministers to make a few key appointments to roles such as diary management, strategy advice, speech writing, digital communications or policy advice. I had seen how difficult it was to drive change in Government — how, when a Secretary of State pulled a lever, all too often nothing happened. This reform was intended to address those problems. This would have brought the United Kingdom closer into line with other Westminster-model democracies — Australia for example. The plan was killed off by Theresa May for reasons I still do not understand, but perhaps relating to a desire to appease the then Cabinet Secretary.

The new Government has thus far shown no interest in Civil Service reforms nor in moving to an Extended Ministerial Office system. But in any case, some of their appointments are fundamentally of a different order. A function of the Extended Ministerial Office was that the personal ministerial appointments would be contained in that office, not spread throughout a department. They would not have wider responsibilities. Emily Middleton, in contrast, is being made a Director General — Whitehall’s second most senior grade. She would be expected to manage a large team, control significant budgets, and to oversee the departments’ core policy advice within her field.

A more junior but even more extraordinary appointment is that of Jess Sargeant, who had previously written about the need for “checks on power”. And yet, within weeks of Labour gaining power, she accepted a position, which was neither publicly advertised nor competed, in the heart of the Cabinet Office. Adding to the irony is the fact that she has been appointed to the Propriety and Constitution Group.

PET, as this office used to be known, runs investigations into ministerial propriety, handles the regulator of the Civil Service, decides how to handle conflicts of interest in Government, and oversees the team helping allocate honours and the committee advising on appointments to the House of Lords. It is unprecedented that a political person be given this role — which presumably was approved by the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary. And it is shocking that she has not been removed since her presence was exposed.

In defence of these appointments, members of the new Government have resorted to shameless whataboutery, pointing to certain individuals elevated to the House of Lords by previous prime ministers, to a recent ambassadorial role allocated by another prime minister, and to endless other appointments to the boards of quangos and Non-Executive Director positions within Whitehall. There are doubtless interesting questions to be raised about the practice of previous administrations. But all those posts, while important, are substantively different from Civil Servants.

The last Labour Government legislated to put the political impartiality of the Civil Service on a statutory footing. Their Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 also dictates that appointments to Whitehall must be by “fair and open” competition, or through an exception overseen by the Civil Service Commission. So the Civil Service is bound by entirely different rules. Ambassadorial jobs are distinct. The top quango jobs are regulated by a separate process but one which sets out that political activity should neither “affect any judgement of merit nor be a bar to appointment”. Departmental non-executives are now similarly regulated, thanks to a change made by Boris Johnson. And appointments to the peerage remain a Prime Ministerial prerogative. Those who dismiss these distinctions as sophistry are dismissing the value of Civil Service impartiality.

Civil Servants have to serve the Government of the day, whatever its political complexion. Crucially, they must also — and this is set out in the Civil Service Code — retain the ability to serve with equal commitment to a future government. That value has been traduced by recent appointments. For how could a future government have confidence in the advice of a Deputy Director in the Propriety and Constitution Group, whose previous job was working for Labour Together? How could a future Government trust the new Director General in the Department of Science, who also previously worked for Labour Together? That’s why these appointments are so injurious to political impartiality.

The vast majority of Civil Servants working in the policy parts of Government, as opposed to the more frontline service delivery roles, are profoundly committed to the ethos of public service and political impartiality. Yes, most officials dress to the Left, and there is a tendency to conformism. But there are some more heterodox thinkers. Overall, though, there is a deep sense that explicit Politics (with a capital P) is not permissible. That is why so many inside government, at all levels of seniority, have been so appalled by Labour’s recent appointments.

But the toughest questions for Starmer’s administration are over the Ministerial Code. The change in Mr Corfield’s status from civil servant to Direct Ministerial Appointment, does nothing to quell the questions about whether Rachel Reeves broke the Ministerial Code by asking for him to be appointed. These are questions which demand an investigation.

Starmer has inherited an Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests, Sir Laurie Magnus, from the last government. He might have been tempted to appoint his own “Ethics Tsar”. But it’s too late now. Instead, he should instruct Magnus to open an investigation into Reeves, before Magnus does so himself. And the new Government should come clean. How many “exceptional” appointments have there been? If, as they claim, no rules have been broken, they should publish the names and details of all the senior roles.

I recognise that politics is a contact sport and can, often, seem a grubby business, particularly when donations are involved. Those who would argue that we should drive “the money” out of politics need to get better at making the case for taxpayer funding. Those, like me, who are thankful for political donors, need to get better at defending them, while accepting that transparency and acting with probity are vital for maintaining public confidence in politics.

I have had a front row seat for many recent political dramas. Watching them play out when you’re sat around the edge of the Cabinet Room or helping a minister prepare for an urgent Parliamentary Question is never pleasant. And so, I would offer some advice — in humility — as someone who has witnessed a scandal or two at close quarters.

In order not to wade further into the mire, Downing Street needs to recognise several things. First, in opposition it’s easy (or at least seems easy) to preach about standards and demand answers; in government you have to make decisions and account for them. Second, the Prime Minister should lose all the chippy defensiveness and understand, as a former barrister, that you must answer the case that is made against you. Third, reform of the Civil Service, ideally on the basis of a cross-party consensus, is a necessity. In order for evolution, not revolution, the case should be made for incremental changes. For, lest the government forget, the political mechanisms of accountability in our system are actually effective: over the years, they have become a ruthless ministerial career-destroying machine.

---

Henry Newman was a Conservative special adviser to Francis Maude, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson. He writes The Whitehall Project on Substack

HenryNewman