Page 38 - Eric Pickles News Today

Save Share “We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way.” So said David Cameron in 2010, in a speech on lobbying shortly before he became prime minister. A decade on, it has become painfully clear that the former British leader did indeed know how it worked. In recent weeks, Cameron has seen his reputation savaged amid details of his lobbying effort...

‘People should not form the impression there are lots of people doing two jobs’: PM defends civil service as Greensill probes launch Johnson praises Whitehall’s pandemic work and says public would be wrong to think moonlighting is common Boris Johnson Photo PA 20 Apr 2021 Prime minister Boris Johnson has spoken in defence of senior civil servants as the Greensill Capital lobbying scandal has shone a spotlight on top officials’ second jobs as well as former PM David Cameron’s work for ...

As we are all fallible, humility rather than censoriousness must be the hallmark of investigation

The ethics of government need a deep clean. That’s not likely to happen when Boris Johnson is prime minister David Cameron: ‘His ability to make a speech was not the reason he was put on the books by Lex Greensill.’ Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian David Cameron: ‘His ability to make a speech was not the reason he was put on the books by Lex Greensill.’ Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian Sun 18 Apr 2021 03.00 EDT It is in danger of becoming received wisdom that the Greensi...

Demands for ‘urgent’ reform after watchdog finds ‘no boundaries’ for civil servants in private jobs Andrew Woodcock © Provided by The Independent The head of a Whitehall watchdog has called for “urgent” reform of the system for vetting private sector appointments for senior civil servants and ministers, warning that “there doesn’t seem to have been any boundaries at all” for an adviser who moved straight from the heart of government to the failed finance comp...

Why it was Eric Pickles – ex-Tory minister, government flak jacket and seasoned Westminster trencherman. Been a while since we heard owt from Uncle Eric, as the former communities secretary used to style himself.  He shuffled out of the Commons in 2017 to park his rump on the red benches in the Upper House, where hes since busied himself as head of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba).  This is the body that vets jobs offered to former ministers and civil servants. What w...

Greensill: whats what in scandal rocking UK politics AFP 2 hrs ago © Oli SCARFF Greensill is turning into the worst Westminster scandal since 2009 The collapse in March of specialist finance company Greensill Capital has morphed into a broadening scandal that is ensnaring Conservative politicians and top civil servants in Britain.  In the latest revelation, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed he owns shares in a family company which has contracts with the state-run National Health...

Labour accuses Matt Hancock of breaching ministerial code Labour has accused Matt Hancock of appearing to breach the ministerial code, as pressure grows on the health secretary to explain how the firm TopWood Limited was awarded a three-year £150,000 contract from NHS Wales days after he took on shares in the company, of which his sister is declared a director. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “The health secretary needs to explain in a public statement today how a company owned ...

UK politics news – live: Hancock broke ministerial code, Labour suggests as Greensill faces new investigation Rory Sullivan © Provided by The Independent Labour has accused Matt Hancock of appearing to breach the ministerial code, after it emerged that the health secretary was given a 20 per cent share in a company owned by his sister shortly before it won a lucrative NHS contract. Topwood Ltd of Wrexham, a document-shredding firm, was awarded a three-year contract – repor...

JASON LEE / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock Something is rotten in the UK political system: what’s been deemed the most significant government lobbying and cronyism scandal is currently unspooling, with alarming closeness between private enterprise and political decision makers being uncovered every day by newspapers. The Greensill scandal first came to light when Greensill Capital, a company offering supply chain finance, run by an Australian financier, collapsed last month, bringing down a ra...