Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is facing questions over the appointment of a Labour donor to a senior position in the Treasury.
The BBC has been told that former banker Ian Corfield has been brought in to help run an international investment summit in October.
He is said to be on a temporary contract, which one source says is “very limited.” His social media profile suggests the contract began in July. It is unclear when the contract ends.
Conservative shadow finance minister Laura Trott described the appointment as “utter hypocrisy” on the part of the Labour Party and demanded information about whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer was involved.
Over the past decade, Mr Corfield has donated a total of £20,000 to three Labour MPs, including £5,000 to Rachel Reeves in July 2023.
He had previously donated to former Labour Party deputy leader Tom Watson in 2015 and 2017, and to former shadow finance minister Rebecca Long-Bailey in 2016.
In a letter to James Bowler, the Treasury’s top civil servant, Ms Trott asked whether the Civil Service Commission, which oversees appointments, had been aware of Mr Corfield’s donation to Ms Reeves – and whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been excluded from the process surrounding the appointment.
The website Politico reported that the Treasury Department had not informed the commission about Mr Corfield’s donation history.
Ms Trott also asked whether advice had been sought on a possible conflict of interest between Mr Corfield’s donations and the political impartiality of the civil service.
Both Mr Corfield’s and Ms Reeves’ teams have been approached for comment.
‘Exception’
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Corfield previously worked for seven months as a management consultant to the Labour Party and before that held senior roles in the financial services sector. Until recently, he was also a director of the Labour-supporting news website LabourList.
He was appointed to his post at the Ministry of Finance without going through the usual application procedure. This is permitted if the Commission is satisfied that fair and open competition is not possible, for example because of urgent recruitment or because the post is of short duration.
So-called “exceptions” to the normal rules have been granted more than 100 times in the past twelve months.
A Commission spokesman said: “This temporary appointment has been approved by the Commission as it reflects the need for the civil service to bring in relevant skills quickly and for a limited period of time.”
“All exceptional appointments are reminded of their responsibility under the Civil Service Act to act impartially, objectively, with integrity and honesty.”
There are no regulations that automatically prevent someone from being appointed to public service because of a political donation.
The recruitment principles state that the selection panel must be satisfied that the candidate “understands the requirement to act objectively and impartially… and must document how he has achieved this”.
Ministerial Code
A government spokesman said: “As you would expect, we do not comment on individual appointments. All appointments are made in accordance with civil service recruitment rules.”
The Cabinet Office is responsible for codes of conduct for officials, ministers and special advisers.
The Democratic Party’s code of conduct states that it must be “publicly disclosed” whether a successful candidate has been employed by a political party or has made “significant contributions” to a party in the past five years.
Under the Code, the amounts donated by Mr Corfield would be considered “significant”.
The Ministerial Code states that ministers “must ensure that no conflict arises or can reasonably be assumed between their public duties and their private financial or other interests”.
“It is the personal responsibility of each Minister to decide whether and what action is necessary to avoid a conflict or the appearance of a conflict, taking into account the advice of his Permanent Secretary and the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Interests.”
The Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office were also asked for comment.
Ms Trott said: “I just think this is hypocrisy on the part of the Labour Party… They have put a Labour donor in the Treasury, in a civil service post that is supposed to be impartial.”
Henry Newman, a former adviser to Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, said: “If Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak had made this kind of appointment, I can imagine the outcry of outrage that would have followed.”
Jack Worlidge of the Institute for Government think tank told the BBC that the case “exposes the gaps” in the rules governing civil service appointments.
He added: “Labour has separately committed to establishing an ethics and integrity commission, which could be a possible way of closing some of the gaps.”
The Labour Party declined to comment.
