LISA NANDY, culture, media and sport secretary, on Friday wrote to prime minister Keir Starmer to apologise after being found to have “unknowingly” breached public appointment rules during the appointment of England's new football watchdog.
The Independent Commissioner for Public Appointments, Sir William Shawcross, said in his report that the appointment of David Kogan last month breached the governance code, as he had made two donations totalling 2,900 pounds to Nandy's Labour leadership campaign five years ago.
“The Commissioner finds that she has unknowingly breached the Code. She should have carried out that check and taken any necessary consequential action before selecting him,” Shawcross notes in his findings.
In her letter to Starmer, Nandy said she had declared Kogan's donations to her campaign "as soon as I discovered these donations existed".
“I deeply regret this error. I appreciate the perception it could create, but it was not deliberate and I apologise for it," said Nandy.
“As soon as I discovered these donations existed, I chose to declare them and recuse myself from the process,” she said.
Starmer accepted her apology and said she had acted in “good faith”.
“I know you to be a person of integrity and on the basis of your letter, it is clear you have acted in good faith. The Commissioner acknowledges that you acted swiftly to step back from the appointment when you became aware of the perception of a conflict of interest,” reads Starmer's reply.
“Nonetheless, the process followed was not entirely up to the standard expected and I welcome your department's willingness to cooperate with the Commissioner and the Cabinet Office to learn lessons and to improve the guidance on handling conflicts of interest,” he said.
In his 18-page report, Shawcross concludes that Nandy and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had breached the governance code on public appointments.
The report said they breached the code by not immediately declaring that Kogan had donated twice to her unsuccessful 2020 campaign to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, by not discussing this when she interviewed him for the role, and by not declaring Kogan's larger donations to Labour, including to Starmer's leadership campaign.
“Ministers are reminded of their duties to declare and resolve any interests and relationships which they have with a candidate participating in a campaign regulated by the Governance Code,” the report notes.
“It is also recommended that officials in the Cabinet Office, together with key stakeholders, including departmental officials and the Commissioner, work together to agree steps to avoid a similar situation arising in the future,” it adds.
The appointment of Kogan, a prominent media executive, as the head of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) remains unaffected.
“If Labour is serious about integrity and transparency, this appointment must be withdrawn immediately. Anything less would be a betrayal of the very standards Labour claim to uphold,” said Nigel Huddleston, shadow culture secretary.
The development adds to recent pressure on Starmer’s leadership, after two other Cabinet ministers, chancellor Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner, were found to have breached official rules over their housing arrangements.
While Reeves was able to prove her lack of a tenancy licence was an oversight on the part of the estate agents, Rayner had to resign from her post as Deputy Prime Minister and housing minister in September.
(With inputs from agencies)
