HM Treasury is embroiled in a row over the appointment of a former Labour Party senior adviser, who is also a major donor to the party, as a senior civil servant.
Ian Corfield took up his new role as director, investment, at the Treasury last month, after spending six months as a senior business adviser to the Labour Party.
The former chief commercial officer of credit card company NewDay has been one of Labour's major donors, having donated more than £20,000 over the past decade – including £5,000 to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in August 2023.
The news of his appointment as a senior civil servant emerged yesterday and has prompted a furious response from former spads and ministers. Henry Newman, an ex-special adviser to Michael Gove and Francis Maude, commented that it is “quite a thing – quite extraordinary – to have an actual donor handed a plum, senior Whitehall role”.
He added that he could not recall “any example of a recent political donor being appointed to the senior civil service. Let alone a donor who gave several thousand pounds to a shadow minister, being appointed as an official in the actual department of which the recipient of that donation is now the secretary of state. It doesn’t smell good. It’s murky”.
And shadow technology secretary Andrew Griffith, a former Treasury minister, told Politico: “There is a real question here about the role of permanent secretaries in upholding the independence of the civil service and ensuring fair opportunities for advancement are given to junior staff.”
Echoing the concerns around the appointment, Alex Thomas, programme director at the Institute for Government and a former director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “The proximity in terms of timing of the Labour affiliation and the giving of donations makes it even more important that a merit based recruitment process is followed."
The controversy surrounding Corfield’s appointment comes in the wake of a letter sent to ministers by cabinet secretary Simon Case and Baroness Gisela Stuart, first civil service commissioner, earlier this week.
Ministers were reminded: “The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (2010) (CRaG) sets out the legal requirement that the appointment of civil servants in England, Scotland and Wales must be made on merit, after a fair and open competition.”
The letter stated that recruitment principles “should be upheld” and that “you may wish to put in place a process to ensure that you are given the opportunity to engage with your department’s SCS appointments at an early stage”.
In a statement, a government spokesperson said: “As you would expect, we do not comment on individual staffing appointments.” They added: “Any appointments are made in line with the civil service rules on recruitment.”
The Civil Service Commission said it considered requests for appointment by exception under its published recruitment principles.
“This temporary appointment was approved by the commission, recognising the need for the civil service to quickly bring in relevant skills for a fixed term,” it said.
“All appointments by exception are reminded of their responsibilities under the civil service code to act with impartiality, objectivity, integrity and honesty.”
The Labour Party declined to comment.