UK Labour faces a scandal of its own making

Then there was the revelation by the news site Guido Fawkes that Jess Sargeant had been shuffled to a top civil service role from Labour Together, the Starmerite think tank that also groomed Middleton for government and which made donations to Sargeant’s current boss, Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds. 

A government spokesperson declined to directly address charges that the appointments risk the impartiality of the civil service, but noted that exemptions are permitted for direct appointments and said there was a precedent for such hires. “We do not comment on individual staffing appointments,” the person added.

The government has appointed party loyalists to junior civil service roles within No. 10 as well, in one case replacing a veteran civil servant who had served four prime ministers as diary manager with Annie-Rose Peterman, a Labour staffer who had worked in Starmer’s team in opposition, POLITICO revealed Wednesday.

Starmer’s deputy PM, Angela Rayner, has also brought one of her policy advisers — Haydon Etherington — into a civil service role, the Daily Mail reported, while his chief of staff, Sue Gray, has hired former Labour aide Mitchell Burns-Jackson as a Whitehall executive assistant to her private office, POLITICO confirmed after Guido broke the news.  

Some of these roles may be junior, but they offer access to some of the most powerful people in Britain — and to their whereabouts — and experts say it’s unusual for party officials to get such positions, which are usually reserved for civil-service lifers. 

The government spokesperson quoted above stressed that Peterman and Burns-Jackson are very junior-grade administrative roles.