KEIR Starmer has defended parachuting Labour cronies into Government as “getting the best people into the best jobs”, amid a cronyism row rocking the party in its first weeks in Government.
The Prime Minister said he had to “move at pace” with appointments, which have included a Labour donor being handed a plum job at the Treasury while a civil servant who previously worked for Chancellor Rachel Reeves (below) in opposition was elevated within the department.
Speaking at a press conference in the garden of No 10, Starmer hit back at criticism of the appointments from the Tories saying he was “not really going to take lectures on this from the people who dragged our country so far down in the last few years”.
But he has left himself vulnerable to criticism over the appointments, as he hails the new Government’s attempts to “root out 14 years of rot” left by the Tories.
Ian Corfield, a former banker who went to work for Labour before the election, landed a director role – a job which typically commands a salary of at least £95,000 a year – at the Treasury shortly after Labour came to power.
It later emerged he had donated £18,000 to the party, something the civil service appointments watchdog – which allowed the normal hiring process to be avoided – had not been told.
Corfield has now quit the job and is taking on an unpaid role which will see him carry out the same work he had been brought on to do originally but without the power to make managerial or financial decisions.
Elsewhere, Louise Tinsley, who worked for Reeves before joining the civil service, has been promoted to a powerful new role in the Treasury as the director of special advisers and chancellor engagement.
Responding to criticism on Tuesday morning, Starmer said: “Both of these allegations and accusations are coming from the very people that dragged our country down in the first place. So you'll forgive me if I take that approach to it.
“We are going to fix the foundations. We've got to do it at speed, and I'm determined to have the right people in the right places to allow us to get on with that job. I'm enormously aware of how big a task this is and how we have to move at pace, and that's why we're getting the best people into the best jobs.
“But I'm not really going to take lectures on this from the people who dragged our country so far down in the last few years.”
And he refused to be drawn on questions about the appointment of a new national security adviser, amid claims Labour have dropped the top general approved for the role in favour of a more politically loyal candidate.
The Guardian reported earlier this week that Gwyn Jenkins, the former vice-chief of the armed forces appointed to the top role then-prime minister Rishi Sunak (above) in April, has now been passed up.
An official told the paper: “This looks like another part of the grab for power by Keir Starmer and [his chief of staff] Sue Gray. The process to appoint Jenkins was run with full transparency, and there is no good reason to do it all over again.”
Starmer said he would not “publicly discuss individual appointments” but added there would be an “open and transparent process”.
And the Prime Minister defended the award of an access all areas Downing Street pass to Labour grandee and donor Lord Waheed Alli, which he had used at one point to host a party in the garden.
He said: “He was doing some transition work with us. He had a pass for a short term time to do that work. The work finished, and he hasn't got a pass. You know, that's the state of affairs.”
Chris McEleny, the Alba Party's general secretary, said: “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that as soon as the Tories got booted from office Labour were quick to fill the troughs.
“The last time they were in Government we had Tony’s Cronies, now under Starmer we have Keir’s Privateers – and that’s exactly what they are. Whilst the rest of the country struggle to make ends meet, Labour are handing out jobs to their pals with a license to print money by robbing the taxpayer.”
