The ministerial sleaze watchdog tonight rebuked Sir Keir Starmer for getting involved in the controversial appointment of the new football regulator despite promising not to do so.
Sir Laurie Magnus said it was ‘regrettable’ that the Prime Minister had signed off on Labour donor David Kogan getting the key role, having previously agreed to stay out of it because of his freebie tickets to Arsenal matches.
His comments came after Sir Keir expressed his ‘sincere regret’ for the ‘unfortunate error’, in the latest twist in the scandal that has also seen Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy apologise for three breaches of the public appointments code.
In his letter to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, the PM explained that they have now discussed ‘my interest in football’ three times.
He said they had talked about him enjoying ‘hospitality from football clubs and the Football Association’ and that as a result he agreed last autumn to ‘recuse myself from decisions relating to the Football Governance Bill’, which sets up the regulator job.
Sir Keir said the Culture Secretary told him in April that she wanted to appoint Mr Kogan and he ‘confirmed that I was supportive’.
But he admitted: ‘In retrospect, it would have been better if I had not been given the note or confirmed that I was content with the appointment. This was an unfortunate error for which I express my sincere regret.’
The PM also revealed that in June he discussed the issue with the sleaze watchdog and also the fact that Mr Kogan and donated to his Labour leadership campaign and local party branch.
The ministerial sleaze watchdog rebuked Sir Keir Starmer for getting involved in the controversial appointment of the new football regulator despite promising not to do so
Sir Laurie Magnus said it was ‘regrettable’ that the Prime Minister had signed off on Labour donor David Kogan (pictured) getting the key role
‘We agreed that the recusal I agreed in Autumn 2024 should include measures to guard against any perception of conflict,’ Sir Keir said.
‘On that basis, we agreed that I should stay out of the appointment process and I have not taken or approved any decisions in relation to the appointment of Mr Kogan since then.’
And he told Sir Laurie, whom he met on Tuesday, that there will be an ‘in internal review of the processes by which recusals are managed in No 10’.
In response, the watchdog said: ‘It is regrettable, as you say in your letter, that despite the recusal we agreed in Autumn 2024 concerning the Football Governance Bill, you were asked to confirm that you were content with the proposed appointment recommended by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in line with her statutory responsibilities as the appointing authority.
‘It is important that robust processes for the management of recusals are in place in No10 and I welcome the internal review you have commissioned in this connection.’
And he added: ‘I consider that the disclosures made in your letter are an important demonstration of your commitment to transparency and to ensuring that mistakes are acknowledged and necessary steps taken to improve processes underpinning standards in public life.’
Senior Tory MP Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: ‘Keir Starmer himself has been caught offside signing off on the appointment of a major donor to a powerful new role.
‘This isn’t just sloppy; it’s a serious lapse of judgment from a man who promised integrity and transparency – and potentially another a serious breach of the rules.
‘It’s yet more scandal right at the heart of his Government. Amidst open civil war in the Labour Party, it is clear the PM doesn’t have the backbone to control his own administration or simply doesn’t care.
‘The British public deserve to know which it is.’
It came after Ms Nandy insisted she did nothing wrong despite apologising for the cronyism row.
Facing MPs over the row for the first time since an official investigation found three breaches of the public appointments code, the Culture Secretary claimed it had not criticised her personally.
She said she had only said sorry because her department ran the botched process that led to Mr Kogan getting the job as Chairman of the Independent Football Regulator.
However last week’s report by Commissioner for Public Appointments Sir William Shawcross stated that Ms Nandy had ‘failed to declare and resolve an interest before selecting Mr Kogan as the Government’s preferred candidate’.
The report said ‘the Secretary of State should have considered and ascertained whether Mr Kogan had made donations to her leadership campaign before she made that decision;.
She received £2,900 in donations from him to her 2020 Labour leadership campaign but only checked if he had done so after he was selected as preferred candidate, on the eve of his confirmation hearing.
The report also found that his donations to her, a ‘potential conflict of interest, were not discussed at his interview, and that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport made ‘no mention of political activity’ when Mr Kogan’s appointment was announced even though he and his company had given £33,410 to Labour over five years.
But after the Tories accused her of making a ‘brazen crony appointment’, Ms Nandy told the Commons on Wednesday: ‘In the report that was written and published by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, there wasn’t a single recommendation made to me as part of that. There were recommendations for the department but there wasn’t a recommendation in relation to me.
‘Nevertheless I have chosen to apologise to the Prime Minister because I believe that’s the right thing to do, to take responsibility for the things that we are responsible for.’
Challenged by MPs, Ms Nandy insisted: ‘I didn’t forget to declare the donations. The independent commissioner was convinced that I didn’t know about these donations and that as soon as I did know about these donations, I chose to declare them and I recused myself from that process.’
She also said: ‘The report also makes clear that I did not personally know about the donations to my leadership campaign at the time that I selected him as the preferred candidate. It also recognises that as soon as I became aware of these donations, I chose to declare them, and chose to recuse myself from the remainder of the process.
‘However as I have made clear, I acknowledge the findings of the report. The commissioner was clear that the breach around donations to my campaign was unknowing, but I recognise that the highest standards were not met. As the Secretary of State for the department that ran the appointment, I take full responsibility for that, and it is for that reason that I wrote to the Prime Minister and apologised for this error.’
Tory MP James Wild told her: ‘I have to say, I am quite surprised at the lack of contrition from the Secretary of State, given a very damning report.’