In a boost to Rishi Sunak’s ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ drive, Conservative ex-Cabinet Ministers Amber Rudd and Nicky Morgan have amassed six new jobs between them alone.
In Rudd’s case, she has a balanced portfolio, nicely split between work linked to her time as Home Secretary and her earlier stint as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
All the jobs were approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), the watchdog that scrutinises Ministers’ lives after government but which appears to have lost all ability to say ‘No’.
Rudd’s remunerated gigs include steering the ‘strategic direction’ of Pool Re, insurers specialising in terrorism and involved in ‘multi-million-pound projects’ with the Home Office.
In a boost to Rishi Sunak’s ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ drive, Conservative ex-Cabinet Ministers Amber Rudd (above) and Nicky Morgan have amassed six new jobs between them alone. In Rudd’s case, she has a balanced portfolio, nicely split between work linked to her time as Home Secretary and her earlier stint as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Nicky Morgan (above), 48, has returned to the corporate law firm she worked in before politics. The peer, who as Culture Secretary oversaw the Government’s digital policy, told the Advisory Committee on Business Appointment she will advise Travers Smith LLP on ‘tech legal practice’
Acoba raised concerns that 57-year-old Rudd’s previous access to privileged information presented ‘inherent risks’ of giving Pool Re an ‘unfair advantage’ – but it gave her the green light anyway.
It also waved through her job with Darktrace, a cyber security company – a policy area she had responsibility for in the Home Office.
All she’s had to do is promise not to lobby or draw on her ministerial knowledge.
Meanwhile, her other former department (Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) helpfully told Acoba it ‘cannot think of any companies you [Rudd] should not advise’. Which makes me think she is missing a trick by joining the green start-up Pinwheel – surely a million-pound contract with BP beckons?
Baroness Morgan, 48, has returned to the corporate law firm she worked in before politics. The peer, who as Culture Secretary oversaw the Government’s digital policy, told Acoba she will advise Travers Smith LLP on ‘tech legal practice’.
Bottoms up, mine’s a Mark Mocktail!
A bar in Wales has created a signature drink in honour of First Minister Mark Drakeford, who has taken the popular step of banning the sale of alcohol in pubs.
The Three Eagles in Llangollen describes The Drakeford mocktail – a pint of water topped with some berries – as ‘Welsh, Wet and Uninspiring’.
A bar in Wales has created a signature drink in honour of First Minister Mark Drakeford, who has taken the popular step of banning the sale of alcohol in pubs. The Three Eagles in Llangollen describes The Drakeford mocktail – a pint of water topped with some berries – as ‘Welsh, Wet and Uninspiring’
At least Drakeford (pictured) can still seek shelter at the Three Eagles – after being banned from 100 other pubs across Wales
Despite the hardline approach, measured on death certificates, Wales’s Covid death rate per 100,000 people is higher than England’s.
At least Drakeford can still seek shelter at the Three Eagles – after being banned from 100 other pubs across Wales.
Talking of jobs, Ciaran Martin, the ex-boss of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, has taken Government advice to out-of-work professionals and got a job… back in cyber.
He’s joined Paladin Capital, an investment firm specialising in cyber companies, which he came across a few times in his old job.
Luckily, GCHQ told Acoba it ‘can see no areas where he would have had access to privileged commercial information that could help Paladin’ and that what he does know about the UK’s cyber security approach is ‘very much a matter of public record’.
Similar observations about the lack of insider knowledge of Martin, who was NCSC chief executive until August and previously head of cyber at GCHQ, were made about his new appointment with internet firm Garrison.
It has contracts worth £320,000 with GCHQ and £100,000 with the Cabinet Office – something also not deemed a barrier to his taking a job there.
Lunch with US Ambassador Woody Johnson proved the wrong place for a class-war diatribe, Labour’s David Lammy found.
The Shadow Justice Secretary blamed schools such as Eton for the class system.
When Mr Johnson said, ‘My son goes to Eton,’ silence fell, according to my mortified source.
And how did she recall the principled frontbencher’s response? He backtracked with: ‘Well, present company excluded…’
Lunch with US Ambassador Woody Johnson (above) proved the wrong place for a class-war diatribe, Labour’s David Lammy found