Treasury breaks silence over Labour donor hire

If it’s not the freebie fiasco dogging Sir Keir’s Labour party, it’s the cronyism row. Back in August, the curious case of Ian Corfield hit the news after it transpired that the banker had donated more than £20,000 to Labour before bagging a job as a director of investment at the Treasury. Politico revealed the donor’s generous payments were not, in fact, flagged to the civil service watchdog before his appointment was approved, while ‘cash for jobs’ concerns grew after it emerged that Corfield had not been appointed to the role via the ‘open competition’ route. And now the Treasury has broken its silence on Corfield’s appointment with a rather strange defence…

Mr S can reveal the Exchequer has suggested it didn’t have, er, much other option than to appoint Corfield to the top civil service job in the way it did. In its response to a written question by Tory MP John Glen, the Treasury has insisted it needed to appoint Corfield for ‘urgent work’ that did not allow for a ‘full recruitment process’ to be carried out, noting:

Ian Corfield was appointed via Exception to the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.