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Nandy reprimanded by Starmer over failings of appointing football regulator chair
Bit of a change of direction here, with some news about the appointment of the chair of Labour’s independent football regulator.
A probe in government has found that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy inadvertently broke the rules when appointing David Kogan to the role.
In a letter to Nandy, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says the error was “unknowing” and he accepts that there was “no intentional or deliberate action on your part”.
But he says the process was “not entirely up to the standard expected”.
Starmer’s letter adds that the report “in no way casts any doubt on the suitability of
Mr Kogan for the important role of chair of the Independent Football Regulator”.
In her letter to the PM, Nandy says: “The commissioner’s conclusions include a finding that I unknowingly breached an aspect of the governance code
on public appointments. I deeply regret this error. I appreciate the perception it could create, but it was not
deliberate and I apologise for it.
“I welcome the clear recognition that I did not know about two donations I received as a leadership candidate in
2020, when I was a backbench opposition MP, and that as soon as I discovered these donations existed, I chose to
declare them and recuse myself from the process.
“I want to assure you that I took robust steps before the process began to check the Electoral Commission and parliamentary register for any donations I had received since I became a member of parliament in 2010, and made
proactive enquiries with former campaign staff. None of these clear steps identified the donations in question.”
According to the report from the Commission for Public Appointments, the breaches were:
- The secretary of state failed to declare and resolve an interest before selecting Kogan as the government’s preferred candidate;
- A potential conflict of interest was not discussed with Mr Kogan at interview;
- The department failed to disclose the political activity of the successful candidate, Kogan, in the appropriate manner.
