Clegg under fire after taking top job at Facebook
FORMER deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg was under fire last night after joining social media giants Facebook in a reported £4million-a-year deal.
The ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats will be vice-president of global affairs and communications.
Facebook has been under intense scrutiny for, among other things, alleged election meddling following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
The data firm harvested the personal data of millions of people’s Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political purposes.
Sir Nick, 51, formed a coalition government with David Cameron’s Conservatives in 2010. But his stock plummeted over his U-turn on university tuition fees and he lost his Sheffield Hallam seat to Labour’s Jared O’Mara at the 2017 election.
Now Sir Nick has been criticised for accepting a role with the media giant.
Sources in Silicon Valley said the deal could be worth up to £4million to Mr Clegg, including share options.
Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s shadow minister for the cabinet office, said Sir Nick’s new job was “a damning indictment of the sorry state of our country’s politics”.
He added: “When digital giants such as Facebook are rightly coming under public scrutiny, our former deputy prime minister has been hired to lobby on their behalf.
“Labour is committed to slamming shut the revolving door between politics and big business, which for too long has corroded public trust in politics.”
The firm already has links to the Lib Dems, with Richard Allan, its public policy chief for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a peer for the party.
In 2016, Sir Nick said of the social media giant: “I find the messianic Californian new-worldy, touchy-feely culture of Facebook a little grating.”
Sir Nick’s appointment comes as Facebook founder and chairman Mark Zuckerberg seeks to repair the company’s reputation in the face of rows over transparency and “fake news” on their platform.
Last week, they vowed to make political advertising more transparent while being probed over the role of paid-for adverts in elections.
It is also facing a potential £1.2billion fine for a data breach that allowed hackers to access the personal information of 30 million users.
Yesterday, Sir Nick said the move was “an exciting new adventure” and leaving the UK before Brexit would be “a wrench”. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said Sir Nick was “a thoughtful and gifted leader”.