DAY THEY TRIED TO BURY BAD NEWS
Ministers rush out over 400 announcements in ‘shockingly cynical’ ploy
MINISTERS were last night accused of a ‘shockingly cynical’ bid to bury bad news after releasing a blizzard of embarrassing announcements just before the Christmas break.
More than 400 were made in a single day as ministers tried to hide U-turns, tax rises and awkward reports.
With media attention focused on David Cameron’s bid to save his EU renegotiation, Government spin doctors quietly slipped out the announcements, some of which had been awaiting publication for months.
It echoed the tactics of notorious Labour spin doctor Jo Moore, who called the 9/11 attacks a ‘good day’ to bury bad news. On a shaming day for the Government, it emerged:
The Home Office has lost track of 10,000 asylum seekers.
Ministers confirmed town halls will be allowed to increase council tax by an inflation-busting four per cent a year.
More than 300 quango chiefs and Whitehall mandarins earn more than the Prime Minister’s £150,000 salary, including controversial Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood – who pocketed a £5,000 pay rise.
An official report found that three-quarters of those affected by the so-called bedroom tax have reduced spending on food.
Mr Cameron has abandoned a pledge to cut the number of spin doctors.
The Muslim Brotherhood group will not be banned in the UK, despite an official report warning it may be a gateway to extremism.
Ministers have given approval for controversial fracking operations in 159 new areas.
Environmental campaigners were also angered as ministers announced that subsidies for solar panels would be slashed by 64 per cent. The revelations were among 36 written statements released by ministers and more than 400 government announcements – roughly three times the number made on a typical day. The timing of the announcements, on the final sitting day of the Commons this year, means that most will never be scrutinised fully by MPs.
And the sheer volume meant that the individual announcements did not receive the level of media scrutiny they would normally expect.
Any one of them might have led the news agenda on a normal day, but the bulk release meant that several of the revelations were not reported at all by the BBC.
Information about fat cat pay and special advisers was released among hundreds of pages of documents published by the Cabinet Office under the nondescript heading ‘transparency update’.
The documents also detail ministerial interests, meetings and travel – including a bizarre revelation that government cars are routinely used to ferry documents to ministers’ homes.
The confirmation that local authorities have been given the green light to increase council tax by four per cent a year will cause anger as it will see average band D bills rise by £ 320 by 2020. In 2010, Mr Cameron pledged to lead ‘ the most transparent government ever’.
But Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said yesterday’s tactics suggested ministers had abandoned any pretence to welcome scrutiny.
He said: ‘The Government has released dozens of announcements on the final day of Parliament, shortly before the Christmas break, in a deliberate attempt to avoid proper scrutiny of the information and proposals they contain.
‘It is a shockingly cynical move.’ Mr Watson will today go on the offensive over Government plans that could further curb the public’s right to know by clamping down on freedom of information laws.
He will accuse Mr Cameron of wanting to ‘govern from the gloom’, and urge him to drop the ‘sinister’ review of the Freedom of Information Act.
The practice of releasing a string of statements on the last day of a parliamentary sitting in order to limit scrutiny is not entirely new. In Whitehall it is known as ‘taking out the trash’. But Westminster
‘Attempt to avoid proper scrutiny’
observers yesterday could not recall it ever being deployed so fragrantly in the past.
Downing Street claimed the rash of announcements was simply a coincidence. Government sources also insist that ministers release more information on meetings with lobbyists than their predecessors.
But some of yesterday’s controversial announcements are thought to have been sitting on the shelf for months.
The report into the Muslim Brotherhood, for example, is said to have been ready for release since March. Publication was delayed because of concerns it that would embarrass Gulf allies who have already banned the group.
Number 10 defended its tactics yesterday. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: ‘This is a government with a busy agenda and we are getting on with delivering it.’
Another source denied the move was designed to limit coverage of bad news, adding: ‘It is quite normal to have a series of announcements at the end of a parliamentary session. They seem to be getting plenty of attention.’