Tory’s Northern Powerhouse chief shunned the North
Tories £40k hiding minister’s few trips out of London
related to events in the North. Mr Wharton was MP for Stockton South but lost his seat in 2017.
Legal expert Dr Paul Bernal, of the University of East Anglia, said the Tories “knew they were likely to lose and still wasted time and money and come out looking even worse”.
The department – now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – said: “We respect the outcome of the tribunal and have released the information.”
Labour said: “What better proof that Conservatives don’t care about rebalancing the economy? This cash could have paid for a nurse and teaching assistant for an entire year.” guilty of “wilful procrastination in order to obstruct” only for officials to appeal against the decision to a tribunal of information rights. There a judge ruled the department must hand over Mr Wharton’s diary. The whole process took 26 months. Diary entries then revealed that between January and April 2016 Mr Wharton rarely left London as part of his ministerial role. Of entries with identifiable locations, 90% of them were in London. Just 28 of them
THE Government spent £40,000 trying to hide how rarely its “Northern Powerhouse minister” visited the North.
A question to the Department for Communities and Local Government asked how often Tory James Wharton left London.
But officials flouted a requirement to respond to the request within 20 working days and only responded four months later by denying the application.
The Information Commissioner’s Office found the Government