Baroness Brazen’s £415,000 bosom buddy
Owzat! Commonwealth chief is all smiles... with the peer she pays to review her performance! SO HERE WE ARE AT LORD’S ...AND ON A JOLLY... AND A CLOSE CALL AT (THE) LORDS
EARLIER this month, Baroness Scotland of Asthal posted a revealing picture of herself and a close friend on her Twitter account. They were enjoying the England-Pakistan Test match at Lord’s on what Baroness Scotland – the new Secretary-General of the Commonwealth – called a ‘stunningly beautiful day for cricket’.
Then, as now, the Labour peer described as ‘brazen’ by an MP faced huge controversy over the way she has conducted herself during her first few months in office.
What was remarkable about the picture was that the man at her side, with the hallowed turf of Lord’s stretching behind them, was Lord Patel of Bradford, who just happens to be leading the supposedly ‘independent’ efficiency review of her department – and earning a fortune in the process.
The Mail on Sunday revealed earlier this month that Lord Patel’s company KYA Global was handed contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to conduct a review of the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat and oversee a ‘transition team’ of consultants and lawyers designed to reform the international body.
But the arrangement has been criticised by MPs as he and Baroness Scotland are old friends. Both ennobled by Tony Blair’s government, the pair have appeared together publicly on numerous occasions over the last few years – from a five-day Bahrain junket, to a peace festival in Macedonia, to parties at the House of Lords.
In private speeches to staff, Baroness Scotland has even playfully described Lord Patel as her ‘partner in crime’. Little wonder, then, that their friendship has led political observers to question just how independent Lord Patel’s work will be.
Since becoming the political head of the Commonwealth of 53 nations, Baroness Scotland has loudly championed global transparency and spoken out against corruption. But amid claims that she has hired cronies in top jobs, her own Secretariat suddenly seems less than transparent.
Now we can disclose that the Commonwealth, a staunch advocate of open governance, appears to be suppressing details of Lord Patel’s contract and other expenditure. Normally published every three months, the figures for the international body’s spending have not appeared since Baroness Scotland took over in April.
Leaked documents show that even though Scotland’s tenure as Secretary-General is only four months old, Lord Patel has already pocketed around £415,000 in consultancy fees. And as we have previously revealed, Scotland bypassed the normal tendering process to hire him.
All this has caused consternation among her staff, who, following leaks to this newspaper, are now caught up in an internal investigation.
They have been warned that the Secretariat – or civil service, which runs the Commonwealth – ‘is able to check and monitor official electronic communications and equipment where there are grounds to suspect serious misuse’. Despite the sinister threat, an insider told us: ‘On what basis was Patel’s experience chosen over expertise from other Commonwealth countries?
‘The process was not open to Commonwealth members and that is key. Scotland independently decided her friend was the best talent of the member states to do such a review. This is not how we conduct ethical and transparent business.’
Staff were also upset by Baroness Scotland’s plans to host an exclusive garden party for celebrities and dignitaries after taking office in April. According to insiders, she sent out gold-embossed invitations to the ‘grand celebration’ – but left out most of her staff. Instead, they and their families were invited by email to a party the following day.
But after a series of complaints, Scotland capitulated and she hastily invited Secretariat staff – without their families – to her exclusive event, rectifying what she called a ‘misunderstanding’.
If some staff remain unhappy, she can always rely on the unswerving support of Blair’s former PR man Matthew Doyle and Joe Phelan from City lobbyists Weber Shandwick. Each are being paid £16,000 a month. But by far her closest ally is Lord Patel and their mutual admiration seems boundless.
Last November, Scotland expressed hope that her fellow Labour peer would be named ‘man of they year’ at a business awards ceremony. ‘He deserves it if anyone does,’ she told her Twitter followers. Elsewhere on social media, she has praised his ‘kindness, wisdom and skill’.
In return, Lord Patel has acted as a Twitter cheerleader for his friend.
The picture from Lord’s cricket ground was tweeted on July 16. But what may have appeared to be two days of fun for the Baroness, no doubt enjoying some VIP hospitality, was of course an important work outing. And, lest her Twitter followers get the wrong idea, Lady Scotland was quick to reassure them in a tweet that the two cricket fans were in fact ‘planning for the creation of the Commonwealth Community Cricketing Cup for under-19s’.
Before taking up his new role with the Commonwealth, Lord Patel, a former ambulance man and social worker, was chairman of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. His company, KYA Global Ltd, faced being struck off the Com- panies Registrar three years ago because it appeared inactive.
His work with Lady Scotland comes at a troubling time for the Commonwealth. It has a £6.7million hole in its pension fund and a leaked Secretariat document warned ‘there may be a need for staff redundancies’.
Meanwhile, Scotland insists she has ‘hit the ground running’ since taking office and has ‘set out an ambitious agenda’.
But she has been criticised for lavishing a fortune on her grace-and-- favour Mayfair residence, even ordering a designer makeover of her personal bathroom, according to leaked reports.
She brought in interior designer-to-the-stars Nicky Haslam and a ‘ladies’ powder room’ and an ‘extremely expensive’ chandelier were added to the plans. Dulux paint was replaced by luxury brands such as Farrow & Ball – adding £33,000 in paint alone to the costs. Last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Baroness Scotland was accused by a
critic of securing the job of Secretary-General through an ‘utterly corrupt process’.
It was claimed she tried to win support from Commonwealth leaders with offers of honours and charitable donations from a Catholic order of which she was a prominent member and whose leader in Britain is her ‘dear friend’ Anthony Bailey. She has denied the claims and any wrongdoing.
During her campaign to become Secretary-General, she publicly denounced thousands of islanders with a deeply insulting Caribbean ‘curse’ at a ceremony where a school was named after her in Dominica.
Addressing an audience in Creole, widely spoken on the island, she said critics of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit should ‘ sousay sel’ or ‘suck salt’. The expression is recognised across the Caribbean as a ‘vile condemnation’ to pain and hardship.
Ten days ago, while speaking about her work to the House of Lords Select Committee on International Relations she appeared to put her foot in it again – when she left her fellow peers ‘reeling’ after likening Brexit to an amputation.
She said: ‘Does the Commonwealth feel sad that it has had one of its legs amputated and now has a prosthesis? Yes. Can you really run fast with a prosthesis? We will have to.’
At this point, committee member Lord Grocott said: ‘I am rather reeling at the comparison – legs being amputated and so on. Do you think talking about amputation may not be the most constructive way?’
Baroness Scotland conceded she was ‘probably being rather florid as to how some people saw it’.
Nevertheless, Scotland gave a good impression. But then no one asked her about the controversies that have beset her administration.
Last night the Commonwealth Secretariat declined to comment. But previously it has said: ‘The Secretary-General was given a clear message, from both inside and outside the organisation, that change was required and time is of the essence.
‘KYA Global was engaged so that Professor Lord Patel and his team could undertake a swift and comprehensive review which would engage all members of staff and craft a way forward.
‘Professor Lord Patel has extensive experience of delivering programmes of change in both the public and private sector and he is clearly well-qualified for this project.’
Lord Patel lawyers have previously stressed he was appointed ‘in line with proper procedures’ with the assent of the Commonwealth’s Board of Governors.