Government appointments ‘ unlawful’, campaigners say

CAMPAIGNERS HAVE submitted a legal challenge alleging that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock acted “unlawfully” when appointing key figures to top posts during the coronavirus crisis, it has been reported.

The Observer said that the case had been lodged jointly by the Good Law Project and race equality think- tank the Runnymede Trust.

It said that the judicial review, submitted to the High Court, alleged that three appointments were made without advertising the positions and without the open competition normally required for senior public sector roles.

The case relates to the recruitment of test and trace boss and Tory peer Baroness Dido Harding inset; Kate Bingham, head of the UK’s vaccine taskforce; and Mike Coupe, director of NHS Test and Trace, The Observer added.

Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project, said on social media: “This is our belief, that cronyism – which undermines the public interest, discriminates against those who don’t rub shoulders with Cabinet Ministers, and shuts out those who lack the family fortune to work unpaid – is unlawful.

“And we at @ GoodLawProject mean to prove it in court.”

A No 10 spokesman said: “We do not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

The Good Law Project and Runnymede Trust’s crowding funding page said that Lady Harding

was just “handed the job” as head of the National Institute for Health Protection without any other candidates being considered.

It said that she was not the only one to land a top job this way and that “very often” people who had been recruited had “personal and political connections to the Government”.

It said: It added: “It’s unfair to those who don’t rub shoulders with high- ranking Ministers. And it’s unfair to groups who the data shows are shut out of public life. “Appointing your mates to top jobs isn’t new or the preserve of the Conservative Party: we all remember ‘ Tony’s Cronies’ too.

“But it’s high time we put a stop to it.”