Free tickets for gravy train as the ministers queue up to cash in

HUNDREDS of ministers and officials have cashed in on their time in office by picking up lucrative jobs in the private sector.

Yet the Whitehall committee meant to scrutinise post-government appointments has a reputation for toothlessness. It nodded through George Osborne’s job at BlackRock and has not knocked back a single minister or civil servant in at least eight years.

Last year, the Mail revealed two-thirds of the ministers and officials are working in the very sectors they used to regulate while in government.

Those taking advantage include Mr Osborne’s number two in the Coalition, Lib Dem former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander. He is now in China as vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Despite rules against the use of insider information, these former public servants are pocketing jackpot wages from private firms.

Records kept by the official appointments watchdog, Acoba, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, show that since 200 it has dealt with 371 individuals. Of these, 247, took a job in the same sector. Not one application for clearance was turned down.

Not all those who benefit from Acoba’s lax regime are former ministers. In the Treasury, 17 of the 21 civil servants who applied for clearance left for jobs in the banking or business worlds. Of 41 from the MoD, 32 were poached by arms firms or other defence-related companies, the Mail’s dossier shows.

At the time, Bernard Jenkin, who chairs the Commons public affairs committee, demanded a complete revamp, saying: ‘Acoba has no regulatory powers and is frequently ignored.’

Acoba chairman Baroness Browning told MPs last year that her committee was worried about the trend towards ex-ministers seeking employment in related sectors. She said the watchdog had neither ‘the resources nor the remit’ to make the changes required.

Paul Flynn, a Labour MP on the Commons public administration committee, said: ‘It’s a deep-seated and growing scandal, where MPs are allowed to prostitute their insider knowledge to the highest bidder.’

‘A deep-seated and growing scandal’