It really is j obs, j obs, j obs … as ex-Ministers cash in
IN A boost to Rishi Sunak’s ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ drive, Conservative ex-Cabinet Ministers Amber Rudd and Nicky Morgan have amassed six new jobs between them alone.
In Rudd’s case, she has a balanced portfolio, nicely split between work linked to her time as Home Secretary and her earlier stint as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
All the jobs were approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), the watchdog that scrutinises Ministers’ lives after government but which appears to have lost all ability to say ‘No’.
Rudd’s remunerated gigs include steering the ‘strategic direction’ of Pool Re, insurers specialising in terrorism and involved in ‘multi-millionpound projects’ with the Home Office.
Acoba raised concerns that 57-year-old Rudd’s previous access to privileged information presented ‘inherent risks’ of giving Pool Re an ‘unfair advantage’ – but it gave her the green light anyway.
It also waved through her job with Darktrace, a cyber security company – a policy area she had responsibility for in the Home Office.
All she’s had to do is promise not to lobby or draw on her ministerial knowledge.
Meanwhile, her other former department (Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) helpfully told Acoba it ‘cannot think of any companies you [Rudd] should not advise’. Which makes me think she is missing a trick by joining the green start-up Pinwheel – surely a million-pound contract with BP beckons?
Baroness Morgan, 48, has returned to the corporate law firm she worked in before politics. The peer, who as Culture Secretary oversaw the Government’s digital policy, told Acoba she will advise Travers Smith LLP on ‘tech legal practice’.
LUNCH with US Ambassador Woody Johnson proved the wrong place for a class-war diatribe, Labour’s David Lammy found. The Shadow Justice Secretary blamed schools such as Eton for the class system. When Mr Johnson said, ‘My son goes to Eton,’ silence fell, according to my mortified source. And how did she recall the principled frontbencher’s response? He backtracked with: ‘Well, present company excluded…’