MPs’ revolving door to new jobs just got faster

THERE’S a sneaky plot afoot to knacker a watchdog already lacking any bark or bite, I can reveal.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) – known here as the Advisers for Cashing-In and Brazen Avarice – has gained an unhealthy reputation for rubberstamping departing Ministers’ new paydays as they sell their inside knowledge to the private sector. But now the Cabinet Office, which supports the Prime Minister and his Ministers, is reviewing its role.

It’s hard to think of lighter-touch regulation than Acoba’s. Its only weapon is to publish correspondence with Ministers on its website. It can’t order them not to take postGovernment jobs, and concerns over lobbying are usually ignored.

Worse, former Ministers often wave Acoba letters as proof that the new job, however dubious, was officially signed off. Acoba’s defenders claim its published letters shine a light on the revolving door between Government and business. But it doesn’t always get that right.

Take, for example, Nikki Da Costa, a former lobbyist for the outsourcing giant Serco who became director of legislative affairs in Downing Street. After informing Acoba before taking a job with lobbyists Cicero in early 2019, the regulator spelt out its concerns in a letter… that it forgot to publish because of staffing issues. By the time the error was discovered, Da Costa had returned to her old job in Downing Street. The Cabinet Office – the same gang that runs a blacklist of journalists making ‘awkward’ Freedom of Information requests across Government – is not about to make Acoba more effective.

Reading the small print, I notice one of the aims of the review is to see whether a ‘lighter-touch regime is appropriate’ for certain appointments. Meanwhile, the revolving door keeps spinning.