Labour cronyism row deepens as second top civil service job questioned

Emily Middleton’s appointment to a director general role came after her firm donated £67,000 to Labour Party

A cronyism row engulfing Labour has deepened after a businesswoman whose firm donated £67,000 to the party was handed a top civil service job.
Emily Middleton was appointed a director general in the Department for Science and Technology weeks after the money was declared.
The revelations come after another Labour donor, Ian Corfield, was hired as a senior civil servant by the Treasury.
Senior Tories raised concerns about cronyism within the Government and questioned whether Sue Gray was behind the appointments.
Ms Middleton was a partner at the consultancy firm Public Digital, which made two separate donations to Labour frontbencher Peter Kyle.
According to her LinkedIn, she was “on secondment to the Labour Party advising on digital public services reform” from January to July this year.
Mr Kyle was at the time the shadow science secretary, before taking up the same role in government after Labour won its landslide victory.
His register of interests shows he received two donations from Public Digital of £33,280 each for a “secondee” from the firm covering the same dates.
James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, said the appointment raised concerns about “Labour’s very questionable civil service recruitment practices”.
He suggested that Ms Gray, herself a former civil servant who is now Sir Keir Starmer’s all-powerful chief of staff, may have been behind them.
“Funny how a senior civil servant joins Labour, then a load of Labour people get civil service appointments”, the Tory leadership hopeful remarked.
It was revealed last month that Ms Middleton had been appointed as director general of Digital Centre Design at Mr Kyle’s department.
Director generals are one of the most senior ranks, running large parts of departments, and typically earn between £125,000 and £208,100.
Ms Middleton would have been put through a special process because she was an external candidate and because of her political links to Labour.
Whilst working for Public Digital she was also a policy fellow at Labour Together, the centre-Left think tank with close ties to Sir Keir Starmer.
It comes after Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, was embroiled in a row over the appointment of Mr Corfield to a senior role at the Treasury,
He took up a role as a director of investment at the Exchequer after donating more than £20,000 to Labour, sparking accusations of cronyism.
Those payments included £5,000 that he gave to Ms Reeves in July last year. At the start of this year he became a business adviser to Labour.
It was then reported that the Civil Service Commission, which vets Whitehall appointments, had not been told about the donations before approving him.
Government sources told the BBC that he had been brought in on a short-term contract to help organise an international investment summit in October.
Whitehall’s normal recruitment rules on fair and open competition can be waived but “such appointments by exception are usually short-term”.
A government spokesman said: “While we do not routinely comment on individual staffing appointments, this role was appointed in line with the civil service rules on recruitment.”
Government sources stressed that the donation was not a personal one made by Ms Middleton and that her application for the job has been based on her qualifications.
A spokesman for Public Digital said: “Public Digital wishes Emily the best in her new role.”