Business appointments in full

THE wages of spin have risen to £5.9 million for 84 special advisers, the highest annual figures recorded since Tony Blair came to power in 1997.

Downing Street employs 25 of the publicly paid political appointments, outnumbering members of the Cabinet by two. Opposition parties yesterday renewed their calls for limits on the numbers and influence of special ministerial advisers through a Civil Service Act.

Three of Mr Blair’s advisers are on the top salary level of £100,900 to £136,500. They are believed to include Jonathan Powell, the Chief of Staff, and David Bennett, head of the Policy Directorate and a former executive with McKinsey, the management consultants. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, retains two special advisers, despite losing many of his responsibilities in the Cabinet reshuffle in May, according to a written statement by Mr Blair yesterday.

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has two paid ministerial aides, one unpaid, as well as five members of his Council of Economic Advisers.

There are three special advisers in both the Home and Foreign Office, as well as the Departments for Education, Communities and Local Government, Trade and Industry, and the Chief Whips’ Offices.

In the last year of Sir John Major’s government, the Conservatives employed 38 ministerial aides at a cost of £1.8 million. Last year’s pay bill was £5.5 million for 77 advisers.

The Tories have vowed to slash the number of MPs and ministers by a fifth and place a strict cap on their special advisers. Mr Blair rejected calls for a limit six years ago.

Oliver Heald, the Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary, said: “There is a long-standing precedent for ministers to receive independent advice. But this latest escalation in the number and cost of Labour’s spin doctors within Whitehall is a cause of concern and evidence of the ongoing politicisation of the Civil Service.

“Particularly given the controversy over Labour Party’s fundraising activities in Downing Street, there is an urgent need for a reduction in the number of special advisers and tighter controls on these Labour appointees. There must be a clearer separation between party politics and independent civil servants in Whitehall.”

Norman Baker, the Lib Dem MP, said: “There are widespread concerns about the corrupting influence of special advisers on the neutrality of the Civil Service.”

Three former Downing Street advisers moved almost immediately into senior City roles, a second report showed yesterday. Lord Birt, Mr Blair’s so-called “Blue Skies Thinker” who left in December, accepted the positions of adviser to Terra Firma Capital Partners and the role of chairman of its subsidiary, Waste Recycling.

He also became a partner in Capgemini UK, a consulting form with a number of Government IT contracts. It is thought it may bid to run the proposed national identity card scheme.

Lord Birt was banned for a year from being “personally involved in lobbying ministers or officials on behalf of his new employer”, according to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments annual report.

Professor Sir Michael Barber, who quit as head of Mr Blair’s Delivery Unit a year ago, became expert principal at McKinsey with a year’s ban on lobbying ministers and officials on behalf of the consultants and their clients.

Sir Stephen Wall, adviser to Mr Blair on European matters until June 2004, became chairman of public affairs at Hill and Knowlton, a PR firm, last year.

The report also showed that Nick Raynsford, MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, took up five outside posts after he was not reappointed as Minister for Local and Regional Government last year. His new roles include non-executive directorships of the Notting Hill Housing Trust and Rockpools, a recruitment agency, and chairman of the Fire Protection Council.

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