Lisa Nandy Vows To Make More Public Appointments From Outside London
Lisa Nandy (Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer)
3 min read
Lisa Nandy, the new culture secretary, has vowed to end the “needless party politicisation” of public appointments and bring in an approach that will see “far more people from outside London and the South East” get jobs.
As head of the Labour Government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Nandy is expected to oversee a number of independent public appointments. The Conservatives when in offce were criticised by those who alleged there was inappropriate interference in the hires.
In an exclusive interview with The House magazine, Nandy said: “I want to end the needless party politicisation of these appointments and draw on the widest pool of talent.
“But I also want to make sure that we appoint far more people from outside London and the South East. At the moment, only 30 per cent of appointments that have been made to those public bodies are from outside of London and the South East."
The MP for Wigan added: “There is a wealth of talent and experience out there in the country that we’re just not drawing on.
"And for far too long, too many people in our communities have not been seen themselves, their families, their communities, their heritage and their inheritance reflected in our national story. I think that fed polarisation in this country.”
Nandy said she had told civil servants in her department to bring shortlists to her and to junior ministers with a different emphasis on the kind of candidates she would like to see considered.
“On day one, one of the things that I asked the department to do was to make sure that when they bring shortlists to me and to Chris Bryant and Steph Peacock, who are the amazing ministers in this department, that they’re bringing us the widest possible pool of people with a particular emphasis on making sure that we reach people that we haven’t reached before,” she said.
She also cited Tracey Crouch, the former Conservative minister who chaired a review of English football, as an example of the “good people” with “real experience of having been at the heart of government in this era” who could be used in such roles.
The Tories in government were accused of “flooding” the BBC with “cronies”, particularly after Richard Sharp had to quit as chair following an investigation that concluded he had failed to disclose key information about his relationship with former prime minister Boris Johnson.
The recruitment process for the chair of regulator Ofcom also came under scrutiny as ministers repeatedly tried to offer the job to former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, even after the interview panel decided he did not fulfil the required criteria. Dacre eventually withdrew his application and described the process as an “infelicitous dalliance with the blob”.
When choosing a new director of the British Museum earlier this year, the Guardian reported that No 10 had told trustees on the selection panel to supply former prime minister Rishi Sunak with two names to choose from, rather than informing the government of their final choice so that it could be ratified.
The full interview with Lisa Nandy is in the latest edition of The House magazine.
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