Keir Starmer rebuked over role in football regulator appointment

Sir Keir Starmer has been rebuffed by his own ethics adviser over his role in appointing Labour donor David Kogan as England’s new football watchdog.

Sir Laurie Magnus told the prime minister it was “regrettable” he had signed off the appointment earlier this year, given Mr Kogan had donated to his 2020 campaign for the Labour leadership.

Sir Keir has now apologised, admitting his involvement had been an “unfortunate error” and revealing he later stood back from the process.

But the Conservatives said the prime minister had been “caught offside” after a “serious lapse of judgement”.

Sports rights executive Mr Kogan was announced as the government’s preferred candidate for the job in April by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, whose department is responsible for regulating sport.

But she stepped back from the appointment process the following month, after he revealed to MPs that he had given “very small sums” to her 2020 Labour leadership campaign, as well as that of the now prime minister.

Mr Kogan’s appointment to the £130,000-a-year role for a five-year term was confirmed by the sports department last month.

Last week, Nandy was found to have “unknowingly” breached public appointment rules by not checking beforehand whether he had donated, and taking steps to mitigate the risk of a perceived conflict of interest.

In a report, the commissioner for public appointments, Sir William Shawcross, revealed Mr Kogan had made two donations of £1,450 each to Nandy’s campaign, one personally and one through his company.

They were part of total donations worth £33,410 to Labour and the party’s candidates in the five years prior to his appointment, the commissioner said.

The commissioner did not specify how much money Mr Kogan donated to Sir Keir’s 2020 campaign. Electoral transparency records show he separately donated £2,500 to Sir Keir’s local Labour branch in May last year.

Nandy apologised last week, saying she was unaware at the time that Mr Kogan had given money to her campaign, and she had declared the donations “as soon as I discovered” they had taken place.

That prompted the Conservatives to ask Sir Laurie to investigate the prime minister’s involvement, with the party arguing he had “exactly the same conflict of interest” as Nandy.

In a letter to his adviser on Wednesday, Sir Keir said he had “confirmed that I was supportive” of Mr Kogan’s appointment after receiving a note about Nandy’s decision to nominate him for the job in April.

“In retrospect, it would have been better if I had not been given the note or confirmed that I was content with the appointment,” he wrote.

“This was an unfortunate error for which I express my sincere regret.”

Sir Keir also revealed that he had also himself stood back from the appointments process in June, after discussing Mr Kogan’s donations to him with Sir Laurie.

The prime minister added that he had now ordered his officials to carry out an internal review into “the processes by which recusals are managed in No 10”.

On Wednesday, Conservative shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said the episode was “yet more scandal right at the heart” of the Labour government.

“Keir Starmer himself has been caught offside signing off on the appointment of a major donor to a powerful new role,” he added.

“This isn’t just sloppy; it’s a serious lapse of judgement from a man who promised integrity and transparency”.

Mr Kogan was longlisted for the role under the previous Conservative government but the process was paused after last year’s general election was called, according to Sir William’s report.

The commissioner added that Mr Kogan withdrew his application in November last year, before eventually being re-selected for the role as an external candidate.

Mr Kogan has previously said he “cooperated fully” with the investigation by the commissioner for public appointments.

“As the commissioner states, my suitability for the role has never been in question, and at no point was I aware of any deviation from best practice,” he added.