THE top civil servant overseeing Andy Burnham’s attempt to end London-centric government is communing from the city to work at No 10 North, it has been revealed.
Sam Lister, who is director general of the “gimmick” Manchester posting, travels from a £2.2 million townhouse in the English capital to the northern city, the Mail on Sunday reports.
The Whitehall mandarin reportedly works from the Cabinet Office in Westminster on Mondays before travelling 200 miles north on Tuesdays before quitting Manchester on Friday evenings to return home.
The taxpayer is on the hook to the tune of £800 per week, equivalent to the annual salary of a new junior doctor, to cover the cost of his travel and meals while away.
It will be read as seriously undermining Burnham’s flagship pledge to devolve power away from London given that Lister is the man tasked with running the Prime Minister’s operations in Manchester.
A source told the Mail Lister, whose LinkedIn profile suggests that he has been based in London for more than 20 years, was undecided about whether he would permanently relocate.
They said: “Sam has only been in the job for three weeks, so there are wider things to think about, which takes time.”
The paper reported that Lister was seen taking a train just before 6.30am on Tuesday, joined by Will Davis, director of devolution and local growth at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Harriet Gordon, deputy director at the Treasury.
While he was seen travelling in standard class on the journey out, he is reported to have paid for an upgrade to standard premium on the return train to London on Friday, leaving Manchester Piccadilly at 5.34pm.
No 10 North has been dogged by accusations of being a gimmick since it was launched by Burnham soon after becoming Prime Minister.
In his own reflections on the launch of the Manchester office, Lister posted on LinkedIn to say that No 10 North was not “simply another government building”, adding: “It is a statement of intent about how government should operate: closer to the places where growth happens; working alongside local leaders rather than at a distance; and organised around delivery rather than institutional boundaries.”
He said: “The '10N' launch was only the beginning. The real test - and the real opportunity - lies in what comes next... We must maintain an agile, scale-up, non-hierarchical mindset, with our local partners shaping our work and always at the forefront of decisions.”
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: “The worst bit about it is the cost and the complete pointlessness of it.”
Tory MP Greg Stafford said: “If anything shows what a farce the idea of No 10 North is it’s this – the taxpayer having to fork out for loads of civil servants going up and down on the train just to feed Andy Burnham’s vanity. It’s ridiculous.”
A Number 10 spokesman said: “No 10 North is central to the Prime Minister’s commitment to spread growth and opportunity across the UK and bring Government closer to the communities it serves.
“The initial team of staff includes people based in the north west, Yorkshire, London and other parts of the UK. Any travel bookings and accommodation expenses are made in accordance with civil service policy.”
