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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rowena Mason Whitehall editor

New guidance needed to stop ministers putting friends on Whitehall boards

Matt Hancock, right, handing his aide Gina, right, Coladangelo his coat ahead of a TV appearance
Matt Hancock was found to have appointed his unpaid adviser Gina Coladangelo to the board of the Department of Health and later started an affair with her. Photograph: Tom Nicholson/Reuters

Ministers may be bringing in political “super-spads” through the backdoor by putting them on the boards of Whitehall departments, a leading committee of MPs has found, as it called for an overhaul of appointment rules.

The public administration and constitutional affairs committee, led by the Conservative MP William Wragg, called for new guidance to prevent “personal and political” friends of ministers being installed as non-executive directors of government departments.

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