MPs blast watchdog which let George Osborne bag £200k job months after being fired as Chancellor
The ex-minister denies any conflict of interest in new position at investment giant BlackRock - where his pay is likely to reach £1million
“FAWNING” Whitehall officials were hit with a furious backlash for giving George Osborne clearance to pick up a £200,000 job at one of the world’s biggest pension giants.
Senior MPs from across the Commons demanded a clampdown on the Whitehall “revolving door” that allows ex-Ministers to “prostitute themselves to the highest bidder.”
The fury came as Mr Osborne faced fresh questions over his job with BlackRock as we reveal the firm launched specific pension schemes as a “direct response” to a speech he made as Chancellor.
He was given permission by a “pussycat” Whitehall watchdog to take the job just nine months after delivering his last Budget.
Last night the powerful Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee were poised to release a devastating report into Cabinet Office officials who have failed to block a single ex-minister’s lucrative new job in eight years.
More than 370 jobs by senior politicians have been rubber stamped by ACOBA - the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments - prompting committee boss Bernard Jenkin to conclude the “system is inadequate”.
The senior Tory MP added: “I don’t think the existing system provides much protection to the individuals or the integrity of what is known as the revolving door.”
Mr Jenkin is expected to release his damning report within days as fellow MPs said the current set up must be scrapped.
Labour’s Paul Flynn branded ACOBA “a useless ornament on the body politic” that allows ex-ministers “to prostitute their contacts and knowledge to the highest bidder.”
The veteran MP let rip in evidence to a separate Commons probe into whether the MP’s rule book is strict enough.
He went on: “it is not a watchdog; it’s a fawning pussycat without teeth or claws.”
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Last night Ukip MP Douglas Carswell hit out at the “committee of grandees giving other grandees permission to cash in on their contacts.”
He added: “It’s a problem that has been brewing for years” and called for all scrutiny of ex-Ministers to be brought under the authority of Parliament.
Meanwhile Mr Osborne’s claims that there is no conflict of interest in his new role at Blackrock was put under further strain last night.
In 2014 the then Chancellor announced he was to “remove all remaining tax restrictions on how pensioners have access to their pension pots.”
Within months Blackrock had launched “a new range of target-date funds for those saving towards retirement” that they branded a “leap forward”.
They claimed this was their “first direct response to pensions reforms unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne”.
Paul Bucksey, Head of UK Defined Contribution at BlackRock, said in April 2015: “The new pensions freedoms have broken the shackles of traditional annuities and we think this new service is a leap forward for our members.”
Last night Mr Osborne’s spokesman said the Whitehall watchdog explicitly say in their letter clearing him for the job, that “none of the decisions from your time in office were specific to BlackRock.”