BORIS Johnson has appointed a fellow Bullingdon Club member to a role advising him on ethical standards in public life.
Ewan Fergusson can be seen as part of the infamous picture from 1987 that includes former prime minister David Cameron (second from top left) and current Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The Bullingdon Club was a notorious elite dining society at Oxford University.
Johnson has appointed his university friend, now a lawyer, to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which recently carried out a review of lobbying laws after the Greensill scandal spurned by Cameron asking senior ministers for help with Covid funds.
READ MORE: 'I broke no rules': David Cameron speaks on lobbying scandal after weeks of silence
The UK Government insists that the Prime Minister’s decision to give Ewen Fergusson a seat on the committee was an “open and fair competition”.
But Labour has criticised the appointment of the City lawyer, citing it as an example of “Conservative cronyism”.
Fergusson has spent most of his career at international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills and is a non-magistrate member of the Lord Chancellor’s advisory committee for south-east England, according to his official government biography.
The appointment, made yesterday, will see Fergusson take up one of the four independent posts on the along with Oxford politics academic Professor Gillian Peele, on the committee currently chaired by Lord Evans, the former head of MI5.
The committee has no formal powers and is only advisory.
Fergusson and Prof Peele’s five-year terms start next month and they will be able to claim £240 for each day they work on committee business and for expenses incurred.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner (below) has called for all correspondence with No 10 relating to Fergusson’s appointment to the advisory committee to be published.
READ MORE: Scandal-hit Tory regime stumbles on regardless of sleaze
“This is more of the same Conservative cronyism. This Prime Minister does not even care to hide it,” said the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
“The Government must publish all the correspondence between the Cabinet Office, the panel and Downing Street relating to this appointment.
“If it does not, it will confirm the suspicion that they think there is one rule for them and another for everyone else.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Mr Fergusson applied through open and fair competition, following the Governance Code for Public Appointments.
“His application was carefully considered on its merits by the Advisory Assessment Panel, which interviewed him and found that he was appointable.”
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