David
Blunkett has been rapped over the knuckles by the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards. Apparently the former Minister ‘forgot’ to register a trip to
South Africa paid for by a private training company.
Blunkett,
as a former Minister in charge of the Department for Work and pensions, was a
big fan of opening up the administration of the welfare service to the private
sector. No wonder. Sheffield-based firm A4e is bidding for a whole raft of
multi-million pound contracts under New Labour’s misnamed welfare reform
programme. And they find Blunkett’s services well worth purchasing.
Members of
the House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration have recommended
that former Ministers should not be able be able to further their private
interests while still an MP. After all the people of Sheffield Brightside did
not elect Blunkett just so he could feather his own nest. Critics brand his
conduct as ‘inappropriate,’ which in this case seems to be a euphemism for
‘corrupt’. Mark Serwotka, head of the civil service union PCS, comments that
there is, “A rapidly revolving door between the government and business that
puts profits before people at the heart of the welfare state.”
Not surprisingly, Blunkett disagrees. Tory
Theresa May got it right when she said, "We need to look closely at
whether such behaviour is acceptable. In opposition Gordon Brown used to try
and make political capital out of ministers leaving to join the private sector.
It appears we are witnessing the slow death of transparency and openness under
Labour."
It is indeed shameful that Labour, which came to power in
1997 partly as a reaction to the rampant corruption of Major’s Tory government,
is spending what may be its last days drowning in its own sleaze.
