Ministers sidestep 'vanity jobs' ban

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While departments have been ordered to stop recruiting in order to cut spending, ministers are being allowed to appoint dozens of key aides to the public payroll without advertising them.

The disclosure comes in a letter from Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell replying to questions about the use of short-term contracts, which Mr Cameron used to make a string of appointments, including his personal photographer Andrew Parsons.

"The freeze on civil service recruitment is in respect of permanent employment — this is a short-term appointment," wrote Sir Gus. The Standard has learned that scores of new civil servants have been appointed since the election on short-term contracts. The Treasury has appointed 52, the Ministry of Defence 45 and the Cabinet Office 26. The Government says most are providing maternity cover or specialist skills.

Sir Gus was responding to a furore over the hiring of a Tory peer's daughter as the diary secretary of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Naomi Gummer was given the civil service post on a two-year contract by Mr Hunt who is a business associate of her father, Lord Chadlington, who is the brother of former Cabinet minister John Gummer.

Labour MP Kevin Brennan, who received the letter from Sir Gus, said: "If Cameron and his ministers can appoint unnecessary extra staff to the taxpayer's payroll while preaching austerity, it hardly looks as if we are all in it together."