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Mayor's adviser will work for free after legal row over appointment
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor16.05.08
The Mayor's new planning adviser will not be paid a salary following a row over the legality of his appointment, it emerged today.
Sir Simon Milton, who is leader of Westminster City Council, came under fire from Labour after the Standard revealed today that there was a legal "grey area" surrounding his status.
Within hours of our story, City Hall announced that he would not receive a penny from the taxpayer because he was also a sitting councillor.
The law forbids serving councillors from being employed in senior posts in local government, including the Mayor's 12 personal staff.
Sir Simon faced criticism because it appeared that he would be hired as a consultant to get around the law.
It is understood that lawyers in City Hall were scrambling to draft a contract for him that would not be open to judicial review.
A spokesman for the Greater London Authority said: "Sir Simon Milton's role is that of an unpaid adviser to the Mayor. He will provide informed advice on planning as and when required to enable the Mayor to immediately get on with the job of leading London."
Sir Simon is due to step aside as Westminster leader next month, but wants to remain as a councillor and keep his post as chairman of the Local Government Association.
New Deputy Mayor for government relations, Ian Clement, decided to step down immediately as a councillor in Bexley before taking up his new post.
Labour group leader Len Duvall wrote this week to GLA chief executive Anthony Mayer to clarify the legality of all the Mayor's recent appointments.
He said: "They have been caught out and I'm glad that common sense has prevailed. The taxpayer of London has just been saved possibly more than £100,000 in consultancy fees that could have gone to Sir Simon."
There are still question-marks surrounding the status of Kit Malthouse, the new Deputy Mayor for policing. He is an Assembly member and a member of the Mayor's executive team, an unprecedented situation at City Hall.
Local government expert Tony Travers, director of the London Group at the London School of Economics, said there was little clarity over some of the appointments. He said: "The fact is that the law as it stands does not cover the current situation, where the Mayor wants to hire a councillor as a consultant and appoint as an executive a member of the Assembly."
The Greater London Authority Act 1999, which was amended last year, only allows the Mayor to directly appoint 12 people to his staff.
All of these are politically restricted posts and therefore cannot be taken up by sitting councillors. Section 67 of the Act states he can hire two political advisers. A further 10 staff can be hired but they have to be on merit and an independent person sits in on their interview.
The act makes clear that any other staff would have to be hired by the chief executive of the GLA, not the Mayor. The law is vague and City Hall lawyers will need to tread carefully in ensuring by what authority each appointment is made.
A spokesman for Boris Johnson dismissed any suggestion that the Mayor had broken his manifesto pledge on transparency.
"All legal requirements have been followed with our appointments. However, with some of the appointments, such as the senior planning adviser, the law essentially doesn't capture some of those roles," he said.
"This is a grey area and we are trying to come up with new protocols."
He added that the salaries and details of terms and conditions will be made available to the London Assembly "in the near future", probably early next week.
Reader views (12)
Edward Bellamy - he didn't choose to work for free, - it was after a row that his consultancy fees were deemed not legal and was left with no other option. The article states that this row saved the tax payer more than 100K
- Silvia Murray, London UK
Give the man a chance to get to know his way around! Going into any new job takes a bit of time to get settled in. Nothing could be worse than the 'cronyism', jobs for his mates and profligate spending on dreadful badly judged schemes, frivolous endeavours. Of course Len Duvall and his mates will try to stick the knife in wherever they can now Boris is Mayor. Typical sour grapes from the Left!
- Benita Browne, Marlborough, UK
Hardly 'snouts in the trough'; this guy's going to work for free!
I do worry though that in the rush to make appointments and 'get things underway' Boris will make mistakes which may look like 'cronyism' in the future even if errors were completely innocent. Transparency should come before expediency.
- Edward Bellamy, Winchester, UK
I, for one, want Boris to be able to choose the people he considers to be the best for the jobs at hand. If all of this red tape ends up resulting in us having to employ someone like Lee Jasper, who are the real losers, eh!
- St, London
..."in the near future", eh? Whatever happened to Boris's repeated pledge during the election campaign that all the GLA's expenditure would be on their web site "on day one" of his administration?
- Paul, London, UK
That honeymoon period didn't last long, did it!
Disgruntled anti-Tory critique is to be expected, sour grapes and all that, but how about the rest giving the guy a chance to enact what he promised. "Instant gratification" just doesn't happen in the politics game.
- Rogan, DFW Texas
Good lord - the assembly actually doing something. Good - that is what they are there for. Expect the Assembly to do what it should have done for the past 8 years - scrutinise the Mayor - and not leave it up to the papers!
- Lara, London
...and of course, as a former member of the London Assembly, I had it drummed into me endlessly that the role of the Assembly Members is to 'hold the Mayor to account'...how can Assembly Members hold the Mayor to account if they are elevated to this type of 'deputy mayor' executive position as Kit Malthouse is? The 'real' Deputy Mayor is a different matter as the position is defined in terms of the Mayor/Assembly relationship. The most infuriating thing about all this though is the new legal complexities. My group on the Assembly opposed the changes to the GLA Act last year as confusing and unworkable and we alone specifically said that the alterations made it more not less likely that conflicts of interest would occur, and that staffing was now even more a twilight world. Please Mayor, stop for a moment and take a little advice and counsel, pause and think and listen...you have four years ahead.
- Damian Hockney, London, UK
More Tory cronies snouts in the trough. Just like Boris, they're not satisfied with one job! Same old, same old, Tories.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa. Spain
Sour Grapes from Zanulab then...
- Bexie, Ramsgate, UK
It is important for the Mayor to hire the people he thinks are best for the job, rather than being tied up in red tape and "transparency" over job advertising. In fact, this appears to be the remnants of Labour doing what it does best i.e. stifling enterprise and initiative.
- Ken, Bexleyheath, UK
So Boris has replaced cronyism with, er, cronyism.
- Colin, Barking Essex
