Tories Escalate Pressure Over Football Regulator Appointment
The Conservative Party has formally demanded a further investigation into Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy regarding her failure to disclose political donations from David Kogan, who was recently appointed chair of the new Independent Football Regulator.
This development follows a ruling by Sir William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, who found on Thursday that the government's October appointment of Mr Kogan breached the public appointments code on three separate counts.
Multiple Breaches of Appointment Code Identified
Sir William's report highlighted that Mr Kogan had donated to both Sir Keir Starmer's and Ms Nandy's leadership campaigns, information which was not properly disclosed during the appointment process.
The investigation revealed three specific failures: Ms Nandy did not disclose his £2,900 donation to her 2020 leadership campaign, the potential conflict of interest arising from this donation was not discussed with Mr Kogan during his interview, and his broader links to the Labour Party were not revealed to the appointments panel.
Conservative Party chair Kevin Hollinrake detailed in his letter to Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, that there were actually two donations of £1,450 each in 2020 to Ms Nandy's campaign - one from Mr Kogan personally and another from David Kogan Ltd, which he controls.
Donations 'Deliberately Designed to Conceal' Claims
Mr Hollinrake pointed out that each donation fell just below the £1,500 declaration threshold, suggesting this "appears deliberately designed to conceal the total from the public".
The controversy extends beyond Ms Nandy, with Conservatives also writing to Sir Laurie Magnus, the prime minister's ethics watchdog, calling for scrutiny of Sir Keir Starmer's acceptance of donations from Mr Kogan during the 2020 leadership race and a £2,500 donation to the PM's constituency Labour Party before last year's election.
Mr Kogan, a former broadcasting executive, was not on the original shortlist for the football regulator role and has significant Labour connections, having served as a director of LabourList and authored two books about the party.
Nandy's Defence and Political Fallout
Speaking on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Nandy defended her actions, stating her department had disclosed relevant information "on a number of occasions" and that she was unaware of the specific donation to her campaign as donations were handled separately during leadership hustings.
She explained that neither she nor Mr Kogan recalled the donation at the time, but once discovered, she "put that information into the public domain and recused myself from the process".
The Culture Secretary attributed the oversight to a failure to "add a line to a particular press release about David Kogan having donated previously to the Labour Party" and emphasised that Mr Kogan was originally approached by the previous Conservative government.
Despite Sir Keir Starmer reprimanding Ms Nandy by stating "the process followed was not entirely up to the standard expected", he maintained she had "acted in good faith".
Mr Kogan has responded to the findings by stating he had never been "aware of any deviation from best practice" in the appointment process and could "now draw a line under the process".
