By Sammie Jones-
The appointment of Gina Coladangelo to act as an adviser to a man with whom she attended university, and now revealed to have had an active affair developing was a massive conflict of interest that calls for an investigation.
As Matt Hancock pulled thee curtains on his 15 year marriage to his wife Martha Hancock, it was revealed shortly after that Gina, 43, herself ended her 12-year marriage with Oliver Tress after her affair was exposed. The affair exposed the conflict of interest in Coladangelo getting the post in the first instance, anbd the fact there was no proper system of checks and balances to prevent such abuse of position.
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Both Hancock and Coladangelo disgraced their positions in government, thoughtlessly crashing the world of their respective partners, as they did with the British public. The focus of their concern is themselves, not those affected by the decisions they take. Internal criticism by government officials have followed the revelation of the cheating CCTV footage, with many ministers firm in their position that the installment of such a camera potentially was a security breach.
That conclusion is not accurate because the purpose was to expose a hypocrite cheating government minister who was breaking the very rules he was imposing on the rest of the Uk. Hancock’s credibility and job is now gone, but questions remain as to the legitimacy of Coladangelo’s post in government.
Colandagelo’s official role included supporting and advising ministers and the department on strategic issues … horizon scans for emerging issues … sets the overall strategic direction for the department … oversees and monitors performance”. That would in reality have been difficult to ensure when working for a boss with whom a strong chemistry has already been built. Other members of the government may have been unaware of their romantic relationship, though it not unthinkable that many Mps could have been well aware of it.
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The fact the pair were friends from University should have got enough alarm bells ringing that this could not be an appropriate working relationship, especially with no definitive way of investigating the precise nature of their relationship at university. Those who installed the secret CCTV recording were aware of the relationship, there must have been a few others who knew.
Alex Runswick, senior advocacy manager at Transparency International UK, has suggested the process for installing nonexecutive directors in Whitehall “should be regulated to ensure any conflicts of interest are properly managed and to provide public confidence in the probity of these appointments”.
As Ayesha Hazanila of The Evening Standard points out, C”oladangelo was appointed to the board of a government department without any real expertise, and was too close a personal friend of the person she was meant to advise and scrutinize”.
Which is why it so troubling that there is a string of NEDs across government who are Tory donors, peers or former advisers who have been picked and appointed by MPs and paid thousands of pound of tax payers money. These roles are meant to be recruited through “fair and transparent competition”.
The growing evidence of friends, family and associates of MPs who won lucrative government contracts during the pandemic and beyond, and the use of the private email accounts of Mps used to conduct government business which could have been connected to some of these contracts, highlights the disturbing level of corruption among many Mps, who ought to be leading our country.
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