Minister faces calls for sleaze probe over donation

Labour MP John Robertson has written today to the Prime Minister and the Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office, Sir Gus O’Donnell, concerning seven potential breaches of the ministerial code by employment minister Chris Grayling. The possible breaches relate to his involvement in the awarding of new contracts to the DWP’s “Work programme”.

The organisation winning the most contracts was Deloitte Ingeus, who received a maximum seven of the 40 contracts on offer in 18 regions of the UK, one of which was Glasgow at the expense of a local charity, the Wise Group. Deloitte, which owns 50% of the Deloitte Ingeus company, donated over £27,000 in kind to the office of Chris Grayling in October 2009, whilst he was shadow secretary of state for the DWP.

John Robertson has today written to the Prime Minister and Sir Gus O’Donnell about whether Grayling should have been involved in such a decision making process, having received such large donations in kind from one of the main companies bidding for the contracts. You can read the letter below: