Angela Rayner has been accused of breaching the ministerial code after civil servants helped the Deputy Prime Minister move house.
Rayner reportedly asked civil servants to help transport furniture and clean the inside of the grace-and-favour Grade I listed Admiralty House flat.
Shadow Minister Paul Holmes submitted a complaint to the director of propriety and ethics at the Cabinet Office and the permanent secretary at Rayner’s department following the alleged ministerial breach.
He claimed that it would be a “clear breach” of the ministerial code if it is correct that civil servants were told to assist Rayner’s move.
Angela Rayner
GETTY
Holmes wrote: “The ministerial code states that ministers are appointed to serve the public and must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise.”
He added: “it also states that holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence their work.
“They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends.
Holmes instead suggested that Rayner should receive a bill for the “estimated costs of civil service time during the move, calculated at private sector rates”.
Admiralty House
PA
The complaint comes after it emerged last month that Rayner had been given the use of the Admiralty House flat.
The Whitehall-facing property was previously used by Winston Churchill between 1911 and 1915 during his stint as Dundee MP and First Lord of the Admiralty under Herbert Henry Asquith.
The building opened in 1788 after being built at the command of Viscount Howe.
Ex-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who died last year at the age of 86, was also based at the flat between 1997 and 2007.
It has also been used by Prime Ministers during No10 refurbishments.
However, the complaint against Rayner brings the number of Secretaries of State who have been reported by the Tories for possible ministerial code breaches to three.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy was reported for the “political nature” of a speech he delivered earlier this month.
The complaint said: “This speech was intentionally drafted to be party-political, and the Foreign Secretary knowingly, in advance, decided to use the occasion to make party political remarks.
“The fact that this is an intentional breach of the code is significant.”
Environment Secretary Steve Reed was also reported to DEFRA’s permanent secretary after being accused of using “not careful or objective” language in his speech.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said that an incorrect version of Reed’s speech had been “uploaded in error” and this has now been amended.
Responding to Holmes’s complaint, aMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “MHCLG provided logistical support to the Deputy Prime Minister’s move into an official residence, with the awareness of the Permanent Secretary.
“Removal and cleaning firms were employed to carry out this move and were paid for personally by the Deputy Prime Minister.”
