A former Tory deputy prime minister who was defeated at the general election has since applied for a senior Labour Treasury role, The Telegraph can reveal.
Thérèse Coffey, who lost her Suffolk Coastal seat last month, tried to become the UK director at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD).
The position is considered a director-level role at the Treasury and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, ultimately decides who is appointed.
It comes with a £183,400 annual salary, roughly double an MP’s wage. The Treasury oversaw the application process, in which Ms Coffey was not successful.
Ms Coffey, who was deputy prime minister and health secretary under Liz Truss, told The Telegraph: “It was an interesting role. I thought I would apply given my experience in government on international work. I have dealt with these sorts of banks before.”
Ms Coffey was one of the most trusted political allies of Ms Truss, whose premiership has been criticised by Ms Reeves and Labour ministers.
She was at the top of government when the misfiring mini-Budget was announced, which forced a Bank of England intervention as interest rates soared to protect pension funds.
Ms Reeves has attempted to define her chancellorship against what she sees as the recklessness of Ms Truss, including by strengthening the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Ms Coffey has held other cabinet roles. She was the work and pensions secretary under Boris Johnson for three years and the environment secretary under Rishi Sunak.
During the environment brief she was involved with giving funding to development banks, which was a potentially relevant experience for the EBRD position.
She also spent time in the corporate world working on mergers and acquisitions before her political career.
‘Representing the UK’
The EBRD was created in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed to promote market economies in eastern Europe. It is a development bank that gives loans to companies.
Some 73 countries, including the UK, effectively own the bank and fund it. The Government has contributed more than £200 million since its creation.
The bank has a board of governors, made up of senior representatives from the governments of the countries that fund it, usually the finance ministers. Ms Reeves holds the UK role.
There is also a board of directors that plays a more active part in the bank’s work. The UK has two director positions, one of which Ms Coffey was seeking.
A post on the business social media platform LinkedIn by the Treasury in July advertised the role and detailed what was required.
The position would include “representing the UK and promoting the UK’s interests at the EBRD board in a credible and effective manner”.
The individual would have to work with Treasury policy teams and the Foreign Office to “devise and implement a proactive strategic agenda for UK priorities”.
The salary would be paid by the bank. However, the job advert made clear that the position “is regarded (informally) as one of the directors in HM Treasury”.
Civil servants usually take up such positions. It is unusual for a senior Tory to seek such a role helping a Labour government, or vice versa, especially having served in government so recently.
Ms Reeves criticised Ms Truss’s tenure as recently as this August, saying: “Millions of people are still paying the price for Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget.
‘Fix the foundations’
“That is why I’m taking the difficult decisions now to fix the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off.”
A new law has been proposed by Labour to make sure that the OBR, the independent economic forecaster, is consulted on major taxation and spending decisions.
Ms Truss faced criticism for not getting the OBR to produce an assessment of her mini-Budget in September 2022, with some commentators saying that contributed to the negative market reaction.
Ms Coffey is among more than 200 former Tory MPs planning their next steps after the general election in July. She had been the MP for Suffolk Coastal since 2010 but narrowly lost the seat to Labour.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
