Britain’s Labour government was slammed for “cronyism”, and their appointee of being “misleading”, after placing another Trade Union boss on the advisory board of the Bank of England.
General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Britain’s largest trade union organisation, Paul Nowak has been appointed to the Court of Directors of the Bank of England, taking the vacant chair last held by former TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady. The Court does not set the Bank of England rate, but rather is “responsible for overseeing the Bank’s strategy, governance, budget and risk framework, and for ensuring the effective discharge of the Bank’s statutory functions”.
Despite the relatively straightforward swap of one powerful leftist for another at the Bank of England, the Bank’s press release on the appointments and the process raised instant concerns about the theoretically apolitical role. The Bank said: “The appointment followed a fair and open competition in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments… [Nowak] confirmed that they have not engaged in any party political activity in the last five years.”
Reform UK spokesman Robert Jenrick suggested Nowak must have been “misleading” the bank during the selection process, given his frequent appearance in the headlines for his political pronouncements in recent months, The Daily Telegraph reported. Widely noted on social media was Nowak’s political activism against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party, as well as Nowak’s calls for higher taxes and Brexit views, all within days of the appointment.
Fellow Reform Parliamentarian Richard Tice added of the appointment: “This is staggering. Our socialist Chancellor has dished out a big Bank of England finance job to a socialist union boss who knows nothing about finance. Clearly, trade union donations not only buy your way into government policymaking, but also onto the Bank of England’s board. This is cronyism in plain sight.”