The new chief executive of the civil service should immediately resign from his £100,000-a-year second job in the alcohol industry as it undermines his credibility as an impartial official, Sarah Wollaston, the Tory chair of the House of Commons health select committee has said.
Wollaston said it was “a complete disgrace” that John Manzoni should be allowed by the Cabinet Office to carry on working as a non-executive director for SABMiller, the company behind brands such as Grolsch and Bulmer.
Manzoni, who started his new civil service role on Monday, has been given approval by the government to continue working for SABMiller, one of the drinks firms that opposed the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing before the plans were dropped. Corporate filings show he takes his salary in company stock and holds shares worth more than £250,000 in SABMiller.
Wollaston, who was in favour of minimum alcohol pricing, said: “This is clearly a conflict of interest and I’m astonished that the Cabinet Office don’t see it, especially as they are at the heart of decision making about alcohol policy, including their own ‘nudge’ unit looking at behaviour change. He must resign his interests in alcohol with immediate effect or it will fatally undermine his credibility and frankly the judgment of [those] who made this bizarre decision.”
Asked about the job by the Guardian on Friday, a Cabinet Office spokesman said the government was “satisfied there is no conflict of interest”, adding: “John Manzoni has declared his interests to the Cabinet Office. Following his appointment as the chief executive of the civil service he is resigning his appointments except for SABMiller, which it has been agreed he can retain, and he is establishing a blind trust.”
Before taking on the role of civil service chief, Manzoni had three private sector jobs at the same time as carrying out his £190,000-a-year government post as head of the Major Projects Authority, which were all approved by the Cabinet Office.
He was also chairman of the Leyshon Energy exploration company, which is headquartered in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and paid him £100,000 a year, as well as being an adviser to an energy private equity firm, Adamant Ventures.
On Friday, John Mann, a Labour member of the Commons Treasury committee, said Manzoni’s outside work “undermines the fundamental strengths that Britain has given the world as the model of an impartial and independent civil service”.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, also said she felt Manzoni’s extra job was “troubling” and “undermines the responsibilities he’s been charged with as head of the civil service”.
Manzoni was given the £190,000-a-year position as the government’s first chief executive of Whitehall despite criticism of his safety record while an executive at BP after the Texas refinery explosion.
He left the business world to become chief executive of the Major Projects Authority this year, joining Lord Browne, his former boss at BP, in the Cabinet Office.
Browne, who is the government’s lead non-executive director and chairman of the fracking company Cuadrilla, was one of six members of the appointment panel who chose Manzoni for the job, though he did not chair it.
