Keir's own goal? Labour's pick for new football regulator chief risks fresh 'cronyism' row as he reveals he donated to both Starmer's and Lisa Nandy's leadership campaigns
David Kogan, who is the Government's preferred candidate to chair the watchdog, admitted previously giving cash to both the Prime Minister and Culture Secretary.
He told MPs this morning he had donated to the Labour leadership campaigns of both Sir Keir and Ms Nandy in 2020, when they both competed to replace Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Kogan was already facing accusations that cronyism played a part in his appointment, due to him being a Labour donor.
He was also a director of LabourList, a pro-Labour news website, until April this year.
The Tories branded the latest revelation that Mr Kogan helped bankroll Sir Keir and Ms Nandy's leadership campaigns as 'outrageous'.
The said it was 'an example of cronies over clubs, favours over fans' and demanded Mr Kogan be probed over a potential breach of the rules around public appointments.
But Mr Kogan said he had 'total personal independence' from those Labour figures he had previously donated to and insisted the football regulator would be independent of Government.
Appearing before the House of Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Mr Kogan said there had been 'accurate and wholly inaccurate' reports about his Labour links.
'They haven't actually discovered all that I have done as a donor,' he added.
'So I am prepared to declare now, on the public record, that five years ago I contributed very small sums of money to both the leadership campaigns for the Labour Party of both Keir Starmer and of Lisa Nandy.
'That hasn't been discovered by the press, I'm happy to declare it now.
'But I did those donations - and I did those donations to individual parliamentary candidates, none of whom were MPs - in the belief that actually having a leadership battle within the Labour Party with two seasoned candidates was a good thing, not a bad thing.
'And in the belief you actually want to have good parliamentary candidates to fill good parliamentary seats.
'I have never actually been particularly close to any of the individuals to whom I have donated money.
'So I have total personal independence from all of them. I also think the regulator itself guarantees independence.'
In response to Mr Kogan's comments, Tory MP Louie French, the shadow sports minister, said the Conservatives 'can not support the idea of a new football regulator when it is clearly a political appointment by the Government'.
'Politics and football should not mix when it comes to governance,' he added.
'We are clear football must be independent from government. This is clearly an example of cronies over clubs, favours over fans.
'We will not support the Labour Government in bringing into disrepute English football.'
Mr French said that Mr Kogan's revelations today 'appears to be a clear breach of the Governance Code on Public Appointments and must urgently be investigated'.
He added: 'The decision to install a major Labour Party donor and former director of Labour List as chair of the independent football regulator, without disclosing his extensive personal political donations to Keir Starmer is a serious breach of public trust.
'Fans were promised an impartial and independent regulator, but instead they are being handed a political appointee whose impartiality is already in question.
'For this reason, under new leadership, the Conservatives cannot back Labour's Football Governance Bill.'
Mr Kogan was announced as Ms Nandy's preferred candidate to chair the watchdog on April 25.
He has advised the Premier League, the EFL and other leagues on broadcast rights deals in a 45-year career as a media executive, business leader and corporate advisor.
The regulator's main remit will be to operate a licensing system for clubs in the top five tiers of the English game, focusing primarily on their financial sustainability and how accountable they are to their fans.
The legislation which will give the regulator statutory backing – the Football Governance Bill – is progressing through Parliament.
The regulator is set to be handed 'backstop' powers to impose an agreement on the split of television cash between the Premier League and the EFL if they cannot agree on one themselves, possibly including consideration of parachute payments given to clubs relegated from the top flight.
Talks over a so-called 'New Deal' for the EFL have effectively been on hold for more than a year.
A fan-led review of football was promised in the Conservatives' 2019 election manifesto, months after Bury's collapse.
The subsequent Conservative government commissioned a review chaired by former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch in 2021 in the aftermath of the European Super League scandal.
The creation of an independent regulator was the key recommendation of that review, and the Labour Government has continued the work to make it a reality following its general election landslide last summer.
The Premier League is keen for the regulator to remain light touch, amid concerns over-regulation could damage the competition's growth and deter investment.
The EFL is supportive of the regulator, and believes the 'State of the Game' review it is expected to undertake early on can be crucial in rebalancing football's finances, which it feels must be addressed.
Ms Nandy rejected cronyism claims over Mr Kogan's appointment during the Football Governance Bill's second reading on April 28, and pointed out the previous Tory government had also targeted him for the role prior to last summer's general election.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Rubbish collections are delayed because of a staff shortage... after binmen went on holiday
A delay in rubbish collections in London has been caused by staff shortages with binmen going on holiday. A shortage of drivers has left Ealing Council considering paying its remaining workers more to fill the gap. The council said that while some workers were on sick leave, it expected disruption to continue until holidays finished in September. On Sunday, the Government warned that taxpayers rely on regular waste collections and said the vital service must continue, The Telegraph reported. Meanwhile council tax has risen for Ealing residents, with the average band D homes now paying £93 extra per month, from £1,948 to £2,041. Occupiers in band H properties are now paying more than £4,000 in council tax. The Labour-led council said the services were being deployed later than usual, adding that any bins not collected on schedule would be prioritised the following day. A council spokesman told the Chiswick Calendar: 'We are sorry about the delays that are occurring to bin collections due to driver shortage and the impact it is having on residents. 'This is because a number of staff are currently off sick and, in addition, as it is the summer holiday period many staff are on leave, which we anticipate lasting until September when the holidays have finished.' 'To address this issue we are actively recruiting more staff. We also employ a number of HGV drivers, which are highly sought after across various industries, including supermarket deliveries, and consequently they are likely to be attracted by companies that are able to offer higher salaries. The council said it was reviewing salaries and other incentives for staff. Susan Hall, Conservative leader in the London Assembly, said the lack of collection was 'outrageous'. 'When you're paid to do a job, damn well do it and the people in charge of them, they need to be talked to as well,' she told The Telegraph. 'When you're running a company or a business, you have to make sure you've got a certain amount of staff in order to deliver the service you're providing. 'Just because these people work for a council, they assume they can do what they like. It's not good enough.' In Birmingham, mounds of rubbish is still piling up, seven months after strikes began in the city. Lengthy negotiations are taking place between the Unite union and city council - but there still appears to be no end in sight. Some locals have complained of feeling 'forgotten about' amid the foul smells and infestations of giant rats dubbed 'Squeaky Blinders'. In June Birmingham bin workers voted to continue industrial action - meaning the strikes could go on until December. The council has paid £8 million to keep a skeleton service run by agency staff in place while strikes continue. The council - which effectively declared itself bankrupt in 2023 - has been blamed for also mishandling an equal pay dispute. The walkout began in January over pay cuts of up to £8,000 impacting around 400 workers who are either former waste recycling collection officers or bin lorry drivers. It has so far paid out almost £1.1 billion after losing a landmark case in 2012 launched after it gave bonuses to refuse collectors and street cleaners but not to cleaners and caterers - roles typically held by women. It still has to find more money to settle further claims but insists its debt is 'unrelated to the need to modernise the waste service and to eliminate any future equal pay risk'.
Glasgow Times
27 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Labour needs to ‘pick things up' after ‘tough' first year in power, Khan says
The London Mayor said Labour supporters would be 'delusional' if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024. After taking Labour into power at Downing Street for the first time since 2010, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has seen his party's popularity slump in the polls, amid criticism over issues such as welfare reforms. 'It's been a tough first year,' Sir Sadiq conceded. Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he insisted that Labour supporters 'need to have the humility to recognise' that 'otherwise we are being delusional'. The London Mayor, who was one of the most powerful Labour politicians until Sir Keir became Prime Minister, added: 'Those people that say it has been a great first year… I think they are letting the party down. 'It hasn't been a great first year. There have been great things that have happened in this first year, around the rights for renters, around the rights for workers, around energy security, and I could go on. 'But as first years go, it has not been a great first year.' However, he said the 'good news' is his party has 'got another four years to make sure we turn this around'. The London Mayor – who is a Liverpool FC supporter – said if Labour was in a football match, they would be 'two-nil down' But continuing his analogy, he said that only 15 or 20 minutes of the match had gone, with minutes still to play and to 'win this game'. He said: 'It is really important now we really pick things up because I think we are two-nil down. 'But the great news is we have turned it round before, we have won games before where we're two nil down, we can do it again.' His comments came as he said that many people who backed the party last year had 'lent us their vote'. Sir Sadiq said: 'They didn't sprint toward Labour at the ballot box, they lent us their vote, gave us the benefit of the doubt.' After over a decade out of power at Westminster, he also said that the party had 'lost the memory of running things'. Sir Sadiq said: 'It has taken some time for the Labour Party, the Labour Government, to understand how the machinery of government works.' But he added: 'There are some really, really good people in the cabinet, there is a good back office team as well. So I have got confidence we will turn it round.' He added: 'With Keir and the team we've got in Number 10, and across Whitehall, Westminster, we've got a great team. 'They are not performing to the level I know they can perform at. I'm not being critical of them, I think they themselves would admit they can do much more. 'So I am hoping the next three, four years you will really see the best of this government.'
Times
42 minutes ago
- Times
Labour must abandon its project to define Islamophobia
In February, under the stewardship of the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, the government established a parliamentary working group to come up with an official definition of 'Islamophobia'. Since then, there have been multiple warning signs that this ill-conceived project was on the wrong track. Meeting in private, the group solicited evidence from only a small number of interested parties. Concerns that any definition of Islamophobia would prejudice free speech and academic freedom were naively downplayed, as too were plausible objections from opposition parties that the definition would introduce anti-liberal blasphemy prohibitions by a legislative backdoor. Most worryingly, the group's chairman, the former attorney-general Dominic Grieve, praised a bizarre report authored by the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims: it claimed that the public discussion of the 'grooming gangs' had been an example of recent 'anti-Muslim racism'.The government has now been forced to delay its working group's deadline till the autumn, after its online consultation form was leaked on social media. Unsurprisingly, that leak led to the group being inundated with responses from the public. That expression of public concern should be taken by Labour as a signal that their ill-thought-through plans ought to be abandoned altogether. There are problems both in practice and principle with trying to circumscribe allegedly Islamophobic speech and action. Any definition broad enough to satisfy its proponents will inevitably be couched in language so generic and vague as to have a chilling effect on speech that is merely critical of religion or culture. Even non-statutory guidance tends to have this anti-liberal effect, because its force and remit is often subject to confusion. Though Labour's working group was set up in response to evidence of instances of anti-Muslim criminality, to point to this concerning increase is simply a distraction. Britain, by comparison with other liberal democracies, already has a surfeit of laws covering hate speech. Such existing laws should be properly enforced, rather than free and open speech subject to sinister restrictions. When it comes to codifying Islamophobia there is a specific danger that legitimate criticism of religion will be conflated with bigotry. These days, it is the outspoken proponents of free speech who need protection, rather than their alleged victims. Recently, Professor Steven Greer, an academic at the University of Bristol, was subject to a vindictive social media campaign, forced to disguise himself in public and eventually to retire, after vexatious complaints from students that his university module on human rights law contained Islamophobic material. Instead of publicly supporting him, Professor Greer says that his employers put his life in danger for fear of being perceived to be anti-Muslim. The recent audit by Baroness Casey of Blackstock into the grooming gangs scandal has revealed how a slew of officials culpably turned a blind eye to appalling child abuse and rape allegations for fear of appearing prejudiced. Such evidence of officials' cowardice rightly draws public outcry. To think that now is the time to impose on the public speech-policing guidance that seeks to prioritise 'appropriate and sensitive language' to the detriment of free speech is a folly. Britain must remain a country in which even offensive speech is legally protected. The government should abandon the attempt to control it.
