Rayner Appoints Party Political Union Officer to Civil Service Role
Yesterday the government announced the appointment of Mo Baines as a Lead Non-Executive Director (NED) for a one-year term on the Board of the MHCLG. It claims Mo is an “expert in public policy and local government” but doesn’t mention anywhere that she is longtime President of UNISON’s expansive Manchester branch. Unison has donated £28 million to Labour since 2010…
Guido had a closer look at Baines’ history and can reveal she led the Labour Party’s “Community Wealth Building Unit“, founded by Jeremy Corbyn “to ensure that economic, social and environmental justice sit at the heart of all of our inclusive economy policies.” A party political unit whose stated role was to “help Labour councils” “restructure and modernise” to oppose Tory policies. Also leading the unit was Mary Robertson, LOTO’s Head of Economic Policy. Rayner has circumvented normal Civil Service hiring rules to insert a former party adviser to an impartial role…
Baines wrote a report in 2021 on UNISON’S behalf calling for “leveraging capital investment levels last seen in the post-war years” to build mass council housing across the UK. More worringly, Baines demanded the imposition of “living rents,” a policy that would shred the rental market by forcing rents to be calculated from “affordability based on earnings.” Rayner says: “I look forward to working with her to drive forward our ambitious agenda over the next year.” Gulp…
