Section:GDN 1N PaGe:6 Edition Date:190724 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 23/7/2019 20:17 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Wednesday 24 July 2019
(^6) National
xSubjectxxxx
National
Tory leadership
Sky boss who lent Johnson
townhouse given plum job
as new PM assembles team
Rajeev Syal
Rowena Mason
Lisa O’Carroll
A Sky executive who lent a townhouse
to Boris Johnson’s leadership cam-
paign and an academic who accused
politicians of exaggerating racial prej-
udice were among his controversial
fi rst appointments yesterday.
Andrew Griffi th, the chief fi nanc ial
offi cer and chief operating offi cer at
the pay-TV group, has been appointed
as the chief business adviser to N o 10.
He will work closely with the new
prime minister, who reputedly said
“fuck business” when confronted with
companies’ concerns over Brexit.
Munira Mirza , a deputy to Johnson
when he was mayor of London, has
been made head of No 10’s policy unit,
Tory sources said. She was a critic of
Theresa May’s racial disparities audit
for public services, saying the “scene
was being set for another bout of polit-
ical self-fl agellation regarding the
subject of race in Britain”.
Griffi th’s role will be to help John-
son rebuild ties with the business
world amid fears that the new PM is
happy to embrace a no-deal Brexit if
he cannot come to an agreement with
the EU before the 31 October deadline.
He will be based full-time in No
from today, Sky’s chief executive Jer-
emy Darroch said in an email to staff.
Staff recruits
Likely holders of key roles
Sir Edward Lister
Expected to be chief of staff , possibly
on a transitional basis. Dubbed
“Steady Eddie”, Lister spent almost
20 years as leader of Wandsworth
council, then seen of a crucible of
Tory municipal thinking, before
entering City Hall to help steer
Johnson’s mayoralty back on track
after a chaotic start.
Will Walden
Johnson’s media aide on the Vote
Leave campaign trail. He has been
helping his former employer pick his
cabinet and plot the fi rst 100 days in
Downing Street. Not yet clear if he
will agree to enter No 10 with him.
Lee Cain
A press aide who had worked with
Johnson in the Foreign Offi ce and
on the leadership campaign. He
is likely to be rewarded with a big
communication job for his eff orts.
Ben Gascoigne
Previously adviser to Johnson in the
Foreign Offi ce. He took on the role
almost of private secretary during
the campaign. Expected to be one of
several deputy chiefs of staff.
Rowena Mason
Griffi th is expected to stand down
from Sky while working for Johnson.
The former Rothschild investor banker
joined Sky in 1999.
Johnson, expected to enter No 10
next week, has been spending up to 13
hours a day at Griffi th’s lavish £9.5m
townhouse , with sources on his team
saying he has switched his focus
towards strategy for government.
Mirza, whose family came to the UK
from Pakistan, criticised the Labour
MP David Lammy’s 2017 review of
racism in the criminal justice system,
which was commissioned by May.
She said it was an example where
“astonishingly, it seems that a lot of
people in politics think it’s a good idea
to exaggerate the problem of racism”.
She disputed his view and that of
May that the criminal justice system
treats black people more harshly than
white people.
Mirza wrote: “Paradoxically, just
at the point when racist attitudes
were declining in society and many
ethnic groups were integrating suc-
cessfully, our political leaders became
obsessed with racism ... the tragedy is
that accusations of institutional rac-
ism – and their offi cial endorsement
- have corroded BAME [black, Asian
and minority ethnic] communities’
trust in public services, thereby mak-
ing things worse.”
Last summer, Mirza issued a
defence of Johnson’s controversial
newspaper article that likened women
in burqas to letterboxes and has been a
long-term critic of multiculturalism as
a policy choice by governments.
Mark Spencer, 49, the MP for Sher-
wood, will become Johnson’s chief
whip. This is a key position as the new
PM tries to govern with a working Con-
servative-DUP majority of just two.
Spencer’s appointment was praised
by MPs across the party. Sir Nicholas
Soames said he was a “really excellent
sane and wise choice”. The business
minister Andrew Stephenson said:
“Congratulations to the new chief
whip – the man who taught me how
to ‘put a bit of stick about’.”
Meanwhile, a former ambassador to
Denmark and Foreign Offi ce offi cial is
being tipped as Johnson’s new Brexit
negotiator. David Frost is a career
diplomat and was head of Europe at
the Foreign Offi ce and was a special
adviser to Johnson when he was for-
eign secretary. He is currently chief
executive of the London Chamber of
Commerce and Industry.
▼ This week’s Der Spiegel depicts
Boris Johnson as Mad magazine’s
gap-toothed Alfred E Neuman
PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID SILVERMAN/GETTY IMAGES▲ Munira Mirza was a deputy mayor
to Johnson at London’s City HallРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS