Keir Starmer failed to consult the post-government appointments watchdog when he left the Crown Prosecution Service and took a highly paid consultancy with a top law firm, the Guardian has found. After the Labour leader stepped down as director of public prosecutions (DPP) in October 2013, he became a part-time consultant at Mishcon de Reya, an elite London firm that paid him at least £100,000. As head of the CPS, Starmer was a senior civil servant and was required to consult the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) for two years after his departure about any roles he wanted to take up. However, he did not ask permission from the committee before taking up the consultancy. Acoba confirmed to the Guardian it holds no records of applications submitted to the committee by Starmer. The revelation could prove to be embarrassing for Starmer, who was labelled “Mr Rules” by his shadow frontbench colleague Lisa Nandy. Sue Gray, the former senior civil servant, is expected in the coming days to be formally cleared by Acoba to join Starmer as his chief of staff. Gray, who led the civil service investigation into Partygate, was the head of the propriety and ethics team in the Cabinet Office, which oversees the work of Acoba, at the time Starmer left the CPS and returned to Doughty Street Chambers, which he co-founded. Announcements around Mishcon de Reya’s hiring of Starmer may suggest why the firm, with its burgeoning private prosecution practice, found the former chief prosecutor in England and Wales to be a particularly attractive hire.
When Starmer joined Mishcon de Reya in June 2014, the firm’s head of disputes said his “past involvement in developing guidance in relation to key government legislation, means that he is ideally placed to advise clients on how to meet the ever more stringent expectations of the regulators”. Starmer tweeted at the time that he was “delighted to be joining Mishcon de Reya and to remain with Doughty Street Chambers under new dual capacity rules”. His spokesperson denied any wrongdoing, suggesting it was not standard practice for a former DPP to consult Acoba when returning to chambers. However, in 2018, Starmer’s successor at the CPS, Alison Saunders, was rebuked by Acoba for failing to seek the committee’s advice before taking a job at the magic circle law firm Linklaters. When the former attorney general Geoffrey Cox took a similar role at a different law firm in 2020, he sought Acoba’s permission. According to Starmer’s entry in the House of Commons register of interests, he was paid directly by Mishcon de Reya. The Labour leader’s spokesperson said: “I think you’re comparing apples and oranges. The fact is no [director of public prosecutions] has gone to Acoba when returning to chambers and as someone with a dual capacity practicing certificate the work for Mishcon fell under that.” Starmer, who became an MP in 2015, has spoken about the importance of Acoba, following questions over Gray’s imminent appointment as his chief of staff. In May, he told broadcasters Gray was “going through the process because that’s what every senior civil servant has to go through when they leave the civil service.”. Official records reinforce the seniority of Starmer’s role at the CPS. He is named in Cabinet Office documents as being one of the highest earning officials and identified as being of permanent secretary level. In addition to Starmer’s role at Mishcon de Reya, he appears to have taken multiple other roles within the two-year period after leaving the CPS. Starmer’s return to Doughty Street Chambers came weeks after he left the CPS, despite rules for permanent secretaries requiring a three-month waiting period before taking up outside appointments. Acoba can advise this period is waived or extended, but only if it considers an application. • This article was amended on 27 June 2023 to clarify within the text, as was made clear elsewhere in a quote, that the comment from Keir Starmer’s spokesperson about it not being standard practice for a former DPP to consult Acoba, was referring specifically to circumstances where they were returning to chambers.