Amazon boss’s DWP appointment IS disgusting – but when did government departments start having ‘directors’?

Last Updated: February 4, 2016By

Margaret Hodge asked how the government could justify giving prestigious positions to those who do not contribute their share of tax. It’s a good point, but has she missed a bigger one? [Image: ANL/Rex Shutterstock.]

Government departments in the UK don’t have directors. Businesses do.

Government departments have secretaries – permanent secretaries, private secretaries, under-secretaries, the list seems endless sometimes – but they don’t have directors.

So the naming of Doug Gurr as a non-executive director of the DWP should surely ring alarm bells.

Only yesterday we heard Iain Duncan Smith has been consulting on the possibility of privatising at least one DWP service.

Has he been consulting on the privatisation of the whole department?

The Labour MP and tax campaigner Margaret Hodge has described as “disgusting” a plan to give an executive of online retailer Amazon, one of the companies at the centre of an intensifying row over taxes, a directorship at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Hodge was responding to the news, first revealed by Sky News, that Amazon’s head of Chinese operations, Doug Gurr, is to become a non-executive director of the DWP. The DWP said it would issue a statement, which was not available at the time of publication. Amazon declined to comment.

Hodge said: “If people are not putting their proper share into the pot, how can government ever justify giving them prestigious positions?”

Amazon’s UK business paid just £11.9m in tax in 2014, even though its Luxembourg unit took £5.3bn from internet sales in the UK.

Source: DWP post for Amazon boss is ‘disgusting’, says Margaret Hodge | Business | The Guardian

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No Comments

  1. David February 4, 2016 at 12:59 pm - Reply

    Would it be too much to copare IDS with Goebbels?

    • Mike Sivier February 4, 2016 at 1:20 pm - Reply

      Apparently we’ve got Chris Grayling for that.

    • MarkG February 4, 2016 at 1:44 pm - Reply

      The beast of Britain has more in common with Heinrich Himmler.

  2. wildswimmerpete February 4, 2016 at 2:11 pm - Reply

    “BUT WHEN DID GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS START HAVING ‘DIRECTORS’?”, simple, when corporate interests took over our government.

  3. jeffrey davies February 4, 2016 at 2:18 pm - Reply

    aktion t4 rolling along without much of a ado jeff3

  4. mrmarcpc February 4, 2016 at 2:39 pm - Reply

    The right has always been puppets of big business!

  5. Dez February 4, 2016 at 2:56 pm - Reply

    I guess this is the start of the world being actually run by Commercial enterprises and their elite and the so called elected parliament are just puppets….better start brushing up on the dance steps for dancing to their tune.

  6. Brian February 4, 2016 at 5:41 pm - Reply

    PFI comes to IDS’s rescue!, # who you gonna blame, ~ welfare busters.#

  7. Terry Davies February 5, 2016 at 7:48 am - Reply

    CORPORATIONS have been ruling this country’s politics for as long as I can recall.
    Its now the questions are being asked for they no longer feel the FOI serves their purpose. Charges to obtain information on pretence of identifying potentially vexatious requests are soon to be made.if my opinions are right even more restrictive regulation with a divided UK is next to happen after the referendum.
    Cameron is a yes man to USA corporations as tories are in power due to having money paid by them into tory election fund.
    the money is given under the enterprise zone schemes to the corporative bodies to provide employment opportunities.
    These opportunities are for potential tory voters, paid by taxpayers with the excess returned to the tories in funding.
    this is the way our corrupt electoral and political system operates.

  8. casalealex February 5, 2016 at 9:32 am - Reply

    Director

    Person who leads, manages, or supervises an organization, program, or project

    So is Iain Duncan Smith superfluous?

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