Part of Gordon Brown’s damage-control exercise has been to write a letter to Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, asking him to tighten the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers. The implication is, one assumes, that it never occurred to Mr. McBride that spreading lies about the personal lives of his political opponents might not be in his job description.
In the Prime Minister’s words:
I would therefore now like a more explicit assurance included in the special advisers Code of Conduct that not only are the highest standards expected of political advisers but that the preparation or dissemination of inappropriate material or personal attacks have no part to play in the job of being a special adviser, just as it has no part to play in the conduct of all our public life.
The problem is that the Code already deals with this quite explicitly.
Article 5:
They should not deceive or knowingly mislead Parliament or the public
Is a rather unequivocal statement that spreading false rumours is not acceptable;
Article 6:
Special advisers should not use official resources for party political activity.
Means that McBride shouldn’t have engaged in such hyper-partisan activity from Downing Street on an official email account;
And Article 12 explicitly states that a Special Adviser must not engage in ‘personal attacks’.
The rules are clear and unequivocal. They need no amendment, only enforcement.
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