Commons Chamber

Wednesday 12th November 2025

(began 1 hour, 55 minutes ago)

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None Portrait Oral questions: Science, Innovation and Technology
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Please, Mr. speaker.
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None Portrait Q2. What progress her Department has made on reaching its target for full gigabit coverage by 2030. (906318)
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Speaker, please, Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. According to independent analysis, over 89% of UK premises can access
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None Portrait Q3. When she expects all rural communities to have a reliable mobile signal. (906319)
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Greg Smith number three, sir. Yeah, yeah.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I shall, with permission, Mr. Speaker, answer question three and question
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None Portrait Q4. What steps she is taking to keep people safe online. (906320)
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Yeah, yeah.
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None Portrait Q5. What recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the life sciences sector on economic growth. (906321)
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Secretary of State. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The UK
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None Portrait Topical questions: Science, Innovation and Technology
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agriculture and technology. So I offer. Fenton-Glynn. Number one. So. If.
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None Portrait Prime Minister's Question Time
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like to welcome the Canadian Speaker. And the minister's with

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him today. Right. We now come. Question Lincoln Jopp. Yeah.

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Yeah. Minister.
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Keir Starmer Portrait Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer MP, The Prime Minister (Holborn and St Pancras, Labour)
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Can I also welcome. The Canadian speaker? And can I. Also welcome Mervyn Kersh to the

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Also welcome Mervyn Kersh to the gallery today? He's a member of our greatest.

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He's a member of our greatest. Generation, a D-Day veteran who. Entered Bergen-Belsen days after.

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It was liberated. Mervyn is 100 years old. I'm lucky to have.

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I'm lucky to have. Met him twice. And I know that it took him many, many years. Before he. Felt he. Could even begin.

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Could even begin. To tell his story. And we thank him for his service and.

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and. The. Story that he has told us. In respect. Of it. As we mark Armistice Day, we give our eternal thanks to Mervyn give our eternal thanks to Mervyn and all those who served and remember the extraordinary sacrifice of ordinary people who fought to defend our freedom. Mr. speaker, the House will also want to join me in remembering Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg. He showed the most extraordinary courage to share his testimony, and in his memory, we must ensure that never again means never again.

Mr. speaker, I welcome the news that SSE have announced that they will spend £33 billion on.

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Clean energy projects in this country. That's a major vote of confidence in the UK economy, confidence in the UK economy, happening because of our decisions to embrace the opportunities of clean power. Mr. speaker, this morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this

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House. I shall have further such meetings later today. Lincoln Jopp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And can
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None Portrait Urgent question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on her involvement in the appointments process for the Chair of the Independent Football Regulator
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We We now We now come We now come to We now come to the We now come to the urgent We now come to the urgent question We now come to the urgent question. Louie French? Yes.
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Lisa Nandy Portrait Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Wigan, Labour)
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PQ. Mr Speaker. In 2021, the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson set up the fan led review of football and selected Dame Tracey football and selected Dame Tracey Crouch to chair it. This led to a clear recommendation for an independent football regulator, which was strongly endorsed on all sides of this House. The previous government promised they would deliver this regulator, but they didn't. Leaving fans in the lurch. As a result, this government made it a priority and passed that legislation within our first year because we are fully committed to protecting football clubs across the country.

To make that a reality, the Minister for sport confirmed David Kogan as the independent chair of the football regulator on the 6th of October. David Kogan was the exceptional candidate warmly endorsed across the world of football and by the cross-party select committee. As the House will be aware, the Commissioner for Public Appointments conducted an investigation into the appointment itself, which was released last week. I am pleased that the report does not question the suitability of Mr. Kogan as chair of the IFR.

The report also makes clear that I did not personally know about the donations to my leadership campaign at the time that I selected him as the preferred candidate. It also recognises that as soon as I became aware of these donations, I chose to declare them and chose to recuse myself from the remainder of the process. However, as I have made clear, I acknowledge the findings of the report. The Commissioner was clear that the breach around donations to my campaign was unknowing, but I recognise that the higher standards were not met.

And as the Secretary of State for the Department that ran this appointment, I take full responsibility for that. And it is for that reason that I wrote to the Prime Minister and apologised for this error. I will, of course, ensure that lessons are learned from this process with my department. Our focus now is to make sure that no fan ever has to go through what I and my constituents lived through in Wigan implementing this regime to help protect clubs in financial peril, and putting the interests of fans up and down the country first, is a priority for this government.

And led by David Kogan, the independent football regulator will get on with the job. We're here today, today debating process. But this is also about real world impact. Fans up and down the country need us to get on with delivering on our promise and making a difference. This is for Derby County, Scunthorpe United, for Morecambe, for Sheffield Wednesday for Wigan, reading, Macclesfield Town and Bury. We're

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putting fans back at the heart of the game, where they belong here. Louie French.
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Louie French Portrait Mr Louie French MP (Old Bexley and Sidcup, Conservative)
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Louie French. Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last Thursday, the Commissioner for Public Appointments published his report into the appointment of the chair of the Independent Football regulator. The report found that the Secretary of State breached the Governance code for public appointments updated by her government. Not once, not twice, three times. The Secretary of State has claimed that she did not know about Mr. Kogan's donations, but the commissioner's report clearly shows that she was briefed twice by her department regarding his conflicts before she decided to appoint him to a role that must be independent.

The report also makes clear that Mr. Kogan was not shortlisted by the previous government, and it was this government that put him in the running. It was not until the Secretary of State had already recommended his appointment, and the night before Mr. Kogan's appearance before the select committee on the 7th of May, did she conveniently consider checking if she had also taken thousands of pounds off of him? Mrs. Madam Deputy Speaker, I find that highly unlikely, and the Commissioner makes it clear that she is in a position to readily ascertain the details of donations made by Mr.

Kogan before she made her choice, but she failed to do so. It was then, after the political fallout, and six days later, she finally recused herself from the end of the process. And to show how brazen this crony appointment was, her department confirmed it. While the independent investigation was still taking place. Really shameful stuff, Madam Deputy Speaker. This was not a fair and open recruitment process. The report confirms that Mr. Kogan was her preferred candidate, subject to number ten, giving the green light, and asked for DCMS officials to make the necessary arrangements for an appointment without competition.

Madam Deputy Speaker, the Prime Minister's fingerprints are also clear from the commissioner's report. We understand that Mr. Kogan donated to the Prime Minister's Constituency Labour Party as well as to his leadership campaign. I almost feel sorry for the Secretary of State. She has apologised to the Prime Minister for three breaches of the rules for choosing his candidate. So how is it proper for the Prime Minister to have personally given the green light to a donor? Surely, Madam Deputy Speaker, if the Secretary of State was meant to have been recused from this 2029 2020 donation, Mr.

Kogan, that must apply to the Prime Minister too. Or does the Prime Minister believe that the offside rules did not apply to him? So I ask the Secretary of State who is the blame for this sorry mess? How much did Mr. Kogan give to the Prime Minister, and did he declare it? And does she agree that Mr. Kogan's deeply flawed appointment must be rescinded, given the risk to football? And finally, will she

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stick by her words that rule breakers cannot be rule makers? Secretary of State. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I'll try and
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Lisa Nandy Portrait Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Wigan, Labour)
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Madam Deputy Speaker. I'll try and answer these questions in turn. But firstly, can I just say that this was a report, a process that was subject to a thorough investigation by the independent Commissioner for Public Appointments? And I think when he questions the findings of that report, he should reflect on whether that is a proper role of this House or not. The report was absolutely crystal clear on that point. It was also clear, in contrast to what he just asserted, that I personally fell short of what was expected.

On one occasion, there were two other technical breaches from the department. But of course, as the Secretary of State for the Department for culture, Media and Sport, I will take full responsibility for that. He also asks about the Prime Minister, as he will know if he's read the report. I personally took the decision to ask Mr. Kogan to put that information in front of the select committee at his hearing, in order to ensure that they had full information. As soon as I had it, within hours of finding out about this donation, and he was open and transparent about the fact that he had donated to both my campaign and the Prime Minister's campaign.

But I have to say to him, I am the Secretary of State for culture, Media and Sport. It is my department that ran this process and it is for me to take full responsibility for it. Secondly, he asserts that Mr. Kogan was not part of the process. I find that astonishing, and I presume at some point he'll come back to correct the record on that, because when he speaks to his colleagues, one of whom is sitting on the front bench and was overseeing that process before the general election, at a time when this government was proudly extolling the virtues of having a football regulator and the Governance Act that they later opposed, he will know that Mr.

Kogan was approached for this job under the last conservative government, and he was put onto the list, which I inherited from the last government. And I just want to be crystal clear on this point. He was not added to the list after the general election. He was on the list from the last conservative government. Can I just ask him? He talks about cronies. He is talking about a man. He is talking to all they like, but he's talking about a man who has extensive media experience, who represented the Premier League, the EFL, the NFL and others.

Throughout his long and distinguished career. He was put on the list in the full knowledge that he was a Labour donor by the last government. And not only that, but if he's such a crony who's unfit for to hold this sort of office, why on earth did the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appoint him to the board of channel four? I mean, it just doesn't stack up so good. You approached him yourselves and just finally I would just say to the hon. Gentleman that, of course, I'm happy to answer extensive questions about this, and that is the reason why I've chosen to come to the House and answer these questions, despite the fact that it was the Minister for sport who made the final decision.

But I'll just say to him, as a Charlton fan himself, I am a bit surprised that, given their experience of bad owners, that he is setting himself and his party against football fans in his constituency and the length and breadth of the country by

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trying to attack a man whose credentials are unquestioned. Clive Betts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I
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Lisa Nandy Portrait Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Wigan, Labour)
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Madam Deputy Speaker, all the way through this process, I have complied fully with the independent Commissioner because I believe that that is important. And in contrast to the last government who broke not just the Public Appointments Code, but the ministerial code had multiple members of their side who did. So they've still got a member of the frontbench who broke the ministerial code and now sits on the front benches. The shadow Home Secretary, foreign Secretary. Unlike them, we comply with these processes and we accept the consequences.

But can I just say to the hon. Lady, there's been an independent investigation. It's been going on for six months. I don't know how she's missed it. That's what we're discussing today. And can I say to you that she just said to me that we need to earn the trust of the footballing world now over the course of the Football Governance Act, as hon. Members opposite will well know when they were supporting this piece of legislation. There were numerous people who were concerned about the appointment of anybody to take on this role.

One of them was Karren Brady, a very distinguished member of the House of Lords with extensive experience in football. Recently, she said, David Kogan has dealt with the value for the women's game and international bodies. That matters because football isn't just about the elite, it's a pyramid and at the top crumbles, the base cracks with it. And more importantly, he's worked in governance roles that demand accountability. If you want any further evidence of the confidence that this appointment that David Kogan is commanding across the footballing world, it's that the staunchest critics of the government's approach to implementing a football regulator in the first place have come out strongly in support of the man who is already cracking on with putting football fans back at the heart of the game.
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Lisa Nandy Portrait Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Wigan, Labour)
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Well, look, can I thank you for that? And I do very much agree with her that it's absolutely essential that the public can have confidence in the public appointments that we make, not least because of the very many debacles that we saw under the last government. And that was why I personally requested that Mr. Kogan made that information available to the Select Committee within hours of being notified of it myself, so that the Select Committee had that information. She's also absolutely right to say that the committee made a recommendation to Mr.

Kogan that he must take steps to ensure that he was independent of government. I heard that although that wasn't a recommendation aimed at me as the Secretary of State, I heard that loud and clear, and it was one of the reasons why I was very quick to recuse myself from that process and take no further decisions in it. And she's absolutely right to say she's raised with myself and the permanent secretary. The occasions on which the department has fallen short, we do take that very seriously.

We've committed to coming back to her with a full list of concrete actions that we're taking. I would say, and this is not to make excuses, because it is my responsibility to make sure that we get this right. But DCMS is responsible for the vast majority of public appointments. I think we make we make nearly 50% of all public appointments across government, and that is even more reason why we need to make sure that we have the proper processes in place to get that right.

And we are looking at that at the moment, and we'll come back to her very quickly on that. Can I also just take this opportunity to thank her constituents? Because when we were in trouble at Wigan Athletic, I remember Portsmouth fans jumping on a zoom call with us at very short notice. They couldn't have been more supportive in giving us advice and guidance to help us pull through that difficult time. I remember that time as if it was yesterday, the amount of pain that we were going through and anxiety.

The footballing world was there for us and my commitment to her constituents and all of your, all of our constituents across the House is that this government will also be there for them to.
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