Boris Johnson’s deputy chief of staff is facing accusations of a potential conflict of interest over her part-ownership of a company that advises governments, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kazakhstan.
Baroness Finn owns 35 per cent of a company set up by Lord Maude of Horsham, a former Cabinet Office minister, which advises foreign governments about economic and public sector reform.
FMAP Limited has £1 million worth of assets. Lord Hammond, the former chancellor, Nick Hurd, a former Home Office minister, and Nick Boles, a former minister for skills, all work for the company as senior advisers.
It commissioned Bill Crothers, the government’s former chief commercial officer, as a subcontractor providing advice on procurement between 2017 and 2019. Crothers is at the centre of a lobbying scandal after it emerged he was given permission by the Cabinet Office to work part-time as a director at Greensill Capital while he was still a civil servant.
Sir Alistair Graham, former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, said Finn’s part-ownership of the company presented a “serious” potential conflict of interest.
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“While working for the prime minister there is a risk she is looking over her shoulder at how her company is prospering,” he said. “You cannot stop yourself being influenced by the interests of a company of which you are a significant owner.”
Despite her shareholding, a friend of Finn said: “Simone no longer has any involvement in or association with this company.” Finn resigned as a director at FMAP Limited, the company, shortly before joining Downing Street.
The website for FMAP Limited, the company jointly owned by Finn and Maude, lists her as its co-founder. The company also issued a press release when she became Johnson’s deputy chief of staff in March, offering its best wishes “as she takes up this crucial role at the heart of the British government”.
Finn worked as Maude’s special adviser while he was minister for the Cabinet Office and they set up their company after he left office in 2015. In her register of interests for the House of Lords, Finn declares she is a “person with significant control of a company”. She does not disclose details of her shareholding, though under parliamentary rules she is not duty-bound to do so.
A government spokeswoman said: “Baroness Finn has declared all her relevant interests to the House of Lords, and in addition, complied with the Cabinet Office requirements for special advisers to declare outside interests. The Cabinet Office has a formal process to avoid conflicts of interest arising from such declared interests.”
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The civil service code of conduct states that officials cannot use information acquired during their official duties to “further your private interests or those of others”. Government sources said that there was no conflict.
Lord Maude is conducting a review of the Cabinet Office as part of a shake-up of the civil service.
FMAP denied any conflict of interest. A spokesman said: “It was not feasible to relinquish her shareholding as it is an illiquid holding. Her shareholding is declared in the House of Lords register of interests and internally. She is not involved with FMAP in any way.”
The company denied any suggestion that there was a potential conflict of interest in Maude’s directorship of FMAP and review of the Cabinet Office.
