The Work of SPADs explained

 At an online meeting of the North Down Rotary Club President Mike McNeice introduced Peter Cardwell who spoke to the Club about his time as a Special Adviser to Ministers in the UK government. Peter began by mentioning his previous experience of Rotary, having been at 16 a winner in the Youth Leadership Competition which brought with it a visit to the European Parliament and he also took part in a Rotary Group Study Exchange visit to New Zealand.

Peter worked for around ten years in journalism in print and television in various media companies both here and in GB. In the course of his work he got to know people working in government and, in particular Fiona Hill who was Theresa May’s Chief of Staff. He received a phone call from Fiona to ask if he would be interested in acting as a special adviser to the Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire. Within hours of telling Fiona that he would be interested, he received a phone call from the Minister asking Peter to meet him. Following that meeting in a London hotel he was appointed and began work.

Peter stressed that the role of a special adviser is a political one and that there is not the normal requirement for civil service neutrality. The appointment of advisers is a personal matter for the minister and does not go through normal recruitment procedures.. This means that tenure is entirely dependent on the minister retaining his or her position. If a minister resigns or is sacked then the adviser’s contract is immediately terminated without any notice. After working in the Northern Ireland office for about a year and a half Peter lost his job when Brokenshire had to resign with ill health having been diagnosed with lung cancer. He was immediately recruited by Amber Rudd in the Home Office but that role only lasted a short time because Amber Rudd retired. When James Brokenshire returned to work he was appointed as Housing Secretary and Peter went to work for him again for a further year and a half. Despite supporting Boris Johnson in his campaign to become leader of the Conservative Party, Brokenshire was sacked when he became Prime Minister.

Peter transitioned this time to the Justice Department with Robert Buckland where he remained for just six months until a number of the advisers including him were sacked, not be their ministers but by Dominic Cummings. That brought Peter’s time as a special adviser to an end and he decided to set down the story of his experiences in a book which has now been issued. He called it “ The Secret Life of Special Advisers.” Peter described it as a collection anecdotes, many humorous, as well as a description of what life is like for someone in the adviser role at the heart of government.

In questions from Rotarians Peter explained that although there had been informal advisers to ministers for a long time, the role was formalised during the premiership of Harold Wilson. Peter was also asked about the criticism of the role of SPADs which came out of the RHI inquiry in Northern Ireland, in that it appeared that the advisers at Stormont were not acting at the behest of their ministers, but under the control of the senior adviser in the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers. Peter indicated that this had become a problem at Westminster as Dominic Cummings had tended to try to act as the boss of the advisers and that caused tension with the ministers. He thought that this problem was probably now being resolved with the departure of Cummings, although there always is a tension between the role of No. 10 and that of individual departments.

Past-President Campbell Whyte gave the vote of thanks on behalf of members to Peter for a fascinating insight into the workings of government from the inside. He congratulated him on having been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and suggested that the Chairman of the RHI inquiry would be very interested in reading his book.