The chief executive of the Social Investment Business published a tweet on Saturday night shortly after Brooks Newmark resigned, which stated that Nick Hurd was “moved” from his post as minister for civil society.
A few hours after Newmark quit his post in the sexting scandal, Jonathan Jenkins (pictured) tweeted: “Makes decision to move @NickHurdMP even more ridiculous than it seemed at time. From stability to farce in one fell swoop.”
It is the first intimation from anyone close to government that Hurd did not voluntarily leave his ministerial post.
Civil Society News tried to contact Jenkins to ask him to explain what he meant by his tweet, but he did not respond directly. Instead, a spokesman for the Social Investment Business sent over a statement which said:
“Jonathan appreciated and admired the work Nick had done for the sector and there was obviously going to be a loss of momentum when his replacement was put in post whilst he got up to speed following Nick’s resignation. That’s all Jonathan meant by the tweet.”
Hurd resigned as minister for civil society a week before the National Audit Office published its much-delayed report into the funding of Big Society Network, which showed that the Cabinet Office ignored its own guidelines and overruled its own appointed grants panel to ensure that Big Society Network received money from the Social Action Fund.
The ‘independent’ grants advisory panel was convened by the Social Investment Business.
A subsequent Freedom of Information response from the Cabinet Office to Civil Society News confirmed that the decisions to direct the Social Investment Business to reconsider Big Society Network’s application and to approve the BSN bid came directly from the minister himself.
Yet two official letters from Hurd last year relating to Big Society Network funding gave different answers as to how involved he was in the decision to make the grant.
Hurd was asked to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Cabinet Office’s £300,000 grant to Big Society Network as long ago as January 2013 – a full 18 months before the National Audit Office published its report.
As reported by Civil Society News at the time, Hurd’s investigation found no evidence of impropriety by Cabinet Office or No 10 in relation to the grant.
However, two letters from him at the time gave differing responses as to how much involvement he personally had in the decision to make the grant. In one letter to the complainant, dated 15 January 2013, Hurd wrote: “The advisory board’s recommendations were then passed to me [the minister] for consideration, and I – together with the members of the advisory board – interviewed all organisations with bids of approximately £1m or more.”
But just two weeks later, in a letter dated 31 January 2013, he wrote: “SAF was an open and independently run and managed process by the Social Investment Business, bids had to meet a set criteria for shortlist, and were then passed to an external advisory board of experts to consider. No 10/Cabinet Office were not involved on this selection process.”
Nick Hurd did not return calls from Civil Society News this morning. The Cabinet Office referred enquiries to No 10; No 10 press office did not answer the phone.
At the time of Hurd's resignation it was widely reported that he wanted to spend more time with his young family and to concentrate on campainging against HS2, which runs through his Ruislip constituency.
In May last year Jenkins agreed to review his use of social media after an investigation by SIB chair Sir Stephen Bubb into SIB's role in the funding of BSN concluded that tweets between Jenkins and Steve Moore may have given the perception to readers that the pair had a social relationship.
