Minister Lisa Nandy broke rules over football watchdog appointment

Lisa Nandy has been found to have “unknowingly” breached public appointment rules with her choice to be the boss of England’s new football watchdog.

The culture secretary named sports rights executive David Kogan as the government’s preferred choice to run the new regulator in April.

But she later stood back from the process, after establishing that Mr Kogan had donated £2,900 to her 2020 Labour leadership campaign, according to a report.

Sir William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, said Nandy should have checked beforehand and taken “any necessary consequential action”.

“The fact of the donations was capable of giving rise to a perceived conflict of interest in the appointment process,” Sir William added.

He added that Nandy was “in a position readily to ascertain whether he had donated to her campaign”, since she had been advised by officials of that Kogan had “extensive links to the Labour Party and had made several donations to it”.

In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Nandy said she had declared Kogan’s donations to her campaign “as soon as I discovered these donations existed”.

She added: I deeply regret this error. I appreciate the perception it could create, but it was not deliberate and I apologise for it”.

In a reply, the prime minister said he accepted that Nandy had “acted in good faith”.