Cabinet Secretary Sir Richard Wilson has been urged by the Electoral Commission to review the contracts issued to ministers' special advisers such as the Prime Minister's press secretary, Mr Alastair Camp bell. Commission chairman Mr Sam Younger said the situation regarding advisers who had resigned their posts so they could campaign for Labour during the election was "far from satisfactory".
He expressed concern that as the advisers received civil service severance pay when they left, it could appear to the public that their work for the party was being paid for by an "inappropriate subvention from the public purse". Mr Younger warned their pay-offs could be open to legal challenge.
