{"id":90001,"date":"2026-02-13T07:54:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=90001"},"modified":"2026-02-13T07:54:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:54:52","slug":"conflicts-of-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/13\/conflicts-of-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflicts of interest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is widely reported that Sir Keir Starmer wants <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Antonia_Romeo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dame Antonia Romeo<\/a> to be the new Cabinet Secretary, having sacked the last one he appointed after just a year in office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/13\/even-the-civil-service-are-pushing-back-against-starmer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">without good reason<\/a>, according to the civil service.<\/p>\n<p>There is just one problem with the appointment. Mr Romeo is, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Antonia_Romeo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>a managing partner in charge of North America for <a title=\"Oliver Wyman\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oliver_Wyman\">Oliver Wyman<\/a>,<sup id=\"cite_ref-32\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And Oliver Wyman is, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oliver_Wyman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">again according to Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>As a global\u00a0management consulting\u00a0firm, Oliver Wyman provides advice and analysis on how companies can improve their performance.<sup id=\"cite_ref-74\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup>\u00a0The firm undertakes a variety of notable projects in the\u00a0automotive,\u00a0defense,\u00a0education,\u00a0energy,\u00a0healthcare,\u00a0telecommunications,\u00a0transportation, and\u00a0travel\u00a0industries, <strong>but is particularly distinguished in the\u00a0financial services\u00a0sector.<\/strong><sup id=\"cite_ref-75\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup>\u00a0Through its partners, the company regularly contributes to business publications such as the\u00a0<i>Forbes<\/i>,\u00a0<i>Harvard Business Review<\/i>,\u00a0<i>The Financial Times<\/i>, and\u00a0<i>The Wall Street Journal.<\/i><sup id=\"cite_ref-76\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup> It generates over $500,000 in revenue per consultant,\u00a0<sup id=\"cite_ref-77\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><sup id=\"cite_ref-78\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup>a figure that is more than double the national average and comes in second only to\u00a0McKinsey &amp; Company.<sup id=\"cite_ref-79\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><sup id=\"cite_ref-80\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My emphasis added.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver Wyman is a very popular consulting firm with our government.<\/p>\n<p>So, here is a simple question: how can conflicts of interest be avoided if Dame Antonio Romeo is head of the Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary and her husband is profiting from contracts she or those she is responsible for might have to approve? Surely that is not possible?<\/p>\n<p>Is this appointment wise in that case? How can it get ethics approval?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is widely reported that Sir Keir Starmer wants Dame Antonia Romeo to be the new Cabinet Secretary, having sacked the last one he appointed<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/13\/conflicts-of-interest\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90003,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90001\/revisions\/90003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}