Political Updates 8th July 2019

This week’s Political Updates covers moves and changes at all levels of government. 

UK Government 

Professor Alan Penn has been appointed as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Peter Homa has been appointed as Director General of the Defence Medical Services.

Simon Dudley has been appointed Senior Independent Director of Homes England.

Ian Dalton CBE, former Chief Executive of NHS Improvement, has been appointed as the Executive Chair of the Government Automation Taskforce.

Rosina Cottage QC has been reappointed to the Sentencing Council for a period of 3 years.

Adam Treslove has been appointed Head of Corporate Affairs at the Student Loans Company.

  Scottish Government

Professor Catriona Matheson has been appointed as Chair of new Drug Deaths Taskforce.

House of Lords

The House of Lords has appointed Baroness Bull, Baroness Grender, Lord McInnes of Kilwinning, Lord Storey and The Lord Bishop of Worcester as new members to the Communications Committee (more info)

Political Parties

 Labour Party

Gordon Nardell QC, the lawyer who was hired by Labour last year to oversee its response for dealing with the crisis over anti-Semitism has stood down from his role.

Pro-Brexit MP Kate Hoey will stand down at the next election in her constituency of Vauxhall.

UKIP

UKIP has confirmed Liz Phillips as its candidate for the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election.

European Parliament

David Sassoli has been elected President of the European Parliament (more info).

14 European Parliament Vice-Presidents, Mairead McGuinness, Pedro Silva Pereira, Rainer Wieland, Katarina Barley, Othmar Karas, Ewa Kopacz, Klára Dobrev, Dita Charanzová, Nicola Beer, Lívia Járóka, Heidi Hautala, Marcel Kolaja, Dimitrios Papadimoulis and Fabio Massimo Castaldo have been elected in three rounds of voting for a two-and-a-half year term (more info).