The claim
“We will put a limit on the number of special advisers.”
Coalition agreement, 20 May 2010

Cathy Newman checks it out
In the heady days of New Labour spin, special advisers acquired a notoriety that’s been hard to shake off.

Charlie Whelan briefed journalists on the government’s euro secrets from the Red Lion pub in Whitehall, Jo Moore decided 9/11 was “a good day to bury bad news”, and Damian McBride tried to smear top Tories about their sex lives. David Cameron has long promised to rein in the “spads”, as they’re known in Whitehall. Today’s rewritten ministerial code was his first chance to do so. But did it live up to the promise – or, dare I say it, the spin?

Over to the team for the analysis

Special advisers are unelected political aides unconstrained by the impartiality requirements of the civil service. David Cameron has been promising for months to cap the number of special advisers his government would appoint.

Yesterday’s coalition agreement re-affirmed the commitment to a limit – but didn’t give a hint of what the limit would actually be.

Today an updated version of the ministerial code – the official rulebook for those in government – was issued. The accompanying news release said that it “tightens controls on government cars and numbers of special advisers”. So will the magic number be revealed?

Below is the updated version of the relevant section – 3.2 – of the ministerial code. And below that is the same section of the old code. Spot the difference.

Got it? In the old days, ministers who regularly attend Cabinet could have “one or two” special advisers. And now, they can just have one. Except now, as in the old version, the rule isn’t unbreakable, so long as the top brass signs it off: “All appointments, including exceptions to this rule, require the prior written approval of the prime minister”.

That doesn’t seem like much of a crackdown. A Cabinet Office spokesman said the exact details of the limit were still being worked out, so it seems we can expect a further announcement at some point in the future.

Cathy Newman’s verdict

Capping the number of spads is, according to the government, work in progress. So it would be unfair to accuse Cameron of breaking his promise. But based on the published guidelines so far, there’s more spin than substance to it. The Tory leader needs to rectify that to ensure the New Politics isn’t more of the same.