Labour turning up the heat on David Cameron over his new trade minister

Labour's Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jon Trickett, as today written to David Cameron with questions over the appointment of Ian Livingston, the outgoing Chief Executive of BT, as a government trade minister following reports suggesting he may have unprecedented conflicts of interest over his multimillion-pound stake in BT.

Jon Trickett MP, said: "David Cameron has serious questions to answer about his new trade minister. If Ian Livingston is going to take decisions about the telecommunications sector as part of his new role while holding as much as £20 million in BT shares, then that clearly raises a major conflict of interest. David Cameron needs to explain whether Ian Livingston's BT shareholding is a breach of the Ministerial Code."

Full text of the letter from Jon Trickett to David Cameron on Ian Livingston's appointment:

Dear Mr Cameron, 

I am writing to ask about some serious questions raised by your decision to appoint Ian Livingston as Trade Minister in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. It has been reported that Mr Livingston will hold up to £20 million of shares in BT when he takes up his post. For a minister to hold as much as £20 million in shares in a company operating in a sector overseen by his department raises an obvious conflict of interest. 

The Ministerial Code states at 7.1 that "Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise". 

In light of this, I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions.

• Did you know about Ian Livingston's BT shareholding when you decided to appoint him as a Minister?

• Will Ian Livingston make decisions as a Minister which could affect BT?

• Could Ian Livingston derive future financial benefit from decisions he makes as a Minister?

• The Ministerial Code states, at 7.8, that where a Minister retains a financial interest, "the Minister and the department must put processes in place to prohibit access to certain papers and ensure that the Minister is not involved in certain decisions and discussions relating to that interest". What processes are in place to ensure that Ian Livingston will not be involved in decisions and discussions relating to the telecommunications industry?

• It has been reported that Ian Livingston's shares will be placed in a blind trust. Do you consider that a blind trust can provide sufficient safeguards against a conflict of interest when Ian Livingstone knows full well how many BT shares he holds?

• Finally, I note that the Ministerial Code states, at 7.5, that "a statement covering relevant Ministers' interests will be published twice yearly". It appears from the redesigned gov.uk website, at List of Minister's Interests, that no list of ministers' interests has been published since December 2011, since then there has been one major Government reshuffle as well a number of minor ones. When will a new list be published - or if it has been published, when will it be placed on the "Transparency data" section of gov.uk?

I am copying this letter to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, as well as to Martin Donnelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. In view of the public interest in this matter, I am also releasing this letter to the media.

Yours sincerely,

Jon Trickett MP
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office