Lisa Nandy apologises for breaking rules on football regulator

The culture secretary has apologised for breaching rules by refusing to announce that she had received contributions from the man she chose to head England's new football authority. The commissioner for public appointments published a report on Thursday finding that David Kogan made two separate donations of £1,450 to Lisa Nandy when she was running to be Labour leader in 2020. Laura Kuenssberg, a reporter for the BBC, said, We didn't meet the highest requirements, Nandy said on Sunday, it's on me.The Conservatives have ruled that Nandy's activities were a serious breach of public confidence and that they had requested a new inquiry into Sir Keir Starmer, who also received support from Mr Kogan.

My suitability for the position has never been in question,

Mr Kogan said in a tweet, and I was unaware of any deviation from best practice at any time.

Mr Kogan, a sports rights official, had been waiting for the role of football regulator under the previous Conservative government. After Labour gained the 2024 general election and assumed the role of culture secretary, Nandy became involved in the process. Mrs Kogan would be her first pick to fill the £130,000-a-year role, she revealed in April. However, a month later, she resigned from the appointment process after Mr Kogan revealed to a parliamentary committee that he had donated

very little moneyto Nandy in 2020. In his report, Nandy hadunknowingly" breached the rules and may have investigated if Mr Kogan had given her money before choosing him as her preferred candidate.

According to the commissioner, the contributions were part of a total donation of £33,410 to Labour and the party's candidates in the five years leading up to his appointment. Mr Kogan's contributions to Nandy were below the Electoral Commission's and Parliament's declaration thresholds. Lisa Nandy told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that she had no idea about the donation at the time it was given, although she wondered why she hadn't disclosed it during the appointments process. During her leadership campaign, she said she had been out on the road doing husting and interviews.

I wasn't involved in the campaign, but as soon as I found it out, I confessed it and recused myself, and I complied completely with the procedure.

We make mistakes and we will make mistakes, we are human beings,Labour leader Ed Miliband said.We respect the result and accept the consequences.

Sir William's book said:

It need not be true that the contributions influenced the secretary of state's decision-making, but that the risk of this perception might have been minimized by the declaration of this financial interest.

He found that the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport had violated the laws by failing to reveal Mr Kogan's previous contributions to Labour when he was named as the government's most popular choice for the position. Sir William found that the department also broke the rules by failing to discuss the donations to Nandy when Mr Kogan was interviewed for the position. After the study was published, Nandy wrote a letter to the prime minister, saying,

I deeply regret this mistake. I appreciate the perception it could create.

I know you to be a person of integrity, and on the basis of your letter, it is clear you have behaved in good faith,

Sir Keir Starmer wrote. Mr Kogan donated £2,500 to the prime minister's local Labour branch in Holborn and St Pancras in May 2024. Sir Keir's involvement in Mr Kogan's appointment broke ministerial rules on transparency, according to Conservative leader Sir Laurie Magnus. Sir William Shawcross had already completed an extensive investigation and

found no infractions other than those listed in the study,

Downing Street said. Following a fan-led investigation into football club administration, the football regulator role was established. The regulator has been charged with improving the financial stability of clubs and safeguarding

the history of English football.