My time as a special adviser was untypical. I spent almost four years as the spad to David Willetts while he was the Minister for Universities and Science. For the first couple of years of the Conservative / Lib Dem Coalition in power from 2010, I was the only Tory spad that had ever worked in a Department led by a Secretary of State from another political party.
My job was partly to push my Minster’s interests while liaising with Number 10, other Whitehall Departments and party HQ, as for all spads. But I also had to help keep sufficiently good relations with our Coalition partners to maintain our freedom of manoeuvre in my Minister’s areas of responsibility (covering most of our Department’s expenditure).
Split loyalties are par for the course for spads. The Coalition amended the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers to state they work for the whole government, not just their Minister. This tickled David Cameron: at the first meeting of Coalition spads, he went round the room asking each of us who we worked for. I said, ‘David Willetts’ and others mentioned their Ministers. Afterwards, he said, ‘You’re all wrong. You all work for me!’
