Treasury official Braddick faces two-year lobbying ban in senior Barclays role

A senior Treasury official is to be banned from lobbying the government for two years when she takes up an executive role at one of Britain’s biggest banks.

Sky News has learnt that Whitehall’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) has finalised its advice in relation to Katharine Braddick’s appointment as director of public policy at Barclays.

City sources said that ACOBA had recommended that Ms Braddick be barred from taking up the position for between three and six months, with a further lengthy restriction on her ability to seek to influence government policy on financial services.

An announcement is thought to be imminent.

Ms Braddick has been a highly rated figure in Whitehall for years, and has been director-general for financial services at the Treasury since 2016.

Technically, she had been on secondment to the Treasury from the Bank of England for the last seven years.

She previously worked at the Association of British Insurers, while she has more recently served as the Treasury’s member of the international Financial Stability Board.

At the Bank of England, she last held the title of director of prudential policy, a key role in the framework within which large banks were regulated.

Her impending move to Barclays is expected to see her making hundreds of thousands of pounds a year more than she earned in her civil service post.

Sky News revealed three months ago that she had been recruited by Barclays, a move which angered other big lenders amid growing scrutiny of the revolving doors between the public and private sectors.

ACOBA, which publishes the advice it provides once the subjects of its reviews take up their new posts, declined to comment on Thursday.

Assuming she accepts the restrictions placed on her and takes up the post, Ms Braddick’s arrival at Barclays will come amid a fresh wave of management upheaval at the bank.

Jes Staley stepped down as its chief executive several weeks ago to contest the City watchdog’s findings that he had failed to be transparent about the nature of his relationship with the disgraced late financier, Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Staley has been replaced by VS Venkatakrishnan, who was already a senior member of the bank’s executive leadership.

The recruitment of Ms Braddick has come at a time of intense attention on such moves by government officials.

The Treasury became embroiled in an embarrassing row earlier this year over tactics used by the former prime minister, David Cameron, to try to secure access to COVID lending schemes for Greensill, the supply chain finance company he advised.

Although Treasury officials and ministers were shown to have rejected Mr Cameron’s overtures, the disclosure of text messages between him and several public figures sparked a long-running political firefight.

Ms Braddick’s prospective recruitment is not the first time a senior public official has been courted by Barclays.

In 2013, Sir Hector Sants, the outgoing head of the Financial Services Authority, joined the bank, although he stayed with it for only a short period.

Barclays declined to comment.