Ex-Minister's new job... with bank she helped to win foreign contract

A former Labour Minister is embroiled in controversy after landing a lucrative job with a bank that profited from Government contracts during her time in office.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean has been hired as a consultant by Standard Chartered, which won development aid projects worth millions of pounds while she was International Trade Minister.

She is a confidante of the Prime Minister and had close dealings with Standard Chartered directors while at the Foreign Office.

Now she is working privately for the same businessmen, advising them on how to expand the bank's operations in the Middle East.

Baroness Symons, 55, made headlines last year when she picked up a £2,300-a-day directorship with British Airways just days after leaving Government. She also has well-paid jobs with ferry company P&O and law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

Standard Chartered's 2006 interim report says it derives more than 90 per cent of its profits from Asia, Africa and the Middle East - areas for which Baroness Symons was Tony Blair's special envoy in sensitive negotiations with governments.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb said: "This once again smacks of the revolving door of influence at the heart of Government. It raises concern that former Ministers are being targeted with attractive offers by companies who believe they can wield influence on their behalf."

Baroness Symons, who was once general secretary of the senior civil servants, trade union, the First Division Association, is married to Phil Bassett, who is an aide to Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer.

They have an apartment near Westminster Cathedral as well as a £1million country home in the village of Vernham Dean, Hampshire.

In 2002, Baroness Symons played a role in the Government's decision to provide export credit guarantees to cover Standard Chartered loans to the Philippines, saving the bank huge sums in insurance.

A similar deal was struck with Standard Chartered the following year to cover a £70million road-building project in Bangladesh.

London-based Standard Chartered - recently described by financial experts as the hottest property in banking - has seen its shares rocket by 50 per cent in the past 18 months.

A Standard Chartered spokesman said: "The Baroness works on a consultancy basis. She has provided advice on our Middle East presence."

A spokesman for Baroness Symons denied she had been personally involved in granting export credit guarantees in the Philippines and Bangladesh, adding: "She has cleared her appointments with the Committee on Business Appointments."