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Economist Lord Jim O’Neill, who has been advising the prime minister, has said he will not be taking a job in Andy Burnham’s government. <\/b><\/p>\n
As first reported by, external<\/span><\/a> the Financial Times, Lord O’Neill, a crossbench peer who was once a treasury minister under the Conservatives, said he did not want the constraints involved in taking on a formal role.<\/p>\n The former chief economist at Goldman Sachs had been tipped to become Burnham’s chief economic adviser. <\/p>\n He said he was enjoying what he was currently doing too much and did not want to have to give up control of his business interests to comply with official rules.<\/p>\n He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he had “lots of other things that are going on that I very much enjoy” and, having been a minister before, he knew the job included “all the constraints that understandably go with it, like a blind trust and to abandon everything else you do, never mind the fact that it’s 24\/7”. <\/p>\n In placing shares in blind trusts, ministers have no knowledge of how their investment is being handled, to avoid any potential conflict of interest. <\/p>\n He said he concluded he would rather be a voice to talk to and “get on with the rest of the things in my life”.<\/p>\n He earlier told the Financial Times it was “not because of any policy disagreements”, adding “I’m a massive fan of the focus on devolution and I hope Andy and his team will be bold on this and everything else.”<\/p>\n