Cat Neilan

An ideological purge does not make for good government. As I said to @CatNeilan, you would lose experience and institutional memory, but you would also send a message to the rest of the civil service that they are not trusted. observer.co.uk/news/national/…

Are criminals using your number plate? Our Whitehall Editor @catneilan explains the rise of two types of illegal licence plates - “ghost” plates and “cloned” plates. Our team bought a cloned plate with ease- and found that the UK’s driving and vehicle licensing agency has at best just six people carrying out checks. Roughly 1 in 15 vehicles are estimated to have ghost plates or cloned plates. Watch the video here to see how this has an unsuspected effect on congestion to criminal activity.

Jonathan Powell, National Security Advisor, said Mandelson's appointment was "weirdly rushed" confirming a scoop from @Richard_AHolmes and me inews.co.uk/news/no-10-fas…

@Direthoughts @_tomscotson One more — @CatNeilan actually got in there first with the scoop about the independent adviser launching an investigation, in a post over on Bluesky ⬇️ bsky.app/profile/catnei…

Labour MP @FloEshalomi told @ObserverUK "There is a lot of concern among female parliamentarians that when we raise things we are not taken seriously, and that is part of the toxicity around the leadership in No 10… we need to make sure we have reset on that.”

“We put it pretty strongly,” said one MP who contacted the whips. “I was clear that I didn’t think he was somebody who was appropriate to enter the House of Lords… and I was very unhappy about his previous associations with [Sean] Morton.”

Exclusive: Labour politicians raised concerns about Keir Starmer’s plans to give Matthew Doyle a peerage in the weeks before it was confirmed, citing intimidating behaviour, particularly towards women observer.co.uk/news/politics/…

Exclusive: Investigators carrying out developed vetting (DV) on Mandelson failed to ask interviewees about his relationship with Epstein One of those interviewed during this phase told @ObserverUK there was “not a single question on Jeffrey Epstein” observer.co.uk/news/politics/…

Exclusive: Gordon Brown raised concerns over the government appointment of former Scottish Sun editor David Dinsmore The ex-PM wrote to Cabinet Secretary twice, raising qus about Dinsmore's involvement in the paper's obtaining of private medical records observer.co.uk/news/politics/…

At the time, Mandelson was a frontrunner for the position of Oxford Uni chancellor A government source said: “Peter thought he could do both roles. Morgan did not think he could.”

Exclusive: Morgan McSweeney sought official advice about whether Mandelson could be the UK's ambassador to the US on a part-time basis Officials “had to explain that being His Majesty’s Ambassador in Washington was a full time job… in Washington" observer.co.uk/news/politics/…

2/. Crypto donations are uniquely hard to trace, easy to fragment, and vulnerable to abuse. AI could already be used to route thousands of sub-threshold donations in seconds. Here’s @CatNeilan write up of the story observer.co.uk/news/national/…

I can't speak for the tech, but this is a lovely set of pictures

Keir Starmer tells me the “hugely talented” Angela Rayner will be back in the cabinet. She is “the best social mobility story this country has ever seen” he says in our interview for @ObserverUK. Read the full piece here: observer.co.uk/news/national/…

@CatNeilan @freyashaww1 Listen here - bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

Season finale of the Naked Week out last night— been an absolute pleasure to work on. Investigation from me @CatNeilan and @freyashaww1 below — it’s about the scandalous mess that is Supported Exempt Accommodation & its massive economic and social costs observer.co.uk/news/national/…

@jessphillips @ObserverUK As ever, this was a massive team endeavour, with @Coramazov, @freyashaww1 and myself reporting and @GarethCeredig, @jonholmes1 and @andrewhunterm (and many more!) on the Naked Week side. Listen below if you haven't yet! bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

@jessphillips @ObserverUK I'll leave the last word to Barry Toon, who sits on Birmingham's exempt accommodation forum. According to him, this delay means “literally billions will have been paid out to provide poor housing, while homelessness increases”

“The whole system is near-criminal in its ability to harvest public money so that exploitative providers can provide inadequate housing & support to vulnerable people" The last Naked Week-Observer investigation of 2025, is all about exempt accommodation observer.co.uk/news/national/…

@jessphillips @ObserverUK Legislation was actually passed in 2023, giving LAs greater powers to tackle rogue agents. It's been gathering dust ever since. MHCLG told us implementation will begin in January - but it won't be complete until 2027