Revealed: It was Charlie Parker who approved the misleading statement about his second role

It can be revealed the Chief Executive of the Government of Jersey approved his own misleading statement, claiming his second role as a non-executive director had the support of both the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.

A Freedom of Information request has confirmed it was Charlie Parker himself who provided the information to the Press Office who released the information to journalists while failing to let ministers know about the statement in advance.

It was revealed last October that Mr Parker had accepted the £50,000 a year role working with a property firm in the UK.

After the revelation sparked an outcry it was announced he would be gifting his fee to charity.

The saga led to Mr Parker being asked to resign in November on the eve of a vote of no confidence in the Chief Minister over his handling of the affair.

Before the announcement of his departure, it was claimed Mr Parker would only devote time to the £50,000 a year additional post away from his full time job, but a dossier of paperwork revealed that not to be the case.

In new documents seen by ITV News, an internal report prepared for the Chief Minister shows it was Mr Parker who provided a junior colleague with false and misleading information, including that the Deputy Chief Minister, Senator Lyndon Farnham, had backed his second role plans.

The report says: “The questions [from a journalist] were forwarded by the Press Office to the Chief Executive’s team, asking how they would like to proceed, and offering to draft a statement using any information received. The Press Office received information from the Chief Executive in response to the questions. The Press Office protocol requires appropriate approval from senior officials and ministers. As there was no ministerial quote in this response to the media, approval was considered as obtained through the Chief Executive.”

“The Chief Executive has subsequently acknowledged, in the circumstances, it would have been appropriate to have spoken to ministers before the statement was shared widely to ensure they were in agreement.”

Interviews for an interim Chief Executive to replace Charlie Parker, pending a permanent successor, are taking place this week.