We need a Blair-osborne Act to stop ex-mps shilling for foreign rulers
The nexus between government, business and overseas money is becoming ever tighter
At this rate, it won’t be long before George Osborne buys a stately home to rival that of Tony Blair. The former chancellor bagged his 13th job this week: he has been recruited as an adviser to Coinbase, a cryptocurrency outfit. All this while chairing the British Museum and working for an investment bank. He’s currently advising the Emirati government on how best to buy The Telegraph. His earnings aren’t published anymore but I suspect that, by the end of this year, he will be a very rich man indeed.
You can see why he commands a high price: impeccably-connected and best friends with David Cameron, now back as Foreign Secretary. Cameron has also been making the Emirati case, telling people how important it is that Sheikh Mansour is allowed to buy this newspaper. As PM he was keen for their investment. After No10, they were keen on him, paying £100,000-a-shot for speeches and offering him a bizarre gig giving university lectures. My hunch is that he was paid a bit more than your standard academic – but we’ll never know, as it was never revealed.
Blair and Osborne are examples of something rather new to British politics: people who end up getting seriously rich as a result of politics. No one used to do so before. They may write books, pose as commentators or become figures of public amusement: Michael Portillo with his trains, Ann Widdecombe on Strictly. Jim Callaghan worked as an MP until he was 75; Ted Heath until he was 84. Both spent their post-no 10 days lending their experience to the House and their constituents.
But there is a model now, pioneered by Blair. Set yourself up as a company and turn your clout into cash by running errands for autocracies and corporations. There is a new world of influence laundering: disguising the hand of government through investment companies, universities or think tanks. If you’re nice to them in government, they’ll be nice to you afterwards. And if you’ll work for one of their sock-puppet companies, either directly or through a bank, the money can really come in.
Cameron’s first serious stab at this ended badly. His attempt to set up a $1 billion China-uk investment flopped. He then hitched himself to Lex Greensill, who promised to make Cameron rich if his banking company floated on the stock market. Instead, it went bust – and the subsequent investigation found Cameron had been messaging ministers seeking taxpayer bailouts.
I once asked a friend of Cameron’s why he did it. The reply was “intergenerational wealth”: that is, enough money to filter down two or more generations. Clinton-style money. Blair-style money. Instead, Cameron ended up with fresh disgrace and was slipping off the radar until Sunak rescued him. And, in so doing, gave him a second attempt at a lucrative political afterlife.
My hunch is that Cameron won’t blow it next time. It would make sense for him to keep the Emiratis on side now and – after the Tory defeat – join Osborne in running errands for them. Perhaps a Uk-emirati fund, to succeed where his China-uk fund failed. Former prime ministers and chancellors are ideal agents of influence: the Kazakhs had Blair. Russia had Gerhard Schröder (through Gazprom) and the Emiratis now have Osborne (through Redbird).
The Tony Blair Institute has this to a fine art. It lists donors and partners but you never know who pays for what. This matters because, if the ideas-free Keir Starmer is elected we can expect a mass transfer of staff from Blair Inc to the Starmer government. The Blair Institute could well end up as the golden getaway between corporates, autocracies and the UK government.
We know about the revolving door between the Ministry of Defence staff and the procurement companies. Steps have been taken to address this. But the problem runs deeper. Look at Chris Skidmore, a history graduate who spent two months standing in as an energy minister before doing a review into net zero. He then landed a professorship at the University of Bath – in spite of his lack of qualifications – and then consultancy gigs paying more than his MP’S salary. He has just quit parliament, foisting a by-election upon his abandoned constituents.
How many other net-zero advocates will be rushing for similar jobs if (as expected) voters liberate two-thirds of Tory MPS to the private sector? Skidmore was wise to jump now and avoid the glut of applicants. George Freeman said this week that he quit as a minister because mortgage rises meant his salary was not enough. Such low pay, he says, means only the truly rich will afford politics in the future. As a science minister, he was paid £120,000 ranking him amongst the top 3 per cent of earners. In what world is this low pay?
In the Osborne world. The Blair world. The Skidmore world. A world that politics opens up, offering pay they’d never have managed in another career path. These are not bad people: politically, I admire them. But the dash for cash makes everything look like a scam. It introduces suspicion of decisions being made not for public benefit but for how they will position the politician when they become (as Stephen Byers famously put it) a “cab for hire”.
The risk now is that the Emiratis, Qataris and others stand with open cheque books willing to hire anyone who comes loose from any British government. This is, in and of itself, a potentially corruptive influence – especially when ministers are deciding whether such autocracies should be allowed to buy media groups or critical British infrastructure.
One prescient politician saw all this coming in 2010, warning of “the far-too-cosy relationship between politics, government, business and money” as the “next scandal waiting to happen”. That was Cameron, talking of the need to clean up politics. He was right, and Rishi Sunak can now act – ideally, by banning anyone who has occupied a Cabinet role ever acting as a lobbyist. If that’s too much, then a lifetime ban on UK government ministers advising foreign governments, either directly or indirectly.
As the Blair Inc. phenomenon gathers strength and the money from autocracies flows every faster – and comes in ever more disguises – a defence is needed. A Blair/osborne act to stop the post-office enrichment of former ministers selling influence could be a good place to start.
There is a new world of influence laundering. If you’re nice to them in government they’ll be nice to you afterwards