We must clean up Tory sleaze
The Prime Minister’s offer to “fix” the tax concerns of billionaire James Dyson if he supplied ventilators in the Covid-19 emergency is just the latest example of cronyism within this Government.
What about all the companies that offered to supply PPE but never got the chance because they didn’t have Boris’s mobile number?
Instead, contracts were awarded to Tory mates and donors without any trace of competitive tendering and no questions asked.
What’s more, with regard to the £2.6million wasted on the so-called Downing Street press briefing room, I would have given it a lick of paint and only charged him mates rates but I don’t have his mobile number either. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.
John Sedgwick, Tamworth, Staffs
The stench of Tory cronyism is overpowering. Former PM Dave Cameron was caught lobbying ministers on behalf of his employer Greensill Capital, but this goes all the way to Number 10 with Boris Johnson offering to “fix” some tax affairs for Tory donor James Dyson in return for supplying ventilators. Don’t hold your breath for the inquiry either as the Tories will close ranks to dodge scrutiny. Sleaze is the Tory party’s greatest weakness and will cost them votes.
Reg Barrett Southminster, Essex
I’m not expecting any significant outcome from an inquiry into Cameron and the latest Tory sleaze scandal. Politics hasn’t been respectable since Thatcher’s day. It’s been standard
practice since the 1980s that ministers were assured of a directorship on leaving office – they didn’t even need any relevant expertise.
Inquiries are an irrelevance. Findings are rarely published on time and there’s always a royal wedding, or another scandal to detract from any further scrutiny.
Cameron’s slip was becoming too blase about it. And who can blame him when the test and trace scandal was so lightly brushed off ? John Shale, Wigan, Gtr Manchester
Ministers have lined up to reassure us that no rules were broken when David Cameron lobbied key Government figures, including the Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted Sunak followed the rules “to the letter”, while Environment Secretary George Eustice said of Cameron’s lobbying “he has not broken any of the rules”.
The Tories are defending blatant examples of cronyism as being within “the rules”, which means that the rules need to be changed. Sasha Simic, North London
What is the point of MPs holding an investigation into the latest sleaze scandal when we all know it will just be a whitewash? Former prime ministers and ministers should not be allowed to act as lobbyists for a minimum of 10 years after they leave Parliament. This should also apply to top civil servants. Britain is going the same way as the USA where big business and the wealthiest run the country.
Arthur Wood, Leeds
No lobbyist should be able arbitrarily to obtain direct contact with any MP or member of the government. A committee, or a number of them, should be set up to hear and adjudicate the interests of the lobbyists. These should then decide, by majority, which topics should be brought to the attention of which department or minister. John Irving, Leeds
How is it fans can protest greedy football club owners trying to form a breakaway league to lift profits but when it comes to Tory greed nothing is done? It seems we get the Government we deserve.