Cronyism corrodes trust in Britain
The country may not be blighted with the corruption that infects poorer nations, but a lack of transparency in government is becoming an issue of real concern.
What’s happened?
Richard Sharp, the outgoing BBC chairman and ex-banker who was once Rishi Sunak’s boss, and has donated some £400,000 to the Conservatives, broke the rules on public appointments by neglecting to disclose to the recruitment panel that he had helped arrange a £800,000 loan guarantee for former prime minister Boris Johnson. He also broke the rules by not telling them that he’d informed Johnson about his application. Sharp feels hard done by, says The Sunday Times, because he informed the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, of the loan plan. But he was “sunk by his lack of transparency” in the interview process. It is this “lack of transparency at the heart of the UK government machine that so often leads to recrimination and scandal”.
Is the UK a corrupt country?
Most of us associate “corruption” with less-developed nations – in Africa, say, or the Middle East – where people genuinely do seek power to loot public coffers and officials have to be bribed to get everything from a passport down to a street vendor’s licence. By that standard, the UK is not corrupt. Here, a career in politics – or the police force, say – is rarely motivated by the desire for personal enrichment. Indeed, many parliamentarians earn far less than they might do outside politics. Yet this view is also complacent, says Bronwen Maddox in the Financial Times. “British clubbability blends at times into cronyism and privileged access… ease of contact can turn into the use of public office for private gain.”
What is cronyism?
Cronyism means “donations, patronage, handshakes and a whole panoply of reciprocal favours” that fall short of corruption, says Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times. This rot in public life predates Johnson and will outlive him. It’s not merely about “knighthoods for chums and ermine for political donors, but the revolving door between government and big business that has, in recent years, become more like a freight train”. Half of all ministers in the May and Johnson governments went on to work for firms over which they had exercised regulatory oversight.
Are things getting worse?
Yes, according to the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International. In the most recent annual “corruption perception index” published by the group (in January 2023), the UK fell sharply in the global league table of the most transparent countries – and was given its lowest ever score (73 out of 100). The table ranks countries in order of perceived transparency, with Denmark at the top (scoring 90), and South Sudan (13), Syria (13) and Somalia (12) at the bottom. Until 2017, the UK was consistently in the top ten. This year it fell from 11th to 18th place, with researchers citing “woeful inadequacies” in upholding political integrity, and “worryingly low” levels of public trust. The fall in our headline score of five points put us in embarrassing company as one of five nations to drop five points or more this time – the others being Qatar (-5), Myanmar (-5), Azerbaijan (-7) and Oman (-8). The damning assessment was published two days after Rishi Sunak sacked Nadhim Zahawi as Tory chairman over his murky tax affairs. But it reflected a range of issues, worries and scandals.
What exactly?
The report cited further revelations over the government’s unlawful “VIP lane” during the pandemic, which fast-tracked offers of protective equipment from companies with political links – and appeared “systemically biased in favour of those with connections to the party of government”. It also highlighted the appointment of politically connected people to public-sector roles during the pandemic. In addition, the Transparency International report cited 40 potential breaches of the ministerial code that were not investigated over the past five years (and where details emerged during the review period, the year to October 2022). Further, it cited evidence from a cross-party parliamentary watchdog that decisions on awarding money from the £3.6bn towns fund – designed to boost economic growth in struggling towns – were “not impartial and were politically motivated”. It also cited a Sunday Times investigation into wealthy donors to the Tories, who donated at least £3m and were then given a seat in the House of Lords.
Why does all this matter?
Good governance and probity matter for a range of moral, social and political reasons – and also economic ones. Transparency International measures perceptions of corruption and its findings are used as a benchmark by analysts and investors. According to Daniel Bruce, the body’s UK chief executive, the sharp fall in the UK’s standing is a “powerful indictment of a recent decline in standards in government and controls over the use of taxpayer money” that should worry those in power as well as the rest of us. Business executives and other experts are “concerned about insufficient controls on the abuse of public office and increasingly view corruption and bribery as a real issue in Britain”.
“British clubbability blends at times into cronyism and privileged access”
How could we combat cronyism?
The fact that Sunak has appointed a new ethics adviser (after Johnson’s quit) is welcome, says Transparency International’s Steve Goodrich. But “giving them full autonomy and more powers to investigate and report their findings” would be even better. And ideally the government would support a House of Lords bill on ethics and integrity, delivering a raft of changes to raise and enforce standards in government. Second, we need a transparent register of ministerial lobbying (as the US, Canada and Ireland all do already). And we could cap the amount party donors are allowed to give each year. None of these things are likely to happen overnight. “But given the state we’re in currently, I’d counsel our political leaders that the favoured strategy of delaying does not seem to be working.”