Prospect

3. A new face for public probity

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Something is rotten in the state of Britain. Even before Pinchergat­e, the Johnson years had witnessed Wallpaperg­ate and Partygate. Not to mention the unlawful suspension of parliament, the Owen Paterson affair and two prime ministeria­l ethics advisers quitting. There are reports that Johnson’s staunch Fleet Street ally, Paul Dacre of the Mail group, will soon follow the PM’s own brother in being installed as a legislator for life in the Lords. The civil service is on its knees, and the country yearns for higher standards.

As the ousted leader’s party scrambles to “move on,” the opposition urgently needs to crystallis­e the unease. Over in Australia, Labor’s Anthony Albanese routed a three-term right-wing government that had presided over a sharp drop in the country’s standing on Transparen­cy Internatio­nal’s anti-corruption index. The new PM resolved that a new ethos required a new face. He brought in Glyn Davis, a former vice chancellor of the

University of Melbourne, to run the hub of his government machine and rebuild the Australian public service—all on the understand­ing that he would be free to offer frank and fearless advice.

The architectu­re of Whitehall is not quite the same: appointing someone to lead a sweeping review of public standards might be better than bringing them into the engine room. But the drive to clean things up will benefit enormously from having a prominent person in charge who enjoys Davis’s three key advantages: independen­t standing, outsider status and experience of having run something. Could Starmer persuade someone like former British Museum director Neil MacGregor or former Supreme Court president Brenda Hale to grasp the brief?

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