The Boris Johnson Cronies Suddenly Very Concerned About Cronyism

After spending 14 years defending the most morally compromised government in living memory, Labour's opponents have suddenly rediscovered their principles

Times Editor Tony Gallagher going for a run with Boris Johnson at the 2017 Conservative Party conference

The Times has spent the past week shouting loudly about what it describes as “cronyism” within Keir Starmer’s Government.

The allegations are based on the fact that a series of formerly politically-aligned advisers have now been given roles in the civil service by the new administration.

Although similar appointments were made by David Cameron and others in the past, the paper suggests that these new appointments are at a significantly more senior and operational level.

In a leading article, the paper suggests that the voters “deserve better than chumocracy by stealth”.

Of course such concerns are legitimate ones for journalism, and if Labour really is attempting to politicise the civil service then that is deserving of scrutiny.

However, it’s worth pointing out that such “chumocracy by stealth” does not appear to have massively bothered the paper, and its editor, in the past.

In particular we can look back to 2022, when the paper briefly reported on claims that then Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously sought to appoint his wife Carrie as his chief of staff.

This story of quite serious cronyism and ‘chumocracy’ in public office was not publicly denied by Downing Street at the time. However, after appearing in the Times’ print edition, the story then inexplicably vanished from its website, never to return.