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 The revolving door & jobs for the boys 

How to get ahead as a UK elite:

get a job for big business/ the media/ politics through existing connection

Those in the elite network flit between politics, business and media jobs so easily. But these are all supposedly skilled professions with specific talents and experience required for each. This may explain lack of quality among many within these institutions, especially those at they very top. It is further evidence of the meritocracy myth, that who you know in life is more important than what you know or how hard you work.

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The bigger someone's black book, the more doors that open and the more money they can make. However, the consequence of this closeness between these institutions are the many examples of political/ corporate scandals being covered up and corporate/media corruption remaining unregulated.

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The revolving door is therefore wide open to conflicts of interest and corruption. 

Politics & the media

There is a close personal relationships between politicians and media owners and journalists. There are also a lot of career moves between media and politics. 

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​Note when we say "politics" we don't just mean politicians, or MPs. This is also political advisors, lobbyists, consultants or NGOs.

 

  • In December 2020, James Slack left then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s team to become Political Editor at the Sun. In December 2021, The Sun did not cover the “partygate” (Government staff having drunkedn parties in Boris Johnson's house during COVID lockdowns) story, because Slack was there.  

  • Robbie Gibb who worked for Theresa May while Prime Minister. He then became BBC chair for impartiality. Later, when Newsnight presenter Emily Maitliss left the BBC, she accused Gibb of being an “active Tory Party agent” at the BBC

  • While Chancellor, Rishi Sunak's former banker boss Richard Sharp became Chair of the BBC. This appointment was made on the recommendation of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was also friends with Sharp and had arranged for a guarantor for a 800k loan for Johnson. Sharp has previously donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Conservative party. He has also worked as a paid advisor for both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

  • Allegra Stratton, a journalist formerly from the BBC and ITV, left her media career to join the Government’s Communications department, working for Rishi Sunak and then Boris Johnson. When she left government in disgrace, she went straight back to the media again. She joined Bloomberg, often writing columns about Rishi Sunak while failing to mention he's  best friends with her husband, James Forsyth, who works for The Spectator.

  • Amber de Boton left ITV to become Rishi Sunak’s director of communications in October 2022

  • Andrew Neil worked for the Tories before moving into journalism

  • George Osborne went from Chancellor of the Exchequer to editor of the Evening Standard (while still serving as an MP at the time)

  • Former Cabinet Ministers Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg presented shows on TalkTV and GB News, respectively, while still sitting as MPs.

  • Former Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party (now Reform MP), Lee Anderson, presented a show on GB News

Politics & Corporations

Lobbying & Consultancy, the indirect way business and politics work together

In 2023, OpenDemocracy published their investigation into the revolving door between the Labour Party and lobbying firms. They found evidence of lobbyists working in the shadow cabinet in "secondment opportunties"

Shortly after he became Prime Minister, Keir Starmer's political director Luke Sullivan moved from a 16-year long career at Westminster to join a consultancy firm Headland whose clients include political lobbying firms and private water company Anglian Water. Sullivan's job will "help clients better understand and engage with the new government as it strengthens its partnership with business".

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