Gove, Cummings, and the revolving door at the heart of British politics

The links between business and government have been vexatious for a very long time, writes Sean O'Grady

Dominic Cummings is one of two former special advisers to Michael Gove at the Department for Education now at the heart of government (Getty)

The “revolving door” phenomenon of former ministers getting jobs in the private sector, sometimes associated with the work they did as ministers, is hardly new. Nor is the occasional appointment of a businessperson to a civil service position or them entering politics themselves. The door certainly did revolve, but usually just the once.

What seems to be novel is how some individuals are now moving from the public to the private spheres, and then back again, and with extremely weak levels of scrutiny and accountability. To this may be added the way that personal relationships seem to be of such importance in the Johnson administration; some might term it a culture of cronyism.

The obscure board of the Cabinet Office is the current focus of attention. Four of the five recent external board appointments of non-executive directors just happen to have been former colleagues of Michael Gove, the minister responsible for the Cabinet Office. One of them, Henry de Zoete was a special adviser to Mr Gove at the Department for Education, leaving government in 2014, when Mr Gove was sacked as secretary of state. Mr De Zoete went on to be a successful entrepreneur, and no doubt will want to bring that free thinking spirit of the start-up into the supposedly fusty corridors of Whitehall. Or at least ask some sharp questions about the way the cabinet office and the wider civil service goes about serving the public.