The UK finally has a new prime minister, but will it just be business as usual for kleptocrats?
NEW GOVERNMENT, OLD PROBLEMS
I’m really struggling to get my brain back in its post-holiday box, not least because by ignoring the last few weeks I’ve been able to ignore the increasingly dystopian nature of British politics. Anyway, the campaign to be prime minister is over, the 170,000-odd (mostly-) old (mostly-) white (mostly-) men who got to vote have had their say, and life must now continue. Yay, democracy.
So, what does this mean for the oligarchy, for Britain’s role as “Butler to the World” and for the prospect of a unified Western response to kleptocracy, above all to that coming from the Kremlin? Truthfully, I can see few reasons to be cheerful.
- “While there are differences between [defeated candidate Rishi] Sunak and [successful candidate Liz] Truss, neither gives much cause for optimism that the UK fully understands the Russian threat or that it can help to lead in making Europe more secure, except in relation to the provision of equipment and training to Ukraine. The scale of the economic crisis facing the UK will severely limit both candidates’ scope for democratic leadership,” wrote Maxine David, a lecturer at Leiden University.
Credit where credit’s due: Boris Johnson was good at sending Ukraine the weapons it needed, when doing so was neither profitable nor popular, even though he increasingly came to resemble President Zelensky’s needy friend as his premiership collapsed. And his ministers talked the talk when it came to cracking down on oligarchs.
- “Putin’s assault on Ukraine has shown the true extent of the international financial flows linked to Russia and the serious risks this poses to our country. We will never cease in our determination to change our laws to root out corruption, dirty money and protect our national security,” wrote Priti Patel last month. Until a few hours ago, she was home secretary and thus in charge of law enforcement.
But Johnson’s government never did much about dirty money except talk. There is a lot of scope for improvement here, though I see precious few grounds for hope from Suella Braverman, who is apparently taking over Patel’s job. Braverman has up to now primarily been famous for her attacks on “woke” people, which is the latest enthusiasm of the tiresome-est stretches of the Tory Party’s right wing.