Good Law Project
100,000 signatures reached
To: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, UK Cabinet Office
Stop appointing your mates to top jobs
Ensure fair and open recruitment for top public sector jobs
Why is this important?
Conservative Peer Dido Harding was appointed as Head of the National Institute for Health Protection in August. The wife of a Conservative MP and friend of former Prime Minister David Cameron, Dido Harding didn’t pip other candidates to the post at the interview. There weren’t any other candidates. She was just handed the job.
She’s not the only one to land a top job this way. Each week it seems another individual secures a role of vital public importance without any advertisement or fair process. Very often that individual has personal and political connections to the Government. In any other country, we’d call it what it is: cronyism. But just imagine what it would mean for jobs to be advertised and awarded on the basis of ability not who you went to school with.
This Government's approach discriminates against those born without a silver spoon in their mouth. It’s unfair to those who don’t rub shoulders with high-ranking Ministers. And it’s unfair to groups who the data shows are shut out of public life. It’s time to put an end to it.
She’s not the only one to land a top job this way. Each week it seems another individual secures a role of vital public importance without any advertisement or fair process. Very often that individual has personal and political connections to the Government. In any other country, we’d call it what it is: cronyism. But just imagine what it would mean for jobs to be advertised and awarded on the basis of ability not who you went to school with.
This Government's approach discriminates against those born without a silver spoon in their mouth. It’s unfair to those who don’t rub shoulders with high-ranking Ministers. And it’s unfair to groups who the data shows are shut out of public life. It’s time to put an end to it.
