May's latest attack on bad bosses is just hot air

Four separate attacks on fatcats and rogues have yielded very little in terms of concrete action, as Lord Adonis pointed out

Theresa May is all talk when it comes to cracking down on bad bosses (PA)

In response of the collapse of Carillon, Prime Minister Theresa May has climbed back onto the “country that works for everyone” horse.

Legislation is, we are told, being prepared to bring bad bosses to book.

The Pensions Regulator could get powers to block takeovers if it fears they will have a negative impact on workers’ pensions.

The idea of fines for corporate miscreants has even be mooted, although not, it should be noted, directly by Ms May.

Writing in the Observer what the PM did say was that she is determined to “level the playing field and stand up to the small minority of businesses that give the majority bad name” having declared that “too often, we’ve seen top executives reaping big bonuses for recklessly putting short-term profit ahead of long-term success”.

But we've heard it all before. When May took office, the talk on the steps of Number Ten was of a radical new approach. The PM, in fact, was more bold on the subject of the corporate oversight than most recent Labour leaders had dared to be. A Tory taking on the City! Truly the world had turned upside down.

Of course, she didn’t. It was all just talk, as Lord Adonis underlined when he pointed out that the PM has pledged action against fat cats and rogue bosses on four separate occasions.

The result? Not much.

An early suggestion of putting workers on boards - not even all that radical by European standards - was dropped like a hot potato when the City kicked up a stink.

Companies do now have to publish pay ratios between bosses and workers, and those that suffer shareholder rebellions get put on a published naughty step. But it is a world leading con to describe those measures as a world leading package of corporate reforms as the Government has sought to do.

This latest assault on corporate miscreants is unlikely to do anything more than generate a lot of heat.

In the meantime, lobbyists will buttonhole their tame MPs. Business leaders will take to their favourite newspapers to warn of the risks of any change to the status quo. A white paper will emerge in March, and it will be hailed as big, bad and bold, when in reality there’ll be a few tweaks to existing legislation as the substitute of the very real reforms that are needed to prevent Carillon 2.0.

The Insolvency Service, having looked into the conduct of Carillion’s disgraced directors at ministers’ behest, will say it hasn’t found anything actionable. The contractor crisis will end up looking like the banking crisis that preceded it in that no one will be held to account for the brutal price being paid by the workers, and small businesses, caught up in it.

While few were held to account for that earlier, and larger crisis, it did at least result in the setting up of a Parliamentary Commission. Led by the former Treasury Committee chair Andrew Tyrie, the latter proposed a worthwhile package of reforms and forced the Government to adopt them.

A similar body to look at contractors like Carillion, and their role in the public sector, mightn't be such a bad idea.

But handing power over to a body like that would be anathema to this Prime Minister. So instead we get PR tricks that fool only the credulous.

They will ultimately add to the public perception of a Conservative Government that only looks after its friends. That should at least be of some consolation to those pining for its end.