Friends in high places: Do voters care about sleaze allegations?

Sean O’Grady explores the issues around the appointment of Ewen Fergusson, a university friend of Boris Johnson and fellow member of the Bullingdon Club, to the independent ethics watchdog

Chum’s the word: the PM has been accused of ‘packing’ boards and quangos for political advantage (Getty Images)

The appointment by Boris Johnson of Ewen Fergusson, an old university chum, to the Committee on Standards in Public Life has been met with widespread derision, and it is easy to see why.

Sir Alastair Graham, a former chair of the watchdog, called the move “pathetic” and part of the trend towards the government becoming a “chumocracy”: “It really is desperate if you have to be a university mate of Boris Johnson to qualify to sit on the committee that is supposed to examine sleaze. I doubt that the experience of the Bullingdon would provide any of the right qualifications. It seems like a completely inappropriate appointment.”

Fergusson, 55, was, like Johnson, at Oxford University in the 1980s and a member of the notorious/exclusive Bullingdon Club. There is a famous photograph, now injuncted, of the club members in fancy dress looking the very image of youthful arrogant entitlement, with David Cameron and George Osborne also being graduates of this uproarious dining club. Well known for smashing up restaurants (though graciously paying for the damage), the most disturbing of their customs was an initiation ceremony that required them to burn a £50 note in front of a homeless person.