BORIS JOHNSON’S Tory government is struggling to find a mission for itself, beyond just hanging on to look after the rich and look after their friends. Without much of a vision of the future, all that seems to be left is a kind of crony capitalism — with the emphasis on crony.

In the latest jobs for the boys move, Tory Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng appointed former Tory Business Minister David Willetts as chair of the UK Space Agency Board at the end of April. Willetts will help run the UK Space Agency, which spends around £500m a year of public money encouraging the British space sector, alongside Paul Bate, who was made chief executive last year.

To add to the crony-ish feel of the UK Space Agency, Bate was David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s “health policy” adviser during the Tory-led coalition government and went on to be “director of NHS services” at Tory-favoured health privatiser Babylon Health before joining the Space Agency. Before working for Cameron, Bate was a health adviser to then-PM Tony Blair, so he is not quite as narrowly party-political as David Willetts.

Kwasi Kwarteng said Willetts “will bring a wealth of expertise to the role while working with the excellent Paul Bate to deliver on Britain’s space ambitions.” Willetts’s expertise includes a very long Tory career, beginning as a researcher for Margaret Thatcher, with stints as a minister under John Major and Cameron.

He is an “intellectual Thatcherite” nicknamed “Two Brains,” although both of these brains have backed policies like the Poll Tax, which are now viewed as disastrous.

The Department for Business told me that Kwarteng made the appointment, but with support from a “panel of senior officials” in a “fair and robust process” and that the appointment wasn’t a “crony” move but rather made because of Willetts’s “outstanding skills, and wealth and diversity of experience.”

Willetts is a director of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, a firm which has received funding from the UK Space Agency. The Department for Business said any potential conflicts of interest would be managed and recorded.

Conservative governments have always both rewarded their friends and sought to put close political allies in charge of supposedly “neutral” bits of the state. But they have also had a general sense of mission. Thatcher’s government wanted to extend market methods throughout society, bolstered by a clench of “law and order” and a band of “family values.”

John Major wanted to keep Thatcherism, but tame it with a covering of grey consumer-y rules. Cameron wanted to have another wave of privatisation and a squeeze of austerity, but with a sprinkling of “big society” charity and “social liberalism” to “modernise” the old formula. Johnson’s government had a mission – to win over new constituencies by “getting Brexit done” with a dash of “levelling-up” spending.

But the Covid pandemic and Ukraine war have blown them off this limited and not very well charted course. What’s left is a variety of grabs and grasps to hang on to power and a determination to use that power to generally protect the richest, while handing powerful positions to their pals.

The other side of this crony capitalism involves government “insiders” getting plum jobs with companies that want to buy some political insight or influence. There have also been recent examples of this process.

For example, lobbying company Public First has increased its already considerable Tory government links by hiring a former special adviser to Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden. Mike Crowhurst was a special adviser until September 2021, working for Dowden and before him Theresa May.

Recently published “business appointment rules” — the departmental records of government staff going through the revolving door into corporations — show Crowhurst is now the “director for levelling up” for Public First Ltd. This lobbying firm has many close Tory links. Public First’s founder-director, Rachel Wolf, co-wrote the 2019 Tory election manifesto.

Crowhurst’s appointment is good news for Public First’s clients, who can be advised how to dress up their lobbying on government regulations to fit in with government “levelling up” slogans.

What kind of firms might benefit from Public First’s government links? Official registers show Public First are lobbying the government on behalf of Kindred Group, an online gambling firm. Kindred Group are a Swedish-led company registered in Malta, running online betting brands like “32 Red” and Unibet.

In 2018 and 2019 the Gambling Commission fined two Kindred Brands a total £3.6m for breaking “social responsibility” rules, including allowing gamblers to wager six-figure sums despite signs of problem gambling or the money being stolen. Public First have also recently helped gambling trade body the Betting and Gaming Council with their anti-regulation campaign.

So we can expect irresponsible gambling companies to start using “levelling up” slogans to persuade the government against further regulations.

Public First also represents exploitative “gig economy” firm Uber, so they have plenty of clients who might want a bit of “levelling up” gloss painted over their lobbying. The Department of Culture “unconditionally approved” Crowhurst joining Public First “with no restrictions imposed.”

These are just some small, recent examples of the Tory jobs for the boys approach, which is both a bit sleazy and shows the Conservatives are serious about making the state work fully for them.

One final, and to my mind slightly sad point. When Labour have been in power, they have also tended to put their friends in powerful positions, albeit less nakedly and frequently than the Tories. But since 1997 this has not meant putting leading trade unionists or social campaigners into jobs at the head of “quangos.”

Instead, since then Labour tended to put what “Labour-friendly” businessmen into government-appointed posts when they were in charge. Instead of trying to shape the state by making it more responsive to working people, they have tried to use state positions to make business more friendly to Labour — and really succeeded in doing the opposite.