Thomas exposes Establishment 'rot'

Mark Thomas has appeared before a Commons inquiry to attack public bodies as "rotten to the core".

He told MPs that members frequently failed to declare business interests that could have compromised their integrity.

And he also claimed that a senior minister had undeclared offshore property, and that former Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson sold offshore shares in Coventry City in a tax-avoiding deal.

Thomas made his revelations, uncovered during research for Channel 4's The Mark Thomas Project, at the House of Commons public administration inquiry.

He said that he thought "there is some very, very fishy stuff going on", the BBC reports.

"Some of these bodies said they didn't have a register. Some of them said they would have to go and look for it, it wasn't around, they had left it on a bus or the dog had eaten it.

He gave several examples of people who had failed to disclose potential conflics of interest.

Thomas said: "There is no compulsion for people to be completely transparent. They interpret the guidelines to their own needs and whims. There's a complete disregard for the public.

"These people can shape government policy; they can steer and determine what is government policy - yet who are they accountable to?"

"There are people who use the committees to advance their own career and for social advancement. Whether there is actually corruption, I don't know."

He called for members of the public bodies to be elected, rather than from the usual source of the "great and the good".

Published: 19 Apr 2002