by 
Richard Sharp has been forced to resign as Chairman of the BBC after an investigation found his involvement in an £800k loan to Boris Johnson, and his decision not to reveal it, was against the rules for appointments in public organisations.
Senior Tories have warned of ‘grave consequences’ if MPs can not simply give really good jobs to people who have done them significant favours in the recent past.
MP Simon Williams told us, “A decision like this could set the precedent that cronyism at the highest level is a ‘bad thing’, and then where will the Tory party be?
“Is that the sort of society we want to live in? Where politicians can no longer reward their pals? Where cronyism is no longer a valued part of doing business?
“Do you know how many sleepless nights this will create on this side of the house? If people want to create a meritocratic apocalypse where only the best-qualified people get the top jobs regardless of which school they went to, or where how many times the prime minister has used your Caribbean holiday home makes no difference to your chances of getting a Chairmanship of a public organisation, then this is the right way to go about it. It will be hell.
“People forget, these people we like to reward are the people we will be relying on for our own jobs once we leave parliament. If we can’t line up a few favours now, how will we survive in the real world?”
