With Britain sliding down the index of transparency and voters angry, the looming election bill fails to solve the key issue: the toxicity of political donations
With grimly apt timing, the annual Transparency International (TI) corruption perceptions index lands today. The news is not good. The world is growing more corrupt as it becomes less democratic. As for us, Britain is sliding downwards on the perceptions scale, seen at its lowest so far for probity.
Once ranked in the top 10, at eighth place in 2017, we are now in 20th position. The UK’s score for corruption in government and public office has worsened according to this year’s Economist Intelligence Unit expert assessment. This index was sampled between January 2024 and September 2025 – before the current Peter Mandelson scandal – but it absorbs the last decade of misgovernance, fraudulent Brexit electioneering and Boris Johnson misdeeds. The chances are that next year’s ratings will take us further down this slimy slope. Unless, that is, prompt and radical action is taken to put up guardrails and close loopholes to protect against corruption of all kinds.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
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