How corrupt is the UK?

The UK has sunk to its lowest ever score in the global corruption index, which ranks 182 countries by perceived levels of corruption in the public sector.

Having dropped more than 10 places over the past decade, this is more than “a temporary blip” for the UK, said Daniel Bruce, chief executive of Transparency International UK. “It risks becoming a defining feature of our political culture.”

How has the UK’s ranking changed?

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published by Transparency International, is an annual list compiled by experts and business people. Nations are ranked on a scale of 0 (completely corrupt) to 100 (completely uncorrupt). In last year’s index, the UK scored 71; this year, it has shed another point, with a score of 70.

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The drop did not affect the UK’s overall ranking of 20th out of 182, making it one of the least corrupt countries in the index. However, there has been a significant long-term decline from 2016, when the UK scored 81 and was ranked the seventh most transparent nation globally.

What are the major concerns?

In the UK, “the past decade has seen major domestic scandals, the awarding of favours and honours to political donors, and MPs working as lobbyists for paying clients and corrupt regimes”, said Transparency International.

That has ramped up over the past year, said Bruce, including “some of the highest spending political campaigning on record, alongside troubling reports of access-for-cash arrangements and questionable appointment processes”.

It comes as the government finds itself “mired in scandal” over the Peter Mandelson-Jeffrey Epstein relationship, which has done “huge damage to public trust and increases concerns around corruption”, the charity said.

Despite recent talk by Keir Starmer about restoring integrity in politics, the latest score “shows that business as usual is not enough to turn the corner, with corruption concerns risking becoming embedded as the ‘new normal’”.

How did other countries do?

For the eighth year in a row Denmark topped the list, with 89 points out of 100 for transparency, closely followed by Finland (88) and Singapore (84). Venezuela (10), Somalia (9) and South Sudan (9) were at the bottom of the index. The US scored 64, its lowest ever ranking.

Globally, the CPI average score has dropped to 42, its lowest level in more than a decade, with the majority of countries analysed – 122 – scoring below 50. Only five countries scored over 80 – “once a benchmark for clean governance” – down from 12 a decade ago, said DW. Around 50 countries have “recorded significant drops in the rankings since 2012, notably Turkey, Hungary and Nicaragua, due to democratic backsliding, weak institutions and rule of law” and “cronyism”.

With the global order “under strain”, many leaders have cited “security, economic or geopolitical issues as reasons to centralise power, sideline checks and balances and roll back to commitment to international standards – including anti-corruption measures”, said Transparency International.