Search icon

Politics

07th Jul 2020

Peter Geoghegan: How to buy friends and influence politics

Oli Dugmore

Peter Geoghegan

There’s one sure-fire way into politics: money

To truly influence American politics, groups and individuals spend millions in donations to get a seat at the table and lobby politicians to do what they want.

If you want to go for dinner with our prime minister Boris Johnson, it’ll set you back about £50,000. But in modern politics it is becomingly increasingly cheaper to purchase the spread of an idea and policy position.

We sat down with Peter Geoghegan, an author and journalist to discuss the increasing ease with which people are buying their way into politics, and how quickly those interests can be served.

His new book ‘Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics’ is out August 6, published by Head of Zeus. For more information/to preorder visit here.