When Gordon Brown was shadow chancellor and John Major’s government was on the rack, he had a telling phrase for the exodus of ministers into business. There was a “revolving door” from “cabinet room to the boardroom” and it was just another dimension to Tory sleaze. Nothing like that, surely, could happen under new Labour. Well, we have news for the prime minister. The revolving door has never spun so fast, only this time former ministers from the people’s party are cashing in on their 15 minutes of political fame and, more importantly, their ability to gain access to former colleagues and officials.

Lord Warner, who quit as a health minister at the end of 2006 to “spend more time with his family and not his red boxes”, has turned up as chairman of UK HealthGateway, which promises to “open the door” for overseas businesses selling to the National Health Service. When an undercover Sunday Times reporter spoke to one of the firm’s executives he was proud of its hiring. Lord Warner was valued for “the connections and people he knows”. He is one of a growing crowd; 28 former ministers have taken private sector jobs in the past two years. It would be nice but naive to think this is because of their remarkable talents. They are being hired for who they know, not what they know. Why else would America’s Fluor Corporation pay Ian McCartney, the former trade minister, £113,000 a year?

Former ministers would say they are just following their leader. Tony Blair did not even wait a decent interval before cashing in with jobs at JPMorgan and Zurich and highly paid speeches on the international conference circuit. Any spare slots in his diary, presumably, he devotes to the Middle East peace process and pushing himself for the European Union presidency. If a former prime minister cares so little about the dignity of office, why should those lower down the food chain? They should. The revolving door is undermining the reputation of British politics. The rules should be tightened up.