Kemp: BP Must Remain British, Says Whitehall
Ben Moxham, who served as director for policy and regulatory affairs at BP and then vice-president at Riverstone Holdings, the investment firm where former BP chief John Browne is a partner, went on to be the senior adviser on energy and the environment to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg between 2011 and 2013.
Browne himself, ennobled in 2001 as a member of the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Britain's parliament, has undertaken a number of high-profile government assignments since stepping down as head of BP in 2007.
Close relations between Whitehall and business, including the exchange of personnel between the civil service and major corporations, are normal in Britain, but no other company has had such close links to the very top of government.
BP is not just another large company listed on the London Stock Exchange that could be taken over by a foreign corporation at the right price. It is part of the establishment.
BP's history is the story of the last days of the British Empire. And with its reinvention after the Iranian crisis in the 1950s, BP has become the flag-bearer for Britain's hopes of remaining a global player in the oil industry, albeit with a much diminished role.
For BP to fall into foreign ownership, and cease to be British Petroleum in fact as well as name, would intensify the establishment's existential angst about Britain's future role in the world and is simply unthinkable.
(Editing by Dale Hudson)
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