TBF the UK’s been like this for a while now.

Sir Jimmy Savile - serial paedophile, necrophile and former national treasure - had close ties to Thatcher.

Lord Mountbatten, close relative of the former queen, was a paedophile according to later released FBI files.

Kincora Boys’ Home was also part of a cover-up, with allegations of state collusion, and ties to MI5 during the Troubles. For example:

It was alleged that extreme Ulster loyalists who were members of a paedophile ring committing offences at the Home were being blackmailed by MI5 and other branches of the security forces during the Troubles. In 2015 campaigners were trying to have Kincora included in a wide-ranging inquiry to establish whether the security services prevented action on the abuse so they could compromise some of the perpetrators

It’s all very very murky, especially given allegations of state collusion. The Russians are famous for using kompromat, but apparently the British secret services weren’t above that kind of thing either.

The whip system, where the ‘whip’ ensures party members vote according to party lines in parliament, allegedly also sometimes involves kompromat and blackmail.

Archive link to bypass the paywall on a New Statesman article:

“When she refused to vote for cuts in disability benefits, Labour whips threatened that the government could withdraw resources from her constituency,” he revealed. “She complained to one of the papers. In response, the whips threatened to expose her private life in the tabloids.” Kingham stood down at the following election.