Spotlight on Corruption

Andrew Kersley writes:

Charities are calling for a crackdown on Westminster lobbying as multiple new MPs, including several senior ministers, reported having close family members working as lobbyists, Byline Times can reveal.

Seventeen MPs have submitted entries to the latest Register of MPs’ Interests that disclose close family – usually children or partners – whose profession involves trying to influence Government policy.

The findings come after the Sunday Times revealed in July that being a lobbyist or working in strategic communications was the most common professional background for newly elected Labour MPs, with one third of those winning their seats coming from the sector.

The most prominent name on the list is Health Secretary Wes Streeting, whose partner Joe Dancey runs a lobbying firm called Endeavour Advisory.

While Endeavour Advisory does not publish its full list of clients, it has previously directly lobbied the Government on behalf of trade bodies for the UK’s steel and theatre industries.

Dancey was selected as Labour’s candidate for Stockton West in the last election but narrowly lost to Conservative candidate Matt Vickers on a night where Labour recorded a landslide majority.

Sarah Jones, a minister in the Department for Business and Trade, listed her son as an employee of Flint Global.

The firm works with a huge array of private sector clients and boasts on its website of its ability to reach the new Government and its “deep experience of working in and with Labour”.

Some MPs family members worked as lobbyists for firms who have publicly disclosed their client lists.

The spouse of science minister Feryal Clark works for Kanda Consultancy. Among its clients are groups that work with the Government, like The Crown Estate, major house builders, and investment firms that fund major building projects.

Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Johanna Baxter disclosed that her spouse is executive chair of SEC Newgate, a lobbying firm whose clients include Anglian Water, gas giant EDF and facilities management firm Sodexo, that earns hundreds of millions a year from Government contracts to run a wide array of public sector services.

Anti-corruption charities have expressed concerns that ministers may risk conflicts of interests in their roles overseeing industries that could include some of the clients their family lobby for.

“The extraordinary number of Labour politicians who were formerly lobbyists, or whose close family members are lobbyists, underlines the need for robust measures to safeguard public decision-making from outside interests,” said George Havenhand, a senior legal researcher for Spotlight on Corruption.

He added that there needs to be more transparency on what arrangements, if any, are being taken to manage “potential conflicts of interest between ministers and their family members” and suggested more scrutiny was needed to “ensure that spouses and partners do not misuse parliamentary passes as a license to lobby”.

Rose Whiffen, senior research officer for Transparency International, warned that the lack of rules on lobbying meant the burden for ensuring “personal connections are not abused for professional advantage” was solely “on MPs and the lobbyists themselves”.

“The new Government should prioritise reforms to lobbying rules by introducing a comprehensive lobbying register to increase transparency over those seeking access and potential influence in Westminster,” she added.

All of the MPs named in the article did not reply to a request for comment.