The head of a lobbying firm paid by the United Arab Emirates to promote its interests in Westminster is also advising the UK government on how Britain can use sport and culture to project influence overseas, Democracy for Sale can reveal. Roland Rudd, founder and chair of FGS Global, sits on the UK Soft Power Council, which advises the Foreign Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
FGS has been registered to lobby British politicians on behalf of the UAE embassy since October 2025, including arranging meetings, calls and emails with MPs, their staff and senior civil servants. According to its registration, FGS is paid “to promote awareness of the UAE-UK bilateral relationship”. The stated targets for this “political influence” include members of the Commons and the Lords and politicians in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments.
Rudd’s position puts the boss of a lobbying firm representing the UAE on a government advisory body whose remit includes sport - at the very moment that the UAE’s role in British football is facing unprecedented scrutiny. Manchester City faces the prospect of major sporting sanctions after being found to have breached football’s financial rules over 100 times. The club’s Abu Dhabi owners reportedly held talks with a UK government minister last week, while opposition politicians have raised questions about prime minister Andy Burnham’s dealings with the UAE as Manchester mayor.
The Gulf state also has a direct stake in UK foreign policy. Britain continues to license arms exports to the UAE, despite widespread allegations - which it denies - that it has supplied weapons to the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that has committed mass killings in Sudan’s civil war.
The UK’s Soft Power Council was launched in January 2025 and is co-chaired by the foreign and culture secretaries. It meets quarterly to offer advice on how to harness soft power “through international interventions in support of foreign policy priorities”. The council’s two dozen members include representatives of the Football Association, the British Council, Universities UK and Historic England. FGS is the only lobbying firm on the council.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Calum Miller MP told Democracy for Sale that “allowing anyone on a foreign government’s payroll to sit on an advisory body shaping UK foreign and sport policies would present a blatant conflict of interest.”
“The public has a right to know whether Roland Rudd raised the UAE’s interests with Ministers and what commitments they gave him. The Government must come clean about what was discussed and agreed behind closed doors,” the MP added.
FGS said Rudd’s position at the consultancy was “always declared in relation to his unpaid public roles”. The Foreign Office said “all appointments to government bodies are subject to an appropriate due diligence process.”
No record of what was said
Official records show that FGS has entertained some of the most senior figures in government since it began lobbying for the UAE, including Rachel Reeves, then chancellor, the prime minister’s chief business adviser Varun Chandra, and Antonia Romeo, now the UK’s most senior civil servant. FGS also wined and dined Lord Stockwood, then investment minister, and Jonathan Reynolds, then chief whip and now business secretary, as well as officials at the Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade.
Every occasion was logged as hospitality rather than as a meeting, so no minutes were taken and there is no public record of what was discussed. There is no suggestion that the UAE or any other FGS client was raised. “The rules are clear: hospitality that includes a meeting must be recorded as a meeting, with a description of the purpose given,” said Kamila Kingstone, senior policy and campaign lead at Spotlight on Corruption. Until there are meaningful consequences for non-compliance, the public will not have a clear picture of who is influencing their politicians.”
Tom Brake, chief executive of Unlock Democracy, said: “if senior ministers and officials are sitting down with lobbyists, the public has a right to know what was discussed - especially when the firm involved is working on behalf of a foreign government.” A government spokesperson said ministers and officials “meet and engage with a wide range of external organisations”, and that transparency data “is published in line with the Ministerial Code and transparency guidance.”
Rudd’s world
Rudd is one of the best-connected figures in British public relations. He founded the City PR firm Finsbury in 1994, and it later merged into FGS Global. His sister, former Conservative home secretary Amber Rudd, was criticised in 2015 for not declaring her brother’s lobbying business while energy secretary, after her department approved a gas storage project represented by his firm.
FGS, majority-owned by the private equity giant KKR, describes itself as a ‘strategic leadership advisory’ and does not publish a full list of its clients. Transparency disclosures show it has lobbied for KKR, the trading platform Robinhood and Oracle, the US tech company that has won millions of pounds in UK government contracts. FGS has also hired a number of staff from Global Counsel, the now defunct lobbying outfit co-founded by Peter Mandelson. Rudd declined to comment personally. The Soft Power Council did not respond to questions.
How cosy.
ReplyDeleteIt's a big club, and we're not in it.
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