Labour demands inquiry into secret access for lobbyist 'advisers'

Labour has today demanded an inquiry into reports that lobbyists have been secretly serving as advisers to government ministers and departments and passing information on to their clients before this information was known to the public.

Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner has written to the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case demanding an urgent inquiry “into how lobbyists and their clients benefited from this vital information before the public knew, as the rest of the country waited anxiously for government announcements about lockdown… and whether they could see their families, friends and loved ones.”

Rayner said that the existence of “one rule for lobbyists and their paying clients and another rule for the rest of us” is “deeply insulting” to the British people who have “sacrificed so much in our national effort against Covid-19”.

Saying that these reports are “just the latest in a long line of revelations” of cronyism regarding businesses and individuals with close links to the Conservative Party that have adversely affected public trust during this pandemic, Labour is demanding that Ministers “come clean with the public”.

Questions that Rayner has called for an investigation to answer include:

· Which lobbyists have been hired as secret advisers to government Ministers and departments, what processes were followed in hiring them, what their responsibilities are in government and what information they have been given access to.

· Whether Ministers have overruled or ignored concerns raised by civil servants about these appointments.

· Whether lobbyists serving as secret advisers have signed confidentiality agreements to ensure that the information they have access to is not passed on to their paying clients.

· A full list of all contracts that have been signed with consultancies during the coronavirus crisis, including any contracts signed with companies that employ the lobbyists hired as secret government advisers.

Ends

Notes to Editors

· Lobbyists secretly served as government advisers, were given access to information on lockdown and passed this on to paying clients: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/george-pascoe-watson-among-lobbyists-given-secret-access-to-covid-meetings-tzxkc0jkp

· Full text of letter from Angela Rayner to Simon Case:

Dear Simon

I am writing to you following reports in the media that lobbyists have been secretly serving as advisers to government ministers, and as a result of this gained access to privileged information regarding the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic that was then passed on to paying clients before this information was known to the public.

It would be deeply insulting to the British people, who have sacrificed so much in our national effort against Covid-19, if lobbyists and their paying clients knew and benefited from private information about lockdowns and knowledge of government policy.

I therefore urge you to conduct an urgent inquiry into how lobbyists and their clients benefited from this vital information before the public knew, as the rest of the country waited anxiously for government announcements about lockdown, their jobs, support for their communities and whether they could see their families, friends and loved ones.

These reports are just the latest in a long line of revelations regarding businesses and individuals with close links to the Conservative Party that have adversely affected public trust during this pandemic. We need to shine a light on this situation in order to maintain public trust, and the public urgently need answers to a number of questions regarding this situation, including but not limited to:

1. What processes, if any, were followed in appointing George Pascoe-Watson, Chairman of Portland Communications, as an adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care; Lord Feldman, another lobbyist, as an advisor to the Health Minister Lord Bethell and Lord O’Shaughnessy, a Portland consultant, as an external adviser to the government?
2. How many other advisers who are also lobbyists or consultants have been appointed as advisers to government Ministers or Departments? Who are they and what information have they been given access to?
3. Was there a public recruitment process for any of these roles or any announcement of the roles being either vacant or filled? Will Ministers release all relevant documents regarding these appointments, the specific responsibilities of these roles, and on what basis these advisers were chosen?
4. Were concerns raised by officials regarding these roles? Did Ministers overrule civil servants regarding these roles? Will Ministers release all correspondence relating to these roles and the access these advisers had from officials?
5. In these roles as advisers to Ministers and the Department of Health and Social Care, did Ministers require these advisers required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, or any kind of confidentiality agreement, setting out that the information they were party to should not be passed on to paying clients?
6. Will Ministers publish a full list of calls and meetings that individuals employed by lobbying companies have attended, and the minutes of those calls and meetings showing what was discussed?
7. Were civil servants always present during any meetings or calls lobbyists were involved in?
8. Will Ministers publish all contracts that have been signed with consultancies and external companies during the coronavirus crisis?
9. Have any contracts been signed with any companies that employ or are represented by any of the lobbyists the government has appointed as advisers?
10. Will Ministers demand that Portland Communications reveals what information it has passed on to its paying clients regarding lockdown and government policy regarding Covid-19 to ensure that no laws have been broken and there has been no impropriety?

Our national fight against Covid-19 relies on the government maintaining the trust of the British people. In order for this trust to be maintained the public must be assured that there is not one rule for lobbyists and their paying clients and another rule for the rest of us in this pandemic, as there seems to be at present.

I therefore urge you to urgently investigate, ensure that the questions that I have set out are answered and that Ministers come clean with the public.

Yours sincerely

Angela Rayner MP