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Lobbying (Whitehall)

It is a great pleasure to make a brief contribution to the debate. As the Select Committee Chairman said, I have a dual role this afternoon. It is truly the highlight of my political career to be the Minister's acting PPS for a few minutes. I have just begun to realise how much power I have in that role. I have a lot of notes, and could pass the Minister the wrong ones—or pass the wrong ones back and forth—but I shall try to perform both my roles correctly. In 1869 the American magazine The Nation defined a lobbyist as""a man whom everybody suspects…and whose employment by those who have bills before a legislature is only resorted to as a disagreeable necessity."" That is one view of lobbying—not the one that I take. Some of my best friends are lobbyists. I agree with the Chairman of the Select Committee that they are a vital part of our democracy and can articulate the case of not just business but charities and all sorts of organisations about legislation. They can make sure that a diversity of voices and opinions is heard in our democracy. However, the central principle that the Chairman referred to about the declaration of clients by multi-client lobbyists is fundamental. It is no accident that, as he pointed out, nations across the developed world have been changing their rules on the matter in recent years. In the United States there is a long tradition of transparency, dating back to the quotation I gave, and before. In the European Union there is a voluntary register in operation. In France, only this month, the French Parliament has adopted such a declaration of clients—the decision of the Senate has probably to come. Why does it matter? Partly it is because the websites of the multi-client lobbying firms and the pitches that they make claim great influence. They claim that they shape policy and that they have done over decades. If that influence exists, it should be transparent. Some firms have been holding out against the declaration of clients. Bell Pottinger, chaired by Lord Bell, is one in particular. Down the years there has been an occasional burst of publicity suggesting the importance of declaring all one's clients. For example, a few years ago, during the gambling debate that my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North (Kelvin Hopkins) referred to, Bell Pottinger had two sets of clients—an American gambling company and the British Amusement Catering Trade Association, a trade association covering gambling machines and so on, in Britain. BACTA decided that that was a conflict of interest, and that it would seek representation other than that of Bell Pottinger. If the client list is not published, one cannot be sure that such conflicts of interest do not exist. I know from my own dealings and inquiries in the matter that that was not the only case in which Bell Pottinger represented completely different interests. I went to a dinner organised by Bell Pottinger at which one interest was being argued. A few weeks later I saw the same Bell Pottinger personnel—there were not even Chinese walls in operation—representing exactly the opposite interest. I cannot imagine that the clients would have been happy with those non-existent Chinese walls. The matter is clearly one of public interest. In recent years some firms have changed, and have begun to declare their clients, and it has not been the end of the world. Life goes on and the firms continue to thrive. Sovereign Strategy and Finsbury were originally very doubtful about publishing lists of their clients. Finsbury, with its influence in the financial world, thought that hedge funds would not be happy about the declaration of clients. Roland Rudd, to his credit, published his clients a couple of years ago and is making massive profits. He is still best buddies with Lord Mandelson and I think he has entertained the Leader of the Opposition to dinner at his house, so there is life beyond declaring clients. That is clearly something that the industry should make universal, as many people have suggested. I was pleased that the Government acknowledged and encouraged some of the suggestions in the Select Committee report. I, too, have heard rumours about changes in the drafts of the report. I even heard that it was so important that it went to Lord Mandelson himself, and that he made comments. I do not know whether it is true that it achieved such elevated heights, but it is interesting that the industry was a little disappointed that the Government perhaps did not find the words—I hope that the Minister will find them today—to be a little more assertive about the need for the declaration of clients. The chair of the Association of Professional Political Consultants, Robbie McDuff, said""we are somewhat disappointed that the Government has not sought to encourage those who choose not to follow the self-regulatory route"." I, indeed, asked the Library for comments of Ministers in the past decade supporting self-regulation, if that is the policy on the declaration of clients by multi-client lobbyists. The Library reply was that Ministerial comments on the subject were elusive. Today's debate is a chance for the Minister to avoid doubt. To be fair to the Opposition Front Bench, the shadow Cabinet Office Minister, the right hon. Member for Horsham (Mr. Maude), has said:""Public affairs firms should publish all client lists and their full-time and part-time staff. If this is not undertaken across the whole industry by a process of effective self-regulation, Conservatives are warning that pressure will mount to subject the industry to statutory regulation."" I hope that we can get unity on the Front Benches today and that the Minister will issue similar declarations. I shall make some practical suggestions about that. My hon. Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Mr. Wright), the Chairman of the Select Committee, mentioned the role of lawyers, in the firms that bring them together with public affairs. There is much merit in his suggestion that there is no other way to approach this matter than by a statutory register. However, let us not let the DLA Pipers of this world get off the hook by saying that they cannot sign up to a voluntary register because of Law Society rules. They can clearly do that, should they choose to. I wrote to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is the regulatory body in this instance, and asked whether firms such as DLA Piper could, if they wanted to, sign up and declare their clients on a voluntary basis, and quoted the European Commission's voluntary scheme. It wrote back:""We do not think a lawyer's duty of confidentiality presents an automatic bar to lawyers being included in the initiative."" It continued by saying that""provided that membership imposes no requirement which conflicts with a solicitor's professional duties (such as, for example, a retrospective obligation to publish clients' names) there is nothing to prevent a solicitors' firm becoming a member of the APPC"—" or presumably the public affairs council—""or a similar organisation. The member firm could meet the disclosure requirements of that Association, and therefore the requirements of transparency, by making the client's consent to the disclosure a pre-condition for acting."" Thus, all that firms such as DLA Piper need do when they take on new clients would be to say, "In future we are going to declare all our clients." They could not do that retrospectively, but they could do it in future, and happily remain members of the Law Society and sign up to the code. It is making an excuse and hiding behind the Law Society, when it will not do that. I hope that that firm, and firms such as Bell Pottinger, will review their position and sign up. We are where we are, as they say, and are coming up to a general election. We have very few weeks left. I hope that Ministers, and the Opposition, can give a further boost to the campaign for all multi-client lobbyists to declare their clients. There are certain things that they could do. For example, the public affairs council is being set up. There all sorts of weaknesses and hesitancies about the organisation, as it is formed, as there are with any new organisation. Sir Philip Mawer, who I understand is responsible for the new body, and an independent figure of some repute, has said on the record that self-regulation works only if everyone is involved. I have confidence in him and believe he wants to do a good job, but it is difficult to weld together a multitude of organisations. In the first instance, it appears that each organisation will be responsible for its own disciplinary code, but I hope that in future there will be one code. I also hope that the public affairs council will look carefully at those firms that divide themselves. Bell Pottinger is an example, as it is a member of the Chime group of public affairs companies. One member of that group, Good Relations, declares its clients and is a member of the various self-regulatory bodies, but Bell Pottinger is not. If a company is to be a member of a self-regulatory organisation, the whole organisation should sign up to its principles, not just one arm of it. Another group that falls into that category is the Huntsworth group, which has a variety of public affairs firms under its wing. Of those, Citigate and Grayling declare their clients, but Quiller does not. A gentleman called George Bridges recently left Quiller to work for the Conservative Front-Bench team, and one of the public relations newspapers has argued that, because he was one of the main reasons for many people signing up to Quiller, the company would suffer from that loss. Clearly, if one part of a group is signed up to declaring its clients, all should be. I challenge the public affairs council, if it is to be credible, to insist on that. It cannot have part of a group declaring its clients and another part not. I urge the Minister to consider whether it is beyond the pale for her to commit to writing to all major public affairs companies, urging them to declare their clients? Is it beyond the pale for her to write to the FTSE 100 companies and urge them that the next time they contract a public affairs company that they do so with one that publicly declares its clients and is involved in the public affairs council? I offer the same challenge to the Opposition: would the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr. Newmark) be prepared to write such letters to the top lobbying companies, and to the FTSE 100 companies to urge them to employ lobbyists who adopt the highest ethical rules? If we are serious about self-regulation, which both the Government and the Opposition are committed to, we have to take further action. We in Parliament must look at a report produced by the Committee on Standards in Public Life a couple of years ago, which stated that consultancies that service all-party groups should adopt those standards. There are probably things that Parliament can do to encourage that. I am in a particular position this afternoon—I do not know whether Lord Mandelson is watching, but if he is, the Minister knows that I can just lose any note he sends. This is a decision that she can make on her own, but I hope that she will at least consider the suggestion. I hope that the likes of Lord Bell and Peter Bingle of Bell Pottinger, and Alan Parker of Brunswick, who are in danger of becoming the Arthur Daleys of the public affairs industry if they hold out against the declaration of clients, will also heed the call from the Opposition Front Bench. I am sure that the Treasury Bench will today call on those companies to join the modern world and declare their clients.