Lobbying in the spotlight

A parliamentary investigation into the activities of lobbying firms with links to UK ministers is announced today. This comes at the end of a week that has seen lobbying in the spotlight with a sting operation involving the PR firm Bell Pottinger. See this film as journalists pose as representatives of the government of Uzbekistan, speaking to the MD of the firm, and exposing links to government officials, their role in editing Wikipedia and the manipulation of Google rankings to drown out stories about child labour.

Tim Collins, MD of the firm, claimed "I've been working with people like Steve Hilton, David Cameron, George Osborne for 20 years-plus. There is not a problem getting the messages through". One example was David Cameron raising issues of copyright infringement on behalf of Dyson, with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. Tim Collins said "He (the Prime Minister) was doing it because we asked him to do it." Meanwhile Downing Street insist: "Bell Pottinger nor any other lobbying firm has any say or influence over government policy" and called accusations "outrageous".

The investigation is supported least strongly by conservative MPs who tend to be more heavily implicated in engaging with lobbyists, and senior executives of Bell Pottinger have been invited as witnesses. For an overview of the issue see this opinion piece in the Independent