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28 Tory Westminster candidates 'working in lobbying'
25.09.09
At least 28 prospective Conservative candidates in winnable seats are working in the lobbying industry, according to the results of an investigation.
The Times found that more than one-fifth of the 150 Tory candidates most likely to win seats for the party in the coming General Election have done public affairs work, though some have since left the industry.
It said that more than a quarter of the 28 currently working in lobbying got their jobs after being selected to fight seats.
By contrast, the newspaper found that just seven Labour and three Liberal Democrat prospective candidates with realistic prospects of entering the Commons in the election expected in the spring have jobs in public affairs or communications.
According to reports several of the Tory candidates involved in lobbying for businesses and other interests had acknowledged setting up meetings for clients with shadow ministers, MPs and officials.
Others said they had been asked to provide advice on the party's policy direction, while some said they had pressed clients' cases to Tory frontbenchers.
The investigation is likely to raise questions about the extent to which business interests have sought to influence Conservative policy.
The British Horseracing Authority told the paper that having a prospective parliamentary candidate among the ranks of a lobbying firm it used was "certainly helpful".
Earlier this week, shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude criticised the Government for its "deafening" silence on the regulation of lobbying and called for an end to "wasteful" spending on public affairs by government agencies.
Mr Maude set out Tory plans including requirements for all public affairs firms to publish lists of clients and staff.
If the lobbying industry failed to self-regulate effectively, it should be prepared for intense pressure for Parliament to legislate to ensure greater accountability, he said, adding: "This is needed not just to save taxpayers' money, but also to remove the damaging bias in our political system in favour of ever more spending and interference by quangos."
Reader views (6)
Got them groomed and influenced nice and early. I guess that's the benefit of knowing who the next Government is going to be.
As if there was ever any chance that our MPs would be impartial and uninfluenced by the commercial interests of big business.
- Fresh, london
Here we go again, more proof that our politicians hold the general public in complete contempt. This lot have their snouts in the trough before they have even been elected.
- Carl, London
NOTHING CHANGES. NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE. MONEY TALKS ALL LANGUAGES AND EVEN THE MOST ILLITERATE MP KNOWS HOW TO DANGLE HIS LONG SNOUT INTO THE EXPENSES TROUGH IN THE HOUSE OF CONMEN.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
The say power corrupts. But this lot are corrupt even BEFORE they get into power. Heaven help us if they end up in government.
- Robert C, London UK
Looks like "democracy" under the New Conservatives is steadily being hijacked by big business before the date of the next election has even been set. Instead of Francis Maude whining to a moribund Labour government about regulation, why doesn't he clean up his own party's approach to lobbying?
- C. Nichol, London
Getting their snouts in early.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark
