Shanker Singham’s consultancy spent $20,000 on Washington lobbyists pushing for a US-UK free trade deal.

MPs raise concerns about conflicts of interest w/Singham is in line for slice of £200m govt contract.

Latest @openDemocracy scoop w/ @marcusleroux

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
Int'l trade secretary Liz Truss appointed Singham to a key UK government commission on trade and agriculture - while he was continuing to work for undisclosed private clients.

"These relationships should be known and not hidden" says @AngusMacNeilSNP
Transparency docs show that Competere - Singham's private firm - paid $20k to Transnational Strategy Group, a Washington DC-based lobbying firm who helped broker a series of meetings in Washington for Singham and former Northern Irish first minister David Trimble.
Among those Singham and Trimble met in DC were congressman Richard Neal, head of the influential Ways and Means Committee that would greenlight a post-Brexit trade deal.

Neal - like Joe Biden - has warned that any post-Brexit trade deal would depend on Good Friday Agreement.
Singham said that his trip to Washington was a “pro-bono mission” paid for out of his own pocket. But David Trimble said he understood the trip to have been paid for by “some conservatives”, though he was unsure of the exact source of the money.
“Competere is not a lobbyist but a trade consultancy,” Singham said.

Accounts showed his firm owed £66,313 in corporation tax for last financial year, suggesting earnings of around £350,000.

Singham is also reported in line for a £200m Brexit contract theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
Singham was appointed by Liz Truss personally to Brexit trade and agriculture commission in July. He resigned from a similar role at DIT in 2018 after openDemocracy reported that he was also working for a commercial lobbying firm... opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
Absolutely great to work with @marcusleroux and @Source_Mat on this. If you don't follow their work, you really should!

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More from @PeterKGeoghegan

May 6
🔴REVEALED: Richard Tice has used two companies to channel more than £2 million into Reform over the last four years

Reform’s accounts admit that it needed Tice’s cash to stay afloat

Like Jeremy Hunt, Tice is using his own money to bankroll his political career - is this how our democracy should work?

New from me: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/richard-tice…Image
Reform has been very reliant on Richard Tice’s money

Since 2020, it has received more than 50 loans collectively worth around £1.4million from a company called Tisun Investments Ltd, which is owned by Tice.

Another company controlled by Tice, Leave Means Leave Limited, has also donated more than £1 million.

@SteveJGoodrich says that a company owned by a party leader making interest-free loans “raises questions as to whether they are in fact a donation.”

Tice says he is “very proud” to have put his money into an “entrepreneurial political start-up” and that around £350,000 of the loans have been repaid
Reform is a very unusual political party

Most parties are unincorporated associations with a membership. Reform is a company - with Nigel Farage as the majority shareholder.

Tice, who owns a third of Reform, said that Farage’s majority shareholding was “irrelevant”

But Farage’s 53% shareholding means he can remove Tice if he wants to - or dissolve Reform completely

ft.com/content/4059c9…
Read 4 tweets
Mar 14
🚨Did Government abuse FOI law to bury Liz Truss’s £15k food and booze bill?

🔴Freedom of Information should be 'applicant blind'
🔴So why was the FOI with Truss’s embarrassing in-flight bills to Politico before it went to the requester, @EmilyThornberry?
🔴Government trying to bury bad news on Budget Day?

New on Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/foi-liz-trus…Image
This really is a v curious tale 🧵

Last year @EmilyThornberry sent an FOI about ministers spending on food and drink on private jets

For 1 year+ Cabinet Office delayed responding

Then, last Wednesday, CO responds with Truss £15k spend - but it sends the FOI to Politico at least 30mins before Thornberry gets it.... and suggests the story is published in that afternoon’s Politico Playbook email

Why last Wednesday? Well, was also Budget day… a very good day to bury bad news?Image
If government was trying to bury Truss’s in-flight spending in post-Budget scrum, didn't work

Politico published Truss story day after Budget, with @EmilyThornberry 's comments

But government’s seeming attempt to abuse the FOI process for political ends has not been reported
Read 8 tweets
Feb 12
🔴 'POPCONS' EXCLUSIVE:

Documents suggest firm behind 'Popular Conservatives' owned by former IEA chief Mark Littlewood and his wife Angela Harbutt

Plus: Rees-Mogg rails against ‘Davos man’, while Liz Truss goes skiing with...Davos men

New on Substack:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/popular-cons…
Image
'PopsCons’ are backed by a company called Popular Development Partners Ltd

The firm - which was only set up in October - has two directors: ex IEA chief Littlewood and ‘Angela Mannion’, who appears to have no online footprint (h/t @GoodLawProject)


Image
But based on various pieces of evidence, including email addresses and dates of birth, it appears that Angela Mannion is also Angela Harbutt .... who happens to be the wife of Mark Littlewood and, until August, director of development at IEA

gtnf.org/speakers/angel…
Read 7 tweets
Jan 28
🔴 SUNAK SCOOP:

Rishi Sunak's wife owns a £610m stake in Infosys

The IT firm has been given £47m in public contracts since 2020

Now Infosys has, with other firms, been put on govt contract frameworks worth £750MILLION+.

New on my newsletter:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/sunak-family…
Infosys has put on ‘framework agreements’ worth £750m+ - which mean company can be directly awarded millions in public contracts.

Sunak's father-in-law founded Infosys. Murty family own c £2.4bn of firm

My investigation also in today's Sunday Mirror

mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
Sunak has been reprimanded for failing to properly declare his wife’s holding in a childcare company

But - remarkably - PM does not have to declare his wife’s 39M Infosys shares on govt registers

Govt said ministers aren't involved in contract awards
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/sunak-family…
Read 4 tweets
Jan 11
🔴🔴🔴 POST OFFICE SCOOP

'Egregious and alarming'

Call for 'urgent answers' about a prominent Tory donor and ex Fujitsu UK chair’s involvement in the awarding of £500m worth of broadband contracts.

New Democracy for Sale investigation 🧵

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/tory-donor-f…
Simon Blagden, ex chair of Fujitsu Telecommunications, has given >£400k to the Tories.

After he left Fujitsu, Blagden registered his lobbying firm, Avre Partnership Ltd.

It had a single client: alternative broadband provider CityFibre Ltd. Image
Bladgen’s firm stopped lobbying in June 2022.

Three weeks later Nadine Dorries appointed Blagden as chair of Building Digital UK.

Since Blagden became chair of BDUK, CityFibre - Blagden’s only lobbying client - has been given >£491m worth of public contracts...by BDUK
Read 9 tweets
Sep 21, 2023
🔴 This time last year many said Tufton Street was 'finished' after Liz Truss crashed and burned.

Exactly 12 months later: Rishi Sunak's net zero U-turn.

And who is cheering loudest and claiming credit?

Tufton Street's dark money think tanks... and guess who funds them?🧵 Image
'Net Zero Watch' is the policy wing of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

GWPF - address 55 Tufton Street - has received funding from US groups linked to the oil and gas sector, despite saying that it was independent of the fossil fuel industry...

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-the…
Image
The Global Warming Policy Foundation also has its own Parliamentary wing - 'the Net Zero Scrutiny Group' - based on the ERG.

This is the NZSG's leader, Craig Mackinlay.

Mackinlay employed an aide is also head of policy at campaign group Net Zero Watch.

politico.eu/article/tory-m…
Image
Read 6 tweets

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