Should lobbyists be required to declare they’ve donated to political parties on the UK lobby register? We’ve found lobbyists Sir Lynton Crosby & business partner Mark Fullbrook have given £221,000 to the Tories personally / through 2 companies on UK's consultant lobbyist register
Sir Lynton Crosby and Mark Fullbrook are both political lobbyists and directors for the C|T Group (CT Corporate Advisory, CT Partners).
Combined they’ve given almost a quarter of million to the Tories. But you wouldn’t know this from the UK statutory lobby register.
CT’s director Mark Fullbrook - has personally donated £25,000 to the Tories.
Crosby’s and Fullbrook’s CT Partners Ltd (also known as CTF Partners) have also donated almost £197k to the Tories since 2011, not donating to any other party. They have lobbied on behalf of Aggregated Micro Power, London Hotel Group and National Pharmacy Association.
The group also gave Boris Johnson £23k in “interest-free loans and donations” in the run up to Brexit.
In addition, “Tory election guru” and Australian political strategist Sir Lynton Keith Crosby ran Boris’ mayoral election campaigns and several other overseas campaigns for right-wing parties.
There’s no assertion Crosby or Fullbrook acted illegally or improperly by donating to the Tory party while registering to lobby on behalf of other companies. Nor is there evidence their lobbying secured contract wins for their clients...
But @allthecitizens feels it important all potential conflicts of interest be addressed in the name of transparency. This includes lobbyists listing all their political donations on the register, and companies represented by them being forced to declare such in contract bids.
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Questions raised by @allthecitizens after we find two companies win £3.6m in gov contracts whilst clients for Tory lobbyist Simon Blagden. Blagden has donated over £300,000 to the party
THREAD:
Simon Blagden CBE has given £301k to the Tories personally and through 2 companies (Pietas/the Avre Partnership) in the last 2 yrs.
He’s a Leader's Group member, vice-chair of the British Italian Conservatives and industry chairman of the APPG on tech. ft.com/content/5bc434…
Blagden has 2 consultancies listed on the UK statutory lobby register; Avre Partnership and Larkspur International (as well as the above, Avre also gave to the Lib Dems pre-2015). …gisterofconsultantlobbyists.force.com/CLR_Public_Pro…
Today @Dominic2306 revealed something @allthecitizens has been chasing for a while. That he, when a Special Advisor, conducted the business of government on WhatsApp - an encrypted messaging system that placed his correspondence beyond effective scrutiny.
Last year, our @iainoverton sent an FOI request to the Cabinet Office asking what information was held relating to the use of encrypted messaging software by its Special Advisors.
This was rejected with the claim "the information you requested is not held by the Cabinet Office."
However, Cummings - as a civil servant - clearly did have this information on his phone.
Note this: it is a potential criminal offence, according to the ICO, to "deliberately destroy, hide or alter requested information to prevent it being released."
NEW: June 21 re-opening shelved. Govt finally acknowledges exponential growth of new variant. Yet it’s *still* refusing to disclose data on schools. In this week’s newsletter @dgurdasani1 explains why this is such a scandal keepingthereceipts.substack.com/p/when-dido-me…
We’ve been banging on about this for last 3 weeks & we intend to carry on because this lack of transparency is literally a threat to life. @dgurdasani1 couldn’t say it any clearer. Full interview 👇 To support our work, please consider subscribing
Why haven’t scientists had access to the data? It’s absolutely infuriating that the govt has been allowed to bury this this crucial information. Secrecy & lack of outside scrutiny has allowed the govt to ignore the danger this new variant poses.
🚨NEW🚨
As a result of our legal challenge with our partner @foxglovelegal, the government had to admit Ministers and civil servants are allowed to set messages to delete instantly.
It's s YOUR WIN, because we could not have done it without your support. bit.ly/35gLZWCb
The admission from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was obtained though an @allthecitizens FOIA request
.@allthecitizens started a legal challenge out of deep concerns that self-destructing messages are being used to avoid scrutiny of decision-making processes, including on key issues such as the government’s coronavirus response.
Following stunning assertions from @MattHancock that he had no idea of the relationship between Palantir, Faculty, and Cambridge Analytica:
“um… I don’t think I’m aware of that, no”
- @allthecitizens feels this claim raises serious questions that need to be addressed. THREAD:
Did Hancock really have no idea, despite numerous detailed reports on the matter and easily available mainstream media coverage? Why was proper due diligence not done on Palantir by the Health Secretary before embedding them in the NHS?
Firstly, it’s known that Hancock, then as Culture Secretary, was well aware of the actions of Cambridge Analytica, referring to the scandal as a “turning point” in the debate about online privacy. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
From the off, Cummings is dragged over the coals by the chair in the intro for not providing any evidence for the accusations he made that he’d promised to deliver.
Hancock refuting the first 3 accusations of his incompetence/dishonesty, by proxy from Cummings via the chair. Now defending procurement process for PPE. He says he takes “full responsibility for the areas he’s responsible for”: an uncontroversial statement, but said with gusto