Lobbying row has left a stench in the air at Westminster
IN 2010 David Cameron denounced the “far too cosy relationship between politics and money”, warning that lobbying was “the next big political scandal waiting to happen.” Little can he have thought then that, more than a decade later, he would be at the centre of just such a controversy. Amid accusations of cronyism, the former Prime Minister now finds himself embroiled in an increasingly explosive furore over his links with a collapsed investment company headed by Australian financier Lex Greensill.
The stench from this deepening row is hanging in the air at Westminster. Although there is no suggestion that Mr Cameron has broken any rules, the allegations of unfair influence have the potential to cause significant damage to his own reputation and that of the Tory party.
That is because, at its worst, lobbying is an affront both to Parliamentary democracy and the impartiality of the civil service. In our representative system, decisions are supposed to be taken openly through the ballot box or public debate, not through the exploitation of privileged access behind the scenes.
THE national interest is what is meant to count, not the size of the wallet or the contacts book. During the 1990s John Major’s Government was shattered by public outrage over a long series of lobbying scandals, epitomised by the shameful willingness of some Conservative MPs to accept cash in return for asking Parliamentary questions on behalf of shadowy consultants or business operators.
The deluge of sleaze not only revealed the urgent need for reform but also helped to bring Labour to power in a historic landslide. Yet the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were also buffeted by storms over misuse of office by politicians, party apparatchiks and senior officials, like the “cash for honours” dispute in 2006 or the suspension of two Labour peers in 2009 after they agreed to help amend legislation in return for fees.
The Greensill saga is starting to look ever more serious as it reawakens concerns about the impact of commercial lobbying on the integrity ofWestminster.
At the heart of this affair are two key strands. The first stemmed from David Cameron’s decision, as Prime Minister, to recruit Mr Greensill as an unpaid adviser, complete with a Downing Street card and access to Government departments. A protégé of the Cabinet Secretary the late Lord Heywood, Mr Greensill promoted the use of a hi-tech finance scheme he had devised to speed up payments by the Government to suppliers and staff.
The second came in 2018, two years after his resignation as Prime Minister, when Mr Cameron, having been impressed by Mr Greensill, went to work for his company. In this position, he lobbied ministers and Whitehall to secure governmentbacked loans for Greensill Capital, which was sliding into financial trouble. But the former Prime Minister’s efforts were unsuccessful.
The affair has been given a new twist by the revelation that in 2015 top civil servant Bill Crothers, the Government’s chief commercial officer, was allowed to work for Greensill while he was on the Whitehall payroll for two months.
SUCH a dual role might have been legal but it hardly allayed worries about possible conflicts of interest. Labour is calling for a fullscale public inquiry by a special Commons committee, but that would probably become yet another bonanza for lawyers and political grandstanding.
It would be better, for now, to let the more narrowly focused, urgent review, set up by Boris Johnson, to take its course.
In the meantime, there are a couple of obvious lessons. One is that, even if they are fixated by self-enrichment, former PMs should not indulge in political lobbying. There are plenty of other ways they can make money. Far more preferable, though, would be the continuation of public service in place of the quest for private gain.
Jim Callaghan stayed in Parliament for eight years after he left Downing Street, while Clement Attlee was an active member of the Lords, taking the train from his home in Buckinghamshire and travelling third-class. Alec Douglas-Home served as Foreign Secretary after his spell as Prime Minister.
The other clear lesson is that the rules on lobbying need to be drastically tightened, so there is far more openness and less scope for favouritism. “The whole system doesn’t work,” says the anti-corruption group Transparency International.
If this episode leads to real change, then David Cameron, who is essentially a decent man, will have inadvertently achieved some good.
‘National interest is what counts not the size of the contacts book’