Guest list for Scottish Labour lobbying event is revealed
ENERGY giants and an AI firm which tracks migrants crossing the Channel attended a Scottish Labour lobbying event which the press was barred from.
The Scottish Labour Business Forum at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Glasgow saw business leaders mingle with frontbench Labour politicians while the party’s conference took place just around the corner at the Scottish Event Campus.
But Scottish Labour faced criticism over the transparency of their relationship with big business after banning journalists from attending.
A day pass to the event was priced at £550.
Holyrood lobbying filings and social media posts have now revealed some of the attendees included Centrica and RWE, which have seen their profits surge on the back of the recent energy crisis.
Trade bodies representing firms like Airbnb, Fujitsu and Serco were also there, as well as tech company Sirius Insight, which had provided the Home Office with cameras fitted with AI systems reportedly used to monitor the UK’s coast for migrant boats.
Green MSP Mark Ruskell told The Ferret that Scottish Labour are “selling access to those who are profiting from a broken status quo” and questioned why the party was “afraid” of “journalists knowing what they are doing”.
A Scottish Labour spokesperson stressed the party meets with “stakeholders from all backgrounds” including businesses, charities and trade unions.
The official partner of the event was lobbying firm Arden Strategies, which is run by former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy.
Energy firms and industry bodies also dominated the event’s sponsors, with Offshore Energies UK putting its name to the ceilidh, gas company SGN sponsoring the welcome reception, and SSE sponsoring the “exhibitor lounge”.
Ruskell argued that “shadowy lobbyists” were not “splashing their cash on gladhanding Scottish Labour out of the goodness of their hearts”.
“They are doing it because they want to buy access, influence and favours,” Ruskell told The Ferret.
“Labour is trying to present itself as a government in-waiting, but it is selling access to those who are profiting from a broken status quo and polluting our planet.
“It raises important questions about transparency. Why are Scottish Labour so afraid of publishing their guest list, and why are they so afraid of journalists knowing what they are doing?”
Centrica’s chief executive, Chris O’Shea, took part in a panel discussion at the event themed around net zero and the just transition.
On the panel, O’Shea “emphasised the importance of consistency and certainty in the fiscal and policy landscape to support investment” in the energy sector, according to a filing on the lobbying register.
On February 16, the same day the business forum was held, hundreds of business leaders in the north east wrote to UK party leader Keir Starmer urging him to abandon his proposal to increase a windfall tax on oil and gas firms.