THE MP & £90K OF JOBS FOR LOBBYIST
Fears over ‘backdoor entry’
TIGHTER control on outside influence within Parliamentary groups is being called for after a Tory MP handed thousands of pounds worth of paid roles to a lobbyist.
Karl McCartney, the MP for Lincoln, was until last month chair or vice chair of seven sport-related All-Party Parliamentary Groups.
APPGs are informal bodies for MPs to discuss subjects of interest.
On each group chaired by Mr McCartney, Three Lines Sport – a firm run by lobbyist Mark Ramsdale – is listed as providing secretarial services.
Records show Mr Ramsdale’s firm is paid by at least five of the seven, earning at least £90,000. They include Motorsport, Esports, Rowing and Snooker, and also Darts – of which Mr McCartney was chair until last month.
The MP has also been a vice chair of the Golf APPG since 2020. Mr Ramsdale’s firm is listed as Secretary.
And last year Mr McCartney also took over Parliament’s football team and brought in Mr Ramsdale’s firm.
Emails seen by the Sunday Mirror show members of the team last month asked Mr McCartney what his relationship was to Mr Ramsdale.
The following day, Mr Ramsdale wrote to the club’s officers saying he had resigned as secretary with immediate effect, blaming “tensions” within the club.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by either
Mr Ramsdale or Mr McCartney, or that they
broke APPG rules. There are several hundred APPGs, receiving millions of pounds a year in funding through sponsorship by interested bodies. Parliament’s Standards
Committee last year launched an inquiry into fears lobbyists could use APPGs as backdoor access to MPs.
Mr Ramsdale told the Sunday Mirror his firm had supported some of the groups Mr McCartney now chairs prior to his re-election as an MP. Mr McCartney declined to comment.