Lobbying rules must be fully transparent
The word that no Prime Minister wishes to hear attached to his administration has surfaced once more in the House of Commons: sleaze. It is a convenient catch-all accusation that is deliberately designed to smear without necessarily needing proof of culpability. It was deployed by Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, in connection with the concerning set of allegations surrounding the lobbying activities of David Cameron.
The former prime minister’s association with the financier Lex Greensill is to be the subject of an independent inquiry conducted by the City lawyer Nigel Boardman. But already the affair is widening into areas of governance that are unlikely to be addressed. One disclosure is that a senior civil servant, Bill Crothers, was seconded to advise Greensill while still working as the government’s chief commercial officer.
Boris Johnson is surely right to say that it is useful, in principle, for senior officials to have good contacts with companies involved in government contracts. Indeed, it would be absurd if they did not. But equally, the rules for doing so must be clear and seen to be so. As the Prime Minister observed, it is not apparent that in this instance “those boundaries have been properly understood”.
Labour claims the Boardman investigation has been set up to deflect further questions until the current froth has died down and is so constrained in what it can look at as to have little wider relevance. The terms of reference focus on “decisions taken around the development and use of supply chain finance (and associated schemes) in government, especially the role of Lex Greensill and Greensill Capital”. But Boardman has not been asked specifically to look at the issue of lobbying itself, although in examining the decisions involving Greensill the inquiry will presumably consider Mr Cameron’s role in allowing the finance company access to No10 before he joined it. The Treasury Select Committee will also run its own inquiry.
Mr Johnson said tough laws on lobbying were introduced by the Cameron government but they may need to be revisited to ensure full openness and propriety. The former prime minister once said that “full transparency is the best disinfectant” when allegations of sleaze abound and he predicted that lobbying was the next big scandal waiting to happen. To avoid that, Mr Johnson must ensure that nothing is hidden from view.