Dozens of Tory spads become lobbyists amid ‘unenforceable’ revolving door rules

Civil service rules prevent special advisers from directly lobbying the government for one or two years after they’ve left, depending on their exact role, but even industry figures accept that there are no measures in place to prevent this, and the rules are almost impossible to enforce.

 

Transparency campaigners have criticised the rules governing these arrangements as “unenforceable” and called for an “urgent overhaul”, with some calling for a five-year ban on all senior advisers and government ministers from working in related fields.

 

Until last year’s election, Hebe Trotter was a special adviser to the secretary of state in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, a position she had held since October 2022. Before that, she had held roles advising the home secretary, the justice minister and the prime minister.

 

Last week, Trotter was back in Parliament to discuss energy – this time as vice president of global government relations at Harbour Energy, a major UK oil company based in Aberdeen.

 

Giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee as part of its ongoing inquiry on GB Energy and the net-zero transition, Trotter criticised the tax burden placed on oil and gas companies.

 

She highlighted Harbour’s after-tax profits of £8m in 2022, which she complained had fallen since the introduction of the Energy Price Levy, or windfall tax, adding that the firm pays “a lot of tax”. 

Harbour’s two executive directors received total remuneration of just over £4.5m that year, according to the company’s financial statements.

 

openDemocracy understands that Trotter’s appearance at the select committee was within the civil service’s business appointment rules because she was not “directly” lobbying government ministers or senior officials. However, Trotter’s testimony at the committee will likely in some way inform the report produced by the Scottish Affairs committee, which could ultimately feed into government policy.

 

The rules allow former spads to lobby MPs who aren’t in government, including select committee members, to “contact the department as part of building and maintaining any day-to-day relationships with government”.

 

Industry sources say the rules on lobbying government ministers are also easily circumvented, as ex-spads can “advise” their employers on who to lobby and how best to do so – and can even make informal introductions.

 

Tom Brake, a former Lib Dem MP and the director of standards campaign group Unlock Democracy, said the “gaping loopholes” in the business appointment rules mean they are currently “unenforceable”.

 

“Former spads have acquired privileged information and should not be allowed to indirectly lobby the government or use unofficial channels to make contact with senior officials,” he said.

 

“Longer term, the more radical solution, which should apply to former ministers as well as the most senior special advisers, is a five-year ban on taking up employment in related fields. That would put a stop to some companies paying to acquire knowledge of contacts, priorities and processes denied to everyone else.”

 

Trotter did not respond to openDemocracy’s request for comment.

 

The business appointment rules are designed in part to “avoid suspicion” that a firm may hire a former civil servant, adviser or minister as “a reward for past favours”, as well as the risk that the company “might gain an improper advantage” and benefit from “privileged access to contacts in government”.

 

These concerns are particularly relevant when someone goes to work for a company or in a sector related to their work in government. openDemocracy has identified around a dozen former spads, Trotter included, who now work in a field related to their government role.

 

We have also found that out of almost 125 spads who were working in government until the election, around 50 now work in private sector roles where they are likely to advise private companies on how to deal with the government – by far the most common type of job among this group. Many of the others are still looking for work, while several work for the Conservative Party.

 

One former staffer at the Department of Health and Social Care now works for Eli Lilly, a US pharmaceuticals giant, while a former economic adviser to No 10 has become a lobbyist at the UK branch of the Bank of America.

 

A spad who served in the Department of Media, Culture and Sport has returned to the lobbying firm he worked at before taking a government role. Flint Global’s website boasts that he now advises its clients on the creative industries, broadcasting, digital and telecoms, “having advised the most senior levels of government and parliament on these topics”.

 

Two former Ministry of Defence advisers now work in the defence departments of politically connected lobbying companies. One is at CT Group, which is led by long-term Conservative strategist Lynton Crosbie, and the other at Global Counsel, which was co-founded by Labour peer and new US ambassador Peter Mandelson.

 

Global Counsel and the US company it merged with last year, Messina Group, has taken on five ex-spads since the election – more than any other firm.

 

Neither Flint Global, CT Group nor Global Counsel publish a complete list of their clients and are not signed up to any industry code of conduct. This lack of transparency adds to concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

 

The Qatari Embassy, MI6-linked consultancy Hakluyt, the Tony Blair Institute, and the Institute of Economic Affairs are among other organisations to have recently employed ex-spads.

 

George Havenhand, senior legal researcher at Spotlight on Corruption, said the current system for managing business appointments for people leaving government “lacks any credibility”.

 

“The risks of privileged access to government and information being exploited for commercial gain are particularly significant when special advisers go to work for lobbying firms,” he said.

 

“Independent experts – from the Committee on Standards in Public Life to the Group of States Against Corruption – have identified the key role that special advisers play in formulating policy and influencing ministers.

 

“The government needs to urgently overhaul the weak rules and enforcement in accordance with longstanding calls from independent experts.”