Some of you will be familiar with the perfectly legal way of working that the former MP for Cambridgeshire Andrew Lansley demonstrates in his business activities – one that many in the Whitehall and Westminster bubbles will be more than familiar with. But it’s one that doesn’t sit well with those whose homes and communities are affected by the policies and proposals that are discussed away from the spotlight.
Pictured: Hideous Cambridge, by Jones and Hall (2013) – time for a reprint or a second volume?
On lobbying
Lobbying – Anyone who contacts an elected politician asking them to do something that influences public policy is ‘lobbying’. However, for a very long time the term has had negative connotations associated with it. Type in “Lobbying Scandal” into a search engine or a newspaper archive and see what comes back.
“Jon Gerlis, head of public relations and policy at The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), explains why he believes bringing greater transparency to Parliamentary lobbying practices is a matter of urgency, amid the PR body’s ‘Lobbying for Good Lobbying’ campaign.”
Communicate Magazine, 16 June 2023
And not just Parliamentary, but those in the sectors that affect people’s day-to-day lives. The greater the potential financial gains, the greater the lobbying resources can be brought to bear. And that’s not just professional, registered public relations people (see the Chartered Institute for Public Relations – having a Royal Charter means that the institution must have a proper governance structure for itself *and* its members – including a disciplinary processes for when members break the rules and codes of conduct).
That does not mean there are not massive loopholes in the system. Furthermore the regulation of the lobbying as an action and lobbyists as a profession is a political hot-potato – one in which the former MP for South Cambridgeshire was at the heart of the controversy both as a minister and as a parliamentarian over the passage of legislation both as a minister (See The Guardian here from Sept 2013 when he was a ministers, and also see The Guardian from November 2016 here from after he had left frontline politics (mindful that The Guardian’s political disposition is hostile to Lansley’s political party)).
Lansley also came under scrutiny in an expose by the media in January 2018 when under cover reporters from Channel 4 – again covered by The Guardian.
“When the interviewer says the company would want to be “relatively discreet”, and asks how public such an arrangement would need to be, Lansley replies: “Not especially. I mean because if you have a contract with Low then basically I come with Low. So if you had a contract separately with me it would have to appear separately on the transparency register as a contract with you. But if it’s with Low then its covered by the Low contract.”“
The Guardian 28 Jan 2018
In response he replied:
“No privileged access, insider information, lobbying activity, parliamentary advice or services were offered.”
The Mirror, 28 Jan 2018
Furthermore the article states that he referred himself to the Standards Commissioner – although it’s not clear what happened after that as no report appears in his name on it the Lords Commissioner for Standards for that year.
Six months later, the Commission for Standards in Public Life published its own report into MPs’ outside interests – but noted a gap:
“This review has also raised issues of lobbying and the rules surrounding the employment of public office holders once they leave office. While outside the scope of this review, the Committee will continue to keep an active watching brief on both of these issues.”
CSPL July 2018
The transparency issues matter not least because there are people within the lobbying industry who believe the problems are more than just a matter of image but of substance. Even more so given the huge problems we have with our systems and structures of governance in national and local politics.
Background reading on lobbying
For those of you interested, there are a range of books on lobbying ranging from those from a ‘how it functions’ perspective (Public Affairs in Practice (2006), and Politicos guide to political lobbying (2000)), through to a guide for businesses (2019 here), to the scandals covered in A Quiet Word: Lobbying, Crony Capitalism and Broken Politics in Britain (2014 here, and 2015 here)).
“What’s this got to do with Cambridgeshire?”
Everything – because of the huge potential profits there are in the trading of land ownership and also in construction whether housing or speculative laboratory sites.
Cllr Sam Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Edith’s) explains in her latest blogpost here.
“I had been at an event entitled ‘The Cambridgeshire Space Race – the Search for Industrial Space’, run by lobby group, the Cambridgeshire Development Forum.”
https://sam4qe.com/relentless/
On their website (https://www.camdevforum.com/about-cdf) the CDF states:
“The Forum brings together those with development and landowning interest in the Cambridge region, in order to provide a clear, consistent and well-informed voice, providing leadership and advice on issues relating to the delivery of growth and development potential in the Cambridge region.
Our objectives are to:
- Offer information and views to planning authorities and to the Local Enterprise Partnerships
- Become a focus for developers’ input to the Cambridge City Deal…”
You might say that it’s a little out of date given the ignominious end to the LEP for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – which ended up in a Parliamentary Inquiry and the former Chairman being very heavily criticised.
Cllr Davies continues
“[Lansley] now sits in the House of Lords and is Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group Trade and Inward Investment, so clearly an individual with access and influence. His introduction set the tone for the whole discussion: “We have to say to the CDG ‘This is what we need’” – ‘This’ being sufficient provision to meet a suggested ninefold increase in demand, evidenced by speakers from Savills and Carter Jonas.””
https://sam4qe.com/relentless/
“Who is ‘we’?”
Exactly.
Furthermore, the CDF positioning itself as the focus for developers input into the Greater Cambridge Partnership but not being prominent in the public debates at GCP Assembly and Board meetings is likely to alarm campaigners opposing individual GCP projects – such as the Cambourne-Cambridge Busway. This also means such campaigners can also send Freedom of Information Requests / Environmental Information Requests to the public bodies concerned. The website https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/ helps people how to do this should they wish to find out:
- A list of all meetings that CDF has had with officials and councillors
- A list of all emails between CDF and representatives with GCP, Combined Authority, and local councils
- Any reports or publications submitted to the latter by the former (note expect commercially sensitive information to be blacked out/redacted but they can be challenged if they withhold the whole report).
The public can do this for:
- Cambridge City Council here
- Cambridgeshire County Council here
- South Cambridgeshire District Council here
- The GCP here
- The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority here
Requests for environmental information (which must use the EIR process) can be more useful because there are fewer exemptions/exceptions, and public interest tests must be carried out to just whether the interest is best served in disclosing or withholding. the information requested.
This isn’t the post to speculate on the lower media profiles of the CDF and its member organisations (see https://www.camdevforum.com/cdf-members) – some of you can probably guess some of the names already.
It’s not just business – but Cambridge University that has transparency issues too
Given the institution’s history that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Only this time, the students have picked up on what their University is doing to ‘town and villages’ in their name.
Above – the student newspaper Varsity picking up on the GCPs’ troubles
On Cambridge105 Politics today (01 Oct 2023) Cllr Naomi Bennett (Greens – Abbey Ward) was particularly critical of the GCP and its failure to listen to local residents – and also on the Conservatives who in Government created the cost of living crisis in the first place. Have a listen here from 4 mins in. She was further interviewed by Varsity.
“What we got was a transport plan made by transport professionals. What we needed was a holistic plan for a system change that will have a very broad impact on our society and local economy”.
Cllr Naomi Bennett (Greens – Abbey) to Varsity UK, 30 Sept 2023
Expect the Cambridge Land Justice Campaign to pick up on this too.
This reflects a negative culture within the construction and land sectors where the systems are hot-wired to incentivise massive profits at the expense of almost everyone and everything else. It’s not a system that is sustainable in the face of a climate emergency. Whether the next government is willing and/or able to change that system remains to be seen. I can’t pretend to be hopeful.
The future of our city and county.
Some of you may have caught the end of Cambridge 105’s Politics Show with Trevor Dann where he interviewed Chris Howell – co-founder of the Cambs Unitaries Campaign (See https://www.cambsunitaries.org.uk/ ). It is one I have signed up to as well. It was also an issue that participants at the first Great Cambridge Crash Course workshop last Saturday. (See the write-up here). I will organise another one soon!
The future of Cambridge – and of the surrounding villages, will be huge local factors in the upcoming general election. It will be interesting to see how all of the candidates will handle concerns from voting residents given past and present protests, versus the national policies of their political parties. This is something the Conservatives are inevitably split on with Michael Gove’s ‘vision’. At the same time, Labour and the Liberal Democrats will also be expected to respond with substantial policy proposals of their own. This is because there is longstanding critical mass of the public that have become experts in the issues and who are more than likely to put those very challenging questions to candidates at hustings. In an era where there are more than enough people with smartphones and the knowledge of how to record video footage on them, this could be general election campaign in and around our city like no other before it.
We live in interesting times.
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