Latest news with #VarunChandra
Telegraph
05-08-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour faces questions over £30,000 ‘cash for access'
A Labour group is facing questions over 'cash for access' after offering businesses private meetings with 'an influential Labour figure' in return for thousands of pounds, it has been reported. The Labour Infrastructure Forum (LIF), which is run by lobbyists and has an advisory council of senior party figures, has reportedly been offering sponsorship packages to businesses since it launched last summer. Companies are said to have been approached and offered the chance to sponsor events at which they can meet 'key policymakers' in private and ' shape the discussion '. Deals on offer have included £7,850 plus VAT for a 'private breakfast/dinner roundtable with an influential Labour figure', £11,750 plus VAT for a 'parliamentary panel event with key policymakers', and between £21,500 and £30,000 plus VAT to sponsor a 'Westminster drinks reception', according to The Times. LIF describes itself as a think tank on its website and said its mission was to develop policy proposals focused on 'getting Britain building and growing again'. The group was launched in September at an event that featured speeches from Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Varun Chandra, a business and investment adviser to Sir Keir Starmer. Its advisory council includes three Labour MPs – Mike Reader, Kirsteen Sullivan, and Bill Esterson – alongside Ruth Kelly, a former transport secretary, and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride, who served as general secretary of the Labour Party from 2011 to 2018. Baroness Blake of Leeds, a government whip in the House of Lords, was also involved in the group until several months ago. According to The Times, the group is not a lobbying company or part of the Labour Party, meaning it does not have to abide by rules for lobbying firms or political parties. It also has no legal obligation to publicly disclose details of payments it has received from sponsors, or of who has attended its private events. It also does not have to register with the lobbying watchdog, the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL). Gerry McFall, the group's director, is also the director of the lobbying firm Bradshaw Advisory, which is said to have a strong relationship with government figures. He reportedly told undercover reporters that one of the firm's clients had been able to have a meeting with Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, at last year's Labour Party conference. However, the LIF claimed it had told the undercover reporters it does not engage in consultant lobbying activity. An LIF spokesman said: 'LIF is a think tank, does not engage in consultant lobbying and does not have clients, and is therefore not required by law to register with the ORCL. This is clear on LIF's website and in any communications or contractual arrangements with potential sponsors. 'Like all think tanks, LIF seeks sponsorship to operate and cover costs, and does so on a case-by-case basis. 'LIF does not endorse any of its sponsors' products or services. LIF's policy work is entirely editorially independent from any sponsorship and solely expresses the views of LIF's executive.' The Times also reported that the Labour Party's events team offered lobbyists the chance to pay £15,000 plus VAT to partner with the party for winter receptions at which their staff could meet MPs. Officials reportedly emailed the companies saying any payments would not have to be publicised as they were a 'commercial transaction' rather than a 'gift to the party' and so was 'not a recordable donation'. A Labour Party spokesman said: 'Commercial partnerships at events are a longstanding practice and have no bearing on party or government policy. The party fully complies with all rules relating to the reporting of donations.'
The Guardian
05-08-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Labour thinktank offers sponsorship packages to meet and influence ‘key policymakers'
A Labour thinktank has been offering sponsorship packages where businesses can meet and influence MPs and ministers, according to a report. The Labour Infrastructure Forum (LIF) has been offering companies the chance to sponsor events at which they can meet 'key policymakers' in private and 'shape the discussion', the Times said. An LIF prospectus lists a set of sponsorship packages on offer for companies, including a £7,850 deal for a 'private breakfast/dinner roundtable with an influential Labour figure'. Other deals on offer include £11,750 for a 'parliamentary panel event with key policymakers', and between £21,500 and £30,000 for a 'Westminster drinks reception'. The prices are not inclusive of VAT. The Labour Infrastructure Forum describes itself on its website as 'a thinktank focused on getting Britain building and growing again'. It states that it wants to 'spark dialogue' between the party and 'those working across the infrastructure sector'. The thinktank was launched in September last year at an event with speeches from Darren Jones MP, the chief secretary to the Treasury, and Varun Chandra, a business adviser to Keir Starmer. It is not part of the Labour party and is not a lobbying company, which means it does not need to abide by the rules or guidance for lobbying firms or political parties. A spokesperson for the LIF told the Times that the group used sponsorship money to cover its costs and that 'any LIF activity that is supported by sponsors will be made publicly available at the time and in our annual report, as is common across the industry'. The group does not disclose its sponsors. The Labour party said it had no connection to LIF and does not endorse its activities. 'Commercial partnerships at events are a longstanding practice and have no bearing on party or government policy. The party fully complies with all rules relating to the reporting of donations,' a party spokesperson said. LIF states that its secretariat and work is supported by the lobbying company Bradshaw Advisory. The Times reported that a client of Bradshaw Advisory had been able to have a meeting last year with Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, at the Labour party conference, which has not been declared on transparency records. A Labour party spokesperson said: 'This was a meeting at party conference that was held in a political capacity. All meetings held in a ministerial capacity are declared in the proper way in full accordance with the rules.' Labour came under fire last autumn for offering company bosses breakfast with Reynolds for up to £30,000. For £15,000 plus VAT, companies were told they would get an opportunity to give a keynote speech, photographs with the business secretary and others, and a dedicated member of Labour party staff to help make introductions. For £30,000 they would also get to help decide who would attend. In the pitch, Labour's commercial team called the offer a 'unique opportunity to become a commercial partner at our business policy roundtable over breakfast'. The event ultimately did not go ahead and the party said Reynolds had been unaware of it. The Guardian reported last month that Labour MPs were alarmed at the number of sponsored corporate receptions for backbenchers that have been arranged by the party, amid concerns about perceived conflicts of interest. MPs said they had received invitations for networking receptions that include explicit advertisements for property developers or public affairs firms, sent directly from the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) office.
Times
05-08-2025
- Business
- Times
Revealed: Labour group's £9,500 ‘cash for access' breakfasts
The Labour government faces questions over 'cash for access' after a Times investigation found that businesses have been offered private meetings with 'an influential Labour figure' as part of sponsorship packages costing almost £9,500. Since last summer, a Labour group has been approaching companies and offering them the chance to sponsor events at which they can meet 'key policymakers' in private and 'shape the discussion'. The companies have been sent a prospectus with a list of sponsorship packages, including a deal costing £7,850 plus VAT for a 'private breakfast/dinner roundtable with an influential Labour figure'. They have also been offered the chance to pay £11,750 plus VAT for a 'parliamentary panel event with key policymakers', and between £21,500 and £30,000 plus VAT to sponsor a 'Westminster drinks reception'. The day-to-day running of the group that has been offering these deals, the Labour Infrastructure Forum (LIF), is done by lobbyists, alongside an advisory council of senior Labour figures. It says that its mission is to develop policy proposals focused on 'getting Britain building and growing again' and it was launched in September at an event with speeches from Darren Jones MP, the chief secretary to the Treasury, and Varun Chandra, a business and investment adviser to Sir Keir Starmer. Its members have included Baroness Blake of Leeds, a government whip in the House of Lords, and its advisory council includes three Labour MPs — Kirsteen Sullivan, Bill Esterson and Mike Reader — as well as Ruth Kelly, a former Labour cabinet member, and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride, who was general secretary of the Labour Party from 2011 to 2018. Although the LIF is run by lobbyists and has an advisory council of senior Labour figures, it is not itself a lobbying company or part of the Labour Party. This means that it does not have to abide by any rules for lobbying firms or political parties, and has no legal obligation to publicly disclose details of payments it has received from sponsors, or of who has attended its private events. The Times asked the LIF to disclose details of the companies that had sponsored its events, the amounts they had paid, which organisation had received the money, and which Labour figures had attended, but the group declined to share all of this information. A spokesman for the LIF said the group used sponsorship money to cover its costs and that 'any LIF activity that is supported by sponsors will be made publicly available at the time and in our annual report, as is common across the industry'. The Labour Party also did not provide details of any Labour figures who had attended private LIF events, saying that it had no connection to the group and did not endorse its activities. When the LIF was approached by undercover Times reporters, its director, Gerry McFall, who runs the group alongside his regular job as a director of the lobbying firm Bradshaw Advisory, discussed the strength of his relationships with figures in government. Speaking about his work at Bradshaw Advisory, he said that one of the firm's clients had been able to have a meeting last year with Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary. He said the meeting, at last year's Labour Party conference, had been to discuss 'opportunities' and 'inward investment' and added that his client — a big player in the nuclear industry — had been able to meet 'all the key people in government'. However, when reporters checked ministerial records, they found that this meeting between the Bradshaw client and the business secretary had not been declared publicly. Transparency rules say that ministers' meetings during party conferences often do not need to be disclosed when they do not relate to government business. However, if these meetings held on the margins of party conferences are in an official ministerial capacity, they should be recorded and published in the normal way. Reynolds declined to comment. The Times's investigation also found that, in the run-up to Christmas, the Labour Party's events team offered lobbyists the chance to pay £15,000 plus VAT to partner with the party for winter receptions at which their staff could meet MPs. Officials emailed the companies saying that the receptions would be for 'members from the front and back benches' and that the companies' payments to the party would not have to be publicised, saying: 'This is a commercial transaction and not a gift to the party, it is not a recordable donation.' No payments for any Labour Party winter receptions in partnership with lobbyists last year have been publicly disclosed. Electoral Commission rules say that donations to central parties of more than £500 — including sponsorship payments — have to be recorded by the parties, and if they are above £11,180, they have to be declared to the commission for publication on its website. The Labour Party does not disclose these payments publicly because it deems the payments for these events to be general 'commercial partnerships' rather than sponsorship for anything specific. The law appears to allow these payments not to be considered donations — so they do not have to be disclosed to the public. A Labour Party spokesman said: 'Commercial partnerships at events are a longstanding practice and have no bearing on party or government policy. The party fully complies with all rules relating to the reporting of donations.' Under the UK's lobbying rules, lobbying firms are not compelled to publicly disclose details of their meetings with politicians. The Electoral Commission said it was assessing the evidence from The Times. There have long been concerns about the influence of paid lobbying in parliament and that it could potentially allow some businesses and individuals to have unfair influence on policy for their own commercial benefit. Lobbying can be an important part of politics when it is done transparently, allowing an individual or a group to openly try to persuade someone in parliament to support a particular policy or campaign. There are rules to govern lobbying, and they are meant to ensure that the opportunity to lobby is fair. Political parties should be transparent about the money they accept and the meetings that lobbyists have with ministers and senior officials. The lobbying watchdog, the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL), is meant to ensure transparency in the work of consultant lobbyists. Although businesses registered with the watchdog regularly have to publicly declare general lists of the clients they are actively lobbying for, they do not have to publicly disclose details of any of the lobbying meetings they have. The register also applies only to consultant lobbying firms, not to in-house lobbyists employed directly by companies or to other organisations such as think tanks. The ORCL said it was considering the findings and renewed calls for legal changes to force lobbyists to be more transparent with the public about their work. It has said that there are 'significant deficiencies' in the UK's lobbying laws. The LIF has made some changes since The Times started its inquiries into the group. Its website has recently been updated with a new 'sponsorship policy' page. This says that the group does not lobby for its sponsors and that 'acceptance of sponsorship of the LIF does not imply any form of endorsement of the sponsor's products or services by the LIF, or by the Labour Party'. The group's homepage used to describe it as a network including Labour policymakers, but now says that it is a 'think tank'. The LIF's website has always included print at the bottom saying that the secretariat, research and policy work for the group is supported by Bradshaw Advisory. Lady Blake ended her involvement with the LIF several months ago. After McFall's call with the undercover reporter, he emailed to say that the LIF did not do lobbying and was 'editorially independent from commercial interests'. In the days afterwards, a version of the LIF's prospectus that did not include the page detailing its sponsorship deals was removed from the internet. McFall then met undercover reporters to discuss Bradshaw Advisory's work, stressing the importance of transparency, and told them 'nobody can promise that somebody's going to meet'. A spokesman for the LIF said it was 'an independent left-leaning think tank' that did not engage in consultant lobbying and so was not required to register with the ORCL, and that this was made clear to potential sponsors. He said that the LIF was 'an independent legal entity to Bradshaw Advisory' and that its advisory council members had never received payment for their involvement with the group and had no involvement in operational or sponsorship matters. The spokesman said the group made regular changes to its website and that, like all think tanks, it sought sponsorship to cover its costs. He said the group was 'committed to transparency' about its funding, journalists had attended its launch and that the group was 'trying to boost UK growth and create well-paying jobs around the country'. Bradshaw Advisory said it was proud of the work it had done with the LIF, that it had taken appropriate legal and compliance advice before doing the work and that it had 'complied with the law and disclosure rules at all times'. It said that it registered all relevant clients in the normal legal way, including its nuclear client. A spokesman added: 'All matters of government competition and transparency disclosures are a matter for the government. It will surprise nobody that a public affairs firm assists organisations in meeting politicians and senior civil servants.'
Spectator
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Varun Chandra: the most important adviser you've never heard of
The porousness of the Establishment, and its reluctance to advertise its activities, are illustrated by the career of Varun Chandra. At the age of 40, he sits as business adviser at the right hand of the Prime Minister, accompanied him to the meeting on Monday with Donald Trump at Turnberry, and is credited with playing an invaluable role in the recent trade talks in Washington. Before the general election, he used his innumerable high-level contacts to persuade business that Labour would be a better bet than the Conservatives. About himself he has preserved an almost immaculate discretion. He has no Wikipedia entry and is not in Who's Who. Almost everyone consulted in the writing of this profile either does not know him – this includes a number of the best young authorities on the Labour party – or else offered bland testimony about what a wonderful man he is. Chandra himself is not bland, as one discovers by listening to his performance on Principal Navigations, the podcast of the firm Hakluyt, which he ran until he joined Keir Starmer in Downing Street after the general election. He began with his boyhood in South Shields: 'It is a lovely little seaside town in the north-east of England. It is also very poor… My parents ended up moving there before I was born, from Bihar… the poorest state in India, basically… My father came from almost a subsistence peasant existence in a little village, no running water, no electricity, would walk to school, 12 miles every day, and he worked his way up, did well at school, qualified as a doctor… came over to the UK when the NHS was looking for doctors.' In his early years in England his father 'suffered a lot of racism, didn't know how to socialise, didn't know how to go for a drink and talk about the rugby and the football and that sort of stuff, so he's passed over', and had to accept posts as a locum far from home. His mother, anxious to contribute to the family budget, went from café to café trying to sell samosas, and was rebuffed. Varun, born in 1984, knew his parents were making sacrifices so he and his sister could have a better life, and felt he must 'make the most of every opportunity'. He went to the independent Royal Grammar School in Newcastle, founded in 1525. At this point he had a thick Geordie accent, but was 'saved' by his English teacher who 'made what I had said sound clever and sound thoughtful'. One former fellow pupil tells me: 'My recollection of Varun at school is very much as he is in his career today – whip-smart, and hugely charming with it, which is a killer combination. He's the kind of bloke you can't help but like, and he pays full and engaged attention to whoever's talking to him, so it feels reciprocated. He's probably one of the most accomplished people in the entire government, cabinet ministers included.' Varun won a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read philosophy, politics and economics, was elected president of the Junior Common Room, played cricket, rugby, hockey and football for the college, and met Emma Jenkinson, from Swansea. She was reading history and politics, and on New Year's Day 2013 they were married. At Magdalen he began to learn the ways of the world: what the Foreign Office is, what a bank is, the existence of schools like Westminster, Winchester and Eton where 'everybody knows each other'. He says: 'It wasn't intimidating, it was fascinating, learning how the British Establishment operates.' From Magdalen, Chandra joined a bank, Lehman Brothers, because the starting salary enabled him to put a deposit down on a flat and get a mortgage, which he wanted very much to tell his parents he had done. But he looked at the senior people in the bank, decided he did not wish to be doing what they were doing, and resigned about a week before 15 September 2008, when to general astonishment Lehman went bust. Chandra heard from a friend of a friend who had gone to work for one of Tony Blair's charities that the former prime minister was looking for a young banker to help expand his commercial activities. On his first day in the new job Blair asked him to explain 'this whole financial crisis thing, could you just walk me through leverage'. Chandra says of Blair: 'He treats everyone with absolute respect and decency and humility… [it was] a real education in how one should conduct oneself.' This kind of praise is odious to the British press. We feel it must be covering up all sorts of misdemeanours. But to understand Blair, and his apprentice Chandra, one must bear in mind their overpowering need to know that, despite their riches, they are still decent people, who strive by political action and charitable engagement to justify their good fortune. Chandra spent five-and-a-half years flying around the world for Blair, meeting presidents, prime ministers and billionaires. In the run-up to the 2010 general election, he wrote 20 pieces on economic questions for Left Foot Forward, a blog founded by Will Straw, son of the Labour minister Jack Straw. We find Chandra in a prosy tone rebuking George Osborne and Kenneth Clarke for 'playing politics'. One has the impression he is trying out journalism and discovering he has no particular gift for it. When David Miliband stood for the Labour leadership in 2010, Chandra advised him on economics. Chandra joined Hakluyt in 2013, when he was 28. Hakluyt had been founded in 1995 by two former MI6 officers, Christopher James and Mike Reynolds, who spotted a gap in the market for business intelligence. Suppose you run a company which constructs power stations, you hear of an opportunity to build one in Ruritania, and you need to know whether your local partner is reliable or will get you into trouble. Hakluyt would find out the answer for you, without telling you how it did so. After a spell in the New York office, Chandra was in 2019 elected managing partner of Hakluyt, whose headquarters are in a townhouse in Mayfair. The company charges very high fees and has expanded at a rate of knots, with Chandra paid about £2 million in his last year. 'They do themselves well,' one who has dined in the townhouse attests. 'There is still a very spook-y atmosphere.' He also detected hints of a top barrister's chambers and a high-class bordello. Chandra has insisted that while he was in charge there was 'no relationship with the spook-y world, so that's that'. Hakluyt partners go in and out of senior Whitehall roles at sometimes dizzying speed, and the company's international board is chaired by Lord Hague, former foreign secretary and a Magdalen man. Chandra appears in the photograph of Boris Johnson and others drinking wine in the Downing Street garden on the evening of 15 May 2020, though he was not at the same table as Johnson, and explains that he was visiting civil servants. Last month, openDemocracy published an account of a breakfast organised by Chandra in April 2022 at Hakluyt's headquarters in Mayfair, at which the then business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, met ten financiers including representatives of Macquarie, the Australian asset manager, Global Infrastructure Partners, which is owned by BlackRock, and the private equity firms KKR and Permira. Chandra insists Hakluyt provides its clients with 'unbiased, independent, high-quality advice' and does not engage in lobbying. It certainly appears to help its clients meet whoever is in power. Lord Rosenfield, who served from 2016 as a partner at Hakluyt and had an unhappy spell as Johnson's chief of staff, hailed Chandra's appointment as Starmer's business adviser with the perhaps premature declaration on LinkedIn: 'Our economy is safe in your hands!' The awkward task of persuading business not to give up on this Labour government falls to Chandra. If you are a financier in New York who doubts whether now is quite the moment to invest in Thames Water, you will find yourself talking to Chandra. One British businessman objects that Chandra 'has never run a proper business' and knows nothing of what it is like to work on tight margins. Chandra's ability to work a room is, however, generally admitted. When Henry Fairlie brought the term 'the Establishment' into general use, in a column for The Spectator in 1955, he remarked: 'The exercise of power in Britain (more specifically, in England) cannot be understood unless it is recognised that it is exercised socially.' Blair was brilliant at the social exercise of power, for he knew, as an old friend of his once observed, how to talk to anyone from a duchess to a cleaning lady. After about ten years we got so fed up with Blair we would not listen to a word he said, but for a long time he indicated to Middle England that he was a decent chap, by adopting the right tone of voice for whatever was going on. A number of Blairites, including Peter Mandelson and Jonathan Powell, have rallied round to help Starmer, whose command of tone is much less sure. Chandra is the youngest of these recruits. If anyone can mend fences with business, he can. But mending fences with Middle England is a front-of-house job, which may be beyond the wit even of the man from Hakluyt.
Sky News
03-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News
KKR abandoned Thames Water rescue despite No 10 talks with Kravis
The investment giant lined up to rescue Thames Water abandoned its offer days after talks took place involving one of its co-founders and Downing Street officials. Sky News has learnt that Henry Kravis, one of the architects of KKR's ascent to becoming one of the world's most powerful investors, discussed its plan to bail out Britain's biggest water company with Varun Chandra, Sir Keir Starmer's top business adviser, over the weekend. Sources close to the now-abandoned deal said the call between the pair had been organised following a request from Thames Water and its advisers at Rothschild. An insider said the discussion had been "constructive", with Mr Chandra said to have sought to reassure Mr Kravis that the government was supportive of the deal. One source close to KKR said, however, that its senior New York-based executives were unable to get comfortable with the level of operational and financial risk attached to investing as much as £4bn of equity into Thames Water. They were also concerned about negative rhetoric directed at Thames Water and the rest of the industry in recent weeks by Steve Reed, the environment secretary, and other ministers, the source added. KKR's decision to pull out of the discussions leaves the water company, which serves more than 15m customers across London and the Thames Valley, relying on an alternative deal being assembled by its biggest bondholders. That proposal is being progressed, Thames Water said on Tuesday, although the spectre of temporary nationalisation continues to loom over it. The company was fined a record £123m by Ofwat, the industry regulator, last week, and faces further substantial penalties in the coming months.
