UK must regulate lobbying after Mandelson scandal, ethics watchdog tells Burnham

Burnham has campaigned on a “change” platform, and in the aftermath of the release of documents relating to former Labour peer Mandelson’s appointment as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. said: “People have lost faith in a Westminster system which puts private vested interests above the wider public interest and concentrates too much power in too few hands.”

Under the current regime, only a small subsection of Britain’s lobbying shops are required to reveal their clients to the Office for the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL) — and only when direct contact is made on behalf of those clients with government ministers or senior civil servants.

The EIC said the existing system should be replaced with a new “activity-based” lobbying register requiring in-house public affairs professionals, charities and think tanks to log any lobbying activity.

Analysis by Transparency International UK of the current regime — first established in 2014 — found that only around 4 percent of lobbying activity in Westminster is being captured. The ethics body said a significant expansion of the registration requirements is needed to improve public trust after a swathe of high-profile lobbying scandals.

The review was ordered by departing Prime Minister Keir Starmer after documents released in the wake of the Mandelson scandal highlighted concerns over the relationship between senior Westminster figures and corporate interests.

The watchdog proposes new reporting requirements for those lobbying a wider pool of civil servants and government mandarins, and said special advisers —  the “gatekeepers” to ministers who “wield significant influence” — should also be brought within the scope of the rules.