I haven't done a politics based blog in a while, but last night when I was struggling to sleep after finishing work at 3am, I was reading the news and came across an article on Tim Yeo. Tim Yeo, is a conservative MP and the chairman of a Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee who has been accused of influencing parliament for money - or as the news call it 'coaching'.
What is lobbying? - Lobbying in order to influence political decisions is widely regarded as a part of the democratic process. - Lobbyists are firms or individuals that are paid to influence such decisions, most lobbyists are often former politicians or ex-civil servants who have developed personal relationships and contacts with those in power. - Individuals, firms, charities and other groups can lobby on their own without paying professionals to do it for them if they wish to do so. - All MPs are subject to a code of conduct when it comes to their outside interests and dealings; they have to register their financial interests including employment outside of Parliament. MP's are allowed to work as consultants and are allowed to be paid for advice. However, they are not allowed to act as a paid advocate - they cannot take money for speaking in the house, or paid to ask a parliamentary question, or introducing a bill.
What are the concerns around lobbying? - The greatest and longest concern of lobbying is that if it is unregulated, lobbyists will begin to gain an unhealthy level of influence over political decision-making.- Some suggest it will cause corruption of peers and MPs.- A major concern is that lobbying undermines the meaning of democracy - if lobbyists can influence political decisions, the public and representatives of the people lose their democratic influence.
Mr Yeo was 'exposed' by an undercover journalist from The Sunday Times, the journalist posed as a representative of a green energy company looking to hire Mr Yeo. In this interview, he said outright that he had coached a representative of a firm that is a subsidiary of a company he is paid to work for, on what that representative should say when appearing in front of his committee, almost suggesting that he will offer his knowledge of how to get funding and support from the government to any company willing to pay the right amount of money. Coaching is sometimes considered to be a form of lobbying, lobbyists influence parliament all of the time. Its a very very common thing, however, this has caused some controversy due to the accusation of money being involved. I think the reason that this has blown up so much could be due to the demands for the tightening of rules around the lobbying of ministers and MP's to ensure greater transparency within government. It is suggested that the government have promised to bring forward legislation on the topic in the next few weeks.
Before becoming Prime Minister, David Cameron predicted that lobbying would be the next big scandal, following the expenses scandals. The coalition government also promised to put legislation in place to monitor and decrease the extent of lobbying, but this is still yet to happen, and the government is also planning to introduce the statutory register of lobbyists, to reform and limit lobbying within Parliament however, critics have claimed that they have taken far too long to put this legislation in place.
Now, MP Tim Yeo is certainly not the first MP or peer to be accused of being prepared to break the rules on lobbying in Parliament. There was MP Patrick Mercer who recently resigned the Conservative whip after claims by BBC's panorama that he broke Parliaments lobbying rules by accepting £4,000 to lobby for business interests in Fiji - he was also approached by a fake company set up by Panorama. In addition, two labor peers have been suspended and one Ulster Unionist member of the House of Lords has resigned the whip after allegedly agreeing to do parliamentary work for payment in contravention of the rules. They all, obviously, deny any wrongdoing.
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Thanks for reading, and muchos love!Ysabelle xxxx
