Labour’s “Get Crosby” Lobbying Bill amendments

The Labour Party have announced their amendments to the government’s Lobbying Bill this evening. And they seem designed with one goal in mind – Get Crosby.

Here they are in full:

1. Purpose: close the loophole that lets Crosby get around being on the register.

Amendment: All professional lobbyists working in the UK will be required to declare their full list of clients on a statutory register and also declare the approximate value of their lobbying activity.

2. Purpose: ensure people doing senior jobs in politics can’t also be lobbying without people knowing about it.

Amendment: Anyone doing a senior job for the government of the day – whether in-house or a contractor, formally for the party or directly by the government – who is a professional lobbyist must be declared.

3. Purpose: ensure there is proper oversight of conflicts of interests when people take up senior roles in government, and people do not use their new role to further other interests.

Amendment: senior officials or ministers leaving Government to take up posts in related areas have their appointment scrutinised by a committee, and potentially have conditions put on their activities. The same should apply to people coming into senior roles in Government, with the potential to ensure they are not involved in discussions that they retain an interest in, such as Crosby on tobacco packaging.