Lobbying is the process of persuading to meet with key political figures and trying to persuade them to support your aims. It is most commonly recognised in the USA through the sheer size of it’s lobbying industry but it is growing within the UK too.
Here are some recent examples of lobbying within the UK:
In January 2020, Christopher Pyne was formally warned he was banned from lobbying for the defence contractor Saber Astronautics for 18 months since it won $2.7m in government work during his time as minister. This situation highlights the difficulties faced when trying to enforce lobbying rules as although Pyne is banned, his colleague, GC Advisory’s principal, Adam Howard, is not.
Lobbyists a can be seen to have a substantial impact on mainstream policy too. This is shown by the conservative’s election manifesto being written by Rachel Wolf, a lobbyist from the fracking company Cudrilla, which sparked outrage amoung major internet companies such as amazon and Facebook who raised concerns over whether the lobbyist’s paying clients could influence the party’s polices – questioning the democracy of our country as it means the rich and frackers are paving the way for the future of our country, despite there being a growing trend of the general pubic disagreeing with fracking.
Foreign Lobbying also has an impact on British politics as a total of eleven wealthy american donars have given more than £2.86m to right wing UK groups in the past 5 years. This clearly targets the front line of our government since most of the money goes to the conservatives who have been in power in the UK since 2010.
For more information see:
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/15/christopher-pyne-formally-warned-he-is-banned-from-lobbying-for-defence-contractor
- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/30/fracking-lobbyist-hired-to-draw-up-tory-manifesto-rachel-wolf
- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/29/wealthy-us-donors-gave-millions-to-rightwing-uk-groups
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