Dark Arts Dispatch: Corporate capture, utilisation and storage

Plus, a Labour donor wins big on government contracts, a would-be MP fails upwards and the smoking lobby returns

Dark Arts Dispatch: Rogue investors, lobbyist cricket and visitors at No 10

Firms fined for breaching environmental, labour and consumer protection rules are stars of Labour’s investment summit

Revealed: No 10 advisor involved in AI policy has financial interests in AI

Varun Chandra left an MI6-linked consultancy to join Starmer’s government, but he still has a stake in its AI-backing investment fund

Labour given £4m from tax haven-based hedge fund with shares in oil and arms

Quadrature’s donation is noteworthy not just for being Labour’s largest-ever, but for its timing ahead of election

You have no right to know which MPs got elected with the help of lobbyists

A lobbyist can give a Labour MP £1,499 without it being declared. And that's still true if they give 30 Labour MPs £1,499

Concerts, clothes and New York breaks: New ministers take £170,000 of gifts

Starmer has accepted more than anybody else since start of 2023, raising questions over what donors get in return

Inside the Westminster networking events where lobbyists and politicians mix

No 10 refused to say who attended a Downing Street business reception. So Dark Arts found out

The army of private sector secondees who helped Labour win

Private firms have given Labour £1.8m worth of secondments and pro-bono work since 2022. What do they get in return?

Lovebombed by lobbyists: How Labour became the party of Big Business

An openDemocracy investigation reveals the secretive mass lobbying campaign that shaped Starmer's policies

Revealed: The secretive group taking MPs on propaganda trips to Israel

Source said visit organised by ELNET for Labour staffers had ‘clear agenda’ to shape policies of next government

The lobbyist connecting Labour’s top team with arms firms and energy bosses

While fighting raged in Gaza in October, top Labour figures met with the CEO of a major supplier of arms to Israel

A Labour win won’t stop shadowy right-wing think tanks influencing policy

Revealed: Labour frontbenchers forming close links with think tank behind Sunak’s draconian policing and protest laws