Exclusive: Watchdog probing Starmer aide’s secret lobbying of Tory ministers

openDemocracy findings on Varun Chandra’s activities at Hakluyt prompted official watchdog to launch investigation

The City’s big investment in Starmer’s Labour is about to pay dividends

Reeves’ Mansion House speech shows the corporate takeover of Labour is complete

Revealed: What goes on in No 10’s mass lobbying calls?

Not much at all, it turns out. But the growing stench of desperation is palpable, even over Microsoft Teams

Revealed: Banking giant threatened to leave UK over mooted tax increase

JP Morgan Chase wrote to Rachel Reeves to lobby against rumoured banking surcharge rise ahead of autumn budget

Aristo-fraudster who raised millions for Farage sets up opaque new company

Secretive new political firm set up by ‘posh’ George Cottrell raises ‘real red flags’, anti-corruption expert warns

The veteran Tory and City lobbyist advising Starmer’s business team

Iain Anderson’s newfound love for Labour has raised eyebrows across Westminster and worried some in the party

Dark Arts Dispatch: Westminster is a ‘safe space’ for lobbyists

Plus, how Peter Mandelson might find common ground with Trump in rumoured new role as UK ambassador to Washington

The BlackRock letters: inside Labour's 'close partnership'

The business secretary told the head of a major global investment banker that he looked forward to working together to “change the face of our United Kingdom"

Dark Arts Dispatch: Westminster’s revolving door just keeps spinning

Failed MPs and outgoing spads turn to lobbying, plus the new shadow science minister’s links to arms firms and tech giants

Dark Arts Dispatch: New lobbyist in town, a wind-powered party and FOI fears

A new lobby shop has close links to Starmer and his top team, while another firm is wooing junior journalists

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

Keir Starmer

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

Keir Starmer

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

Labour

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

Keir Starmer

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

Keir Starmer

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

Keir Starmer

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?

Keir Starmer

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

Israel

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

Gaza

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

Labour

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

Labour

One seat, two candidates accused of buying their chance to become its MP

How a Labour lobbying boss and a Tory nepo-baby ‘paid’ their way onto the ballot in rural Suffolk

Political Influence

Inside the lobbying campaign to force Labour's next U-turn

How the City fought back against plans to close a £600m loophole, plus more Labour lobbyist candidates