How do we solve a problem like lobbying?
Guest post by Dr Ben Worthy, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London, and Dr Michele Crepaz, Vice Chancellor Illuminate Fellow, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast.
Lobbying is a vital part of democracy but the perceived connection between money and politics has damaged UK politics since the 1990s. Over the last few years, there have been a slew of damaging high-profile lobbying stories, including the then Prime Minister not properly declaring interests, and one MP claiming to manipulate the rules to keep hospitality secret. The public clearly believe ethical standards have declined recently, and polling shows this impacts both on their trust in the political system and, in some cases, how they vote. Partly because of this, transparency and integrity reform were a feature of all the main party manifestos.
The new Labour government has committed to ‘clean up lobbying’, promising a raft of changes including a new Ethics and Integrity Commission, strengthening the power of the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Interests and ‘meaningful sanctions for breaching the rules’. In parallel, the Modernisation Committee at Westminster will restrict second jobs and seek to drive up standards to ‘severely restrict lobbying work’.
The difficulty for the new government is that the UK has some of the weakest lobbying regulations in the world. The system is fragmented, semi-transparent at best, and with insufficient external support from users. While Parliament has pushed some important changes itself, between 2010 and 2024 there has been a seemingly endless spiral of scandals and unfulfilled promises, punctuated with minor tinkering.
So what would better regulation look like? As lobbying reform moves higher up the agenda, we recommend focussing on the three major shortcomings of the current lobbying regulation system.
First, it should be wider. The scope of the regulation needs to be expanded. To be effective, the breadth and reach needs to mirror the lobbying industry itself, and cover consultants, in-house public affairs and policy advocacy specialists. David Cameron did create a lobbying register but it ended up covering just 1% of all lobbyists. A Select Committee also called for any updated rules to cover new ways of lobbying, such as communications via WhatsApp or texts (prompted, ironically, by the lobbying efforts of one David Cameron).
Second, there needs to be more transparency. Data at present are scattered across various locations, full of loopholes and subject to growing gaps and non-compliance. There needs to be centralised information access with a holistic approach and linked, accessible data providing a fuller picture of the decision-making process. The last government committed to create a single site to hold all of the data relating to lobbying, interests and meetings. There is broad support for this across the public, the lobbied and those doing the lobbying. When asked, 90% of PR professionals supported the idea of greater openness.
Third, there needs to be stronger accountability and sanctions, to deter and, if necessary, punish. Strengthening investigative powers, and centralising enforcement of all public integrity to one independent agency will help. Such mechanisms must be clear, powerful and publicised, to have a full effect.
Reforming Westminster’s lobbying regime goes beyond simply strengthening the mechanics. Political support is crucial. Politicians, however, frequently lose interest or water down proposals once in power. New governments are themselves lobbied instantly and incessantly, as Labour are finding, having been ‘lovebombed by lobbyists’ over the last few months and years. So sustained enthusiasm for change, in the form of regular speeches, compliance and engagement are key. Stories and examples of senior figures flouting or ignoring the rules bring the entire system into disrepute, and send a signal it can be undermined. Labour are already seeing stories over gifts.
By contrast, high-profile speeches and backing send powerful signals that the process is to be taken seriously and complied with. This is particularly effective if politicians can link regulating lobbying to creating a ‘better’ and more democratic and inclusive system. On his first full day as Prime Minister, Starmer did send just such a signal, reminding his colleagues of the Nolan principles, and of the consequences of breaching them. There may be a case of enlightened self-interest, as experimental evidence shows that ‘voters reward’ politicians who champion ‘financial disclosures, lobbying registries, and sanctions for MPs involved in corruption cases’.
It might not be easy. We know that any reforming government who wants to make lobbying stronger may, ironically, face a short-term wave of corruption scandals as more misbehaviour is exposed and punished by better processes. But in the long term, a stronger lobbying regime, with new institutional power and elite political support, could be a vital first step in the right direction and could, over time, restore public trust and improve elite behaviour.
Article originally appeared on the Transparency International Website.
You can read the authors’ recent post What to expect from Transparency and Integrity Reform after the General Election: Manifesto Analysis by clicking here.
About the Authors
Dr Ben Worthy joined Birkbeck College in 2012 and is a senior lecturer in politics. His research interests include Government Transparency, Open Data, Political leadership, British Politics, Digital Democracy and Public Policy and Policy-making. He has written articles for Governance, Parliamentary Affairs and Public Administration. He has also written a number of reports and presented evidence to the Justice Select Committee.
Dr Michele Crepaz is a Vice-Chancellor Illuminate Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests lie at the intersection between comparative politics and public policy and is particularly interested in the role of interest groups and transparency in politics.
The featured image has been used courtesy of a Creative Commons license.
