It’s a day ending in ‘y’ – so that means another scandal for Keir Starmer’s beleaguered team. This time it concerns a lobbying firm run by an ex-Labour MP. Jim Murphy, the party’s onetime Scottish leader, now heads up Arden Communications which has lobbied Sir Keir’s administration on behalf of arms manufacturers, oil companies and energy giants. Truly the best of Labour values…
Ahead of the election, Arden provided support to more than 30 prospective Labour MPs in the run-up to the 2024 general election. And now, post-election, they are keen to make the most of their relationship with Britain’s governing party. For Arden has been caught by the BBC asking companies for £30,000 to sponsor its flagship ‘Future of Tech Summit’, including a ‘photo opportunity’ with a minister and access to a ‘VIP dinner’ with ‘top advisers’ to Starmer and Rachel Reeves. Attendees were offered the chance to watch a ‘fireside chat’ with Science Secretary Liz Kendall – something apparently worth paying good money for….
The anger of Labour spads at Arden’s error is fairly obvious from the quotes provided to the Beeb for their piece. One ‘government source’ is quoted as saying Kendall ‘was not aware of this invitation and she never agreed to attend this event’ while a ‘Treasury source’ sniffed that they were not aware of any of Rachel Reeves’s advisers being invited. Arden itself said that:
Information about an event unfortunately contained very clumsy language by mistake which should never have been used and hadn’t been approved. It was stupid to do and we apologise for this mistake. This included mentioning attendees who had not been confirmed. We are sorry for these errors.
He has been out of parliament a decade – but Jim Murphy is still causing bad headlines for Labour…
Comments