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Labor has accused the government of having “one rule for lobbyists and their paying clients and another rule for the rest of us” after it emerged that a Westminster lobbyist was quietly hired as a consultant and joined calls from coronavirus strategy with health ministers.
Labor Deputy Leader Angela Rayner has written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, urging him to investigate the roles of George Pascoe-Watson, head of public relations consultancy Portland Communications, and his colleague James O’Shaughnessy.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has admitted that Pascoe-Watson gave unpaid advice on communications to the NHS Test and Trace. He attended daily communications calls chaired by Conservative Health Minister James Bethell, a hereditary peer who previously led Matt Hancock’s Conservative leadership campaign.
The Sunday Times reported that shortly after Pascoe-Watson’s temporary role ended, the Portland partners wrote to their clients warning them to prepare for a national shutdown, and said Boris Johnson would “announce next week that he is prepared to ‘ sacrifice November to save December ‘. “
The message was sent several days before details of a possible national lockdown for England began to appear in the newspapers.
In the later part of the story, the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) filed a complaint against Portland Communications under its professional statute and code of conduct. Francis Ingham, Director General of the PRCA, said: “We have well-established independent procedures to investigate such complaints, and those procedures will now be put in place.”
Rayner asked Case to investigate “how lobbyists and their clients benefited from this vital information before the public knew it, while the rest of the country eagerly awaited government announcements of the shutdown … and if they could see their families, friends and loved ones. “
Questions raised by Rayner in his letter to Case included whether other lobbyists had been used as paid or unpaid advisers; whether public officials’ concerns about their role had been ignored; and if they had been asked to sign confidentiality agreements.
The government has repeatedly faced criticism for alleged cronyism and for blurring the lines between the public and private sectors, including the role of Dido Harding. As a fellow Conservative, Lady Harding votes with the government in the House of Lords and at the same time runs the NHS Test and Trace, a government body that would normally be expected to be led by an official.
Meanwhile, several lucrative contracts related to the pandemic have been awarded to companies with connections to the outgoing chief aide to the prime minister, Dominic Cummings, and other high-level government figures. The emergency legislation made it possible to circumvent the usual bidding process.
Pascoe-Watson, former Sun Policy Editor, said: “I was honored to be asked to serve in the NHS test and trace service in a personal capacity as an unpaid consultant.” He insisted that he had declared his professional interests to the department and that he had no role in the daily calls after October 7.
“To be clear, the information shared with [Portland] the clients on October 15 and 29 were not connected in any way to the test and trace calls, in which I was no longer participating. “He said the information came from” multiple conversations held by our consultants. “
There are also questions about the role of Lord O’Shaughnessy, a Portland partner, who was a paid advisor to the government until August. The Sunday Times reported that O’Shaughnessy participated in a call with Lord Bethell and Boston Consulting Group, a Portland client.
It emerged last month that some Boston Consulting employees are being hired by the government to work on testing and tracking for up to £ 6,250 a day.
O’Shaughnessy said: “Earlier this year, I was asked to support the government as part of the national effort to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, something I was proud of. This role, which involved providing policy advice to DHSC ministers and officials on innovation testing, was approved by the permanent secretary and reported on my record of interests. It did not imply responsibility for acquisition decisions. “
A DHSC spokesperson said: “As part of an unprecedented response to this global pandemic, we have rightly drawn on the expertise of several private sector partners who provided advice and expertise to assist in the vital work of government. This included helping to establish the largest diagnostic network in British history and a test and trace system used by tens of millions of people.
“As a result of the joint work of public and private sector organizations, we were able to strengthen our response to the pandemic to be better prepared for the challenges of the coming months.”
The spokesperson added that any role O’Shaughnessy played in procurement decisions would have gone through the relevant approval procedures.
