LOC11:24
08:24 GMT
LONDON, Dec 5 (KUNA) -- A leading lobbying company has been secretly taped
claiming to be able to directly influence British Prime Minister David Cameron
and other senior government figures, the Independent newspaper reported
Tuesday.
Executives from public affairs firm Bell Pottinger boasted to undercover
reporters about their access to the Prime Minister, Chancellor George Osborne,
Cameron's policy chief Steve Hilton and Downing Street chief of staff Ed
Llewellyn.
The claims were dismissed by Downing Street sources as "outrageous" and "a
load of rubbish".
But the opposition Labour party said they were "very serious allegations"
that demonstrated the need for lobbying reform.
Tim Collins, managing director of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, told the
reporters from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, whose investigation is
published in The Independent, that he had worked with Cameron and Osborne in
the Conservative Party's research department.
He also said that Llewellyn had worked under him at Conservative Central
Office.
"I've been working with people like Steve Hilton, David Cameron, George
Osborne for 20 years-plus.
There is not a problem getting the messages through," he said.
Collins also claimed that Bell Pottinger had got Cameron to raise the
matter of copyright infringement with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao on behalf of
engineering firm Dyson.
"He (the Prime Minister) was doing it because we asked him to do it," he
claimed.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said "Bell Pottinger nor any other lobbying
firm has any say or influence over government policy."
But Labour's shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett accused the
Government of being "too close to corporate interests".
"These are very serious allegations involving a former member of the
Conservative frontbench as well as some of David Cameron's closest confidants
inside Downing Street and his cheerleaders in the media," he said.
"We have been calling on the Government to implement a statutory register
of lobbyists.
We need reform to ensure that there is no question of the rich and powerful
buying access to the Prime Minister and his advisers." (end)
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