Concerns have been raised about the city’s influence in Westminster, after a report found that financial companies and people linked to the sector donated £ 15 million to political parties and gave £ 2 million to MPs during the pandemic.
The Positive Money campaign group counted the gifts, expenses and donations given to MPs, colleagues and their parties, as well as the value of the income of politicians’ second jobs, saying it contributed to the “oversized influence” of finance in policy making.
He found that banks, insurers and lobbyists held a “disproportionate” number of meetings with the Treasury, which accounted for a third of ministerial meetings in 2020 and 2021, and argued that this led to policies favorable as deregulation and an economy that was “structurally”. depending ”on the city of London.
The Conservative party was the main recipient of the city’s donations to political parties, accounting for more than £ 11 million or 76% of the cash donated over the two-year period.
“Once the scale of the influence of big finance on government is exposed, it becomes obvious how banks get bailouts and tax cuts, while the rest of us get austerity and tax increases.” , said David Barmes, senior economist at Positive Money.
The report, entitled The Power of Big Finance: How to Reclaim Our Democracy From the Banking Lobby, found that 47 MPs received £ 2.3 million between them (an average of £ 48,936 each) from the financial sector between January 2020 and December 2021. While 26 did not work in return for payments, those who did received an average of £ 2,738 an hour, 180 times the UK average salary of £ 15.15.
Some £ 1.2 million of that total was raised by just five Conservative politicians, including former Prime Minister Theresa May, to whom she paid more than £ 200,000 for speeches at events organized by JP Morgan and Amundi Asset Management, and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, to whom he received a total of £ 175,000 for his former role as JP Morgan’s chief adviser, as well as speeches for companies such as HSBC.
As a result, JP Morgan was the one who spent the most among the companies in the city of Westminster, having paid £ 300,000 in salaries and speaker fees during the period.
Eurosceptic Conservative MP John Redwood was the city’s highest-paid among his peers, receiving close to £ 471,000 in duties, such as his position as chief global strategist for investment manager Charles Stanley, and a role. as an advisor to the private equity firm EPIC.
In the House of Lords, the report found that one-fifth of colleagues held paid positions in financial firms, including more than half the members of a committee tasked with investigating economic and financial issues.
Positive Money also raised concerns about the revolving gate between Westminster and the city. This issue of possible conflicts of interest became important during the recent Greensill scandal, after it was discovered that former Prime Minister David Cameron and former officials pressured former colleagues on behalf of the now-lending Greensill Capital lender. slipped.
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“Access to public institutions is not only the exceptional case of some rotten apples that break the rules, such as the David Cameron lobby on behalf of … Greensill Capital, but it represents a much broader systemic problem.” , said Positive Money.
He now recommends a ban on second jobs for MPs, apart from public service functions, and introduces longer periods of reflection and bans on pressure from ministers, officials and regulators. It also calls for a limit on donations from political parties and the amount that politicians can pay for speeches, as well as requiring all party parliamentary groups to disclose sources of funding.
TheCityUK and UK Finance declined to comment on the report, saying the issue was a matter for individual donors.
The Treasury said that as the department responsible for the financial services sector, it was “absolutely right for ministers and officials to meet regularly with industry representatives, as is usual with political commitment.
“There is a clear policy of declaring and managing interests for those working in government, and steps are being taken to avoid any conflict of interest.”