ANDY Burnham's incoming chief of staff has been linked to a lobbying row over a meeting with Douglas Alexander when he was Trade Minister.
The Scottish Secretary took part in a breakfast roundtable with business chiefs in March 2025 organised by James Purnell while he was chief executive of Flint Global, the investigative substack Democracy for Sale has revealed.
While documents released through Freedom of Information (FOI) show 21 company representatives attended the meeting at Flint Global’s offices, the firm did not declare any lobbying activity. The names of the companies and representatives were redacted in the FOI release, but listed in the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) transparency logs.
Alexander has previously come under fire after it emerged that disgraced peer Peter Mandelson introduced him to a lobbying firm he set up with links to Russia and China.
Mandelson, who was sacked as UK ambassador to the US last year over his links with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, introduced Alexander to contacts in the Global Counsel lobbying firm he co-founded in 2010.
It was the first meeting he held as Trade Minister, in the form of an online call. It was only added to public transparency logs earlier this year.
In the new lobbying row, Democracy for Sale revealed that Flint Global declared no lobbying activity to Westminster’s watchdog during the period when the roundtable with Alexander took place.
On the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, Flint Global does not have any clients listed between between January and March 2025, claiming that during that the firm “made no communications which meet the definition of consultant lobbying as defined by the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act”.
However, in DBT’s ministerial meeting releases, a meeting between Flint and Alexander is listed as taking place to “discuss the current trading environment”.
Attendees listed include Amazon, Uber, Diageo, Sky, Babcock International, Jaguar Land Rover and Unilever.
While Flint has only officially declared two clients on the UK lobbying register, several – including Uber, Amazon and Diageo – are listed on the EU’s lobbying register.
Purnell, who was Flint’s CEO at the time, is named in email correspondence as the meeting’s host.
Transparency campaigners called on Burnham’s chief of staff to explain the lack of disclosure.
Kamila Kingstone, senior campaign lead at Spotlight on Corruption, told Democracy for Sale: “Purnell should explain why Flint Global failed to declare its clients on the lobbying register. He will also need to recuse himself from all meetings and decisions relating to any of them.”
While the names of Flint’s representatives are redacted in the email chain, one subject line reads: “Re: Minister Alexander and James Purnell breakfast”.
SNP MP Chris Law, the party’s business and trade spokesperson, added: “Douglas Alexander must come clean over whether he had a secret meeting with James Purnell, his lobbying firm and clients, when he was the Labour government’s trade minister.
“We already know that Mr Alexander failed to properly register a meeting with disgraced Labour peer Peter Mandelson and his lobbying firm – and these reports suggest there may have been even more undisclosed meetings going on.”
Details revealed in the email show that Alexander would “speak for around 10 minutes” before it was opened up for comments and questions, with a one to one scheduled with an unnamed Flint representative once the meeting had concluded.
A spokesperson for Flint said Purnell had resigned from the company and “recused himself from all client activity”, stating he had no “ongoing financial interest in the company of any kind”.
A DBT spokesperson said: “Ahead of the launch of the Trade Strategy, the minister met with over 100 external stakeholders.
"This meeting was declared in line with transparency guidance. Regular meetings with external stakeholders are a standard part of policy development.”
