KEIR Starmer’s top business adviser’s former company is under investigation for a secret meeting he arranged between finance executives and a Tory Cabinet minister.
Varun Chandra, the Prime Minister’s special adviser on business and investment, is facing claims a meeting he organised in 2022 between leading financiers and then-business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng was never properly disclosed.
Chandra was a managing partner at the “global strategic advisory firm” Hakluyt and Company until 2024 when he began working for No 10.
A lengthy investigation by openDemocracy has uncovered a host of meetings between Chandra and senior figures in the former Conservative government.
The investigation by the Office for the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL) is understood to centre around a meeting held on April 4, 2022 at Hakluyt’s office in Mayfair, central London.
Hakulyt has denied any wrongdoing.
Kwarteng (above) and people at Hakluyt had breakfast, according to the Government’s official records and was classified as “hospitality”, implying that it did not relate to Government business.
It also said that only the senior Tory’s team and people at the company were present, however, additional documents obtained by openDemocracy suggest that 10 finance companies attended, private equity giants Permira and KKR and asset managers Macquarie and Global Infrastructure Partners, the latter of which is owned by BlackRock.
A readout of the meeting reviewed by openDemocracy shows that over the course of an hour or so, the UK’s secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy offered the finance executives significant insider insights into the Tory government’s strategies, priorities and plans.
Kwarteng also reportedly took questions from those gathered, telling them that the “Government will seek to keep taxes as low as possible”.
At stake is whether Hakluyt should have registered as a “consultant lobbyist” over the meeting, as this activity is regulated. Failing to register as a “consultant lobbyist” is an offence under the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.
Consultant lobbying is a legal term, distinct from lobbying – which can refer to a number of activities not covered by the 2014 Act. To meet the threshold of consultant lobbying, a company must not only communicate with a government minister or senior civil servant about a matter of government business, but they must do so on behalf of a third party and in return for payment. They must also be VAT registered in the UK.
ORCL can issue fines of up to £7500 for companies and individuals who meet the definition of consultant lobbying but fail to register as such.
An ORCL spokesperson told openDemocracy: “The registrar is investigating Hakluyt in relation to potential unregistered consultant lobbying.
“A case summary will be published when the investigation is complete. The registrar does not comment on ongoing investigations.”
Ben Worthy, a leading academic at Birkbeck University studying government transparency, said the findings highlighted a “lack of clarity” in the laws governing lobbying.
He said: “Any member of the public would see this as lobbying, and it illustrates once again the gap between politicians abiding with their own rules and how the public sees it, which is one of the central problems.”
Labour MP Jon Trickett (above) added: “These revelations are extremely concerning. It is right that the regulator now investigates whether the law has been broken. We need a total clampdown on lobbying by private companies. Profiteers should not be allowed to use their connections to influence government policy.”
Many of the companies Chandra engaged with at Hakluyt now enjoy significant access to and influence with the Labour leadership, including asset managers Macquarie and Global Infrastructure Partners.
In his new post, Chandra had dinner with a sovereign wealth fund that attended the April 2022 roundtable meeting, which then met with the PM and chancellor Rachel Reeves the following day, as well as top civil servants, to discuss working together.
A spokesperson for Hakulyt said: “We are not a lobbying organisation – no lobbying occurred at these meetings. Any suggestion that Hakluyt has conducted consultant lobbying within the meaning of applicable legislation is entirely false.”
