A SCOTTISH Labour MP held a “secretive” meeting with lobbyists working for private health care and drug companies, The National can reveal.
Gregor Poynton, a former lobbyist and now the MP for Livingston, met with representatives from WA Communications under “Chatham House rules”.
WA Communications’ clients include Camurus, Novo Nordisk and Astellas Pharma, private bus companies Arriva and First and private healthcare company Simplyhealth.
“Chatham House rules” refer to meetings at which participants are free to use the information imparted but not who said what.
Cameron Wall, a senior account director at WA Communications, posted on LinkedIn about the meeting saying that “businesses around the table were in consensus on the key enablers of growth and what issues Gregor [Poynton] and the wider committee should focus on when it comes to scrutinising and advising [the Treasury] and [the Department for Business and Trade’s] modern industrial strategy”.
Poynton is a member of Westminster’s Business and Trade Committee, which is currently taking evidence on Labour’s plans for an industrial strategy ahead of making recommendations for the Government’s spending review.
Before entering politics, he worked as a lobbyist for Headland Communications, which counts BAE Systems, Iberdrola, Greene King and Tata Steel among its clients.
The Scottish Greens called the meeting “secretive” and said it showed “how Westminster is designed to serve and protect elite interests, not the public”.
MSP Ross Greer told The National: “Lobbyists are allowed unacceptable, secretive access to MPs with no transparency or accountability.
“It’s no surprise that Labour MPs make the most of the shocking lack of transparency to work alongside industries such as private healthcare.
“This shows exactly why we need to build a modern democratic nation with proper transparency and accountability for elected representatives, starting with an effective register of all lobbyists and mandatory reporting of their discussions with MPs.”
Poynton said: “It’s a sign of how unserious the Scottish Greens have become that a roundtable discussion about economic growth is treated like a conspiracy theory.
“I literally posted about the meeting on LinkedIn, the idea that it was ‘secretive’ is laughable.
“If Ross Greer thinks listening to employers about how we create jobs and grow the economy is suspicious, it says more about him than it does about me. Labour is focused on delivering economic growth, fixing our economy for working people and creating good jobs, not chasing headlines or peddling student union conspiracies.
“The truth is: The Greens don’t want to grow the economy, and they’re outraged someone else might.”
WA Communications was approached for comment.
