MPs paid thousands of pounds from lobby groups Arms manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms and foreign governments have reportedly been paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to MPs and peers in parliamentary special interest groups.

MPs paid thousands of pounds from lobby groups, Arms manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms and foreign governments have reportedly been paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to MPs and peers in parliamentary special interest groups.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9774964/MPs-paid-thousands-of-pounds-from-lobby-groups.html

Arms manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms and foreign governments have reportedly been paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to MPs and peers 

Many of these all-party groups have published reports reflecting the stance of the companies and countries that have funded them, with payments from outside organisations exceeding £1 million a year.

Dozens of parliamentary groups have been sponsored in return for invitations to Westminster events where they can meet ministers and other policymakers.

At least two groups could be contravening parliamentary rules on declaring the source of secretarial and financial support, an investigation by a national newspaper found.

Among the examples of such backing from outside bodies is the case of the Associate Parliamentary Health Group, which was allegedly paid over £190,000 from pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca. In exchange, the firms were permitted to send representatives to meetings held by the group.

The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group was said to have received £60,000 last year from brewers and other industry figures and organisations.

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The funds financed a report into beer tax fraud, which costs both the public purse and the alcohol industry millions of pounds a year in lost revenue.

Andrew Griffiths, a Tory MP and the group’s chairman, said the source of its funding was stated in an introduction to the report. But he insisted there was little danger of MPs, who are “notoriously independent”, being influenced by industry sponsors.

At least seven country-specific groups, including those on the Cayman Islands and the United Arab Emirates, are meanwhile allegedly funded and run by the governments of those particular countries.

The funding raises questions about the independence of the groups.

Baroness Shepherd of Northwold, a former Tory Cabinet minister who advised Jack Straw, the former Labour Home Secretary, in his review of all-party groups in 2011, said it was alarming how much corporate money was funnelled into such groups.

“I think that there were groups that perhaps traded on their ability to use a parliamentary logo and thereby getting themselves confused – usefully to them – with the very legitimate and statutory select committees,” she told The Times. “This we felt very serious about.”