Is lobbying, in the words of David Cameron, ‘the next big scandal waiting to happen’? A series of high profile lobbying controversies suggest it could be: the resignation of defence secretary Liam Fox over his ties to Adam Werrity, public affairs agency Bell Pottinger’s ‘bragging’ about access to government, the revelations to the Leveson Inquiry about contact between News Corp’s lobbyist Frederick Michel and culture secretary Jeremy Hunt’s special adviser Adam Smith. And industry support for All Parliamentary Groups and the existence of firms solely created to influence politicians reinforce suspicions that politicians are buyable. One commentator argues politicians should be forced to dress like Formula 1 drivers displaying the logos of all their ‘sponsors’. Lobbying is now regularly characterised as ‘legalised bribery’. In response, the government is considering a statutory register of lobbyists, which could result in PR agencies, trade unions and charities being subject to fines and even imprisonment for ‘improper attempts’ to influence politicians. One of Barack Obama’s first acts as US president was to clamp down on the ‘revolving door’ which sees members of the administration walk straight into highly paid private sector jobs.

Transparency International UK tells us that there are five lobbyists to every politician, which sounds like a worrying development. But is it such a bad thing that politicians speak to representatives of relevant industries, unions and campaign groups before formulating policy? If politics is about the clash of different interests, is lobbying not an integral part of the democratic process? Would we rather have supposedly incorruptible, and unelected, judges and civil servants in power? Moreover, many lobbyists represent civil society groups rather than big business; Greenpeace is as much in the lobbying game as Bell Pottinger. Trade unions still aspire to negotiate for workers’ rights over beer and sandwiches at Number 10. Every charity has public affairs professionals to make their case to government ministers, whether on minimum alcohol pricing or nuclear power. Indeed the NGO sector is split on the issue, with some keen to expose unfair corporate influence on decision-making and others concerned regulation might be too severe.

Ironically, many lobbying charities are dependent on state money, and are described by critics as ‘sock puppets’, which allow government to lobby itself. Are such lobbyists bypassing democracy? Is it a problem that so much political debate is conducted behind closed doors by paid professionals, rather than by citizens openly in the public sphere? Or is there a danger that increased demands for audit and control and oversight of lobbying will undermine a key element of democracy?

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