A weekly newsletter on campaigning, lobbying and political influence in the U.K.

By MATT HONEYCOMBE-FOSTER

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SNEAK PEEK

— Cut ties with the Kremlin now or we’ll boot you out, a top industry group tells lobbyists — as MPs vow to name and shame influencers taking Moscow money.

— Comms pros rally to help Ukraine fight Kremlin disinfo.

— Charities and campaigners are still pushing for more U.K. help for those fleeing the conflict.

LOBBYING WESTMINSTER

CUT OUT THE KREMLIN: Westminster’s influencers are being warned they have “a moral obligation to cut ties with the Russian government” amid the war in Ukraine — as MPs vow to name and shame agencies and law firms still cashing in.

Pariah state: “We can be under no illusion; Russia is now a pariah state,” said Public Relations and Communications Association boss Francis Ingham. “Our members cannot – under any circumstances – support organizations that are on the sanctions list.”

The only way is Ethics: Britain’s other big PR industry body, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, has also put its name to an international statement on the conflict, urging “all public relations and communication professionals — wherever they are based — to carefully consider the ethical aspect of continuing to represent clients who are aligned with the Russian authorities or who are equivocal in condemning the current military action.” Full statement here.

Global glance 1: The warnings follow a move by the ICCO, a global body for comms consultancies, to terminate the membership of Russian PR group the Association of Consulting Companies in the Field of Public Relations (AKOS), arguing it has failed to do enough to distance itself from the Kremlin.

Global glance 2: In Washington, lobbying firms are already severing ties with big state-linked Russian projects, my U.S. colleague Hailey Fuchs reports.

And yet: Westminster’s lobbying transparency system is still no closer to shedding light on who precisely is shilling for Russian-linked firms, much to the anger of Tory MP Bob Seely, who tells us the ongoing lack of a foreign agents registration law is just one missing piece of the puzzle in the fight against Kremlin influence here.

Lesson of history: In a stark message to PR and law firms taking Russian state-linked money, Seely — who lived and worked in Russia in the 90s and has been warning about Putin’s aggression for more than a decade — asks: “What side do you want to be on? In the 1930s there were a bunch of people who became known as the Guilty Men.” He adds: “When the history of this era is written, those people who have helped to facilitate the agents of near-fascism are not necessarily going to be viewed very positively.”

Feel the Byrne: That view is shared by Labour MP and former chief secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne, who’s been working with colleagues including Seely, Tory MP David Davis, and Labour grandee Margaret Hodge to spotlight economic crime. The Russian military, he tells us, is “basically going to bring a Syrian-style campaign now to the urban centers, and that is going to trigger a humanitarian disaster. Those who have been making millions enabling Russian oligarchs, I’m afraid, now need to shut up shop — and they now need to pick a side.”

Hammering the point home: Byrne says parliamentarians “will be utterly ruthless in using parliamentary privilege to name firms and their partners if they don’t now do the right thing. The time for ambiguity is over.” Seely’s already started doing exactly that.

To-do list: As well as a lobbying law requiring those influencing on behalf of foreign powers to disclose their work (Byrne’s got an amendment setting one up ready to go), the MPs want changes to Britain’s libel and data protection laws, plus action to clamp down on what are known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). This is when (often spurious) legal action is lodged in a bid to grind down and silence opposition voices on behalf of influential elites.

Better late than never: Seely’s pleased the government’s now moving on dirty money and influence, saying “the Economic Crime Bill is good — but it was, frankly, needed in 2005. It’s great that this government is doing what previous governments have simply, astonishingly, and without any real explanation, failed to do. But it is the beginning of a process and not the end of a process.” The Home Office did not respond to a request for comment on where that long-promised foreign agents law is at.

COMMS CALLOUT: Westminster’s comms pros are rallying around to lend pro bono expertise to the government of Ukraine. Ingham tells Influence more than 100 individuals and organizations from PR agencies, in-house comms teams and beyond have already stepped up to do voluntary media relations work in Kyiv’s corner. They’re tapping up journalist contacts around the world, “bringing local knowledge, plus extending the bandwidth available to the Ukrainian government.” Those offers of help have come in globally, Ingham says.

How it started: The PRCA boss was contacted late last week by a friend in U.K. PR-land who had themselves been approached by a Ukrainian agency keen to bolster the efforts of Kyiv’s social media-savvy foreign ministry. Following a Twitter callout, Ingham had a busy weekend trying to assemble a team of PR types happy “to combat Russian disinformation about what’s happening in Ukraine.” They are, he says, “all giving their time for free” amid a sense of outrage at what’s happening right now in Eastern Europe.

How it’s going: Ingham — who lives in Salisbury, site of the deadly Sergei Skripal poisoning — admits to being a little worried for his safety now he’s taken on the unlikely role of PR opposition figurehead. But, he says, those involved are keen to publicly show their support. “It’s the right thing to do,” he says, adding of Ukraine: “This is unthinkable and they need help.”

Side note: Influence is open to confidential tips on any Russia-happy lobbyists, PR agencies and law firms who have decided they can still sleep at night.

QUICK HITS

NEWS FROM THE METAVERSE: Facebook has launched a hiring spree for lobbyists and lawyers as it prepares for a host of regulatory battles across Europe, top colleague Eleni Courea reports this morning. Meta, the owner of the social media giant, has published a slate of job openings for policy and legal experts in London in recent weeks. The company has already hired Monica Thurmond-Allen, who worked as Meta global affairs chief Nick Clegg’s special adviser on foreign policy for three years when Clegg was in government. Full story here.

PEN PALS: Angela Rayner and Eric Pickles are fast becoming firm pen pals. Labour’s deputy leader has fired off yet another angry letter to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments chairman querying agency links at the top of Downing Street. Rayner raised a series of questions about No.10 comms director Guto Harri’s old job at Hawthorn Advisers, which lists controversial Chinese telecoms firm Huawei on the books. She asked for confirmation he’s “permanently left his employment with Hawthorn Advisers” and isn’t just on sabbatical, and asked Pickles whether he can “categorically rule out his returning to Hawthorn Advisers in any capacity.” Rayner also took issue with No.10 deputy chief of staff Simone Finn’s shareholding in consultancy Francis Maude Associates.

Wrong number m8: The polite reply from Pickles has now been published, and it basically points out that this stuff isn’t actually in ACOBA’s remit. “The issues raised in your letter primarily relate to potential conflicts of new appointees to No.10 on joining government, rather than leaving it. Managing those interests is a matter for the Cabinet Office,” he said. Call Influence a jaded, balding and overweight hack, but we’re starting to think these letters may be more about punchy press lines than regulatory nuance.

THINK TANK LAND: Simon Kaye is joining think tank Reform as policy director, promising to “help build the team and contribute to the design and direction of a big new research agenda” after a stint at New Local. Reform boss Charlotte Pickles says the outfit will increasingly be focused on “reimagining the state.” Thread here on the thinking at the tank.

ONWARD AND UPWARDS: Onward’s latest six month paid internship promises a “crash course in politics, policy and data analysis.”

WHO FUNDS YOU? Spicy committee exchange alert as Labour MP Emma Hardy clashed with Taxpayers’ Alliance chief John O’Connell on funding of the pressure group. Hitting back, the TPA boss defended the right of private donors to get behind it. Worth a watch.

CONTRACTS WATCH: PR giant Engine Partners won a multi-million-pound set of government contracts to do comms work boosting confidence in COVID-19 jabs and tackling misinformation, new government documents show … PoliticsHome and Civil Service World publisher Dods Group will net a cool £3 million to run this year’s Civil Service Live jamboree … This week’s Transparency in Government award goes to the Cabinet Office for a heavily-redacted half-a-million-pound contract awarded to consultancy giant Ernst and Young to provide, er, “consultancy services to support Cabinet Office activities.” Enlightening stuff.

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CAMPAIGN CORNER

REFUGEES WELCOME? Charities and campaigners are ramping up their bid for a more generous settlement from the U.K. government on behalf of the millions of people the United Nations expects could end up fleeing the desperate situation in Ukraine. And they spy a chance to make a fresh assault on the Home Office’s controversial Nationality and Borders Bill while they’re at it.

Priti good first step: Seb Klier, parliamentary manager for the Refugee Council, tells Influence the plans unveiled by Priti Patel Tuesday (her second stab at it) are “a good first step” after some questionable communication in the preceding days. But he’s still skeptical about some of the numbers being bandied about by the Home Office.

What’s on offer: The government has said 200,000 Ukrainians could now come to the U.K. after allowing people already settled here to bring in “adult parents, grandparents, children over 18 and siblings” on top of those already permitted to enter. No.10 conceded that’s an “indicative” figure, however, and Klier says he does not think “in reality the numbers will be as high as quoted.”

Word of warning: The other strand of the government response is a new humanitarian sponsorship visa route for Ukrainians without family links in Britain. That’ll require people coming to secure offers of support from charities, businesses or community groups, my colleague Cristina Gallardo reports. But Klier warns: “Community sponsorship in particular is a slow process and only around 600 other refugees have arrived under community sponsorship since 2016.”

And so… The Refugee Council is pushing for the government to explore wider humanitarian visas and a full resettlement scheme akin to the ones set up in the wake of the Syrian crisis and the fall of Kabul.

On Home Office comms: “Rather than saying, ‘Okay, we recognize there’s a massive problem here and we have a duty, there’s going to be large-scale refugee flows into Europe, we do need a bit of time to work this through but we are strongly committed to it,’ it feels like they’ve been dragged into doing anything,” Klier says of this week’s “defensive” announcements from the government.

Behind the scenes: The Refugee Council has been briefing MPs and peers this week and holds regular meetings with officials in the Home Office. It was among the leading signatories of a letter to the Times at the weekend calling on the U.K. to step up. The missive drew parallels between the crisis facing Ukraine and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, when Britain played a leading role in resettling displaced people. That response, Klier says, showed that governments “need to have a fast and immediate response to people who are in direct danger,” arguing that those who came to the U.K. and built a life here have “contributed massively and integrated really well.”

Borders blast: The plight of Ukrainian refugees is, charities argue, also casting an unfavorable light on the Nationality and Borders Bill, currently making a bumpy journey through the House of Lords. Among its most controversial measures are plans to criminalize refugees depending on how they have arrived in the U.K. and to allow the revoking of British citizenship without notice. “What Ukraine shows is that there’s a reason why you have a universally applicable asylum system,” Klier says. “If you start trying to tarnish refugees because of the way that they’ve arrived in a country, the whole international protection system breaks down.”

ON THE MOVE

Jess Seldon, head of media relations at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), is joining Strand Partners. She’s previously worked in top comms roles at No.10 and the international development department.

EY’s Yunus Ozler will be the next president of the Management Consultancies Association, the industry group announced.

Dervish Mertcan and Lucy Dargahi are teaming up to take over as interim head of press and media at the House of Lords from next Monday. The Lords media team is also looking for a new press officer staffer. Deets here.

Jonathan Benton has been promoted to political engagement manager at the Dods-owned Parliament Magazine after two years as content editor. He previously edited the European Parliament’s daily Brexit newsletter.

Dan Julian has been promoted to senior account manager at Cicero/AMO where he’ll continue to lead the firm’s Labour insight and analysis work.

Thomas Messenger started work as a senior political affairs adviser at the BBC after eight years at Engine MHP.

Megan Kneafsey, formerly in comms at Labour and before that the Cabinet Office, joined CARE International UK as a press officer.

Jobs jobs jobs: The Department of Health is looking for a chief media relations officer … Think tank Bright Blue is after an events and operations manager … Conservative Young Women wants a volunteer social media manager … Google’s looking for a government affairs and public policy manager for financial services in its London office … The National Police Chiefs’ Council is hunting for a head of media and public affairs.

Events horizon: Top wonks at the Institute for Fiscal Studies look ahead to Rishi Sunak’s spring statement, Thursday, March 10.

Thanks: Influence isn’t feeling very funny this week but would be even less so without edits from Paul Dallison and production assists from the POLITICO team.

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