In October 2024, things weren’t looking good for Jonathan Gullis. The former MP and Conservative Party deputy chair had been unable to find work as a teacher, his old profession, since losing his parliamentary seat at the general election months earlier.
“I think that in some schools, with some teachers, my views won’t be something that is popular,” Gullis told the BBC, blaming his links to the Tories for his dwindling job prospects.
Things soon began to turn around, though. When he attended Reform’s conference in Birmingham last September, Gullis was there as the co-director of a small advisory firm he’d since joined, Aegean Consultants, helping clients “navigate a shifting political map” by introducing them to Reform staffers. Within months, he announced he’d ‘defected’ to the party. He then successfully stood for election in May and is now Reform’s leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme council.
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Fast forward to this year’s party conference, back in Birmingham this week. Where Gullis’ access pass was last year marked ‘commercial visitor’, this year’s reads ‘party official’. But it would be more accurate if he wore both; he is still a director of Aegean and now also works for a well-established Westminster lobby shop, which just happens to have a number of clients with significant interests in the local authority he now leads.
Two roles collide
On 1 December 2025, Gullis confirmed that he’d joined Reform. Exactly one week later, it was announced that he’d been hired as a senior adviser at growing lobbying firm 5654 & Company, whose website said he’d “bring his deep understanding of Westminster politics and Reform UK to 5654 as the corporate world adapts to a multi-party reality”.
5654 was founded in 2020 by two senior corporate lobbyists and a Tory spad and has established itself as a serious player in Westminster in recent years. Its other senior advisers include Jonathan Van Tam, the former deputy chief medical officer for England who became a household name during the Covid pandemic, and a former senior Labour Party staffer, while its blue-chip clients include private health giant HCA Healthcare, Coca-Cola, Drax Group and arms manufacturer Raytheon UK.
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But the firm also targets a particular type of high-value client: housebuilders. It offers to help housing developers “build their corporate reputation locally [and] secure support for planning proposals”.
Soon after his election in May, Gullis’ new colleagues chose him as the council’s leader, and he took up the cabinet brief for planning. If there was ever a question as to whether he’d keep his two roles separate, it didn’t last long.
Shortly before he officially took over the cabinet portfolio for planning, Gullis hosted a private roundtable at the Real Estate, Investment and Infrastructure Forum in Leeds. The discussion brought together around 20 people, including the head of planning at major housing developer Vistry Group, a 5654 client, and two other Reform local government leaders: Greater Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns and the leader of Lincolnshire County Council, Sean Matthews.
Over cans of kombucha, the group discussed “growth, infrastructure investment and delivery under Reform UK”. Writing on LinkedIn after the event, Gullis said it had been “particularly valuable to connect this conversation with the wider policy work currently underway [in Reform].”
As well as Vistry, 5654 currently represents another major housebuilding firm, Bellway. Both firms have a presence in the Newcastle-under-Lyme area and have frequently sought planning from Gullis’ authority. Bellway has a large, ongoing housing development in the village of Baldwin’s Gate, involving up to 200 homes.
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Another client, developer Indurent, has submitted plans for a huge, 2.3 million square foot “next generation employment site” on Green Belt land in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The project was signed off with the approval of the council’s recent Local Plan, though it appears to be behind schedule, as the developers previously said they expected the Local Plan to be adopted in early 2025.
These projects were all underway before Gullis joined the council, and openDemocracy understands he recused himself from the council meeting at which the Local Plan was signed off.
The rules on lobbying
Unlike MPs, councillors are not barred from working as lobbyists, but they must not lobby their own council in return for payment. Doing so would breach the Nolan Principles that apply to anyone who works as a public office-holder.
Lobbying is effectively unregulated in the UK, though companies can choose to become members of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), which requires declaring a list of clients and signing up to a code of conduct. This states that lobbyists “must not be involved in Professional Lobbying seeking to influence an organisation in which they hold a role”.
Until July 2024, the code also prohibited members from combining their work as lobbyists with their party political roles, though this appears to have been removed from its current code of conduct.
5654 is a member of the PRCA and lists Gullis as an active practitioner at its most recent quarterly update.
Gordon Mole, the chief executive of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, a non-partisan civil service role, told openDemocracy: “All registered interests of councillors are made available for public inspection.
“It is for councillors to identify whether any particular issue may cause a conflict, declare these, and where needed recuse themselves accordingly.”
We asked 5654 whether Gullis’s role involves advising clients on the planning process, and whether it has measures in place to prevent specific conflicts of interest arising, but the company did not respond. Gullis had not responded to our request for comment at the time of publishing.
Correction: The story has been updated to reflect that Jonathan Gullis had not officially taken on the planning portfolio when he took part in the meeting at UKREIIF, and that he declared an interest and recused himself from involvement in the Local Plan meeting on 8 July.
