Welcome, dear reader, to the inaugural edition of the new Dark Arts newsletter, in which I will try to keep you up to date with what’s afoot in the murky world of lobbying, influence and money in politics.
And what better time to get started? This general election is set to see the main parties raise and spend more than ever before, thanks to the new electoral spending rules quietly ushered through Parliament late last year, which increased the national spending limit from £19m to £34m.
It’s also a fairly unique election in that everyone knows who is going to win. Much of the press pack will dance around it, if only to retain some sense of jeopardy and excitement in their coverage, but everyone knows – and many have done for quite some time – that Labour will form the next government. This is particularly true of the corporate lobbying industry, which has spent the past 12 to 18 months embarking on an unprecedented rush to forge ties with Starmer’s Labour in anticipation of a change of government.
