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Labour puts lobbyists on the ballot – and big business is the winner

Prospective MPs with lobbying day jobs are introducing their clients to senior Labour figures – and boasting about it

Labour puts lobbyists on the ballot – and big business is the winner
Labour leader Keir Starmer at an event at King's College London in 2022. The party has selected lobbyists to run as parliamentary candidates, opening the door to big business | Leon Neal/Getty Images
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When Polly Billington chaired a meeting between Labour’s shadow climate change chief Kerry McCarthy and reps from the energy, manufacturing and transport industries in January, she wore two hats: lobbyist and parliamentary candidate.

As a lobbyist, Billington was in attendance as a senior adviser for Hanover Communications, in whose office the meeting occurred, to connect their high-powered clients with McCarthy in the run-up to an election that Labour is expected to win.

Meanwhile, in her Labour role, she is the candidate for East Thanet, a newly formed constituency largely based on the bellwether Leave-backing seat of South Thanet on the Kent coast.