In the July to September period Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm Global Counsel was registered as an official lobbyist for investment manager M&G. Mandelson’s firm is well-embedded in Labour’s lobbying architecture – it sponsored a staffer to work in Economic Secretary to the Treasury Tulip Siddiq’s office and its co-founder Ben Wegg-Prosser was lined up as Treasury Investment Minister. Mandelson himself is a close confidant to the Labour high command…
M&G is a keen pro-Leasehold campaigner which lobbied the previous government hard on legislation intended to introduce immediate peppercorn rents, which have no value. It has continued in the Labour era by attacking the Leasehold Bill as laid out in the King’s Speech by claiming that the legislation will result “in a significant reduction in the cash flows that can be generated” from leasehold properties. M&G at the same time happened to graciously sponsor Starmer’s vaunted “investment summit”…
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook responded to Guido’s last story on Labour slowing down Leasehold progress by admitting it is a “whole of Parliament commitment.” That’s not what they said before…
Labour has still not published the last government’s high-profile consultation on ground rent reform. Meanwhile an announcement on Leasehold is expected from the government imminently as Labour ministers delete tweets claiming progress on its manifesto commitments is fast incoming. The rumours may soon prove true that the meat of the bill will be delayed for a long time yet…
Speaking on the Labour chaos over the last few weeks, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told The Guardian:
“You call it a sh*tshow, I say it’s unforgivable…It does look to people outside that we’re more interested in ourselves and less interested in preventing chaos. […] We’ve not done enough, and this has got to be the moment of reckoning where we say not just what are we here for, but who are we here for?”