Sue Hayman – Labour’s shadow environment minister and Lords Opposition Whip – is currently working for Grayling, a major London lobbying firm, Guido can exclusively reveal. Now sitting as a member of the firm’s ‘Senior Advisory Board’, Hayman was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020, having previously stood as Shadow Environment Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn before losing her Commons seat in the 2019 election. It looks like her fortunes have changed since then…
Grayling, a PR and lobbying firm, proudly advertise their ‘experience in lobbying and public affairs, and a track record of conducting successful government relations campaigns’. Their promotional material adds:
“[We] are ideally placed to support clients who seek genuine political intelligence and strategic guidance. We help you understand what makes politics and politicians tick, as well as how best to nurture relationships’.
The House of Lords’ register of interests reveals that Hayman also sits as a partner at Marron Consulting, a PR firm managed by her husband; that company also boasts of offering ‘strategic communications [and] stakeholder engagement services‘ for clients. She is the second Shadow Cabinet member who moonlights as a lobbyist. Starmer’s friend the shadow attorney general, Lord Falconer, also has a second job at a lobbying firm which was providing advice on ‘political lobbying’ in the UK. Nice work if you can get it…
Labour are clearly taking fake news lessons from the Indy’s infamous viral story about the Tories and animal sentience. Their response to Michael Gove’s new Animal Welfare Bill this morning claims it is not “equivalent to current EU standards” and “does not appear to cover wild animals – giving this Tory Government freedom to pursue their pro-fox hunting agenda across England”. This is unmitigated BS from shadow Defra spokesman Sue Hayman…
First, Gove’s bill objectively goes further than the existing EU standards on animal sentience. The EU legislation only recognises animal sentience in EU-related policy in six areas – agriculture, fisheries, transport, internal market, research and technological development and space policies. The new Defra bill applies to all domestic policy, not simply repatriated EU policy, in all areas, not merely the six covered by the EU. By any fair reading, the new bill goes significantly further than current EU standards…
As for Hayman’s claim that the sentience measure does not cover wild animals, this is literally fake news – it does. The fox hunting jibe is also rubbish, the hunting ban ain’t going to be repealed. Labour saw how mega-viral the Indy fake news story went, Sue Hayman’s response today is another cynical attempt to spread post-truth nonsense…
And a special mention for the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland, who says there is “no need to leave the EU” to secure higher animal welfare standards. Actually we do have to leave the EU to ban live animal exports and products that don’t meet our welfare standards. Jonathan is big on calling out fake news and post-truth politics so sure he will want to correct his tweet…
