Councillor John Slinger was selected late last week as the Labour candidate for Rugby, a key marginal seat. Slinger is known to most only as a “councillor who has lived in the town for 17 years” – few will know he’s been working for a shadowy PR firm which counts Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong as its clients. The bad guys…
Slinger was senior director and events manager for the low-profile advisory firm Consulum and is currently a partner there. Consulum was launched by former executives from scandal-ridden Bell Pottinger as a discrete firm for governments. It’s worked for years on communications programmes with the Saudis and even briefly worked up plans to improve the image of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar. Consulum took a $6.3 million contract, rejected by at least eight other PR firms, to “Relaunch Hong Kong” and improve its global reputation at the exact same time as it launched the National Security Law to curtail freedoms and extend Chinese control. Guido seems to remember Labour taking shots at Cameron for having worked with”Chinese interests”…
Before that Slinger worked as a consultant for Tony Blair Associates. His LinkedIn boasts of his “excellent understanding of the workings of Westminster, Whitehall and international relations (particularly the Middle East)“, with experience working “in Abu Dhabi and working in Iraq and the Arabian Gulf“. An ideal candidate for leafy Rugby…
James Chapman – remember him? – has chucked in “The Democrats” and is freelancing for “3 days a week” for former Bell Pottinger boss James Henderson at his new outfit JH Communications. The pair worked together very briefly at Bell Pot before Henderson had to resign over the South Africa scandal and the company imploded. As a former civil servant the ACOBA committee have had approve Chapman’s appointment, subject to conditions:
“… he should not draw on, disclose or use any privileged information available to him from his time in the Crown Service…”
Did they not see his Twitter account?
As Guido reported last Thursday, accountants BDO have confirmed that they have been appointed as administrators to the disgraced PR firm. Guido understands that some staff are trying to transfer clients and themselves to other firms. Redundancy notices have gone out…
Guido hears Bell Pottinger is on the verge of going into administration. No one is answering their phones. Bell end?
Tim Bell says it is “almost certainly” the end for Bell Pottinger: “It probably is getting near the end. You can try and rescue it but it won’t be very successful”. His phone went off twice during this car crash interview, could do with some PR advice…
Bell Pottinger has been expelled by the PRCA trade body over the South Africa scandal. The firm has been banned from joining again for five years. PRCA chief Francis Ingham says:
“Bell Pottinger has brought the PR and communications industry into disrepute with its actions, and it has received the harshest possible sanctions. The PRCA has never before passed down such a damning indictment of an agency’s behaviour.”
Bye…
