Extraordinary story in the Sunday Times about the Audit Commission, the taxpayer funded local government regulator, spending £60,000 to lobby against the Conservatives. This is because of proposals from the Party to scale back the Commission's budget and endless regulations – which at present represent a heavy financial burden for town halls to comply with. In particular the Conservatives are pledged to scrap the Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA.)
The Commission hasn't even been subtle. They chose Connect Public Affairs, a lobbyists founded by Labour MP Rosie Winterton. The firm advised the best strategy would be to try and generate Tory splits on the issue with “strong local lobbying response in order to mitigate and combat the activities of Eric Pickles." I can't imagine they will have much luck finding Tory councillors declaring how tremendously worthwhile the CAA is – the process is the most time consuming, scandalous, bureaucratic waste of money. But even more outrageous is the idea of taxpayers money being used to campaign against a political party and it evidently not occurring to the Audit Commission that this is not considered an appropriate way to behave in this country.
Anyway, the Conservative response has been robust. They have issued the following press release:
The town hall watchdog complicit in councils losing a billion pounds in failed Icelandic banks has hired lobbyists at taxpayers’ expense to lobby Parliamentary Candidates and the Shadow Cabinet, it can be revealed today. In a massive abuse of taxpayers’ money and breach of Whitehall probity rules, the Audit Commission has used public cash to try to change Conservative Party policy, lobby Parliamentary Candidates and town hall leaders, to press for more regulation on town halls and to persuade politicians that the Commission “spends public money wisely” after the Icelandic fiasco, and save its pet projects.
Caroline Spelman, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local
Government, says:
“This is a complete abuse of taxpayers’ money by a body which is supposed to be standing up for taxpayers’ interests. We can no longer have confidence in the Audit Commission if it has become such a creature of the state that it bankrolls lobbyists to save its own skin and call for more red tape.
“The scandal of government hiring lobbyists to lobby government must stop. Conservatives will ban it outright to protect the interests of taxpayers’ from more regulation, more laws and more wasted spending from Labour’s out of control quango state.”
“The lobbying of Parliamentary Candidates by public bodies is utterly unacceptable and inappropriate – government agencies should stay out of party politics and the forthcoming general election.”