A year or so ago Sir Alasdair Breckenridge, Chairman of the UK drug
Regulator the MHRA was making noises about possible criminal proceedings against
individuals in GSK or GSK itself. There has been silence since. I wonder why.
NEWS/ QUESTIONS ASKED OVER LABOUR'S `SECRET’ MEETINGS WITH BIG BUSINESS
LEADERS
RICH COOKSON
The Big Issue
August 2005
Details of high-level meetings between the prime Minister and top executives of
Britain's most powerful companies will remain secret, the government has ruled,
despite widespread concern about big business' privileged access to senior
politicians.
The Big Issue in the North used the Freedom of Information Act to apply
for details of Tony Blair's annual meetings with the Multinational Chairmen's
Group - elite but little-known lobbying organisation made up of the most senior
executives of Britain's largest companies.
Initially, Downing Street refused to release any information at all but, on
appeal, published a list of the MCG's members and a vague description of the
issues discussed with the PM. However, it still refuses to release agendas,
minutes, correspondence or information about the purpose of the meetings.
A Cabinet Office official said: "It is not in the public interest to release
detailed information. Release of this information would have a deterrent effect
on experts or stakeholders giving free and frank advice. This would lead to
poorer decisionmaking... and have an adverse effect on the formulation of
policy." The Big Issue in the North has since appealed to the Information
Commissioner to overturn the decision.
The documents released reveal that Blair has met with the MCG every year since
he was elected in 1997. Participants at the last meeting, in October 2004,
included top executives from HSBC, Vodafone, Unilever, BP, the drinks giant
Diageo, cigarette manufacturer British American Tobacco, and mining company Rio
Tinto. Women are noticeably absent from the meetings. It is unclear how
membership of the group is decided.
They also state that since 1997 the matters raised at these meetings included
"the European and UK economy, UK business environment and competitiveness, the
world economy and globalisation sustainable development, Africa, trade, the
Millennium Bug and corporate governance issues".
A spokesman for SpinWatch, an NGO that tracks government spin and corporate
lobbying, said: “Tony Blair talks about accountability, transparency and a new
style of politics, away from the sleaze of the past. But when he sits down with
Britain's biggest companies, the public has no right to know what's being said.
Until it does so, the suspicion is that New Labour is doing deals with these
businessmen behind closed doors. It makes a mockery of their commitment to
openness."
Last year, The Guardian newspaper revealed that the head of one of the
world's largest tobacco companies, British American Tobacco, used an MCG meeting
in March 2000 to put private pressure on the Prime Minister and the then trade
secretary Stephen Byers.
BAT stood accused of facilitating large-scale tobacco smuggling, costing UK
taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds, and faced a possible public inquiry by
the Department for Trade and Industry. But after the MCG meeting with Tony Blair
and a second private meeting with Byers, plans for the inquiry were dropped and
a DTI investigation was conducted in secret instead. The findings of that
investigation have never been published, and the government turned down a second
FOIA request from The Big Issue in the North for its release.
This is the list of who was at the meetings -
PM Meetings with Multinational Chairmen's Group
Date of meeting Attendees
12 October 2004
Sir John Bond HSBC
Lord Blythe of Rowington (Diageo)
Mr Patrick Cescau (Unilever)
Mr Jan du Plessis (BAT)
Sir Christopher Hogg (Glaxo Smithkline)
Mr Arun Sarin (Vodafone)
Mr Paul Skinner (Rio Tinto)
Mr Ivor Godfrey-Davies (HSBC)
Lord Browne of Madingly (BP Amoco)
2 September 2003
Niall Fitzgerald (Unilever)
Martin Broughton (BAT)
John Browne (BP Amoco)
Lord Blyth (Diageo)
Christopher Hogg (Glaxo Smithkline)
John Bond (HSBC)
Robert Wilson (RTZ)
Phil Watts (Shell)
Arun Sarin (Vodafone)
The Right Honourable Patricia Hewitt MP
23 July 2002
Niall Fitzgerald KBE (Unilever)
John Browne (BP)
Martin Broughton (BAT)
Lord Blyth (Diageo)
Sir Christopher Hogg (GSK)
Lord Trotman (ICI)
Sir Robert Wilson (Rio Tinto)
Philip Watts (Shell)
Cliff Grantham (Unilever)
14 March 2000
Sir John Browne (BP Amoco)
Martin Broughton (BAT)
Sir Anthony Greener (Diageo)
Mark Moody-Stuart (Shell)
Sir Richard Sykes (Glaxo Wellcome)
The Right Honourable Stephen Byers MP
4 February 1999
Sir Richard Sykes (GSK)
Niall Fitzgerald (Unilever)
John Bond {HSBC}
Sir Ronald Hampel (ICI)
Mark Moody-Stuart (Shell)
Robert Wilson (RTZ)
Anthony Weale (ICI)
John Browne (BP)
The Right Honourable Stephen Byers MP
I I December 1997
John Browne (BP)
Lord Cairns (BAT)
Niall Fitzgerald (Unilever)
Anthony Greener (Guinness)
Sir Ronald Hampel (ICI)
Mark Moody-Stuart (Shell)
Sir William Purees (HSBC)
Sit Richard Sykes (Glaxo Wellcome)
Robert Wilson (Rio Tinto)
Anthony Weale (ICI)