The hypocrisy of Cameron’s attack on “vested interests”

As David Cameron faced questions today about why he had not removed the whip from lobbying sinner Sir John Butterfill, Left Foot Forward examines the hypocrisy behind Cameron’s “vested interests” speech at the weekend.

On Saturday David Cameron declared that only a Tory Government could stand up to elite interests such as the City. With echoes of Obama’s “we are the change we seek” speech, Mr Cameron stated that he would take on the vested interests which were the “enemies of change” and who would “use any means to block progress” to maintain their power. But when he says by “any means” does this include financing the Tory frontbench, including himself?

The register of members interests shows a clear pattern of the Tories taking money from wealthy men who have made their fortune in the City. Across the Tory front bench close to £200,000 has been accepted from financial firms:

• George Osborne’s office has received £25,000 from financier Simon Robertson, £15,000 in support from the head of the CQS Management Ltd hedge fund Michael Hintze, further support from Hugh Sloane (of the Sloane Robinson hedge fund), as well as gifts in kind from IGPL.

• Liam Fox received £50,000 from the managing partner of Alchemy Partners, a private equity firm, £10,000 from Stanley Fink, £5,000 from Private Capital Limited, £5,000 from Tweeddale Advisers (registered with the FSA) and £4,500 from head hedge fund manager Alan Howard;

• Oliver Letwin has been paid over £30,000 from N.M. Rothschild & Sons as a non-executive director;

• Francis Maude received £40,831 from private equity advisers Bain and Company Holdings for a temporary secondment, was paid £9,000 for 15 hours work as a member of Barclays’ Asia-Pacific Advisory Committee, and received a gift worth £700 from Flowidea Ltd, an investment company.

• Ken Clarke is a non-executive director of AgCapita Partners LP – a private equity firm.

• William Hague received financial support from Merebis Capital Management LLP and from CQS Management Ltd;

• Philip Hammond has received money from Michael Hintz of CQS Management;

• Teresa May has received gifts worth £1,200 from Michael Hintze;

• Nick Herbert has had £5,000 from Johan Christofferson (presumably of Christofferson, Robb and Co, a hedge fund;

• Mark Hoban has received hospitality from JP Morgan Chase worth £1,300; and

• David Cameron has received gifts in kind from IGPL a company which describes itself as a “private holding company which invests in world class financial services businesses” while Stanley Fink – the former Director and now Chairman of the Man Investments hedge fund and co-Treasurer of the Conservative party, has paid for Cameron’s travel costs.

It is unclear how Mr Cameron can claim to be an agent of “change” when these donations outline quite how clearly the Conservatives are supported by the same vested financial interests which caused the recession in the first place.

• Join 38 Degrees’ call for David Cameron to support lobbying transparency, a position now adopted by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats

UPDATE 14.32:

I’ve been reminded of one other Conservative vested interest: the Telegraph expose that Andrew Lansley is “bankrolled by private healthcare provider”

http://twitter.com/bryonyvk/status/10924547981 Bryony Victoria King

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/aliesbati/status/10924556650 Ali Esbati

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/juderobinson/status/10924568765 Juderobinson

RT @leftfootfwd: hypocrisy of Cameron attack on "vested interests".Tory front bench received £200k frm financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/mycrippledeagle/status/10924655348 Jonathan Lintern

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/tankthetories/status/10924740030 Tank the Tories

RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's hypocrisy on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/unslugged/status/10924815977 unslugged

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/saamkapadia/status/10924834739 Saam Kapadia

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_blofeld/ Billy Blofeld

Will,

All politicians stink. They are all happy to sit on a system which they know has been abused for years.

Most appalling of all are the government Ministers who have been selling themselves for £3K a day to change government policy.

Will LFF be calling for an enquiry into government corruption?
http://twitter.com/buttnot/status/10925409691 Jake Clifford

RT @TanktheTories: RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's hypocrisy on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://order-order.com/ Guido Fawkes

Lord Myners of assorted short selling hedge fund GLG seems to have been left of your list. Peter Mandelson’s hospitality from the Atticus hedge fund seems to have been both undeclared and left off your list.

As for the hospitality enjoyed by Labour Ministers courtesy of investment banks, the list is endless.

Lord Myners admitted that he kept his funds offshore like Lord Drayson, Lord Paul, Lakshmi Mittal et al.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_blofeld/ Billy Blofeld

Will,

Is it time to come clean and admit that LFF is a Labour attack blog, dressed in evidence based sheeps clothing?

I don’t mind you running a Labour attack blog, but wouldn’t it be more honest to stop pretending otherwise?
http://twitter.com/psbook/status/10926835205 Political Scrapbook

.@wdjstraw hoists Cameron by his own petard on "vested interest" claimes –> http://is.gd/aUjWa
http://twitter.com/sir_barrybarry/status/10927085210 Barry Jarvis

RT @psbook: .@wdjstraw hoists Cameron by his own petard on "vested interest" claimes –> http://is.gd/aUjWa
http://twitter.com/ipprnorth/status/10927470198 ippr north

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/annaturley/status/10927623845 Anna Turley

surely all of this just says it's time to end second incomes for MPs. Enough is enough. http://is.gd/aUjWa
Rapscallion

Here comes the inevitable “whataboutery”. Its unbecoming and, quite frankly, disingenuous (even by your standards, Mr Staines). Dave is the one who is on his high horse about this issue, it is for him to make it clear where he stands. But of course he won’t. He knows that it makes a good political soundbite which might get him a few votes and that he can quietly drop after the election. I say Soundbite becuase I’m yet to see an coherently constructed, costed and articulated Tory “Policy” on anything.
Will Straw

Thanks for the comments:

Guido – I don’t recall Mandelson or Myners making moral high ground speeches at the weekend about tackling “vested interests”. The point of the article was one of hypocrisy.

Billy – we abhor the greed and stupidity of Byers, Hoon, Hewitt, and Moran and have blogged about it. We’re not a Labour attack dog otherwise we would spend more time trying to defend the Labour government. But we make no excuses for tackling the hypocrisy and regressive policies of the Tories.

Also we’ve had to remove another offensive comment. Please stop it!
http://twitter.com/bevaniteellie/status/10927644861 Ellie Gellard

Absolutely RT @annaturley: surely all of this just says it's time to end second incomes for MPs. Enough is enough. http://is.gd/aUjWa
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_blofeld/ Billy Blofeld

Will,

Thanks for the reply. Does LFF think it is necessary / unnecessary to call for an inquiry into government corruption?
http://torylies.blogspot.com Richard Blogger

Michael Hintz and CQS Management appears many times. Why is that?

I think Guido had it right a month or so ago by looking at the list of banqueting that was done at our expense at the Palace of Westminster (how’s the investigation on Tim Yeo going, Guido? Surely that is pertinent to the current Hoon/Hewitt/Byers scandal?).

For example, Francis Maude had two banquets for Novartis in 2004 (one for 50, the other for 20) a company who will definitely benefit from Lansley’s plans for “value based pricing” (or as I call it “how much are you willing to pay for your health”).

Also, if Maude is striking some deal with these people, why can’t he just have a handful, why invite 50 of them?

There’s lots more in that document for someone willing to do the digging.
http://twitter.com/maximusmanc/status/10932053001 Max p

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/rosannablabla/status/10933554478 Rosanna

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
Allan Jones

Will – can’t see the hypocrisy. You list lots of donations from private equity and hedge fund players to the Tories. What have the Tories said about hedge funds and private equity that would make this hypocritical?

You make a couple of assumptions here. One is that private equity and hedge funds are among the ‘vested interests’ in the City. Was Cameron implying that all City interests were vested interests? It’s possible but not obviously so. I’m only aware of the Tories having taken on the banks so far, which are quite different financial market players from hedge funds and private equity.

Second, you assume that it’s hypocritical to take money from somebody while criticizing the industry they work or have worked in. I’m not sure that’s true, and if it is then Brown/Unite is a pretty vexing example of such hypocrisy. What do you think?
Silent Hunter

Well Will; you’d know all about Hypocrisy now wouldn’t you. Where’s YOUR call for investigation into this Labour Governments open corruption?
John77

It appears that Cameron has said there is not much point suspending the whip two weeks before the ending of parliament but he will not only not recommend the offer of a peerage to Butterfill but oppose it. Meanwhile New Labour have failed to withdraw the whip from Byers, Hewitt and Moran, who appeared to actively favour corruption, as well as Hoon who, like Butterfill wanted to casjh in on his prestige when no longer in Parliament.
We shall be well rid of Butterfill but who should be answering questions about corrupt MPs? And why hasn’t your Dad answered that they should be prosecuted?
John77

PS Of course it is his responsibility, his job description is Secretary of State for Justice
evidence based really?

Will,

You state “i don’t recall Mandelson making any speeches at the weekend about the moral highground”, granted it wasn’t at the weekend but wasn’t that his ENTIRE attack about the Lord Ashcroft and earlier Zac Goldsmith saga, despite Guido’s examples and Labour’s non doms. I notice that Left foot forward isn’t so concerned about the evidence surrounding its blogging of Labour candidates.
evidence based really?

You state “i don’t recall Mandelson making any speeches at the weekend about the moral highground”, granted it wasn’t at the weekend but wasn’t that his ENTIRE attack about the Lord Ashcroft and earlier Zac Goldsmith saga? This is despite Guido’s examples and Labour’s non doms somewhat pulling the moral carpet from under his feet. I notice that Left foot forward isn’t so concerned about the evidence surrounding its blogging of Labour candidates.
Mr. Sensible

Cameron’s comments are just lip service.
http://twitter.com/magsnews/status/10991935954 Mags W

RT @leftfootfwd: The hypocrisy of Cameron's attack on "vested interests". Tory front bench has received £200k from financial sector http://bit.ly/bxgwpO
http://twitter.com/andy_s_64/status/11032452795 Andy Sutherland

RT @psbook: .@wdjstraw hoists Cameron by his own petard on "vested interest" claimes –> http://is.gd/aUjWa