1/26/2024 0 Comments Mobikin assistant for ios reg keyHowever, for the avoidance of doubt, I have amended my declaration accordingly with the registrar.”Ī spokesperson for WPI Strategy said: “We were asked to provide secretariat services for the Regulatory Reform Group including research, project management and communications support. “Given the time I spent on the project as chair, I asked WPI if they would be willing to contribute to my costs, which they did. To be clear, editorial independence was strictly controlled by the parliamentarians. “I was keen for the group to produce an initial report, which the Pension Insurance Corporation kindly agreed to support and indeed wrote a foreword to. They advised me that Pension Insurance Corporation, an existing client of theirs, would be able to provide some business insight into the project. “I approached WPI Strategy to help provide secretariat services to the group given their experience in running similar initiatives such as the Covid Recovery Commission. This is an independent group of parliamentarians who have come together to improve the overarching regulatory framework in the UK so that it boosts consumer outcomes and UK competitiveness. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Īfolami said: “I spend two days a month in my capacity as chair of the Regulatory Reform Group. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. “I am in the process of updating the entry, and the entry will be published at the next scheduled opportunity,” he said. “Only Labour has a plan to clean up our politics by banning second jobs for MPs once and for all.”Īfter being asked by the Guardian about his payments from WPI, Afolami said he had contacted the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which advised that he had not registered his role as chair of the Regulatory Reform Group under the correct category of members’ financial interests. “Government policy should be based on what is right for the country,” said Anneliese Dodds, the chair of the Labour party. Labour said it was “yet another report of a Conservative MP leveraging his privileged position in parliament” while being paid by a lobbying company. But he did not link this work to his role as chair of the Regulatory Reform Group and acknowledged to the Guardian that he may not have registered his interests correctly. The report was funded by one of WPI’s clients, Pension Insurance Corporation, which is on the advisory council of the group and contributed a foreword.Īfolami declared on his register of MP’s interests that he is paid £2,000 a month to give “professional advice with respect to property management, mediation services and legal and financial matters” through a family partnership, listing his sole client clients as WPI Strategy. In April, Afolami also launched a report for the group suggesting that a “lack of democratic oversight of regulators is holding back UK productivity and economic growth”, with the author listed as an economist at WPI Strategy, with editorial control from MPs on the group. Will he commit to working with our group on two specific areas: first, to improve the accountability and responsiveness of our regulators to stakeholders and parliament and secondly, to improve the economic potential in key growing areas of the economy, such as financial services, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing?” Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Afolami said: “I thank the prime minister for supporting the launch of the new regulatory reform group. ![]() ![]() However, Afolami appears to have made use of loopholes allowing parliamentarians to carry out paid advocacy if they are a member of an association that is carrying out the lobbying, or if the work would benefit a sector as a whole rather than a specific company.īoth Afolami and Fox appear to have kept within the rules through these exceptions.Īfolami launched the Regulatory Reform Group, an organisation of MPs, earlier this year, and brought up its work in the Commons in February, without mentioning that he was paid by WPI for his work with the group. MPs are in general not permitted to carry out paid lobbying that could deliver financial benefit to clients. It comes after the former Tory cabinet minister Liam Fox was also criticised for lobbying the prime minister on behalf of a business group that pays him £1,000 an hour. As chair of the group, Afolami has written to the prime minister calling for regulators to be better held to account, and pressed Sunak for change at prime minister’s question time in the House of Commons.
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