Video: Labour MP’s controversial ‘grassroots’ conference speech sponsored by Murdoch lobbyist

Right-wing Labour MP (almost the only kind there now is) Torsten Bell has been slammed for a speech in which he derided Lib Dems leader Ed Davey as “a fat man in a wetsuit”. Rightly so.

But as writer Solomon Hughes pointed out this morning, the backdrop to the video shows the ‘grassroots’ rally was funded by Whitehouse Communications, part of the Whitehouse Consultancy:

Torsten Bell: loving the lobbyists

Whitehouse are lobbyists for the banking industry, private health corporations, Rupert Murdoch’s News UK etc. On its website, the firm trumpets successes such as “Battling EU health food regulations in the UK” and bringing together policy makers and the healthcare industry. Of its activities, the firm boasts that:

Our work has been shaping the policy, regulatory and political landscape for decades – discover how we’ve changed your industry.

We support you in achieving your goals, by amplifying your voice to change perceptions and shape policy.

So ‘grassroots’. As Hughes observed:

This is what careerists funded by lobbyists to pretend to be political looks like, empty:

Torsten Bell’s own path to MP-hood is not exactly grassroots either. Educated at the Judd School – notable alumni include BBC head of music Sir Humphrey Burton, royal portrait painter Bernard Hailstone, Air Chief Marshal Sir Clive Loader and Baron Wood of Anfield – he studied PPE (of course) at Oxford before going on to become Chief Executive, under Tory MP David (now Lord) Willetts, until becoming an MP, where he has supported the Starmer-Kendall war on sick and disabled people.

His twin brother Olaf, a Conservative supporter who served as press secretary to Tory Chancellors Philip Hammond and Sajid Javid, and worked closely with Rishi Sunak, was brought into Downing Street as an adviser last year.

Featured image via the Canary