London Evening Standard/London
New questions were asked about Tory strategist Lynton Crosby’s role yesterday as it emerged he may carry on lobbying for private business even after he goes “full time” for David Cameron before the general election.
The Conservative party refused to say whether or not Crosby would be allowed to work for his multi-million pound consultancy after his role is sharply upgraded in a few months’ time.
Currently, the Australian officially works just one day a week — for which he is paid a rumoured £220,000.
He was originally due to go full time next May, a year before the 2015 election, but senior Tories are keen to bring forward the date by several months because he has become such a key figure.
A Tory spokesman told the Evening Standard: “I’m not going into a commentary about when he goes full time. When he does start full time we will set everything out.”
Another source insisted it was “hypothetical”.
However, that begged the question why such terms were not set out in a memorandum published by the Cabinet Secretary on Tuesday night, which was said to record the terms of Crosby’s employment.
The party has admitted that the document was drawn up in “recent days”, and based on recollections of verbal agreements.
Labour vice-chair Michael Dugher said: “Despite wheeling out the Cabinet secretary as a star witness in his defence, the tawdry fact remains that a tobacco lobbyist is running around at the heart of Downing Street and Chequers, and important questions still remain.”
Crosby tried to end the controversy on Tuesday by denying that he ever “discussed” smoking curbs with the prime minister. His announcement was timed just before the pictures of the royal baby to minimise coverage.
At the same time Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet secretary, rejected a Labour call for an inquiry into whether Crosby influenced a decision to drop laws for plain cigarette packaging.
Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jon Trickett wrote to Sir Jeremy yesterday afternoon protesting at “unanswered questions”. His letter asked Sir Jeremy why he did not specifically rule out any conflict of interest between Crosby’s role as a lobbyist and as the PM’s election adviser.
Sir Jeremy was also asked to confirm there was “no conversation” between the PM and Crosby about tobacco policy. Tory policy officials say that very strict “Chinese walls” exist between them and Crosby. Although he attended a Chequers summit in June on the election, for example, he did not attend a “Dragon’s Den” presentation on manifesto ideas by Jo Johnson, head of the policy unit.