Westminster blog

Liberal Democrat activists obsessed with civil rights may well be taken aback by our report revealing Chris Huhne’s involvement in a company that pioneered mobile CCTV use in Britain (he certainly seemed to be when I put it to him).

But Nick Clegg, Mr Huhne’s rival for the Liberal Democrat crown, also has a surprising business past. For almost a year, Mr Clegg worked as a partner at GPlus, one of the most influential lobbying groups in Brussels.

This brief lobbying liaison is not something Mr Clegg is keen to highlight on the stump. He prefers to talk up his time as a trade negotiator, journalist and ski-instructor. One can understand why: since he left company, GPlus have taken on clients such as Vladimir Putin and Gazprom, the Russian energy giant. These are hardly popular causes among the LibDem faithful. 

In a press release announcing his appointment, Mr Clegg said it was ”especially exciting” to be joining GPlus at ”a time when Brussels is moving more and more to the centre of business concerns”. But, for all his initial excitement, this was a short career bridging the gap between him stepping down as an MEP in 2004 and becoming an MP in 2005. He lectured at Sheffield University during the same period.

Mr Clegg’s lobbying colleagues tell me he actively worked with them for just six months, largely part-time. As one of five partners, Mr Clegg drew on his inside knowledge of the European parliament to give several lectures to staff and clients such as Centrica, the energy group. He spent very little time on lobbying work for existing UK clients such as Asda, the supermarket chain, or Aviva, the insurer. But he did join GPlus teams pitching for new business.

Friends of Mr Clegg told me that the work helped him to support a family while he was waiting for a seat in parliament. But Mr Clegg does not seem to have made the most of the opportunities from his new job. When he joined the company, Mr Clegg  was awarded equity rights, which he never chose to exercise. He thus missed out on a big windfall: GPlus was bought by Omnicom for about £8m, soon after Mr Clegg’s departure.