Andrew Mackay, former Parliamentary aide to David Cameron, is to work for lobbying company Burson-Marsteller – as a consultant and strategic adviser – after the election. The story was broken by PR Week this afternoon.
Mackay and his wife Julie Kirkbride are both standing down at the election after being asked to pay back £60,000 between them for their expense claims.
The timing is acute. Not least because on Monday David Cameron vowed to end the revolving doors between lobbyists and the Westminster world.
Cam said he wanted to shine the “spotlight of transparency” into the “£2bn” lobbying industry.
It is the next big scandal waiting to happen. It’s an issue that crosses party lines and has tainted our politics for too long, an issue that exposes the far-too-cosy relationship between politics, government, business and money.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey